besides HAMB, curious if old school players did drills? if so, what were they?
old school drills?
- Thread starter evergruven
- Start date
Here's one:
I think you can get away with considerably less than a million if you pay attention and hit 'em all good. then maybe you can work on hitting a million good.
I think you can get away with considerably less than a million if you pay attention and hit 'em all good. then maybe you can work on hitting a million good.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
Mosconi was old school and he had some drills. L-drill. halfcircle arou d sidepocketdrill where u get out no rails. theres a reason theseold school drills arestill around....they work.
Back in the '60's I did several drills.
Read Mosconi's autobiography. From that I conclude that in effect every shot he took was a drill in that he was trying to squeeze every last millimeter out of position on every shot. Most players don't pay that much attention -- somewhere down by the 7.
Willie does have drills in his book, but he didn't write his book, so that alone is not proof he did drills. We would need to find someone who was in his regular room when he was learning -- in the 1920s or early 1930s.
I think we can consider Ray Martin "old school", since he is wearing a suit and tie in the pictures where he demonstrates stance in his 1977 book, "The 99 Critical Shots in Pool." He has no drills as such, but in some sense learning each of those shots in an organized way is a drill. I guess we could ask Ray about drills.
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the L and the side-pocket circle were about the only 'real' drills other thank banks and spot shots.
The L and circle are the only standard ones I remember.
The best player in my first room did practice draw shots and runouts a lot. Cue ball behind the line, ball in the far jaws, draw straight back to bounce as far as possible off the head rail. Tough breakouts to land just right to have a shot, and repeat until satisfied. But I don't remember him every doing any fixed-setup drill like the L or circle.
There were also prop bets which served as a kind of drill, at least for the ones that required skill.
mman, what did you do?
I think that's why I haven't sought willie's autobio out, because I'd seen that he didn't write it. I'll check it out tho.
to your point about willie getting the most out of position, I relate to this and it's in part what inspired me to post this thread
I recently started doing the wagon wheel drill again after not doing it for awhile, and just the other night I figured out how to succeed at it
I had been getting out of line too often, which as you know makes it tough to complete the drill. then I realized I wasn't aiming exactly enough..
Judging by what's in it, I think Willie was very involved in the writing, but a professional writer created the text.
"willie's game"? I probably should have checked to see if you had one first, but fell prey to a 5 dollar internet experiment
Put two racks on the table and run 'em without the rock going to the cushion.
One of THE strongest warm-up drills i ever saw was done by Efren at DCC in '07. He put the one-ball out by itself then he made frozen pairs with the 2/3, 4/5, 6/7, 8/9. He pocketed the one opening the 2/3 and repeated the pocketing/opening til he was out. He did this routine twice without missing. The second time he placed the frozen pairs in some funny spots at some distance from one to the next. To say i was impressed is a gross understatement.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
well I think we've found the final boss of 'warmup' drills. would be a pleasure to watch efren take these apart. I think I'd need 5 BIH's to even threaten getting out but could be a nice challenge to see how few IBIH i could get away with.
Jay Helfert organized an "LA Expo" in 2001, with vendors, tournaments for league players, and an invitational 8-ball event organized by Accu-Stats. (Accu-Stats had no eight ball videos and was getting requests for them.) One of the six players invited to the round-robin was Efren.
One morning I wandered by the Accu-Stats arena and there was Efren, alone, doing what you described -- setting up clusters to work through and landing on each cluster just right. I watched for about half an hour. With all those pool players at the venue, I was the only person watching the GOAT demonstrate his practice method for free.
But this particular drill requires tools most players don't have. Also, I wouldn't call it old school as I had never heard of it before.
This reminds me of a drill or prop bet or exhibition demo that Ralph Greenleaf was said to have played. Put three balls out randomly on the table. Put a coin out as well. Run the three balls leaving the cue ball on (near?) the coin at the end.
I like a similar drill, but there is only one ball and the cue ball is in hand. Go to the coin after pocketing the ball in each of six pockets.
L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
Yes the book in question is called 'Willie's Game' written by Mosconi and Stanley Cohen. In it on page 167 he talks about the famous 527th ball that he missed ending that run. Interesting that in most interviews when asked how that run ended he claimed that he just quit because he was tired, but page 167 revealed what actually happened. The book is worth reading although slightly sugar coated to some extent.
A biography is the life history of an individual, written by someone else whereas a autobiography is actually the story of someone’s life, written by that individual.
A drill I used to practice a lot is to just freeze 6 balls along one of the long rails at each diamond. Take bih in middle of table somewhere by side pocket. Run the three balls on one end of table before doing the same to the other end.
Shoot the ball closest to corner pocket running CB 3 rails for position on the ball on the second diamond from the hole and then the third bringing CB around for position on ball closest to corner pocket on other end. Then run the last 3 the same way. A miss and you must start over.
When you get good at that then set them up the same way but after making each ball you must run the CB across to other long rail and back out without going to short rail, just across the table and back out for position.
Teaches you how to get around the rails on a lot of shots you run into. Add some straight up and down the table CB drills after side pocket shots and you’ve covered a lot
Shoot the ball closest to corner pocket running CB 3 rails for position on the ball on the second diamond from the hole and then the third bringing CB around for position on ball closest to corner pocket on other end. Then run the last 3 the same way. A miss and you must start over.
When you get good at that then set them up the same way but after making each ball you must run the CB across to other long rail and back out without going to short rail, just across the table and back out for position.
Teaches you how to get around the rails on a lot of shots you run into. Add some straight up and down the table CB drills after side pocket shots and you’ve covered a lot
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The number of times in a game, or match for that matter, where I need to make the cue ball travel 3 rails for shape
doesn’t warrant spending a whole lot i& time on this drill. 1 & 2 rails position shots are so much more predominant that’s
more worthwhile to practice or just practicing difficult shots repeatedly. I shoot the same shot 15 times using all the object
balls and keep track of my percentage made and how many times I make the same show in a row without a miss.
I incorporate a variety of shots and always include time to practice shooting over an object ball and even hangars.
Making the cue ball travel to a 3rd rail is a matter of controlling cue ball velocity, object ball cut angle & any English.
The main thing for any player is spend time practicing & hitting pools against an imaginary opponent doesn’t cut it.
There are a lot of drills to try but remember to always practice with a specific purpose in mind to measure progress.
doesn’t warrant spending a whole lot i& time on this drill. 1 & 2 rails position shots are so much more predominant that’s
more worthwhile to practice or just practicing difficult shots repeatedly. I shoot the same shot 15 times using all the object
balls and keep track of my percentage made and how many times I make the same show in a row without a miss.
I incorporate a variety of shots and always include time to practice shooting over an object ball and even hangars.
Making the cue ball travel to a 3rd rail is a matter of controlling cue ball velocity, object ball cut angle & any English.
The main thing for any player is spend time practicing & hitting pools against an imaginary opponent doesn’t cut it.
There are a lot of drills to try but remember to always practice with a specific purpose in mind to measure progress.
According to Mike Sigel over on FleeceBunk, Irving Crane used to practice the L without touching a rail. 15 balls.