old school drills?

jay helfert said:
Efren was the first guy I ever saw practice the 15 ball ghost. He would throw all fifteen balls all over the table and take BIH. I’m guessing he ran out about one in three tries. I saw him do two in a row a couple of times. Damn him!
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At the Sands in Reno perhaps in '85 or '86, I was watching Efren in the practice room. He was practicing Rotation. Another player approached and was barking for Straight pool. Efrin ran two racks in rotation and paused to ask, "Are you sure you want to play Straight pool?"
In his first visits to the USA he brought skills that the American players couldn't approach. Most noticable was his billiards skills and absolute control of the white rock.
 
Bob Jewett said:
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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My dad didn't drill. Not required for exhibitions much, but I do recall he'd set up long center table cuts from head to foot and work side pockets a bit b4 playing. Other than that...
 
gregcantrall said:
At the Sands in Reno perhaps in '85 or '86, I was watching Efren in the practice room. He was practicing Rotation. Another player approached and was barking for Straight pool. Efrin ran two racks in rotation and paused to ask, "Are you sure you want to play Straight pool?"
In his first visits to the USA he brought skills that the American players couldn't approach. Most noticable was his billiards skills and absolute control of the white rock.
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His kicking ability was far superior to any American player. This was pre jump cue days and kicking was vitally important. Efren kicked to play safeties in ways we had never seen. For the next year our top players were playing catch up.

All the top players would sit and watch Efren play! Ah memories
 
jay helfert said:
His kicking ability was far superior to any American player. This was pre jump cue days and kicking was vitally important. Efren kicked to play safeties in ways we had never seen. For the next year our top players were playing catch up.

All the top players would sit and watch Efren play! Ah memories
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He says somewhere that he took up billiards at 19 because nobody would play him rotation. Also said something about always getting out after kicking the one in.
 
jay helfert said:
His kicking ability was far superior to any American player. This was pre jump cue days and kicking was vitally important. Efren kicked to play safeties in ways we had never seen. For the next year our top players were playing catch up.

All the top players would sit and watch Efren play! Ah memories
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Funny thing! My morning fitness program is Kicks Like A Mule. A challenge I have devised. 😉
 
I saw Efren execute a jump off the point of the corner pocket that he had placed the cue ball in with a close the door safety that left no escape unless airborne. Oh yeah he took the white rock 3 rails to lay it there but another ball had accidentally dropped. He jumped off the point to get the hit and hook on the object ball which had been near a side pocket. Hmmmmm headscratch ☺
 
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Bob Jewett said:
Willie does have drills in his book, but he didn't write his book
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Bavafongoul said:
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.
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"the autobiographical portion of this book is written in the first-person voice of willie mosconi. other sections of the book, clearly indicated by space breaks, are written in my own voice or in those of other observers." -stanley cohen

I'm a few chapters in, willie's "voice" is entertaining enough, but I find the other (well-written) sections, disruptive
 
Roy Steffensen said:
I’ve seen him do this a couple of times. If a ball drops by accident, he then tries to make both remaining balls in one shot.
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Efren playing a couple of formulative years on a carom table isn't weighed into his game by I think most. His chess comes into play more than usually considered too I believe. I was playing chess three to five moves in advance when I started really using pool patterns. I gobbled up the simple patterns on a pool table, sometimes reading three or four patterns as I walked up. I believe that Efren's ability to read patterns, even patterns others don't see, is a significant part of his pool mastery too.

Chess helps, so does carom according to a handful of people I respect. Efren is usually presented as a fairly simple package, started playing pool at nine, never quit. I think there is quite a bit more to the package. Among other things I wonder about his IQ. Hard to measure the IQ of a person with little formal education but I believe Efren's to be quite high.

Hu
 
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