“ALL IN ONE” Progressive Practice Drill – Billiard University Playing Ability Exam IX

dr_dave

dr_dave

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FYI, I just posted a new video that announces and demonstrates “All in One” (AO), a new Billiard University Playing Ability Exam, the ninth in the series. It consists of a set of 15 break-and-run challenges of increasing levels of difficulty. The goal is to pocket a given number of balls in rotation into a selected corner pocket with as few strokes as possible. No rail contact is required on any shot, and you can use multiple strokes to pocket a ball. Check it out:


Contents:
  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 1:49 - Levels 1-6 Demos
  • 5:26 - Levels 7-10 Demos
  • 12:05 - Levels 11-15 Demos
  • 22:24 - Additional Rules and Strategy
  • 26:02 - Counting Strokes
  • 26:42 - More Info
Supporting Resources:
As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments, questions, complaints, and requests.

Enjoy!
 
dr_dave said:
FYI, I just posted a new video that announces and demonstrates “All in One” (AO), a new Billiard University Playing Ability Exam, the ninth in the series. It consists of a set of 15 break-and-run challenges of increasing levels of difficulty. The goal is to pocket a given number of balls in rotation into a selected corner pocket with as few strokes as possible. No rail contact is required on any shot, and you can use multiple strokes to pocket a ball. Check it out:


Contents:
  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 1:49 - Levels 1-6 Demos
  • 5:26 - Levels 7-10 Demos
  • 12:05 - Levels 11-15 Demos
  • 22:24 - Additional Rules and Strategy
  • 26:02 - Counting Strokes
  • 26:42 - More Info
Supporting Resources:
As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments, questions, complaints, and requests.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

If anybody tries AO, please let me know how well you think the Level-based player rating (in the AO document) at the end of your session corresponds to your actual level of ability.

Please try it. It is fun, and it is excellent practice for many important skills.
 
dr_dave said:
If anybody tries AO, please let me know how well you think the Level-based player rating (in the AO document) at the end of your session corresponds to your actual level of ability.

Please try it. It is fun, and it is excellent practice for many important skills.
Click to expand...
I’m 4000 km from my pool table at the moment. But I’ll give it a go when I get home. Thanks for all you do.
 
Hey that's pretty fun. I started at 8, got through 9 and 10 and stopped; seemed easier after a few tries. The break is important. I'll continue later, maybe over the weekend.
The rack is random? (w/one in front.) And the break doesn't count as 1 stroke?
Not sure about the ratings; I don't have a real fargo but play at about 600 (well I like to think I do.)

BTW, you've got a typo in the PDF, should be 30 strokes here:
10. 10 balls in 20 strokes from 10-ball rack – mid advanced (B)
Click to expand...
 
freds said:
Hey that's pretty fun. I started at 8, got through 9 and 10 and stopped; seemed easier after a few tries. The break is important. I'll continue later, maybe over the weekend.
Click to expand...

Please let me know if you have any other feedback or suggestions after you work with it more.

freds said:
The rack is random? (w/one in front.)
Click to expand...

Correct. Pattern racking is not allowed under the WPA official rules of pool, which AO follows except for no rail contact required and no foul (only 4-stroke penalty) with a wrong ball hit first.

freds said:
And the break doesn't count as 1 stroke?
Click to expand...

Correct.

freds said:
Not sure about the ratings; I don't have a real fargo but play at about 600 (well I like to think I do.)
Click to expand...

Please let me know how well the rating designation matches your level of play after you put more time in.

freds said:
BTW, you've got a typo in the PDF, should be 30 strokes here: 10. 10 balls in 20 strokes from 10-ball rack – mid advanced (B)
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing this out. I've fixed it.
 
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dr_dave said:
FYI, I just posted a new video that announces and demonstrates “All in One” (AO), a new Billiard University Playing Ability Exam, the ninth in the series. It consists of a set of 15 break-and-run challenges of increasing levels of difficulty. The goal is to pocket a given number of balls in rotation into a selected corner pocket with as few strokes as possible. No rail contact is required on any shot, and you can use multiple strokes to pocket a ball. Check it out:


Contents:
  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 1:49 - Levels 1-6 Demos
  • 5:26 - Levels 7-10 Demos
  • 12:05 - Levels 11-15 Demos
  • 22:24 - Additional Rules and Strategy
  • 26:02 - Counting Strokes
  • 26:42 - More Info
Supporting Resources:
As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments, questions, complaints, and requests.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Has anybody tried "All in One" yet?

Please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement.

Also, please let us know what you think of the player rating labels corresponding to each successful ending Level.

Thanks in advance.
 
I found that #11 - rack 15, remove 4, 22 strokes - is much more difficult than #10, rack 10, 30 strokes. Seems like a much bigger jump than other levels, B- to B is a lot easier than B to B+
The 8 extra strokes of course are big, but the 15 ball break seems to cause a lot more problems (even w/removing 4), and it's much harder to get shape on the 1 ball. Maybe just my table (and me.)
 
freds said:
I found that #11 - rack 15, remove 4, 22 strokes - is much more difficult than #10, rack 10, 30 strokes. Seems like a much bigger jump than other levels, B- to B is a lot easier than B to B+
The 8 extra strokes of course are big, but the 15 ball break seems to cause a lot more problems (even w/removing 4), and it's much harder to get shape on the 1 ball. Maybe just my table (and me.)
Click to expand...

That is my experience as well. Level 10 seems very easy and Level 11 seems hard. I also think Levels 14 and 15 should be harder. I just spoke to Bob for a while and we think a good solution could be to allow 25 strokes on Levels 11-15 (instead of 2-times the Level #). That would fix both issues I mentioned. Do you think 25 strokes (instead of 22) makes Level 11 easier enough, realizing that it still needs to be harder than Level 10?
 
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dr_dave said:
That is my experience as well. Level 10 seems very easy and Level 11 seems hard. I also think Levels 14 and 15 should be harder. I just spoke to Bob for a while and we think a good solution could be to allow 25 strokes on Levels 11-15 (instead of 4-times the Level #). That would fix both issues I mentioned. Do you think 25 strokes (instead of 22) makes Level 11 easier enough, realizing that it still needs to be harder than Level 10?
Click to expand...
(you mean 2-times the level # )
yes that sounds reasonable. I gave #11 a few more goes yesterday, with a better break on my slow table; go full power, like an 8 ball break. That worked better than trying to control the one ball. I succeeded 1 out of 4 w/22 strokes, sorry don't remember how close the others were. (I was in line for another one but scratched trying to bump a ball off the rail.)
 
What happened at 4:07 in the video? You made the bank shot then your cue ball was straight in on the 5 ball. Did you use a stroke to just tap the cue ball into position instead of risking a tough bank on the 5? Are you allowed to "foul" to give yourself better position?

Looking forward to trying this one!
 
freds said:
(you mean 2-times the level # )
Click to expand...

Yes. Thanks. I corrected my post.

freds said:
yes that sounds reasonable. I gave #11 a few more goes yesterday, with a better break on my slow table; go full power, like an 8 ball break. That worked better than trying to control the one ball. I succeeded 1 out of 4 w/22 strokes, sorry don't remember how close the others were. (I was in line for another one but scratched trying to bump a ball off the rail.)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the time and feedback. It was helpful. We decided to set Levels 11-15 to 25 allowable strokes each. The online document has been updated.
 
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easy-e said:
What happened at 4:07 in the video? You made the bank shot then your cue ball was straight in on the 5 ball. Did you use a stroke to just tap the cue ball into position instead of risking a tough bank on the 5? Are you allowed to "foul" to give yourself better position?

Looking forward to trying this one!
Click to expand...

I edited out my dink shot out by mistake. I have a correction in the YouTube video description and pinned comment. Now it is here also. Good catch.
 
dr_dave said:
I edited out my dink shot out by mistake. I have a correction in the YouTube video description and pinned comment. Now it is here also. Good catch.
Click to expand...
I hope I got this right...

On your "dink" shots, you MUST hit the OB, but no rail is necessary? If you just tap the CB into a better position without contacting the OB, is it treated like hitting the wrong ball first and you get a 4 stroke penalty?
 
I tried this and 10 was pretty easy at 30 shots. I even tried it with a wide open 10-ball break and made it. (Below 10 was the same)

11-15 are substantially harder. The break really is the issue IMO. If you hit it too soft, you have a major cluster to deal with. Too hard and you have too many balls up table. I was able to clear 11 fairly consistently (2 out of 3), but 12 only a couple times. 13-15 were a crap shoot to even clear 1 out of 3.

I should probably think about a useful break to facilitate this drill. My current head-on, medium light speed with a touch of draw yields a decent starter most of the time, but things are pretty congested after that.

-td
 
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