What are the best drills?

jrctherake...I agree completely. That's why the best drills are the Mother Drills that all SPF instructors teach! They teach you how to analyze your stroke, stance, lineup and delivery of the cuestick...and how to fix things if they're off kilter. You can't fix what you don't know about. :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

jrctherake said:

I dont know you but, "I" would say, "concentrate on "FUNDAMENTALS"".

Far to often, I hear people talk about drills that work on cutting to the left/right, drills that help draw/follow, left/right spin, stop....stun shots etc...etc... when infact, people should spend more time keeping their stance (feet, shoulders, elbows, head etc..) in check.

I dont care what drill you run, if "any-one" of your fundamentals are off more than slightly, well, your back to wasting your time regardless of the drill.

I have a very good friend that loves to play. He actually has a lot of potential but, he's not gonna realize his full potential simply because he refuses to go back to the basics often .....or at all!

He, like most decent players think that after you get to be a decent player, well, you dont need to work on "the basics"....

I tell him that "whatever gets you there", well.....that's what it will take to "keep you there".

Regardless of how well a person plays, they CANNOT.....overlook fundamentals. If they do, well....lol.... it will not be long before you hear them complaining about hitting a SLUMP!

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Scott Lee said:

jrctherake...I agree completely. That's why the best drills are the Mother Drills that all SPF instructors teach! They teach you how to analyze your stroke, stance, lineup and delivery of the cuestick...and how to fix things if they're off kilter. You can't fix what you don't know about. :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

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AQlso Bert Kinister's Mighty X drill. It will show you how straight you stroke.

newcuer said:

Any thoughts on what on the best drills?

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There is a good collection of very useful drills here:

drills resource page

I strongly recommend:

Billiard University (BU) Playing-Ability Exam drills

And if you want a huge collection of categorized drills that can be used to work on every aspect of the game (on an as-need basis), see:

Video Encyclopedia of Pool Practice (VEPP)

Enjoy,
Dave

Pete said:

AQlso Bert Kinister's Mighty X drill. It will show you how straight you stroke.

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on straight in shots... i get that theoretically the stroke shouldn't change other than the speed of cue's final forward motion, but, personally, it doesn't transfer to cut shots.

if you want to steer, you want to steer, and you have to fight it by shooting angled shots, or, at least, that's my experience of it.

Brainwash drill is highly recommended, here's a Andrey Seroshtan version of it. https://youtu.be/0fD9RJl4a7U

This is perfect for the poolbilliardsco site, 1000 plus drills with scoring and graphs, complete level 1 and check the chart for weeknesss and Taylor your next drills accordingly. I truly think that site is amazing

Bob Jewett said:

Ah, yes, but, which ten of these thousands of drills will be the most useful for the OP? I think that is what he was asking. (And I don't know how to answer it directly.)

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You would take the first drills (they are in category’s) and it shows you and recommends based off your own skills. It’s different for everyone. It has kicking, banking, position, masse, jumps, straight strokes, etc etc plug your scores in and see which ones you need

After reading some of the advice, I dont feel bad about mine vvvvvvv

1. The Record yourself playing the ghost.
2. Watch and rewatch until you find your problems.
3. Make a drill to fix "your" problem.
4. Run the drill until you own it.
5. Go back to 1.

Rake

newcuer said:

So many drills, hard to figure out which are the best. Certainty, can't do them all.

Any thoughts on what on the best drills?

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What level are you?

Do you need to get a better stroke? Better general shot making? Better specialty shots? Better at patterns for a particular game? Better safety play? Mental game?

The reason that there are so many drills to choose from, is that there are so many things to improve. Once you decide what you want to work on, there IS a drill for that.

Identify where your game is lacking and then pick a drill to fill one of the gaps. When you get that mastered, pick another drill.

As stated earlier in this thread, the correct selection is based on your issue.

-td

As a former high school soccer coach (4 years), track coach (3 years), judo instructor (9 years), fishing guide (7 years), fly fishing casting instructor (8 years), Basic Handgun Instructor (2 years), and flight instructor (CFI, CFII, MEI) (4 years), my advice to you is to get your fundamentals down first.

This will always make self-evaluation or evaluation by either a more experienced player or an instructor much easier.

Further, if you don't have a good grasp of the fundamentals then you're just basically guessing at what's going on, and eventually, if you want to keep progressing, you're going to end up having to learn the fundamentals anyway.

My suggestion is to find a good instructor and get him to evaluate your game fundamentals. Probably shouldn't take more than an hour. Last time I had instruction I believe that cost me about $30. After that, get him/her to give you some drills that focus on your fundamental weaknesses.

Good luck.

My favorite drill is a variation of the common L drill. Using 10 balls (five on each side of the corner). Balls are pulled from the ball box in a random order and placed in the L pattern. Then run them off as playing 10-ball. Can be frustrating when having to get from the side rail for the next ball being on the bottom rail. Being random, every time you do the drill, its a little different, but makes you work 1 and 2 rail shape and controlling speed. I also like doing a simple spot drill, but mixing a cue ball speed element, and alternating between the 2 corner pockets. For a successful shot, you must pocket the object ball and land your cue ball in the zone called. each zone is about a diamond apart and then two zones including coming off the short rail back up to the first diamond and then to the 2nd diamond.

newcuer said:

This is what exactly I am trying to avoid. 1000 plus?

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I think it would be worth your while to take a peek at it.

Persoanally speaking, Black & Decker does a better than average job.

...did the OP say if she had his own work bench? size an all...

..new cuer'r figure better cover the base's.

Scott Lee said:

jrctherake...I agree completely. That's why the best drills are the Mother Drills that all SPF instructors teach! They teach you how to analyze your stroke, stance, lineup and delivery of the cuestick...and how to fix things if they're off kilter. You can't fix what you don't know about. :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

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Scott, it's no secret that I'm not a fan of the "average" pool instructor/coach.

99% of coaches/instructors more or less suck at what they do.

A "good" instructor/coach is like a "good" ......primary care physician.....they are damn hard to find. But, when you do find that "good" instructor/coach....well, they are worth their weight in gold to a pool player that truly wants to reach their "full potential".

It's nearly impossible to reach full potential without someone like you to guide them.

Sure, I could play before lessons but, I never run 100 in 14.1 before my lessons.


Is it cheap? Nope. Then again, how much is running 100+ balls in 14.1 worth?

NOTE:

The SECOND BEST thing to a good instructor is a quality recorder and a LOT of PROGRESSIVE practice that is analyzed /tweaked as needed.

I think there is a large difference between an instructor you need to get fundamentals straight and an instructor you look for when you are already an advanced player. While I agree that it is probably not too easy to find a great advanced instructor it should be relatively easy to find someone to tell you about faulty fundamentals. I would also suggest reading Mark Wilson's book "Play Great Pool", which has been recommended here. This is the single most rewarding book I ever touched for learning pool. And I have a few. Yes, it is expensive. But it is worth every dime.

After reading the first few chapters on fundamentals you can also easily judge if an instructor gets things right. You still need him since you can't see all of your faults during a stroke and videotaping yourself may be helpful. You still most probably won't find out every flaw initially. Once an instructor pointed out a few things you can double-check much easier.

After that point I still recommend DrDave's exams to find out about personal weaknesses. Those are way better than some single drills which have been recommended. Single drills will always be great for a single issue - like draw shots, speed etc. However, those 16 or 20 drills in Dave's exams test you in many different skills. Starting with cut shots, stop balls, follow, draw and so on they go all the way to position play, safeties, jumps and so on. Each single drill emphasizes a different skill. You will immediately see the ones you need a lot more practice on.

I don't think stuff like playing the ghost or playing balls in rotation in any way will help you much initially. The problem being there that so many different shots come up in a single version of the drill. And they vary each time you play them. This may be great once you are advancing with your skills and it is also fun to use those drills for a little distraction. But without structured drills that make you play the same situations over and over again until you get them right most of the time you will advance much slower. I strongly believe that it does not help you a lot if you overload your practice schedule with random stuff. Unless your basic shots are good enough to reach at least master level on Dave's exam.

Bert Kinister
“60 min workout “

newcuer said:

This is what exactly I am trying to avoid. 1000 plus?

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This makes me laugh, you do some drills in different categories and you pick out of 1000 plus drills what you need. I guarantee there’s over 500 drills you can’t currently complete one time because it goes to a pro level, I reallly don’t understand why something so great isn’t perceived well on AZ???? Side note I’m not affiliated in anyway with the site. I just love it