Thoughts on permanent practise markings

Just use pencil.

I marked all the diamond intersections with ordinary 0.5mm mechanical pencil lead 3 years ago when the cloth was then new. The cloth is now maybe a year past needing replacement but the marks are only a little faded. I don't see them unless I look for them. I doubt you'll regret it.

Rather than simple dots, I used a draftsman's circle template to draw 3/16" circles. I also used a pair of strings with weights to project the diamond lines exactly, and a machinist's 1-2-3 block as a square to help find the exact crossing on the cloth. I hope that isn't too convoluted to be clear.

I also drew in the head string and a line from the foot spot to the end rail to help line up the magic rack. (does anyone else still play games that spot balls?)

.after thinking about again,
"thoughts on permanent game markings" has a more positive vibe,
we're talking about mind control ,right?
I mean, your down on a shot, maybe thinking,
'man, what did I do to my table'? a bad vibe for practicing,

Bob Jewett said:

The number of holes is a design parameter and the number marked at a time is an implementation parameter. I'd use my Dritz chalk pencil and only mark the spots I needed. They wear off with a few cleanings.

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Makes sense.

Bob Jewett said:

But I don't like drills that are too repetitive. I much prefer altering some part of the shot so that you never shoot exactly the same shot twice in a row. That philosophy argues against marking the table permanently.

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Maybe a bit of thread drift, but the OP mentions drills so I will proceed with that as my excuse :grin-square: ...

There are a couple of nice features of Hennings shots. They start with a set shot, of course a repetitive practice. The shots are then extended with more cue ball travel. And a great part of the shot is the limits. The set shot is diagrammed in the "middle" of possible configurations where the shot shape can be made, say a corner-cut-follow-2-rails-around-the-same-corner (Henning is more eloquent ) Then there are lines showing how far off to one side or the other the cue ball can be and still make the same shaped shot (get into the corner for example). Overall it gives you a great understanding of the shot shape, where they work (and where they don't ... outside the limits).

Dave

Like others mentioned, just a dot at the intersections of the diamond with a sharpie isn’t noticeable and makes setting up drills easy (unless you have to be super precise for some reason). Never had anyone playing on my table mention the dots, likely they didn’t even notice.