I thought of a 9ball drill while playing a few racks by myself yesterday. It's pretty simple and mainly for beginners, although I have not had the chance to really try it out too much yet. The idea behind it is to learn patterns and play better position. It is completely offensive in nature.
- Play a set number of racks (10 is a good number) either ball-in-hand after the break or roll them out at random.
- The goal is to run out (obviously).
- In this drill you play to specific points on the table for the CB to land after every shot, not just a general "zone".
- If you miss your intended placement by enough distance that would severely impact a run-out, simply move the ball in the "correct" place you had intended it to go.
- After you play ten racks, count your ball-in-hands per rack, and take an average of those numbers.
I think this drill will reveal natural paths for the cueball, and reveal what paths are not ideal for position. As you progress, try to reduce that number. Ideally, you would run out every time and not need any ball-in-hands. Treat this as a Modified Ghost Drill. Instead of quitting the rack if as soon as you miss, play the rest of the table and learn the ideal positions that allow for the run-out. Some of you may be like me and get frustrated by the "score" that some drills use, keep in mind that this is more about discovering new things at the table than anything else. The number of BIH's are mainly a tool to learn new or interesting patterns that are more effective.
If any of you want to try this and post your results or give feedback, please do so in this thread. This may have been thought of before I'm sure, so share any links that you may know of, that way I can look like a big goof for not doing any research before posting... :grin:
- Play a set number of racks (10 is a good number) either ball-in-hand after the break or roll them out at random.
- The goal is to run out (obviously).
- In this drill you play to specific points on the table for the CB to land after every shot, not just a general "zone".
- If you miss your intended placement by enough distance that would severely impact a run-out, simply move the ball in the "correct" place you had intended it to go.
- After you play ten racks, count your ball-in-hands per rack, and take an average of those numbers.
I think this drill will reveal natural paths for the cueball, and reveal what paths are not ideal for position. As you progress, try to reduce that number. Ideally, you would run out every time and not need any ball-in-hands. Treat this as a Modified Ghost Drill. Instead of quitting the rack if as soon as you miss, play the rest of the table and learn the ideal positions that allow for the run-out. Some of you may be like me and get frustrated by the "score" that some drills use, keep in mind that this is more about discovering new things at the table than anything else. The number of BIH's are mainly a tool to learn new or interesting patterns that are more effective.
If any of you want to try this and post your results or give feedback, please do so in this thread. This may have been thought of before I'm sure, so share any links that you may know of, that way I can look like a big goof for not doing any research before posting... :grin:
