14-1 practice, how do you do it?

Newton

Newton

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have watched Mr J.Rempes excellent 14-1 DVD and I simply need to get going on this beast of a game. I'm mostly in 8 & 9 ball tournaments but 14-1 is something I seldom enter.

The 14-1 tips was great from J.Rempe and I would start with those. However, how do you guys practice 14-1 if this game is in you're camp? Just start at zero - and start playing until you miss, then rack'em up again and start all over again?

Most likely I would be alone and have no opponent during these practicing so any "lone Wolf" ideas would work fine :)

K
 
I find practicing one of the most difficult, if not impossible things for me to do with any measure of concentration and focus, and as a result of that, rarely if ever do I play on my table. I'd also love to hear about how others practice. It's so boring to me that I ultimately just start getting sloppy.

One thing I've tried is to rack 6 balls in a small triangle, very softly break them, and try to run them out designating a key ball and a ball to get to the key ball for your next break ball. This holds my interest for at least a short time. :(
 
I do two things.

1. I play the 14.1 ghost. Attempt to run 100 balls in a pre-determined amount of innings.

2. I also like to play a game against myself. Not neccessarily keeping score, but running balls and playing safe when I need to. It gives my safety game a workout.
 
Every session I practice 14.1 1st. I rack em ,and set up a breaker and see how many I can run stone cold. This helps when you are in the hot seat and your opponent puts a big number on you.

I also throw out 5 or 6 balls at random and run them off and get on a breaker. For me the end rack situation is key, and that's why I put so much emphasis on it.

another good way is to leave your cue in the case and throw balls out on the table and just run a few patterns in your head....then just re-shuffle the balls and do it again....this REALLY helps on seeing more than one way to get out of the rack....

I'll stop there...but there are a bunch more! :)
 
I play "20 no count" against the ghost to 100. Starting with a rack of 14 and a break ball, if i don't run 20 or more then I get nothing and the ghost gets 20 added to the ghost score and rack em again, if I run more than 20 then I get the actual run count on my score. Its a tough game and keeps your interest.
 
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I just set up a break ball behind the rack and shoot till I miss or runout and then re-rack. I don't try to get a great break on the first shot, but just get enough out to work with. Then the balls will show me the patterns. With all fourteen spread around the table there are too many options and you need to slow down and think too much until you really know the game. Plus I feel with an extremely tight table it is not so much of an advantage. I do try to get a good spread on the following racks and take my time a little more to learn the right way to run open tables.

You should check out the straight pool forum too... and prepare to be frustrated by a game that is harder than it looks.
 
If I'm not in action or in a tournament, I find myself practicing 14.1 by myself all the time. I set mini run goals, and have some "center of the table" drills that are completely boring, but they help a lot!

If you find yourself having a hard time concentrating on the game by yourself, these run goals, and ghost situations help a LOT!
 
Gerry said:
another good way is to leave your cue in the case and throw balls out on the table and just run a few patterns in your head....then just re-shuffle the balls and do it again....this REALLY helps on seeing more than one way to get out of the rack....
Click to expand...

This brings to mind a question regarding the cuetable program. Can this program randomly generate 6 ball patterns on the table or is this only done manually? That would be a great lazy man's thinking game.

I enjoy when bluepepper sets up his "run this" patterns. It would be nice to hit a button and have the program generate these over and over. :)
 
3andstop said:
I find practicing one of the most difficult, if not impossible things for me to do with any measure of concentration and focus, and as a result of that, rarely if ever do I play on my table. I'd also love to hear about how others practice. It's so boring to me that I ultimately just start getting sloppy.

One thing I've tried is to rack 6 balls in a small triangle, very softly break them, and try to run them out designating a key ball and a ball to get to the key ball for your next break ball. This holds my interest for at least a short time. :(
Click to expand...

I had a practice run on you'r idea tonight and it was actually pretty good. I managed to run a couple of rounds and focus on the break ball and figure the right pattern for this. This has been a big problem for me where I get to tens when I close up to a break ball and usually miss and break for my opponent.

But then it was that concentration bit. I just changed the cloth on our own club tables and the english is so much more now. Simple draw shot - booom - ended up on the total wrong side of the next ball and so on...

I did try at the end with a full rack and played but got to frustrated and headed back home to see if there was any other advices here :)

The J.Rempe tric was to spread around balls and try to put them without using any rails. In this way he managed to get the mind working for the different 14-1 patterns and this is something I would try tomorrow.

I certainly need to get my mind on this game so I would try all of the advices arriving in this thread.

Thanks

Kent
 
In addition to "brainwash" (touch no balls, use no rails) you can spread 15 balls half of the table, and try not to touch any balls. I suppose if you were ambitious you could do brainwash on half the table, but it would be tough!
 
I've got a PSP from my wife (I know I know I'm a big child :) )and she gave me a pool game to go with it. Believe it or not, it had a good effect on me in respect of considering options, but this was just for 8 ball and 9 ball.

Heck, I have not checked if it have 14.1 as well.

Just another option for "mind game" when we're not able to join you're friends around the table :D

Kent
 
3andstop said:
This brings to mind a question regarding the cuetable program. Can this program randomly generate 6 ball patterns on the table or is this only done manually? That would be a great lazy man's thinking game.

I enjoy when bluepepper sets up his "run this" patterns. It would be nice to hit a button and have the program generate these over and over. :)
Click to expand...

There is a random full rack 8-ball and 9-ball break button, but no other ones yet. I was thinking about asking Wei to possibly come up with something that favors typical straight pool breakouts, but it may be difficult to do properly. One thing that I often do when posting the "run this" layouts is use the 8-ball break button until I get some balls that look typical for a 14.1 layout and remove some of the others. When I first got into the cuetable I stared for hours at the screen until I saw patterns from the random breaks, just like Gerry is suggesting to do on the real table. I've gotten lazy since then.
You can decide how many balls you want to try and just remove the highest or lowest-numbered balls on the table after the 8-ball break. Say you want 6 balls to work with. Just hit the break button and remove the 7-15.
 
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Gerry said:
Every session I practice 14.1 1st. I rack em ,and set up a breaker and see how many I can run stone cold. This helps when you are in the hot seat and your opponent puts a big number on you.

I also throw out 5 or 6 balls at random and run them off and get on a breaker. For me the end rack situation is key, and that's why I put so much emphasis on it.

another good way is to leave your cue in the case and throw balls out on the table and just run a few patterns in your head....then just re-shuffle the balls and do it again....this REALLY helps on seeing more than one way to get out of the rack....

I'll stop there...but there are a bunch more! :)
Click to expand...

Sweet, that sounds great! I will give this a try!
Thxs!
 
Hey Guys :)

For me, when I practice straight pool, I just shoot a normal game, including the opening safey break :)

The reason for this is because when you're shooting in a match whether it be against a friend or in a tournament, there's no such thing as being able to set up your favourite break shot by placing the BB and/or CB wherever you want to, and also by just practicing with by setting up your break shot, this doesn't necessarily teach you the importance of making every shot count :)

When I practice straight pool, I'll play an opening break, (I feel that a good opening break is every bit as important as being able to run balls and leave yourself on a good consistent BB) and then I'll happily shoot a 200/250 point game and just try to reach the score in as few innings as possible :)

Willie
 
I do that too Willie. If I end up with a break shot that is impossible to make, I rerack the whole rack and go from the opening break again. It doesn't give you as many opportunities to make high runs, but I think it's good practice.
 
Yes very much so :) and another good thing about with the opening break is, it trains a player to try and 'read the stack' a little better and more often to see if there are any dead combinations available on any shot(s) after the opening break, if there aren't any easier balls to shoot in order to get a run going :)

It is a tougher way to practice, but I feel that there is more to be gained by taking the harder and somewhat more disciplined way of practicing :)

Willie
 
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