4 Ball Drill

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
9 Ball is such a frustrating game. last night i played, racked and broke, for a couple of hours. i screwed up several golden opportunities to run racks, and it really is frustrating. sad thing about it is that most of those times i was down to the 7 or 8 ball, and screwed up.

somebody once said if you make the shots you should make you will be alot better off. i think a 4 Ball Drill, where you just throw 4 balls on the table, take the cue ball in hand, and make SURE you get out might be a good drill to work on.

i finally did run a rack, and it wasnt an easy rack to run. amazing, i had screwed up all of those easier spreads, and made a couple of great shots to finally run a rack. sure is a funny game.

any of you other top notch players ever have this problem? or ever use the 4 Ball Drill?

DCP
 
hi, i have read a threat about the "ghost-game" here recently. you break, take ball-in-hand and then try to runout - if you succeed, you will get a point - if not the ghost will get it. i think that is a very good drill. you can choose the difficulty level by yourself. at this time i play with six balls and its not easy for me to defeat that ghost.

here is a thread about the ghost:
http://www.azbilliards.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=6648&page=2&pp=15&highlight=ghost

steigweis
 
For some players I think a drill like that would work to make them plan ahead for the proper angles, but in your case I don't think it matters. You've already run plenty of racks and if you've gotten through the 5 or 6 it shows that you can run multiple balls and plan ahead even when the table is full. I think your ass is puckering, you start to get uptight and think ahead about getting the rack and you then force your shots or tighten up instead of letting it flow. Then you're either out of position or end up with a tough cut that's easily missed. You just have to learn to stay loose, relaxed, control your heart rate and anxiety level and just pop those last few in like all the rest. Ohmmmm....Ohmmmm....Ohmmmmm....Ohmmmm.........
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
9 Ball is such a frustrating game. last night i played, racked and broke, for a couple of hours. i screwed up several golden opportunities to run racks, and it really is frustrating. sad thing about it is that most of those times i was down to the 7 or 8 ball, and screwed up.

somebody once said if you make the shots you should make you will be alot better off. i think a 4 Ball Drill, where you just throw 4 balls on the table, take the cue ball in hand, and make SURE you get out might be a good drill to work on.

i finally did run a rack, and it wasnt an easy rack to run. amazing, i had screwed up all of those easier spreads, and made a couple of great shots to finally run a rack. sure is a funny game.

any of you other top notch players ever have this problem? or ever use the 4 Ball Drill?

DCP
Click to expand...

This is the four ball ghost without the break. Better to play the ghost and then take ball in hand after the break. At least you get to work on your break and your run out skills.

Obviously, this is a good drill. The benefits of playing against the ghost have been discussed often on the forum.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
... or ever use the 4 Ball Drill?
Click to expand...
Here's something similar that Ron Shepard came up with a long time ago over in RSB.

Pick a number of balls at nine ball to go for, say four. Break the rack and remove balls to get the number down to your number. In the easy form, you can pick the balls. In the hard form, remove the lowest. See if you can run out with cue ball in hand. If you do run out, your number goes up one. If you fail, reduce your number by one, and play the next rack. (Alternatively, try for two out of three at one number before adjusting the number.)

When you choose the balls to remove, you are forced to think about patterns and the sort of position you can play at your current level, so in some ways it's better than just removing the lowest.

This drill is of the general kind called "progressive practice" because the difficulty automatically adjusts to your current skill level. It can also be applied to eight ball practice. For more background on that kind of practice and other drills, see the free handout on the web page below.
 
drivermaker said:
What the hell is going on here...are you seeing something I'm not? I don't see that either.
Click to expand...

you need to go into the User CP and under options click on show signatures, you must have it shut off.

warren..
 
This is a good way to practice, but IMO you must use make yourself play proper shape for it to really help. Running out 4 balls when you had to make a hard shot on 2 of them isnt good practice, but making yourself play good shape on 4 balls is.

Another good way to practice is to play the ghost a race to 9, start with one ball, if you get out then you get a point and put two balls on the table. Run those out you get a point and put 3 balls on the table. If you dont get out the ghost gets a point and you keep the same number of balls on the table you had just started with. I think this helps you find your "threshold". You will slowly see the number of balls you can get out before you start to have trouble go up, and you will spend most of your time working within the proper number of balls that will challenge you but still give you a chance to be succesfull.
 
Warren said:
you need to go into the User CP and under options click on show signatures, you must have it shut off.

warren..
Click to expand...


You're right Warren...I do have signatures shut off, but not Avatars, especially ZigZag's.
 
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