Any Tips on Safety Play?
- Thread starter Bobalicious
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Tudster
New member
Learning to play good safeties is as much about identifying and recognizing safety opportunities as it is about execution. Learning to see safeties is a hard skill to acquire because most pool games place importance on offensive play.
To improve my safety play I like to play a game where playing safeties is how you score points to win. You need an opponent who is just as interested as you are in improving their safety play.
Start with a normal 9-ball rack. If you make a ball on the break, you retain the table. No ball on the break, it?s your opponents turn. The point of the game is to find safeties while still executing a legal 9-ball shot (first hitting the lowest ball on the table). If your safety attempt causes your opponent to foul on his turn, then you get 1 point and get ball in hand. If your opponent is able to legally get out of the safety, no point scored and you shoot from where the cue ball lies. The winner of the game is the first to score 10 total points OR is able to 3-foul (consecutive) his opponent. It is allowable to pocket balls as you legally do in normal 9-ball in order to strategically position yourself for better safety opportunities on the next balls in rotation. Making a ball allows you to keep shooting but does not count point wise towards your game score. One game can span multiple racks. For instance, as you get down to the last 3 or 4 balls and safety opportunities become harder to find, you can choose to make the remaining balls in rotation order to get to a ?fresh? rack. The next rack begins with you executing an opening break with the same stipulation that you must make a ball to retain the table.
The good thing about this game is it trains you to focus on safety play, and sometimes forces you to find creative safeties. It also has the plus of gaining experience trying to get out of safeties. The negative is it can be a long game sometimes, if neither player is good at safeties, or if players are good escape artists. In that case, lower the required winning score. It can also be a frustrating game if one player?s safety skill is far superior than the opponent.
To improve my safety play I like to play a game where playing safeties is how you score points to win. You need an opponent who is just as interested as you are in improving their safety play.
Start with a normal 9-ball rack. If you make a ball on the break, you retain the table. No ball on the break, it?s your opponents turn. The point of the game is to find safeties while still executing a legal 9-ball shot (first hitting the lowest ball on the table). If your safety attempt causes your opponent to foul on his turn, then you get 1 point and get ball in hand. If your opponent is able to legally get out of the safety, no point scored and you shoot from where the cue ball lies. The winner of the game is the first to score 10 total points OR is able to 3-foul (consecutive) his opponent. It is allowable to pocket balls as you legally do in normal 9-ball in order to strategically position yourself for better safety opportunities on the next balls in rotation. Making a ball allows you to keep shooting but does not count point wise towards your game score. One game can span multiple racks. For instance, as you get down to the last 3 or 4 balls and safety opportunities become harder to find, you can choose to make the remaining balls in rotation order to get to a ?fresh? rack. The next rack begins with you executing an opening break with the same stipulation that you must make a ball to retain the table.
The good thing about this game is it trains you to focus on safety play, and sometimes forces you to find creative safeties. It also has the plus of gaining experience trying to get out of safeties. The negative is it can be a long game sometimes, if neither player is good at safeties, or if players are good escape artists. In that case, lower the required winning score. It can also be a frustrating game if one player?s safety skill is far superior than the opponent.
Practicing safeties with only a few balls on the table is very challenging and teaches creativity, high-percentage techniques (like rolling along the "safety line" as worriedbeef suggested), and accuracy, skills that will help you to improve the quality of your safeties.
When I don't have a willing opponent for one of the other safety games, I like to play this simple but effective one by myself.
Put three object balls on the three table spots, use the ball in the center of the table as your object ball, take cue ball in hand for the first shot, and just shoot safeties, using the same object ball (in this case the 1 ball). The diagrammed shots are typical first shots (way harder than they look).
Shoot from the position you're left each time, trying to play safe again if your last shot was unsuccessful or to kick safe if your last shot was successful (your success rate will be low at first because of the challenge of having only two balls on the table to hide behind). Always play the balls as they lie and quit any time before committing suicide.
pj
chgo
When I don't have a willing opponent for one of the other safety games, I like to play this simple but effective one by myself.
Put three object balls on the three table spots, use the ball in the center of the table as your object ball, take cue ball in hand for the first shot, and just shoot safeties, using the same object ball (in this case the 1 ball). The diagrammed shots are typical first shots (way harder than they look).
Shoot from the position you're left each time, trying to play safe again if your last shot was unsuccessful or to kick safe if your last shot was successful (your success rate will be low at first because of the challenge of having only two balls on the table to hide behind). Always play the balls as they lie and quit any time before committing suicide.
pj
chgo