best ball speed drills?

NineBallNut

NineBallNut

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Hey all, just wondering what you guys think the best drills are for getting your cue ball speed down. I am to the point where my ball speed is costing my games and would like to work on it seriously. Problem is I don't have a lot of time to practice in each session. So I would like to run some specific drills in the 1-2 hours every other day I have to practice. I am a strong shot maker, which I have to be to win because my position play fails me late in matches.....lol. Any suggestions?
 
I started do the L drill about a year ago, and its helped significantly!!! That's where you line up 5 balls from the short rail, middle diamond, to the spot, then 5 ball perpendicular to the second spot on the long rail. and strat knocking them off, 1 by 1, starting with the ball closest to the short rail. it really helps with the spead because you can be off by a fraction. its a lot harder than it looks.
 
Byrne's Power Workout is the best I've seen. Ray Martin's 99 Critical shots is very good, you just have to place a marker where the cue ball should stop.

Good Luck
 
cue-tech has a good drill. Basically you put the balls 1 thru 5 on the table on the long rail.....1 is the first corner pocket, 2 is 2nd diamond, 3 is the side pocket, 4 is 2 diamonds farther down 5 is the last corner pocket. Then you just take the cueball, and you say to yourself.......im going to shoot a 1, then you shoot the cue ball down table, against the far rail, back up table and you want it to stop as close to the cushion as possible (thats a 1, your basic lag). A 3 is the same thing except it comes off the rail and goes back down table and stops within a diamond on either side of the side pocket. A 5 would be downtable, backup to the head rail, and back down table to stop at the far cushion. So basically you call out the number to yourself and you stop the cueball within a diamond of that number. Just a short time with this drill and youd be surprised how good you can get stopping the cueball exactly where you want. Then from there you start lining up 2 balls directly in line and about a foot apart.........and you do the same thing except youre rolling the object ball to the position you want it to stop on the table. Do this for a couple minutes every day as part of your drills and your speed will get dialed in quick.
 
Practice shooting just the cue ball (long ways on table) 1/2 diamond, 1 diamond, 2 diamonds, etc. Add one diamond more distance each time. Go all the way up to 3 rails (hits far rail, back to near rail, then back to far rail and stops). This is very difficult practice, but well worth it in the long run.

Then break all 15 balls. Shoot each ball so it goes up to the pocket but stops just before falling into the pocket. This will teach you how much speed (how little speed actually) you need to pocket a ball. And that a cut shot requires more speed than a full ball hit. Also that the cue ball retains most of its energy with a thin cut and loses most of its energy with a full on hit. This practice is very handy if you want the cue ball to travel a minimum distance after pocketing a ball. You can shoot the object ball with just enough speed to make the pocket.

So there is the initial speed of the cue ball, then object ball hit (full, cut, thin cut) will determine how much speed cue ball will retain after the hit, and how much speed you use will determine how far the cue ball will travel after the hit.

Combination shot practice is also helpful. Try double, triple, and quadruple combo shots. The more balls you need to get moving, the more speed you need. This is good to know if you are hitting an object ball, then using the cue ball to break out other balls after your initial hit. It needs more speed to break out the balls after the initial hit. And depends on how many balls in the cluster as to how much speed you need. How far you want balls in cluster to travel after breaking them out, etc.

Then shoot just the cue ball at a cushion at an angle with a center hit. Then use extreme inside english. Notice how the cue ball will pick up speed after hitting the cushion when using a lot of inside spin. This can come in handy sometimes. Also try extreme outside english and watch it slow down the ball. Say maybe a 45 degree angle for this practice.

When playing games, before shooting, say to yourself; Full hit, cut, or thin cut? Where will the cue ball go after this shot? How far will it travel? Where do I want it to go?
 
NineBallNut said:
Hey all, just wondering what you guys think the best drills are for getting your cue ball speed down. I am to the point where my ball speed is costing my games and would like to work on it seriously. Problem is I don't have a lot of time to practice in each session. So I would like to run some specific drills in the 1-2 hours every other day I have to practice. I am a strong shot maker, which I have to be to win because my position play fails me late in matches.....lol. Any suggestions?
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I dunno about best, but I tend to practice several completely different speed control exersizes.

#1, always will be, straight to corner with 1, 2, 3, 4, etc diamonds of straight follow / draw, starting at 1, 2, 3, 4 etc diamonds between OB and CB (to practice speed as a result of spin, target 1" to 3" precision) (note that no cushions are involved except that the longest draw/follow will go 'through' a rail)

#2 simple cut to corner with CB ending a) just off the first rail, b) in the middle of the table, c) through the middle of the table to the other rail, d) same CB path to the 3rd rail, target is about a 3" to 10" circle. Play this with a variety of cuts to corner and sides, the object is to get a feel for various speeds but you need to practice various routes around the table as they require different speeds. This would be very close to the 99 Critical Shot suggestion above, except that the shots I practice come from Hennings Pro Book.

#3 for slow speed control I practice shooting all kinds of shots with the OB barely getting to the pocket. If, during this practice, you don't leave a couple short (less short is better), you're hitting them too hard.

I'm still no good, but slowly improving ...

Dave
 
Also what is very handy is to line up a row of balls between the side pockets, place CB 1 diamond back, then practice drawing back the CB; 1 diamond, then 2 diamonds, then 3, etc. Of course a longer distance from CB to OB changes everything as well as speed of cloth, but this gives you a "base line" for drawback distance.

And a very easy thing to learn is following after a full ball hit. Line up CB and OB near the long rail 1 diamond apart. Then shoot so CB follows 1 diamond past where OB was. (Shoot OB into far corner pocket). Then same shot but get CB to follow 2 diamonds past where OB was. Then 3, 4, etc. To far rail and stop. And max force follow (tons of follow through - hit high) to see how far you can get CB to travel after hit - hits far rail then comes back. Need to line up CB and OB so not straight in so CB will hit far rail instead of following in OB. This is very handy if you have a somewhat straight in shot to the far corner pocket and need to leave the CB 1/2 of the way there or all the way at the end of the table for your next shot.
 
Kinister has a tape called "The Speed Tape" that is worth viewing.

The tape, IMO, is a one time view. He basically lines up all the balls, as many as you can fit across, and you try to hit the ball progressively farther each time.

For example, the first ball travels 1/2 inch. Next ball goes 3/4 inch. Next 1 1/4, until you shoot all the balls. No cue ball, just hit the balls alone. If you don't travel farther that the previous ball, start over again. Shoot too far, and you make your job very difficult on the remaining balls.

BTW, this drill WORKS. After a few days you start to see major improvement in your speed control.
 
In addition to all of the above, I suggest you start using a mental power scale. 10 being the hardest. when you approach a shot you can tell yourself, ok insert name herethis is a 2.
 
Great stuff so far guys... thank you very much. Now I just have to have the discipline to execute them instead of just playin with the boys
 
Spread all of the balls across one half of the table, with no really bad clusters. Play one pocket, run as many as you can into your pocket. If you miss take the balls up and try again. Not only does it help your position play but it improve your one pocket game.

The other one I like to do is spread the balls all over the table and run as many as you can without hitting a rail. The toughest thing to do is, rack the balls, break them and try and run the rack without letting the cueball touch a rail. This has a lot of luck involved but its kinda fun.

I like these drills because I find they are actually useful.
 
Another thing to think about is that speed control is impossible if you're not cutting balls accurately. For a given angled shot, hit at the exact same speed, the cue ball's going to come out of the shot with a lot more speed if you hit the over-cut half of the pocket, vs. the under-cut half, vs. center of the pocket. It improved my speed control a lot when I started paying attention to what part of the pocket I'm aiming the object ball toward, because especially on shots where the object ball is close to the pocket, you can pocket the shot with a wide range of cut angles, which result in a wide range of exit speeds for the cue ball given the same entrance speed.

-Andrew
 
I don't feel that there are any specific drills for cueball control that are better then others. Cueball control is simply knowing where your cueball is going to stop and being able to control where it stops. Of course, when you have to factor in rails, other balls, english, etc. It can make it a little more tough. I find the best practice is to lay out 9 balls, and play them in order. I have learned to run racks of 9 ball consistently because seldomly in a rack of 9 do you have to shoot all 9. My practice is to run all 9 without missing, cueball control works itself in there.
 
Working on speed is imporant, but you may also want to take a look at your pattern play. Often times there is more than one way to play shape, choosing the way that gives your speed control the largest margin for error is critical to playing consistent pool.
 
Lagging exercises are not enough for learning speed control. Speed is also affected by the amount of the hit on the object ball. Additionally, sidespin/draw/follow can affect speed too. Woody said it best, "you may also want to take a look at your pattern play". If there IS more than one way to get shape on the next ball, take the way that is LESS affected by speed or spin. That's GOOD advice!
 
NineBallNut said:
Hey all, just wondering what you guys think the best drills are for getting your cue ball speed down. ... Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Sure. There are three drillls in each of five levels in the "progressive practice" drills in http://www.sfbilliards.com/basics.pdf starting on page 6. There is a log sheet there as well to record your progress. The drills are designed to always be challenging.
 
scottycoyote said:
cue-tech has a good drill. Basically you put the balls 1 thru 5 on the table on the long rail.....1 is the first corner pocket, 2 is 2nd diamond, 3 is the side pocket, 4 is 2 diamonds farther down 5 is the last corner pocket. Then you just take the cueball, and you say to yourself.......im going to shoot a 1, then you shoot the cue ball down table, against the far rail, back up table and you want it to stop as close to the cushion as possible (thats a 1, your basic lag). A 3 is the same thing except it comes off the rail and goes back down table and stops within a diamond on either side of the side pocket. A 5 would be downtable, backup to the head rail, and back down table to stop at the far cushion. So basically you call out the number to yourself and you stop the cueball within a diamond of that number. Just a short time with this drill and youd be surprised how good you can get stopping the cueball exactly where you want. Then from there you start lining up 2 balls directly in line and about a foot apart.........and you do the same thing except youre rolling the object ball to the position you want it to stop on the table. Do this for a couple minutes every day as part of your drills and your speed will get dialed in quick.
Click to expand...

Excellent description Scott...However, look at Mother Drill #5 again. The speed drill goes from 1 to 9...lag to break speed. :D

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
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