Comprehensive list of drills?

mareh said:
if you dont have fun, you wont improve!(thats what my instructor told me).
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What your instructor is really describing here is the difference between someone who is going to meet 1/3 or 1/2 of their potential versus the guys who reach over 75% of their potential. There is nobody in the upper echelons of anything who only had fun getting there. Every champion in every sport, every industry leading engineer, every top chef, etc. went through pains and trials that the rest of us aren't willing to endure.
 
I know , ive been there, have a bronze from world champs, but not billiards.
When you have the drive,focus, will, and you enjoy hard training you get there.
I am in my late 40s, my ambition is to play a good game.
I now i will never be the best. Its to late for that, but i enjoy a tough competition and a hard training.🫠
BR
 
Drdave obviously, as we can see.

Tor Lowry has tons of drills. Some of the best available. Covers almost everything. I spent a year and a half doing a 30-page booklet of full clock drills from every spot on the table. Invaluable stuff for a player getting back into the game after a 30-year absence.

The best high-level drills imo come from Niels Feijin. A series of drills he uses in the runup to Bert Kinister’s six-pointed star are tremendous for learning the whole table. Tip position, stroke training, speed training, ball placement - it’s all there. Great at teaching how to go above and below the side pockets to avoid scratching and getting position

Up and Down drill, Skillful Square, Terrific Three, Yo-Yo, Spot to Bottom, Knights Move. All of these are superb drills. Then do the Six Pointed Star.

Others that are very, very helpful are Being Centered, The Crossover, Stun Draw, Sneaky Spot Shots and Zone Training

EDIT:
I also bought and performed last year the Bulleye Billiards course that DrDave helped to develop. I thought it would be too simple for me, but I learned a ton. Biggest benefit was being able to see how just slightly different clock positions on the CB got you closer or further to your position for the next shot. Also helped a good deal to improve my speed control.
 
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I never quite saw why people look for specific drills, if you want to work on shots, setup whatever shots you want and play them 100 times. I think many drills are for show off points so people can say how good they can do one. The progressive drills that you can find on the Dr Dave site are great, because they are more for training and progress tracking to see how you do in specific major categories of shots. The books of drills with 100 various layouts are just the same 10 shots and skills setup in 10 different ways for each shot.

Need to work on the short game, setup balls close to a pocket and don't move the cueball much. Need a long game, setup 3 rail position shots. No need to diagram 20 variations of basically the same shot. I love the Bert Kinister instructional videos, but 80% of the video lengths seem like filler with shooting the same shot and moving things around a tiny bit.
 
hang-the-9 said:
I never quite saw why people look for specific drills, if you want to work on shots, setup whatever shots you want and play them 100 times. I think many drills are for show off points so people can say how good they can do one. The progressive drills that you can find on the Dr Dave site are great, because they are more for training and progress tracking to see how you do in specific major categories of shots. The books of drills with 100 various layouts are just the same 10 shots and skills setup in 10 different ways for each shot.
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Depends on the level of the player. Beginners don't know what they don't know. Even lots of intermediate players have sizable gaps in their games.

I am not interested in telling anyone how well I do any sort of drill btw. I am only interested in getting better as a player. Only reason I mentioned drills at all is because this specific thread asked about them.
hang-the-9 said:
Need to work on the short game, setup balls close to a pocket and don't move the cueball much. Need a long game, setup 3 rail position shots. No need to diagram 20 variations of basically the same shot. I love the Bert Kinister instructional videos, but 80% of the video lengths seem like filler with shooting the same shot and moving things around a tiny bit.
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I seek out drills to find out what I don't know. If I realize I already know what the drill is teaching, I stop quickly. I move on to something else.

I mentioned some of Niels Feijin's drills in an earlier post. All the ones I mentioned either taught me something I didn't know or gave me a framework to improve in areas where I was weak. I would not have come up with these drills on my own.
 
jbart65 said:
... I seek out drills to find out what I don't know. If I realize I already know what the drill is teaching, I stop quickly. I move on to something else. ...
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Do you have some example of drills that taught you something new?
 
Bob Jewett said:
Do you have some example of drills that taught you something new?
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Several of Feijin's drills - the Yo-Yo in particular - taught me how to go above (or below) the side pocket consistently and at what angles it was possible. Mainly on below-center shots with the OB on or close to the rail.

Before I did this drill, I could often sense when a side-pocket scratch might be in the offing. But I wasn't sure exactly how to avoid it. Now I am. Feijin's drills in general are good at teaching players how to avoid scratch routes.
 
dquarasr said:
(Yes, I searched but got so many irrelevant hits it was fairly useless.)

There are so many videos and books that suggest drills. Does anyone know of a comprehensive list of drills, a central place to go to work on specific topics?

If not, perhaps we can start one here? What do you all think? If it is successful, maybe we can make it a sticky. (Would it might be better on the Instructions sub-forum?)

What I would like to see is:

Title: (short descriptive title)
Description: (brief description)
Set Up: (how to set up the balls on the table). Ideally, this would be accompanied by an image such as chalkysticks drawing.
Continuation (Y/N): Y/N
Why This Drill: (this one is important - what does this drill teach, what is its main purpose and why do I need it?)
Target Result: (what should happen?)
Variations: (describe variations and what each variation teaches)
Attribution: (Optional, if known)

Examples:
Title: Mighty X
Description: Straight-in diagonal shot
Set Up: CB on 2,1 diamond, OB on opposite diagonally 2,1 diamond
Continuation (Y/N): Can be but traditionally is not
Why This Drill: Teaches perfectly straight cueing. Ensures alignment, vision centering, aiming, speed control, tip placement, etc. Great for honing fundamentals.
Target Result: pocket the OB with zero movement of the CB after contact with the OB
Variations: 1 - Stop shot, no movement of the CB; 2 - Follow directly into the same pocket as the OB; 3 - Draw directly into the opposite pocket as the OB.
Attribution: Bert Kinister

Title: Speed Control
Description: progressively send balls *just* a bit farther than the previous shot
Set Up: line up a number of balls (say, 10) across the first diamond off the foot string
Continuation (Y/N): N
Why This Drill: to learn shot speed control
Target Result: first ball shot stops 1/2 diamond from starting position; second ball stops just past first shot, ideally within a 1/2 diamond of the previous ball; third shot stops just past previous shot; and so on
Variations: 1 - balls shot land *just* past the previous shot; 2 - balls land *exactly* 1/2 diamond farther than the previous shot; 3 - Advanced: shoot each ball off the far cushion and have each subsequent ball land just past the previous ball
Attribution: I believe I first saw this suggested by Bob Jewett but I could be wrong
Standard Variation:
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Do you have enough yet?
 
Video yourself for 10 racks in whatever game you compete in, find where you f-up. Repeat those shots until they are 9/10. Repeat
 
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