Cue ball control drills

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dimeshooter

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have made a decision to work hard on my cue ball control. I am looking for a drill or drills that will help me improve on the following:
- picking a fairly precise spot for the cue ball to go
- staying on the correct side my next ball
- thinking a couple balls a head of my current shot
- improve cue ball control for a variety of shots, angles, and distances

I know playing more rotation will help, but I am hoping to find some drills too.
 
Deleted... Posted from phone and did not realize I was in the instructors section.
 
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dimeshooter...If it were me, the first thing I'd want to know, is whether my stroke is accurate and repeatable...or not (only video analysis will give you a true answer). You can drill to death, but if your stroke is not consistent, you will still have the same problems you list below...especially under the pressure of competition.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

dimeshooter said:
I have made a decision to work hard on my cue ball control. I am looking for a drill or drills that will help me improve on the following:
- picking a fairly precise spot for the cue ball to go
- staying on the correct side my next ball
- thinking a couple balls a head of my current shot
- improve cue ball control for a variety of shots, angles, and distances

I know playing more rotation will help, but I am hoping to find some drills too.
Click to expand...
 
dimeshooter said:
I have made a decision to work hard on my cue ball control. I am looking for a drill or drills that will help me improve on the following:
- picking a fairly precise spot for the cue ball to go
- staying on the correct side my next ball
- thinking a couple balls a head of my current shot
- improve cue ball control for a variety of shots, angles, and distances

I know playing more rotation will help, but I am hoping to find some drills too.
Click to expand...

The stroke controls the cue ball. Stroke drills then Tangent Line drills are the way to go.

randyg
 
dimeshooter said:
...
I know playing more rotation will help, but I am hoping to find some drills too.
Click to expand...
There are some drills here: http://www.sfbilliards.com/basics.pdf

And some other drills scattered through these articles:
http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/BD_articles.html

And there are a bunch of drills available for free on Dr. Dave's site: http://billiards.colostate.edu/resources/index.html

He also offers a 5-DVD set of drills that it would be very nice if you bought because I get some money from them. On the other hand, the free stuff above will probably keep you busy for a long time.
 
A lot of what you want to achieve will become much easier once you have gotten control of the cue ball speed. You need to master two things - Cue ball speed control and Object ball speed control.

In my books, I divide speed control into Soft 1, 2, 3, and Medium 1, 2, 3 as primary speed to master. (Soft 1 is basically a cross-side stroke with the cue ball resting within an inch of the rail. Soft 2 is 1-1/2 (to stop on the center line). Stop 3 is a cross side lag shot. Medium 1 is a long table lag, 2 is lag + half table, and Medium 3 is three times back and forth.)

For the cue ball control, you need to get the cue ball to consistently rest within an inch (plus/minus) of your target (rails or other balls).

For object ball control, place an object ball one diamond directly in front of the cue ball. Shoot the object ball to die within an inch of your target. When that gets easy, come into the object ball from an angle.

Believe me - this will be a painful process. The exercises are progressive, which starts at easy and gets more difficult. If you get bored, you can add complexity, i.e., three or four or five rails got higher speeds, or inches for little taps.

Regardless of how far you take CB and OB speed control (general to obsessive), none of the effort will be wasted and your game will improve. Owning your own speed will be a major skill improvement.
 
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I learned a game a long time ago that helped me alot. It was shooting shots while trying to land the CB on a playing card.

I would start with an easy shot and mark it with chalk so it would be exactly the same for every attempt. This is important because, as we all know, the smallest deviation of the balls can change the shot entirely.

The card can go anywhere on the table. Sometimes place it somewhere specific, sometimes just toss it out.

Once I was satisfied and hit it every way possible, I'd move the card.

Finally, if time permitted, I'd try something different. A good stroke test is to shoot the very same shot from the other side of the table.

Years ago, you'd see something like this going on in alot of pool rooms. Guys even gambled at it. To this day, I keep a Joker in my case.

Eventually, Kim Davenport came out with a game called Target Pool which is the same general idea but this one's basically free. :thumbup2:
 
I have a great set of drills I enjoy doing and I use them all on somewhat of a rotational basis. Yet, I haven't come across a drill that I view as being top-notch for position play (my weakest area). I'm going to have to add the Wagon Wheel into my routine and plan to work on it every day of practice. This drill really looks legit! Thanks guys.
 
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