"Deska Drills" - center ball (vertical axis) is your friend

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Williebetmore

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For those who don't know, Ed Deska visited Betmore's Basement a week or so ago for some straight pool. Ed is an aerospace engineer, who has gambled at pool most of his life, against some of the best players on the east coast. He has tremendous stories of his match-ups with Johnny Ervolino, Jimmy Fusco, Allen Hopkins, Grady Mathews, Steve Mizerak.....the list goes on and on. He is also a TRUE student of the game, and straight pool afficionado; I am positive that sjm would afford Ed "old school" status.

During our session, Ed was kind enough to analyze my game, and offer lots of tips and insight. One thing we discussed at length was control of whitey, and improving predictability of your paths and patterns. Of course, the key is mastering the vertical axis (we'll call it center ball, but that includes draw and follow; just no side spin). Ed reports in his early days learning to play with nothing but follow; and reaching a high level before he could even draw the cue ball with even a crude level of control. He did it with mostly center ball.

He noted that my directional control was not highly developed; and here are 3 drills he gave me to improve my control. NO SIDE ENGLISH to be used in these drills. Enjoy.

There are 3 pages you must click on the page number button a couple of times up, then down to get page 1 to appear.

CueTable Help

 
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For some reason, sometimes the embedded cuetable diagrams work, sometimes they show up blank, and sometimes they are blank until you click on them a few times, then they work fine. I have NO idea how to fix it; but I think Wei has a few ideas. I'll fix it if I can.

The first diagram seems to be blank, but if you click the page number, it will show you the second and third page; when you then click down, the first page will magically appear. I'm confused.
 
Thanks Don. I really like your first drill. I never focused on directional drills before - I always assumed I knew where I was going. I bet I don't, after seeing that. I CAN'T WAIT TO PRACTICE THAT - thanks a lot!

Clarification on ball position. Is the CB and 1st ball lined up to about 1 ball width to the left of the side pocket, or is it the left tit?

Dave
 
Trying the second diagram again.

Here is another drill Ed showed me; but I had seen before. I always just took ball in hand for each shot, but he plays it as a position drill where you touch whitey only 1 time (first ball), playing for position on each subsequent shot. Use only center ball, NO SIDE ENGLISH.

During straight pool league season, I shoot this daily; giving myself a comfortable angle on each shot, and a comfortable bridge on the rail. Shoot 11 cutting to the right, and 11 cutting to the left. Then put whitey frozen to the rail (or within 1/4 inch depending on your desires) and shoot another 22 this way. It's great practice for straight pool, because the majority of safety battles will end with a shot like these.

My dad's degenerate pool gambling buddies claim Willie Mosconi would bet he could do the entire line in less than a minute (ball-in-hand only for the first shot); and routinely did it in less than 30 seconds. He was good.

CueTable Help

 
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SpiderWebComm said:
Thanks Don. I really like your first drill. I never focused on directional drills before - I always assumed I knew where I was going. I bet I don't, after seeing that. I CAN'T WAIT TO PRACTICE THAT - thanks a lot!

Clarification on ball position. Is the CB and 1st ball lined up to about 1 ball width to the left of the side pocket, or is it the left tit?

Dave
Click to expand...

SWC,
If you are talking about the second drill (which of course is the first one you can see by clicking on the diagram) where you shoot the 1 ball in the side pocket; the cue ball and the one ball are centered on the line connecting the points on the 2 side pockets; just a very slight cut, with definite room to cheat the pocket as you wish.



For a player of your caliber though, I would definitely recommend NOT cheating the pocket - use the exact same aim each time. I would also use a chalk cube for a target, sitting on the playing surface by each diamond - it's too easy using an object ball for a target.

The cuetable problems are a real headache; I'm about ready to go back to the old version.
 

CueTable Help



Dear all:
You might want to keep out of any special punctuation marks in the text boxes for now. I will look into the problems.

Thanks for your patience :)
 
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cuetable said:
Dear all:
You might want to keep out of any special punctuation marks in the text boxes for now. I will look into the problems.

Thanks for your patience :)
Click to expand...

Wei,
I eliminated most of the text from the second diagram; and the diagram shows up now just fine. Thanks for your help.

Let us know if there are limits to the amount of text; or if there are "poisoned" characters we should avoid using. We all appreciate your efforts, it is a great tool.
 
These are extremely well-known drills, and I have long demanded that my students master the first two of them. Drill two is sometimes referred to as "the wagon wheel."

Incidentally, I would argue that these drills are every bit as important for the nine-ball enthusiast.

Sounds like you hooked up with right guy, Willie. I saw Eddie play on a few occasions in his prime, and he's the real deal, an old schooler in every sense.
 
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sjm said:
These are extremely well-known drills, and I have long demanded that my students master the first two of them.
sjm,
I found it very interesting how quickly improvement comes with these drills. I've spent about 2 years working almost exclusively on developing a precise, repeatable stroke; but really wasn't aware of how that precision is supposed to be used.

Your "wagon wheel" drill really surprised me at first. I can follow, draw, and stun a ball easily; and I guess I always figured there was a shot or two inbetween these angles. The "wagon wheel" though turns out to have a large number of slight variations on the theme. At first I thought the gradations were so numerous as to be impossible to achieve. After just a few sessions it is a LOT easier (and definitely possible) - I'm seeing where precision in vertical axis striking is a valuable tool - my idea of what is possible with position routes has expanded considerably since I started.

My question is; do you recommend the drill at soft speed AND firm speed? Right now I am doing it at whatever speed gets whitey to rest against the rail at the target. If I hit it firmer; that will require a different striking point on the vertical axis. Same question for the first drill as well. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Williebetmore said:
... My question is; do you recommend the (wagonwheel) drill at soft speed AND firm speed? Right now I am doing it at whatever speed gets whitey to rest against the rail at the target. If I hit it firmer; that will require a different striking point on the vertical axis. Same question for the first drill as well. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Assuming that you are trying to put the object ball in the center of the pocket and take the cue ball a certain distance, you will have no choice on speed for most of these shots.
 
Don,

Thanks for sharing the drills that Ed showed you. I have been working on these for a couple of days now. It is amazing how much I one can do with the cue ball without ever getting off the vertical axis.

Something that I try to focus on anyways, it sure makes shotmaking more predictable. Hope that I can get these down so I can be a bit sharper next time we get to match up.

I am really enjoying the 14.1. I have had several runs very very close to 50 but have not gotten there yet. It will happen when I am ready.

Peace, JBK
 
Is there a way to print these? When I do page preview, the tables don't appear.
 
FWIW, I tried one of these yesterday, found a couple of 'trouble' shots. Worked on 'em, feel better, thanks.

-s
 
Bob Jewett said:
Assuming that you are trying to put the object ball in the center of the pocket and take the cue ball a certain distance, you will have no choice on speed for most of these shots.
Click to expand...

BJ,
I meant different speeds to move the cue ball to a different place. The drill was designed to have whitey rest on the rail by each target; but wouldn't it be nice to have whitey bounce off the rail or stop short of the rail - such shots would require a different combination of cue speed and striking point on the vertical axis (as I KNOW you are aware - your progressive drill philosophy is stellar). Do you use similar drills in your instruction?
 
I am just an 8-Ball bar banger however when I do get to a pool room to work on my game the wagon wheel is one of the first drills I do. I also work on a variation of it where I remove the 2 through 6 balls and try to hit the 7,8,and 9 with just follow. This helps me work on speed and gives me another option for paths to get the shape I need.
Sometimes it is difficult to draw the ball because you are jacked up or the q-ball in a bar is the size and weight of a VW bug.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Andy
 
Williebetmore said:
... Do you use similar drills in your instruction?
Click to expand...
Yes, but with what you might call a 2-dimensional target rather than the 1-dimensional targets of the "wagon wheel" practice. I think I've described it before on AZB, but I don't remember where. It is:

Set up an easy shot, as above. Choose a random spot on the table. Send the cue ball to that spot. To choose the random spot to a precision of 1/3 diamond, draw two cards from a normal deck. Stand by a side pocket. The first gives how many 1/3-diamonds you count across the table. (There are 13 such spots across the table.) The second card gives how many 1/3-diamonds to count to the left or right. Count to the left for a red card. Put the two cards on the spot to mark it. (If you have the exact shot above -- nearly straight into the side pocket -- you can restrict the spot to the appropriate end of the table by counting only in that direction regardless of the color of the second card.)

To extend this further, see if you can get to the selected spot with 0, 1, 2 or 3 cushions. Some of these might not be possible.

Another extension is to also select the spot for the object ball randomly and take cue ball in hand. In this case, you should nearly always be able to find paths with 0 to 2 or 3 cushions to the target position.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Yes, but with what you might call a 2-dimensional target rather than the 1-dimensional targets of the "wagon wheel" practice. I think I've described it before on AZB.....
Click to expand...

Bob,
Yes, I now remember that you have described such a drill before (though it was a while ago, and my stroke was still pathetic so I just kept working on the stroke). I like your variation very much, and will incorporate it.

Many thanks for your input; the true students of the game really appreciate not only your participation on the forum; but also your efforts in promoting straight pool.

P.S. - I remember looking at the "sfbilliards" site several years ago, and being really impressed by the progressive drills. Now that I am going to start with some drills (my stroke is at an adequate level of mediocrity) I will have to check them out again. I have found that the more tedious and difficult a drill is; the more it seems to help me if I force myself to keep at it and master it.....go figure.
 
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