TravisSides
New member
Going to start practicing more often soon. So what are some good drills and games to practice?
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Drills and games
- Thread starter TravisSides
- Start date
I think this is a good run out practice game for 8 ball.
After practicing your break-shot take the CB in hand.
http://sites.google.com/site/poolandbilliard/Home/fast-8
Pick a ball group and run out, avoiding blocking balls.
If you pocket a break ball choose the other ball group.
.
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Roughly what level is your game? For example, if you play 20 games of eight ball or nine ball, how many times do you run out?
Practise your weaknesses. To become a better player you have to be honest with yourself.
There are several categories I would consider practising drills for.
Position
Safety
Potting
Speed control
Fundamentals
Escaping safeties (kicking and jumping)
The break
I order them in order of weakness so for me they would be
1 the break
2 escaping safeties... Especially jumping
3 safety
4 speed control
5 potting
6 position
7 fundamentals
1 is what I need to work on the most so I dedicate more drills to that area. 7 is what I least need to practise so I don't devote as much drill time to it. You have to be completely honest with your own order. Without the honesty you won't improve much. The best guys in the world are excellent at all the above. You will never see a top pool player with a weak part of their game.... They would be considered amateurs otherwise.
Once you let us know, as Bob said, your skill level then rank the above sections in order of weakness then people can't start to give you specific drills that you can make the most of.
There are several categories I would consider practising drills for.
Position
Safety
Potting
Speed control
Fundamentals
Escaping safeties (kicking and jumping)
The break
I order them in order of weakness so for me they would be
1 the break
2 escaping safeties... Especially jumping
3 safety
4 speed control
5 potting
6 position
7 fundamentals
1 is what I need to work on the most so I dedicate more drills to that area. 7 is what I least need to practise so I don't devote as much drill time to it. You have to be completely honest with your own order. Without the honesty you won't improve much. The best guys in the world are excellent at all the above. You will never see a top pool player with a weak part of their game.... They would be considered amateurs otherwise.
Once you let us know, as Bob said, your skill level then rank the above sections in order of weakness then people can't start to give you specific drills that you can make the most of.
TravisSides
New member
Maybe 6-7, in eightball and 8-9 in nine ball. I can make shots but controlling the cue ball is the weakest part of my game. My runs normally end when I've left myself too bad to make anything.
So I'd rank mine
1 position
2 breaking
3 safeties
4 speed control
5 escaping safeties
6 fundamentals
7 shot making.
So I'd rank mine
1 position
2 breaking
3 safeties
4 speed control
5 escaping safeties
6 fundamentals
7 shot making.
Here are over a dozen drills from The Drill Instructor, with many more posted on my site and his.
Here's what I would do if I were you:
GET ORGANIZED
First take a few weeks and play against other players and PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR MISTAKES.
Learn exactly where your weaknesses are and get as specific as you can about them. Look for patterns in your errors. Are you missing shots left to right or right to left? Are you having trouble with cut shots at a particular angle? Do you miss position at the same point in every game? WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN.
Do not rush this process and jump on the practice table. You have to get a handle on who exactly you are on the table, and the best way to do that is to play other players where you don't have a second chance to shoot a shot like you do in practice.
You will find that patterns in your errors will emerge. That's what you really want to look for in your game.
I see you made a list of your issues. That's a good start. But it's not enough to get you better. You have to get specific. Once you can get specific, you can really zero in on your errors, AND THAT'S WHEN YOU CAN TAKE THEM TO THE PRACTICE TABLE. Otherwise you're just spinning your wheels doing drills that either you may not be ready for or may not apply specifically enough to your issues.
Ok so the next step, as Fran has said is to break your game up even further.
Position is your weakest section... So break it down even further... What exactly is it about position that you struggle with? Do you struggle with recognising patterns, executing them, and so on. Only you can answer this. Put some real thought into it and try to remember back to past games and shots you have messed up position on and think why did I mess it up?
Once you start to notice why you struggle with position the users on here can offer you specific drills that will improve your weak spots at a much faster rate than just doing generic drills.