Easiest Drill

strmanglr scott

All about Focus
Silver Member
Throw all the balls on the table.

Balls cannot be tied up-no clusters.

Ball in hand to start each table reset.

Shoot any ball, call pock

Run 15, throw em back out, bih.

How many can you run in a row?


I know many of you play 14.1, post that number, try the drill, let me know.

Can you run balls endlessly?

I started doing this drill because I felt the biggest problem I face is focus and wanted to develop a concrete routine. So, I do this drill v conscious of my aim pts and routine.

I figure when I get up to 200 I'll start playing the next drill of this. Which is call 2nd shot.

I'm sure like most drills I think of they have been done before, what do you think, what can you do?

I'm at a lowly number, so I'll get back to you w that.
 
I doubt you'll ever reach 200 w/out knowing 2nd shot throughout, but maybe.....

lots of good drills out there.... hope you reach your goal!

td
 
I like 5ball rotation, small&quick anything like the op is suggesting would make me bored and get lazy.
 
I doubt you'll ever reach 200 w/out knowing 2nd shot throughout, but maybe.....

lots of good drills out there.... hope you reach your goal!

td

V true, or know multiples. But there is a huge difference. 2nd shot one, you gotta get your leave pretty spot on.
 
By that your saying you can run balls endlessly?

By that I'm saying I get bored! I have a short attention span! I need quick results for a short period of time rather than a slow result over long. But some reason I can only do the same drill for 15min or so before I change it, I do this for a few hours every day if time allows. Any longer than 15min spent I'm not giving it my all. To me I practice as real to life as I can, most races are 6-7 games and so every new game I get to reset my focus. Practicing the same thing for a long time of any game just doesn't work for ME! No debates, no chip on my shoulder, it's just not for me!
 
By that I'm saying I get bored! I have a short attention span! I need quick results for a short period of time rather than a slow result over long. But some reason I can only do the same drill for 15min or so before I change it, I do this for a few hours every day if time allows. Any longer than 15min spent I'm not giving it my all. To me I practice as real to life as I can, most races are 6-7 games and so every new game I get to reset my focus. Practicing the same thing for a long time of any game just doesn't work for ME! No debates, no chip on my shoulder, it's just not for me!

Not trying to disrespect.

I understand your perspective. I can play against myself or a ghost for 90-120 minutes. But I do better when I practice my league game, eight ball, 3 games, then switch to a drill for 10-15 min, then back to 8 and so on.

This is a test of continuous focus.
 
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Lol, gonna bump my thread.

Object is always in pool, put balls in, in a row. That's why I play it so much when I don't have someone to play against.

Throw some off the cuff numbers. I'm not gonna dog you on it.
 
Throw all the balls on the table.

Balls cannot be tied up-no clusters.

Ball in hand to start each table reset.

Shoot any ball, call pock

Run 15, throw em back out, bih.

How many can you run in a row?

This is exactly what I used to do to get in stroke. When I was 22 I ran 300 a few times doing this, without a miss, and then quit.

For me, at least, there's no better drill to get in stroke than to just put all 15 balls on the table, open, and run them in any order.
 
A cool variation of this drill is to use 10 balls and score it like bowling. Difference is you break and then take ball in hand, so you get clusters.
 
This is exactly what I used to do to get in stroke. When I was 22 I ran 300 a few times doing this, without a miss, and then quit.

For me, at least, there's no better drill to get in stroke than to just put all 15 balls on the table, open, and run them in any order.

Nice, that's huge
 
I used to do the 15 ball toss out. Only problem I found was after my run increased, I started shooting the cripples to save my run. At that point I got less practice on the difficult shots with which I really needed practice.
 
Throw the ball in the table, you get ball in hand, pocket as much as you can without the cue ball hitting an object ball other than the ball you're shooting at.
 
15 balls on row middle of table evenly spaced long ways. Start with ball in hand and try run all balls without cueball touching others. It is actually really easy drill and put you in the stroke. I know one Finnish player made over 1000 balls without a miss(He is 14.1 machine btw.). After some time if you feel it is too easy try run from another end to another no order. I normally do that if I try get easy flow.
 
I just tried the OP's drill. All of my results are below. That was fun. I will do more of it, thanks. It definitely takes lots of concentration, and picking the balls off in a good order. For reference, my straight pool high run is 30, and my 9 ball ghost best score is win 7-3.

7
34
6
28
4
47
34
86
 
When I was practicing for 9-ball I'd throw three balls on the table and shoot them in rotation, BUT I had to have a game plan in advance and stick to it - pocket, and set-up position - or it didn't count. Then after running a few of those, I add two, and two, and two, until I have all 9 on the table.

While I do practice tough shots that I miss more regularly, I feel envisioning a game-plan of running out the table, before I ever take a shot, to be very helpful. Makes the practice more purposeful. Sometimes if I improvise, ball-to-ball, I get too fancy... though it's good to have those shots on-hand when the need arises.

On that point, another one I do is try to get position, using only follow, center, or draw. Sometimes for me, the obvious simple position shot is dumped in favor of the "hero" shot, which is often unnecessary.
 
When I was practicing for 9-ball I'd throw three balls on the table and shoot them in rotation, BUT I had to have a game plan in advance and stick to it - pocket, and set-up position - or it didn't count. Then after running a few of those, I add two, and two, and two, until I have all 9 on the table.

While I do practice tough shots that I miss more regularly, I feel envisioning a game-plan of running out the table, before I ever take a shot, to be very helpful. Makes the practice more purposeful. Sometimes if I improvise, ball-to-ball, I get too fancy... though it's good to have those shots on-hand when the need arises.

On that point, another one I do is try to get position, using only follow, center, or draw. Sometimes for me, the obvious simple position shot is dumped in favor of the "hero" shot, which is often unnecessary.

I've been doing this with 3 balls. I personally find even a 3 ball rotation "runout" more challenging and more educational. I still do each. Please try the15 ball drill in its basic form, and let me know your opinion. Thanks! :thumbup:

I lose interest in redundancy.
 
Throw all the balls on the table.

Balls cannot be tied up-no clusters.

Ball in hand to start each table reset.

Shoot any ball, call pock

Run 15, throw em back out, bih.

How many can you run in a row?

7,000. That was my average when I did this exercise many years ago.


I know many of you play 14.1, post that number, try the drill, let me know.

This drill does not affect my 14.1 number as it does not involve any of the critical 14.1 skills.

Can you run balls endlessly?

Yes. I can run balls until I physically can no longer stand up. Been there, done that. Did not improve my game at all. Throwing a bunch of easy shots out there and shooting them off is not developing any skills. You are just getting exercise.
 
I've been doing this with 3 balls. I personally find even a 3 ball rotation "runout" more challenging and more educational. I still do each. Please try the15 ball drill in its basic form, and let me know your opinion. Thanks! :thumbup:

I lose interest in redundancy.

There's nothing more redundant than shooting balls endlessly. I'll go to a table, dump the balls off the tray, and shoot them all, then throw all the balls back on the table and do it again. After two times, it gets boring for me, Great for loosening up, but you'll fall into a pattern - a pattern you won't see had you broken a rack. That said, I always work outside to in, pocketing all balls along the rails blocking other balls first, then hit the rest of the balls along the rails, then any ball in the middle blocking another ball or balls in, etc. Some people do it the other way around, but I try to avoid a half-pocket shot whenever I can.

To note, I do NOT do the three-ball-drill with ball in hand. I throw the cue ball randomly on the table as well. That's a little more realistic to what you'd see when you get back on the table in a game of 9-ball. Whether you're snookered, have a long bank, thin cut all the way down the long rail, off-angle kick, etc., and you make the shot AND get some kind of shape on the next ball, that's when you can turn the table around in a real game.

I'm not a great player, but I feel I'm a good shot and definitely better then my friends I play with. Even then, they have the ability to cut a ball, make a rail shot, even bank a few. Sometimes better than me. The difference is I can play position pretty well, so I rarely have an "impossible" shot for a next shot.
 
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