Favorite way to practice position play.

[puma122]

I like to break the balls. Then put a marble on the table for each shot and try to land right on it after every shot. The exercise of where to put the marble is nice in itself. Gets me thinking about the right side of the line to be on, and also the easiest way to get shape as it is not exactly easy to hit a little marble for me...

To practice lines off of a rail, I'll use a ball or two to contact. Move those balls around to play with different angles off the rail.

I've also used a napkin off of particular shots to land on. Either method, I think the key is to take the time in practice to think about EXACTLY what you want to do, and then practice doing it. I sometime catch myself running balls and thinking, yeah, over around there is where I want to be...Not a good practice in my opinion...

 

[sjm]

So far the 5 inch circle in the middle of the table has improved my speed tremendously.

That's wonderful news. Keep up the good work.

 

[boogieman]

I like to break the balls. Then put a marble on the table for each shot and try to land right on it after every shot. The exercise of where to put the marble is nice in itself. Gets me thinking about the right side of the line to be on, and also the easiest way to get shape as it is not exactly easy to hit a little marble for me...

To practice lines off of a rail, I'll use a ball or two to contact. Move those balls around to play with different angles off the rail.

I've also used a napkin off of particular shots to land on. Either method, I think the key is to take the time in practice to think about EXACTLY what you want to do, and then practice doing it. I sometime catch myself running balls and thinking, yeah, over around there is where I want to be...Not a good practice in my opinion...

I really like this marble idea. You could even make a game out of this, 1 point for each ball, 1 point (or more for marble contact) and extra points for the 9 ball. Practicing is better solo, but this could add an element of practice to actual games without slowing the pace much.

I really like the visual aspect of a marble, and it's a tiny target.

 

[puma122]

I really like this marble idea. You could even make a game out of this, 1 point for each ball, 1 point (or more for marble contact) and extra points for the 9 ball. Practicing is better solo, but this could add an element of practice to actual games without slowing the pace much.

I really like the visual aspect of a marble, and it's a tiny target.

Yes, a better player than me gave me this idea. Certainly focus's practice. Making a game out of it is a good idea too.

 

[bb9ball]

I like to break the balls. Then put a marble on the table for each shot and try to land right on it after every shot. The exercise of where to put the marble is nice in itself. Gets me thinking about the right side of the line to be on, and also the easiest way to get shape as it is not exactly easy to hit a little marble for me...

To practice lines off of a rail, I'll use a ball or two to contact. Move those balls around to play with different angles off the rail.

I've also used a napkin off of particular shots to land on. Either method, I think the key is to take the time in practice to think about EXACTLY what you want to do, and then practice doing it. I sometime catch myself running balls and thinking, yeah, over around there is where I want to be...Not a good practice in my opinion...

When I first started learning, a friend and I would use 1 ply of a bar napkin as a target and we would get a quarter if we could land the cue on the napkin. Having the visual target really helped me see the lines to the target better, or more precisely, I started too see that the path to my original target didn't exist. And, I agree that having a smaller target does help with learning better speed control.

Something else we did, is we would plan the other's shots. Sometimes we would "miss" options we didn't think about. It got me to consider all 6 pockets more often.

And, I think the last big improvement in my game, was playing the ghost and starting to plan the outs in reverse with ball in hand on each shot. It got me to recognize keeping an angle more often as well as more angle if I needed to move the cue more for the next shot, and, to start of the right side of the shot line.

 

[Protractor]

Would love to hear some of your favorite ways to practice position play.

I use this...

Playing Doppelganger (8-ball)

Rack the balls and break.
Analyze the table, pick the run out candidate.
Choose your pattern, working backwards from the 8 ball.
Follow "The Process" (shot/shape planning, PSR, pacing, mental/physical execution) to run out.
If there is no good way to run out, plan which balls to shoot, if any, before playing the safety.
If you run out, spot the 8 and run out the other suit.
If you didn't break and run, the Doppelganger gets his turn to work at running out, or hosing you with a safety.
Repeat until 'someone' wins.
If there are sufficient balls on the table after someone wins, or an interesting layout that resulted, spot the 8 and try running that out.
Otherwise, rack and start again.

Variations

1. If you failed to get your shape:
a) set up the shot and try again until you nail it, or,
b) adjust the pattern accordingly to run out, or,
c) play a safety

2. If you foul, the Doppelganger has the option of:
a) taking ball in hand, or,
b) shooting the interesting/challenging leave that resulted.

If you have a table situation where you want to make repeated attempts and it is going to bump balls, snap a pic with your phone first so you can set it up again.

While it is good to practice your B&R break, make sure to also use breaks that do not spread things out nicely while making a ball. Something to simulate what a dry breaker might hand you or if you make a ball after the break and are left with crap. Or something you might want to leave your strong opponent that would otherwise run our your nice spread if you break dry or miss.

I like this mode of practice better than the Ghost. In addition to practicing speed control, planning and achieving position, it brings the game experience into the practice session through safety play and being able to repeatedly set up a shot where you did not quite stick the landing and learn how to nail it. You can also get into some hellacious safety battles.

I only use drills to address weaknesses in technique or learn to shoot a troublesome kind of shot, which might involve obtaining a certain position but mostly trying different forms of draw, follow or english to see how it plays out.

 

[Poolmanis]

one of my favorite way is line up drill in order back and forth. It is not easy but if u start doing it can be really nice way to get on zone. easy balls and simple positional play but it is hard to do consistent way. my personal best is 317 balls in row and i got really on zone there and it took only little more than hour. spotting balls took like 15+ minutes from it also.

My English not the best so here is a link so one can see what i mean.

 

[couldnthinkof01]

Take 3 or 4 balls, throw them out randomly.
Take time to figure out the exact best pattern, reevaluate after each shot.
Simple, best percentage, least cueball movement, no tough shots, no reaching, etc. Pick angles so you don't have to work the cueball. Every shot should be a medium speed at most.
Video yourself doing this.
Really taking your time figuring out the patterns is mentally fatiguing in the beginning.
Quit as soon as you are not making 100% good decisions. Sometimes it will be only 10 min, cut your self slack. Do 4 sessions a week and analyze your videos at the end of the week. Was there a better way than the one you saw at the table?
After a month or 2 of this you will recognize the best patterns much quicker. Your cb control will be much more precise.
Ymmv

 

[marikian]

Great stuff everyone.