Is speed 9 ball a usefull training aid?

J

judochoke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
practiced some speed 9 ball yesterday pretty much for the first time. Just threw out 9 random balls, and started playing rotation. I could only do a quick glance at my route and position zone, and then shoot. Then on to the next ball. Had some luck just bending down and quickly finding my angle and just shooting. I did find out that I missed shots because of going so fast. (I’m a very methodical player, always taking my time to shoot). But I could always see the pocket line that I wanted to hit quickly.

only spent 30 minutes on this DRILL, and at the end I was sweating😎 from walking so fast around the table.

useful drill or not??
 
Speed should always be tackled from the ground up. Crawl before you walk before you run. This is probably true of all disciplines involving humans. Anyway, don't spend too much time trying to go fast. You'll mostly waste valuable minutes of improvement. You can go fast to establish some parameters but don't make it a pursuit until you can do it slow.
 
judochoke said:
practiced some speed 9 ball yesterday pretty much for the first time. Just threw out 9 random balls, and started playing rotation. I could only do a quick glance at my route and position zone, and then shoot. Then on to the next ball. Had some luck just bending down and quickly finding my angle and just shooting. I did find out that I missed shots because of going so fast. (I’m a very methodical player, always taking my time to shoot). But I could always see the pocket line that I wanted to hit quickly.

only spent 30 minutes on this DRILL, and at the end I was sweating😎 from walking so fast around the table.

useful drill or not??
Click to expand...
why ask others? only you know if it helps.
 
judochoke said:
practiced some speed 9 ball yesterday pretty much for the first time. Just threw out 9 random balls, and started playing rotation. I could only do a quick glance at my route and position zone, and then shoot. Then on to the next ball. Had some luck just bending down and quickly finding my angle and just shooting. I did find out that I missed shots because of going so fast. (I’m a very methodical player, always taking my time to shoot). But I could always see the pocket line that I wanted to hit quickly.

only spent 30 minutes on this DRILL, and at the end I was sweating😎 from walking so fast around the table.

useful drill or not??
Click to expand...
What did you think?
 
judochoke said:
practiced some speed 9 ball yesterday pretty much for the first time. Just threw out 9 random balls, and started playing rotation. I could only do a quick glance at my route and position zone, and then shoot. Then on to the next ball. Had some luck just bending down and quickly finding my angle and just shooting. I did find out that I missed shots because of going so fast. (I’m a very methodical player, always taking my time to shoot). But I could always see the pocket line that I wanted to hit quickly.

only spent 30 minutes on this DRILL, and at the end I was sweating😎 from walking so fast around the table.

useful drill or not??
Click to expand...
It might be decent to build endurance but in reality I think it could be an easy way to get into very bad habits. Stuff like jumping up before your shot is done to go onto the next one, etc.

EDIT: You'd probably be better off putting a treadmill next to the table and jogging on it between rounds. This could help you get to where you can slow your heart rate and might simulate stress in a tournament setting. Or maybe not, but some exercise is great for all aspects of life, especially as you get older.
 
garzar is right.

I imagine a sprinkling of playing like this can be helpful to most players. Even if all you're doing is reminding yourself how powerful your brain can be if you get out of its way. I'm pretty methodical too, and just flying through racks like this can be a great way to clear my mind and point out the shots I really need to work on. It's really easy to lie to ourselves and conclude we miss because of X when it's actually Y.

Worst part of playing like this is you're reinforcing moving on the shot.
 
Try it with a nice steady rhythm and you'll get more results. I used to put all 15 up and played various positional shots and played position on the last ball. I then put up the potted balls and continued over and over till I reached the desired amount of potted balls. It helped with position,potting and rhythm.
 
Judo, I think it could be a useful to do now and again.

There is a range of tight vs loose. Some players play way too loose and speed up and become reckless under pressure. Others slow down and become agonizingly slow and overly cautious under pressure. As a more deliberate and analytical player I rarely get too loose but do struggle from getting too careful. I can make mountains out of a molehill, or worse yet I start thinking too much about how I'm doing what I'm doing and become too mechanical.

The benefit of playing some faster pool is that it can show you how many of those seconds we are trimming weren't serving a useful function. Even if we play worse as a result it can shed some light on where we break down.

A great parallel for this is 'getting down and shooting without any practice strokes' test. If you're struggling with a certain shot you are practicing it is easier to work harder and harder to make it. Stare at it, get down, adjust, get up, get back down, adjust, adjust, miss, try to figure out why, then make even more adjustments next shot. Ug. This just doesn't work. I use the analogy of the old radios that had two dials to adjust the station needle; the big dial to move the needle quickly and the little dial to fine tune. Similarly our big dial is addressing the ball and making it standing up. The little dial is fine tuning a little after we're down on the shot. When we struggle we can too often use FAR too much fine tuning down on the shot. So by taking out any practice strokes and just dropping down on the shot and firing we get to see how we are actually dropping on the balll without adjustments, and improve our ability to get on the ball correctly. When I've tried this a lot of the time I was actually getting on the ball correctly and just second guessing myself too much, but other times I've learned some things by doing this about how I get on the shot I would never have learned trying to compenstate for a faulty big dial by overworking the little dial.

In short, by taking the grinding and second guessing out of every part of your game you get a view of what your default game looks like, your game without a lot of manual correcting. I think it shows a lot about your patterns, cue ball, and how well you are getting down on the balls naturally. One goal of our practice would be to improve our game so that the default reflexive game is cleaner.

Of course the vast majority of our time we should practice the way we want to compete, and taking the time needed to be decisive and effective with our shot selections and really connect with every shot is crictical. But yes, I do think there is value in seeing what your game looks like minus the grind now and again.
 
Some really good replies here. Basement Dweller and George had some great points.

I have played a bit with a 30 second shot clock which felt uncomfortably quick under pressure. What helped me was to establish my three checkpoints: 1) Decision (make up my mind, picture the shot I want, pre-shot routine, deep breath, air stroke, whatever), 2) Pause at cue ball at the end of my practice strokes as I connect with the shot, 3) Smooth start to my stroke.

This sounds too mechanical but I call it 'the waltz', because I think of it more as a 1-2-3 dance rhythm. Decide/connect/breath, practice strokes come to a pause, smooth stroke. Repeat. Repeat. I focus on the rhythm more than a to do list.

As for 30 seconds, for me where there was too much dead time was the deciding. I could spend a lot of time here thinking of different options and picking lint. What I learned is that I have 5-10 seconds to pick a shot, and as long as I pick a shot within that time frame I have plenty of time to complete the shot. In other words I don't have to speed everything up, I just have to speed up the picking a shot part, the rest can feel natural speed.

That is how Ralf Soquet and all of these guys play on a 30 second clock and look totally relaxed and even deliberate. They don't even rush their shot selection, they'll walk around and look at an angle, and they'll walk slowly and calmly. But you won't see them come to a standstill and stare either. It's just calmly look and decide, connect, stroke. 1, 2, 3. Very smooth.

So I agree that practicing quick can be beneficial, but we can speed things out by cutting out dead weight around decision making (and experimentally by cutting out some of the grind from our practice strokes). We don't want to rush our swings or add a bunch of nervous energy. Smooth, rhythmic, decisive, confident, natural. Roleplay like you were 100% confident in your natural game and play smoothly. I think this is spot on.
 
I'm a pretty fast player. Being fast and shooting quickly do not mean that a person is jumping up in the shot.

The brain loves changing things up. If you never change anything, the brain gets bored and goes on autopilot.

I've never understood the mid-level players who take fifteen practice strokes. I've seen plenty take great practice strokes then move all over when they finally take the real stroke. What have they learned? Probably the same things that get repeated all the time, pre-shot routine, pause before shooting, take your time, concentrate, etc.. Obviously the fifteen practice strokes are part of all of this for them, but they haven't improved in ages. Why wouldn't these people try something like quickening the pace?

Compare pool to other games. Hockey, basketball, football, etc., all of these require precision, arguably as much as pool. How many seconds does Steph Curry get to make a three? Does Mahomes take fifteen practice swings before he lands a pass in the hands of a receiver who doesn't even break stride?

The reality is that only one stroke in the shot matters. Thinking you need to be slow or 'methodical' may be getting in your way more than it is helping.

By the by, I can't stand to watch pool mostly because of the glacial pace. I can watch snooker because most of the best snooker players actually shoot at a reasonable pace.

After all that, if what you are describing as 'speed' pool means you are jumping up and running around the table like a monkey and waiting for the cueball to stop so you can hit it instantly...that is not helpful.
 
Works for Mohammad Soufi, probably the fastest-shooting good player (778 FargoRate) in the world. He’s fun to watch:

 
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judochoke said:
practiced some speed 9 ball yesterday pretty much for the first time. Just threw out 9 random balls, and started playing rotation. I could only do a quick glance at my route and position zone, and then shoot. Then on to the next ball. Had some luck just bending down and quickly finding my angle and just shooting. I did find out that I missed shots because of going so fast. (I’m a very methodical player, always taking my time to shoot). But I could always see the pocket line that I wanted to hit quickly.

only spent 30 minutes on this DRILL, and at the end I was sweating😎 from walking so fast around the table.

useful drill or not??
Click to expand...
sure, if you have more time try it with your eyes closed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
 
What are your weaknesses? Does this address one of them? Do you agonize over how to play shots, taking three minutes to finally decide and then go at the shot indecisively and with your mind cluttered? Try video recording your matches in competition.
 
judochoke said:
practiced some speed 9 ball yesterday pretty much for the first time. Just threw out 9 random balls, and started playing rotation. I could only do a quick glance at my route and position zone, and then shoot. Then on to the next ball. Had some luck just bending down and quickly finding my angle and just shooting. I did find out that I missed shots because of going so fast. (I’m a very methodical player, always taking my time to shoot). But I could always see the pocket line that I wanted to hit quickly.

only spent 30 minutes on this DRILL, and at the end I was sweating😎 from walking so fast around the table.

useful drill or not??
Click to expand...
Speed pool can be a way to let your subconscious flow help with aim and stroke (and even position). It can shake off the bad vibes from a slump.

But please never throw out balls onto the table--this creates micro-dents in the slate that grow to become wobble spots.
 
BilliardsAbout said:
But please never throw out balls onto the table--this creates micro-dents in the slate that grow to become wobble spots.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes:

I'm sure he's throwing them at fastball speed from 30 feet away there dude. Generally you have good points, this just sounds like you're channeling @justnum

This is literally one of the dumbest things I've heard on here. "Throwing out" doesn't mean he's flipping the tray over or really banging them on the table.

Have you ever did a jump shot? Balls hit the slate often. You just spouted off some real dumb, dumb so dumb it's almost impressive.
 
boogieman said:
:rolleyes:

I'm sure he's throwing them at fastball speed from 30 feet away there dude. Generally you have good points, this just sounds like you're channeling @justnum

This is literally one of the dumbest things I've heard on here. "Throwing out" doesn't mean he's flipping the tray over or really banging them on the table.

Have you ever did a jump shot? Balls hit the slate often. You just spouted off some real dumb, dumb so dumb it's almost impressive.
Click to expand...

Don't hold back, tell us what you really think.
 
I once watched a late-nite gambling match between two greats(one is a HOF'r). As it got really late it turned into a contest between pills vs. powder. Powder won by a nose. ;)
 
Lol..I don’t throw 9 balls on the table. I gently roll them. I want running around the table, but I was pretty much moving after each shot. Thanks for all the great reply’s. 👍👍
 
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