My Speed Control Drill

[DrCue'sProtege]

here's one i practice, and its sort of a variant of the speed drill that some on here have been taught. to me this seems better than just rolling balls down the table and trying to have them land in a 2 diamond section. here you get the feel of pocketing an object ball as well.

pocket the 10-Ball, and roll no farther than the 1-Ball (1 Speed). somewheres between the 1-Ball and 2-Ball is 2 Speed. somewheres between the 2-Ball and 3-Ball is 3 Speed. and so on and so forth. you get the picture. once you get up to 8 and 9 speed, you have a little more room for error.

DCP

CueTable Help

 

[Vinnie]

Good drill!

I use the following drill sometimes for speed control. Randomly place 10 balls in the positions shown. Start with cue ball on the center spot. Run balls in order striving to land the cue ball back onto the center spot (all the balls can be made from the center). The trick is that you have to end up at least somewhere in the shaded area or your run ends.

Vinnie
---------------

CueTable Help

 

[eastcoast_chris]

Here is one I've played with a few times.... difficult, but doable;

Softly hit all nine balls ... the one ball has to pass the side pocket ... the rest (in order) have to go father than the previous one, but not hit the end rail.

CueTable Help

 

[DaveK]

Here is one I've played with a few times.... difficult, but doable;

That's the drill that DCP thinks is useless On the other hand I feel that you need to have speed control on the cue ball, so the CB-only drills have merit.

Dave

 

[av84fun]

That's the drill that DCP thinks is useless On the other hand I feel that you need to have speed control on the cue ball, so the CB-only drills have merit.

Dave

Under playing conditions, the only shot I can think of where cue ball speed...in and of itself...matters is the lag.

All other shots that I can think of (and I may be missing something) involve controling the distance and/or direction of the CB after it has struck an OB.

I know that several TOP instructors teach the CB only distance thing but I think there are better things to concentrate on.

Regards,

Jim

 

[Cuebacca]

Under playing conditions, the only shot I can think of where cue ball speed...in and of itself...matters is the lag.

That's true, but I could see where the cue-ball-only drill could be helpful. It basically eliminates variables and allows the shooter to focus on creating fine differences in cue ball speed which will be useful even after object balls, cut angles, etc., are added to the equation.

 

[eastcoast_chris]

Under playing conditions, the only shot I can think of where cue ball speed...in and of itself...matters is the lag.

Safetly play requires it sometimes....

For example;

8 ball - rolling up behind one of your balls softly to play a hook behind a ball near the rail or something similar.

9 ball - touch shot when the 9 ball is really near a rail and you have no angle to cut it in... roll up softly on it such that you make a legal hit but leave no shot.

 

[magnetardo]

Here is one I've played with a few times.... difficult, but doable;

Softly hit all nine balls ... the one ball has to pass the side pocket ... the rest (in order) have to go father than the previous one, but not hit the end rail.

CueTable Help

This is taken directly from one of Bert Kinister's videos.

 

[Solartje]

sdf

I like them. reps coming.

speed is my badest quality, i really could use some good drills.
will train them tomorow, before the nationals qualification sunday.

 

[TX Poolnut]

snip

I love shooting that practice game/drill. Rep to you for the post.

 

[av84fun]

"8 ball - rolling up behind one of your balls softly to play a hook behind a ball near the rail or something similar.

9 ball - touch shot when the 9 ball is really near a rail and you have no angle to cut it in... roll up softly on it such that you make a legal hit but leave no shot."

Right but both those shots involve very small CB roll distances...otherwise, they would be very low probability of success shots. The drills in question here involve controling CB travel over very long distances.

Far better IMHO to practice controling CB distance/direction after impacting an OB since that skill will show up at least 100-1 more often.

Regards,
Jim

 

[RRfireblade]

Simple one I recently picked up from some old dude , replace the pocketed balls as you go , in those spots , and see how many times you can go around the table with out missing (shot/shape). Mix it up by changing which side you come down on. Kinda fun , lots of subtle adjustments.

CueTable Help

 

[skiflyer]

RRFireblade... I just saw that one on these forums a few days ago... I modified it slightly to hit the long rail on the leave and really like it that way, with the one bank it doesn't get you actually stroking the ball, more of a soft hit... with the two rail bank it lets you open up a little but still need very specific speed control. Actually maybe I saw it that way originaly, I don't feel that creative, either way, it's the way I like it!

 

[RRfireblade]

RRFireblade... I just saw that one on these forums a few days ago... I modified it slightly to hit the long rail on the leave and really like it that way, with the one bank it doesn't get you actually stroking the ball, more of a soft hit... with the two rail bank it lets you open up a little but still need very specific speed control. Actually maybe I saw it that way originaly, I don't feel that creative, either way, it's the way I like it!

That's the brilliance of it's simplicity. You can run it any of those ways or all ways. 1 rail then 2 , draw then force whatever. Mix it up.

 

[klockdoc]

Draw Touch shots

Here is one that I devised for myself to control my touch shots using draw. Most of the time I am practicing this on a bar table whereas the work space is more limited, but, could also be used on a 9 footer.

Basically, you are shooting the first ball in the corner and drawing back to get to the next ball. You can come directly off the rail, slighter harder each time, or, you can draw back to the head rail and back up.Depends on how your angle is from shot to shot. Start with less balls and add them as you progress.

Shoot all the balls on the right side in the right corner, then switch to the left corner for shots left of the spot.

Good Luck

CueTable Help

 

[Mark Avlon]

What is speed control and how do you do it?

 

[thyme3421]

No object ball drills helped me!! (I'm not an actor)

"8 ball - rolling up behind one of your balls softly to play a hook behind a ball near the rail or something similar.

9 ball - touch shot when the 9 ball is really near a rail and you have no angle to cut it in... roll up softly on it such that you make a legal hit but leave no shot."

Right but both those shots involve very small CB roll distances...otherwise, they would be very low probability of success shots. The drills in question here involve controling CB travel over very long distances.

Far better IMHO to practice controling CB distance/direction after impacting an OB since that skill will show up at least 100-1 more often.

Regards,
Jim

I repeat: ...both those shots involve very small CB roll distances...

To this I respond:

CueTable Help

Somehow... neither of these shots look like short distances to me. Sure, maybe relative to walking from NY to LA... yeah, this is fairly short. But on the pool table..... there's quite a bit of green to cover.

I did the drill mentioned earlier... but changed it a little with more balls. Doing the Cueball at lag speed. If I need to work on an area... I take 2 or 3 balls and put them on the rail like A and B are... and aim the other 13 to make /\/\ pattern between those balls.

CueTable Help

About a week or so ago a guy I usually play against mentioned that I should work on my ball control (OI!)
I spent about 30-45 minutes doing this 1 drill... that I got from the previous thread, thank you whomever, rep commin' your way... Anywho, next day I played against 4 players higher ranked than myself, and qualified for regionals. My confidence became MUCH higher and I haven't lost a single game since. Practice or in league.

For a warm up I hit the cueball headspot over the foot spot at lag speed... let the cue come back to my stick, or at least over the head spot. Then do this drill for about 20 minutes, if my arm starts to kind of lock up... then I'll hit a rack or 2 of 14.1, then do the drill again, then some random bank shots and I'm ready for anything.
If I only get 10 minutes or so to warm up, on the other hand, I'll lag once or twice... and then do the Top Right corner to 2nd diamond opposite long rail.. then short, then long rail to come back to Top Left corner.. to see how the table's playing.. and adjust from there.

/ramble

 

[klockdoc]

What is speed control and how do you do it?

It is a button on th right side of my steering wheel. When I get to the requested speed. I push the "ON" button....

 

[klockdoc]

Here is another drill I do. It is difficult to achieve, but, will give you the speed control necessary to get from one end of the table to the other and also speed for going cross side to side. It is achievable though.

I show how I start the first shot. You can also go straight up the table through the center.

Good Luck

CueTable Help

 

[av84fun]

"Somehow... neither of these shots look like short distances to me."

Thanks for posting the table layout. It made your comments more clear.

I didn't assume that you were referring to shots involving 5-7 diamond CB roll distances since the probability of success is fairly low unless the table is dead level and free of chalk bits.

I agree that rolling up to the 1-8 is pretty easy. Bumping the 9 is much more difficult...again, on "typical" pool hall table conditions due to the super slow roll necessary on the CB.

But you might have missed my point somewhat which was that such shots as you describe come up fairly infrequently...maybe one rack in 10 if not more. On the contrary, the need to control CB roll distance and direction after OB contact comes up on practically every shot...even on the 8 or 9 to avoid scratching.

So, my point was that with fairly limited practice time that most of us have available, far better IMHO to practice shots that will come up at a ratio of 50-1 or more. That means practicing drills that involve sending the CB to a specific spot after OB contact ...which is obviously what getting shape is all aboutand to a lesser extent, practicing sending the CB and OB to specific spots as is often the objective in safety play.

BTW, I am an old Glen Ellyn guy who also lived in CS. Have one at the Golden Bee for me!!

Regards,
Jim