One Pocket bad for your 8 Ball and 9 ball game?
- Thread starter Rpm
- Start date
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How would this affect your ability to make a ball? One Pocket, is consider'd one of the toughest games to master because, you need to have alot of CB control and knowledge of safties and knowing when to play safe or go for a shot. Also, try spreading out 8balls on a 9ft table and making them all into 1 corner pocket. Its easier said than done.
If you can get to be decent at 1hole it will boost your skill at 8ball and 9ball. I think your buddy is just scared that you'll up and whip his ass one of these days. Once you learn how to play 1hole.
Check out ProPoolVideo.com and they have a one pocket match on there, check it out.
How would this affect your ability to make a ball? One Pocket, is consider'd one of the toughest games to master because, you need to have alot of CB control and knowledge of safties and knowing when to play safe or go for a shot. Also, try spreading out 8balls on a 9ft table and making them all into 1 corner pocket. Its easier said than done.
If you can get to be decent at 1hole it will boost your skill at 8ball and 9ball. I think your buddy is just scared that you'll up and whip his ass one of these days. Once you learn how to play 1hole.
Check out ProPoolVideo.com and they have a one pocket match on there, check it out.
Lol...
Well, just think about it. Compare the motions of your typical 8 and 9 Ball games to your One Pocket games. To be honest, I just think it depends on your style of play during a game of One Pocket. I know guys who play the game in a way that it seems all too easy and they never have to shoot much besides a straight shot, a moderate cut shot, or an occasional bank...and then there are guys who are so confident in their ability to pocket balls that it just seems like they pull the kind of shots they'd pull in any other game (but these guys often tend to have to do this because of their inability to get shape as well as the guys in the former example).
In my opinion, there ain't nothin' bad about playing One Pocket. While your ball pocketing ability may not be flourishing as much as it may during 8 and 9 Ball practice sessions, your ability to move the cue ball effectively and precisely and "get shape" will most definitely improve! I'm a fan...
Well, just think about it. Compare the motions of your typical 8 and 9 Ball games to your One Pocket games. To be honest, I just think it depends on your style of play during a game of One Pocket. I know guys who play the game in a way that it seems all too easy and they never have to shoot much besides a straight shot, a moderate cut shot, or an occasional bank...and then there are guys who are so confident in their ability to pocket balls that it just seems like they pull the kind of shots they'd pull in any other game (but these guys often tend to have to do this because of their inability to get shape as well as the guys in the former example).
In my opinion, there ain't nothin' bad about playing One Pocket. While your ball pocketing ability may not be flourishing as much as it may during 8 and 9 Ball practice sessions, your ability to move the cue ball effectively and precisely and "get shape" will most definitely improve! I'm a fan...
some day you will be playing a game of 8-ball and half of your balls are near the same corner of the table, it is then you will see the need for some one pocket skill. it can also teach you slow your game down with safety play and make you think about the right things to do which can only help in the long run.Rpm said:
M.C.
1P will help all of your games. That said, your advisor isn't totally nuts. Rarely in 1 pocket do you ever do some of the types of shots that come up a lot in 9-ball (power draw, table length force-follow with english,...). So it stands to reason that your power-stroke type of shots will get rusty if you switch to all 1P for a while. E.g., I shoot a lot more shots with a short bridge in 1P.
But there's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Do I like 1P most of all because my stroke sucks too much for 9-ball? Or is my 9-ball stroke bad because I play so much 1P?
Cory
But there's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Do I like 1P most of all because my stroke sucks too much for 9-ball? Or is my 9-ball stroke bad because I play so much 1P?
Cory
i've learnd some shots playing one pocket that seem to come up more and more now that i know them. that might just be me
In some ways it will hurt your game, but mostly it helps. You can fall out of practice in alot of power shots like Cory wrote above, but you also can get so use to playing pocket speed shots that when 9ball comes up you can go braindead and find yourself lagging a bank towards a pocket by mistake.
Some specific ways I have found 1p to help in nine ball.
a) Your banking skills go up since you have to shoot so many banks. When I played nothing but nineball, I would rather have cut a ball 85 degrees than bank it. Now i find myself banking, especially short rail banks.
b) You acquire more diverse skills at playing safe, particularly when it comes to slowing dragging the cueball behind a cluster of balls from odd angles. Shots where you stun the ball forward and sideways and it drifts into the corner area are common in onepocket and do not come up alot in nineball.
c) Your kicking skills go up because in 1p you do alot of slow speed kicking. One type of kick in particular that has improved in my game is when i am kicking at a ball that when cueball and object ball are all near the bottom rail. Going one rail into the object ball softly to then hide the cueball behind another ball is a common shot in 1p. You get to learn alot about kicking with the intention of hitting one side of a ball so the cueball will go a specific way. You do learn this stuff in 9ball but like anything, the repetitive nature of these shots in 1p really helps in executing them in 9ball where there are less common shots.
Some specific ways I have found 1p to help in nine ball.
a) Your banking skills go up since you have to shoot so many banks. When I played nothing but nineball, I would rather have cut a ball 85 degrees than bank it. Now i find myself banking, especially short rail banks.
b) You acquire more diverse skills at playing safe, particularly when it comes to slowing dragging the cueball behind a cluster of balls from odd angles. Shots where you stun the ball forward and sideways and it drifts into the corner area are common in onepocket and do not come up alot in nineball.
c) Your kicking skills go up because in 1p you do alot of slow speed kicking. One type of kick in particular that has improved in my game is when i am kicking at a ball that when cueball and object ball are all near the bottom rail. Going one rail into the object ball softly to then hide the cueball behind another ball is a common shot in 1p. You get to learn alot about kicking with the intention of hitting one side of a ball so the cueball will go a specific way. You do learn this stuff in 9ball but like anything, the repetitive nature of these shots in 1p really helps in executing them in 9ball where there are less common shots.
Thanks, for the laugh, is this one of those Friday humor things?Rpm said:
Seriously, 1Pocket is a great overall practice game. Kicks, banks, playing safe from every ball on the table, playing shape for only 1 pocket, cluster management and breakouts, what more could you want.
Ask Efren if 1 pocket takes away from his pocketing skills.
Ive played very little one pocket, i think its awesome for your safety game but i can totally see it getting you out of groove for your 9ball game. Like you shoot 4 or 5 games of one pocket and its all down there at the bottom of the table. Then when a long shot comes up its like the table is an 18 footer.
In the long term its good for your game. Banking, kicking, cue ball control in general.
In the short term, I prefer not to play a set of one pocket before a 9-ball matchup. I do like to play a set of 9-ball before a 1P matchup though. Just to let out my stroke for when its needed in 1P.
In the short term, I prefer not to play a set of one pocket before a 9-ball matchup. I do like to play a set of 9-ball before a 1P matchup though. Just to let out my stroke for when its needed in 1P.
Last edited:
Rpm said:
I absolutely love 1hole, but I have to disagree
with most of my fellow posters.
I have seen it hurt pure 9 ball shooters.
Different stroke. Slows you down. Takes
away spontaneity. I even use a different cue
for 8 & 9 ball. heavier, stiffer.
A little surprised at the response on here.
Most players I know agree with me.
Attention and Intention On All Shots
As long as the 1P player gives full attention and has a definite intention for each shot and stroke - theres no way you'll get out of stroke.
However-if an individual is doing a lot of aimless ball tapping and bunting without having that "attention/intention" and then has to come with a shot, there is some added self inflicted pressure.
Watch Tiger on those 2 & 3 foot putts-he hasn't missed one in years but they get his full and complete attention.
As long as the 1P player gives full attention and has a definite intention for each shot and stroke - theres no way you'll get out of stroke.
However-if an individual is doing a lot of aimless ball tapping and bunting without having that "attention/intention" and then has to come with a shot, there is some added self inflicted pressure.
Watch Tiger on those 2 & 3 foot putts-he hasn't missed one in years but they get his full and complete attention.
hondo said:
I'm kind of undecided... Sure it COULD hurt your 9-Ball game, but it doesn't HAVE to. Let me explain...
Many of the shots (more like plays, rather than shots) rely on speed control much more than accuracy...so it is quite possible to hardly bother aiming and still have success. This "lazy" approach surely COULD affect ball pocketing eventually. However, if you carefully play each shot as accurately as any other ball-pocketing game, I would expect your ball pocketing to remain.
Other than that, 1 Hole is definately beneficial. Take speed control, for example, 1 Hole is all about speed control; probably better than drilling.
The downside to 1 Hole is that the game is not very entertaining until you already have strong abilities at other billiard games, and even then the learning curve is longer for 1 Hole. Beginners will not enjoy the game anywhere near as much as a strong player will. I feel that 1 Hole becomes a particularly fun game when you get to the point of really pushing offensive plays rather than defense, defense, defense.
Comments welcome, thanks for reading.
I agree that one pocket is a great game in which you can learn a variety of safeties and shots. I also believe that 9 ball is a game of rhythm and that when you go to 9 ball after one hole you can certainly see the change. I think its best to probably play both and get the best of both worlds.
I also have recently become somewhat addicted to 1-pocket, and, IMO, the potential gains from playing the game far outweigh any potential losses.
I remember several years ago, when I was playing a game of 1-p about once every 6 months, that the game was very frustrating to me because I allowed all of the ducking and defensive maneuvers to get me out of stroke, which led to me missing balls I felt like I should have made. I mistakenly thought that the imprecise aspects of the game (which is how I thought of the the defensive parts) were having an adverse effect on the things that required precision (which is how I thought of shotmaking/ball running). At that point in time, I would probably have agreed with the local player who said 1-p will not help your 9-ball game.
What I finally figured out, though, is that the defensive aspects of the game, if you approach them properly, often require more precision than the shotmaking. If you think about it, banking a ball from your opponent's side into a particular portion of the stack, to move balls your way, while sending whitey two rails to freeze to the backside of another ball near your opp's hole, which is not an uncommon shot in 1-p, requires much more precision than most of the offensive shots you will take on. When I began to approach the game in this manner, by envisioning a very precise result for my defensive shots, and attempting achieve that result, I found that I was able to stay in stroke throughout a 1-p session, and that my success with offensive shots improved dramatically.
My advice is to stick with the 1-p, but to also spend a good portion of your time playing the rotation games, because, as other posters have stated, there are many shots you will need in 9-ball that are almost non-existent in 1-p.
Good luck!
I remember several years ago, when I was playing a game of 1-p about once every 6 months, that the game was very frustrating to me because I allowed all of the ducking and defensive maneuvers to get me out of stroke, which led to me missing balls I felt like I should have made. I mistakenly thought that the imprecise aspects of the game (which is how I thought of the the defensive parts) were having an adverse effect on the things that required precision (which is how I thought of shotmaking/ball running). At that point in time, I would probably have agreed with the local player who said 1-p will not help your 9-ball game.
What I finally figured out, though, is that the defensive aspects of the game, if you approach them properly, often require more precision than the shotmaking. If you think about it, banking a ball from your opponent's side into a particular portion of the stack, to move balls your way, while sending whitey two rails to freeze to the backside of another ball near your opp's hole, which is not an uncommon shot in 1-p, requires much more precision than most of the offensive shots you will take on. When I began to approach the game in this manner, by envisioning a very precise result for my defensive shots, and attempting achieve that result, I found that I was able to stay in stroke throughout a 1-p session, and that my success with offensive shots improved dramatically.
My advice is to stick with the 1-p, but to also spend a good portion of your time playing the rotation games, because, as other posters have stated, there are many shots you will need in 9-ball that are almost non-existent in 1-p.
Good luck!
Last edited:
I think the important thing is not to focus all your play/practice time on one pocket. I think your ability to run balls in 8 ball, 9 ball, or 14.1 would drop off severely if you never practiced running balls that way, and only ever played one pocket. The shots you'll see are not the same, and the mentality is totally different. So as long as you practice a variety of games to keep a variety of skills sharp, practicing/playing one pocket should only help your other games.
-Andrew
-Andrew
Aaron_S said:
Great post.
1pRoscoe said:Absolutely rediculous.... Play him in a few weeks and when you play some pretty tight short rail banks or two rail kick or some excellent safety play, ask him if it hurts your game now... Then run out on him.
Exactly. I played some 1-pocket for about an hour Saturday, then played an older gentleman a race to 11 in 8-ball on Sunday and went 11-2 with some VERY "1-pocket" shots. It helps a lot with patience and planning and shot selection and seeing shots you never saw before and every other aspect of billiards you can think of (except speed pool
). I might've needed a few commas in there, but you get the point.