Post your 10 consecutive practice run scores...

ghost121

ghost121

All I get is six words?
Silver Member
Please help me out here. I am a beginner who started playing about six weeks ago. I try to practice twice a week, but it is always by myself. What I would like is some idea about where my practice sessions fit in with more experienced players. So here is the deal:

You get ten consecutive runs and log how many balls you make each time and also the reason why the run ended. No warm ups. The first run you log is the first run of the session, the tenth is the last. When you miss, rack them with your choice of break ball.

Here is what happened to me today, it's pretty typical of where I am right now, altho I feel I lost concentration towards the end:

11 lost position, missed tough shot
26 lost position, no shot
3 missed medium difficulty shot
10 missed tough shot
13 missed tough shot
5 made ball but scratched
6 missed easy shot
1 left with tough shot after breaking, missed it
8 made ball but scratched
11 lost position, no shot

Average of 9.4 balls (I think that's bad)

Come on guys, give me some feedback here, it's lonely playing on my own without a clue as to how I am progressing. Besides, this is a fun way to introduce some competition into your practice sessions. A bit like playing the ghost in 9ball or whatever.
 
Thats not to bad for just starting to play the game. I will have to try it this sunday and post.
 
10 Consecutive Practice run scores

I have never kept track like this, I generally average around a 8-12 balls, I will have to give this a shot tonight. I will try and get back to you this weekend.


ghost121 said:
Please help me out here. I am a beginner who started playing about six weeks ago. I try to practice twice a week, but it is always by myself. What I would like is some idea about where my practice sessions fit in with more experienced players. So here is the deal:

You get ten consecutive runs and log how many balls you make each time and also the reason why the run ended. No warm ups. The first run you log is the first run of the session, the tenth is the last. When you miss, rack them with your choice of break ball.

Here is what happened to me today, it's pretty typical of where I am right now, altho I feel I lost concentration towards the end:

11 lost position, missed tough shot
26 lost position, no shot
3 missed medium difficulty shot
10 missed tough shot
13 missed tough shot
5 made ball but scratched
6 missed easy shot
1 left with tough shot after breaking, missed it
8 made ball but scratched
11 lost position, no shot

Average of 9.4 balls (I think that's bad)

Come on guys, give me some feedback here, it's lonely playing on my own without a clue as to how I am progressing. Besides, this is a fun way to introduce some competition into your practice sessions. A bit like playing the ghost in 9ball or whatever.
Click to expand...
 
I will post Ralf Souquet's sequence of 5 attempts at the straight pool challenge a few years ago at DCC: 1, 1, 0, 8, 13.

I went next and had a 14......I guess I'm just a bit better than Ralf Souquet (errrr.....he also posted a 140-something the day before....he must have gotten lucky...hmmmm....I think I got lucky as well....please disregard this post)
 
Thanks guys. It would be good to see all the regular 14.1 posters try this out.

I think it's a good way of introducing an edge to practice sessions. I actually felt nervous on some of the shots because everything counted. This is a vital part of the game and therefore it's important to get used to it.

I plan to run the exercise once a week to keep tabs on my progress. It's more accurate than just logging your highest run, at least for a beginner/novice. Also, you can study why your runs break down and focus on eliminating weaknesses.

I am calling it the 14.1 ghostdrill.
 
so I tried it...

Here's my score:

The only players ever fearing my consistency where my teammates:wink:

4 - missed a medium easy shot
-1 - scratched on the breakshot:(
9 - missed medium difficulty shot
9 - missed a medium difficult shot
45 - messed up position
25 - missed a medium easy shot
11 - missed an easy shot
5 - missed medium difficulty shot
15 - missed an easy shot
10 - missed a tough shot

132 points, which is below par for an above average 5th division player here in Germany (that's what I consider myself to be). I'd say, 140-150 would be on par, anything above 200 is pretty good.

All in all I didn't like it that much - I felt terribly cold for the first 5 innings (yes, that includes at least the first half of the 45) and played stupid patterns and bad positional shots almost all the time. I guess I spent more time, thinking about this post, than the shots at hand:mad:

You should really try to get out there and play the game - the better the opponent, the more You can learn, although it might be frustrating to go through an hour, where racking six or seven times and missing a tough (or even worse, easy) shot somewhere inbetween is all You get at the table.
 
I wonder what the top pros would average at this? Mika Immonen once claimed to have made slightly over 1000 balls doing this exact exercise. I know he's a great player but that sounds like a lot even for him.
 
Bobby said:
I wonder what the top pros would average at this? Mika Immonen once claimed to have made slightly over 1000 balls doing this exact exercise. I know he's a great player but that sounds like a lot even for him.
Click to expand...


Every day is different, Mika had a high run of about 54 in 12 attempts at the DCC. We all know he can do much better than that.
 
mdavis228 said:
Steven...
Are you beginning w/ break shot of your choice, too?
Click to expand...
Chris

I set up a break shot on each of my ten tries, but decided to mix them up a little to be more realistic.

I alternated sides and distances and angles over the ten breaks. I even took a couple from below the pack, one from each side, where the black ball would be on a snooker table. I didn't just choose one favorite break and stick with it. I think that would have been too unrealistic and not as good practice.

Steven
 
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Sounds good. Here's a challenging exercise based "loosely" on an old game called Line Up Straight Pool. I say loosely because I really don't know much about the original "rules". Contacted Bob Byrne about it, and he said he hadn't played it in so long he couldn't remember. Anyway...
Line all 15 balls straight up the string from the foot rail (frozen in line) - using a pair of cues is easiest. Push the ball nearest the rail out just a touch so it's not frozen (but all 15 balls in the line ARE frozen to one another). Start w/ ball in hand & play as 14.1. When the last ball is on the table, line the remaining 14 up the string & continue. You'll find you want to begin w/ the cue ball near the foot rail to start. You can pull tight shape along the foot rail, sometimes ducking under the stack to the other side, to pick the bottom 6 or 7 balls off, & you can pick some off the top into side pockets (shape is rough), but at some point you must begin banking and or breaking balls out. You'll run into a lot of unexpected carom angles from break outs that will send you up table and/or into corner pockets. Really can be rather treacherous that way at first. Also some interesting shape shots up/down table.
I've been in the high 40's / low 50's playing this, and you'll really feel like you've accomplished something... Pretty unforgiving until you get some balls loose - then comes the dangers associated with regular end game 14.1 - except that you MUST be very judicious about your ending cue ball position. Not really looking for a "break shot" so to speak...
Try it - you'll like it!
 
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Mr. Davis,

Yes in my game we set up a breakshot with ball in hand to start!


HaHa you called me Steven....lol My mom was the only one who could get away with this!

RIP Mom

Give my game a try, and let me know what you think.

STeve
 
Actually, I was speaking to ghost121 - Steven, from England. But that's really funny! I looked at your link & it sounds like a lot of fun.
 
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Steve

I checked out your link, too. If I only counted my 20 plus runs I would have to live at the pool hall for a week to get to 100...

And Chris, your drill sounds tough. Maybe when I get a bit better, altho I can see how it would improve your game.

My short term goal is to run 30 plus and average 10 in the next few weeks. Wish I had space for a table at home, though. And I have to play on purple cloth! Very Hendrix.

Steven
 
This is a really cool idea and I'm glad someone posted it. I was practicing recently and I wish I'd kept my stats so I could put up an entry. I will at some point.

Props to ghost and the other posters, it's kind of brave... straight pool is a game where you get used to hearing big numbers, and nobody wants to admit they run like 8 on average but I think that's exactly what a TON of otherwise very good players do. I have seen so many guys who run multiple racks in 8 and 9 ball who need 3 innings per rack of straight pool.

I don't wanna be one of those guys but I suspect I am :(
 
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