Practice Ball

petticasey

No Irish need apply.
I was thinking about getting a practice ball. Is it worthwhile? Which one would you AzBers recommend? Is there anything else that would be helpful for practicing/learning more about english/cue ball placement?

Thanks
 
?

the Jim Rempe ball sucks:thud:

lwf14.jpg
 
I use the Elephant training balls in almost all of my classes. I like them because they hold chalk marks very well, so you can pick up the ball and see exactly where you made contact. We use them for alignment training, as well as measuring the tip contact as it relates to measuring the amount of spin applied to the cue ball.

Steve
 
I was thinking about getting a practice ball. Is it worthwhile? Which one would you AzBers recommend? Is there anything else that would be helpful for practicing/learning more about english/cue ball placement?

Thanks

The Aramith "measles" cue ball is a great practice ball. The measles let you know exactly what kind of spin your cue ball has on it. It's even better if you can get the entire Super Aramith Billiard Ball set.
 
The measles ball lets you see the result of what you did.
The training balls let you see what you did that caused that result.

Steve
 
training ball?

Scott and Steve,

What do you think about this training ball?

I just bought one, but haven't tried it out, yet.
 

Attachments

  • CSballPromo.gif
    CSballPromo.gif
    57 KB · Views: 477
I like the design. There is one quality on the Elephant Balls that I really like. They aren't highly polished, and hold chalk marks very well. If this one has a similar finish, I would probably want to add it to my training tools kit.

Steve
 
I like the Rempe ball and book that comes with it; use it as part of my rotating daily drill routines... the cuesight ball looks pretty cool too.
 
I agree the Rempe training ball if used properly is great. I use mine all the time. A high ball is a generic practice ball that works fairly well too.
 
I did end up getting one, and I really do like it as a visual training tool. I still would prefer the finish similar to the elephant training ball, but they didn't ask my opinion when they designed it.

Steve
 
More important than the ball is how you are using it and what you are learning from it.

The key thing for the ball (for this discussion) is to be able to see the tip offset where you intend to hit it, and where you actually made contact with it. To do this, you simply need reference marks. All of the practice balls I've seen allow for this, but so can a stripe, or a cue ball marked with a permanent pen.

Size, weight, and condition are also factors to consider.
 
I've tried out the CueSight training ball, and in my opinion, it is worth the investment.
I'll shoot one rail kicks with measured tips of english, and this helps me see whether the rails are playing long or short. It also helps me with accurately applying english.

My next self-learning session will be to quantify the amount of english and it's affect on the object ball. This will help me determine how slick or grabby the balls are.

Even if you don't use this training ball as a training tool, you can use it as a table/ball assessment tool to determine how the table and balls are performing...because not all tables play the same.

http://www.cuesight.com/csbbtb.html

If I were an instructor, I would definitely incorporate this training ball into my lessons.
 
Back
Top