Safeties
- Thread starter medallio
- Start date
Of course the game you are playing is important but you don't really need diagrams you need "Philosophies".
I will start:
Never play a safety that is as hard or harder to execute as the shot.
The point of a safety is to get control of the table or beat the other guy to a shot. Once accomplished, don't continue playing safe. You have won the issue now win the game.
Don't just play safe out of fear, if the table presents itself you need to have the confidence to win.
When you play safe no matter how perfect, you are still turning the table over to your opponent and anything can happen. It is easy to find yourself wishing you had the shot back you originally played safe on when you come back to the table with nothing.
Another thing is, when you play safe you have to picture where the balls will be and what he may do back to you. Just snookering him does not mean he is safe at all. In fact he may be able to kick the ball to the other end of the table leaving you now safe.
When you play safe in 9 ball and 10 ball you do one of several things. You move the cue ball, move the object ball or both. If you are moving the object ball say knocking it up table and snookering the other guy you want to knock it in a place it is harder to hit. This can be near a cluster of in the open table. If you knock the ball near a rail and snooker the guy the shot may not be safe at all. A ball near the rail gets what you call "Big". In fact it may be so easy to hit there is no chance you will get a ball in hand out of this.
Balls near rails are also easy to actually use to play safe back even when snookered. He may kick the ball up table with a surprising amount of control and even control the cue ball leaving you safe. A ball in the middle of the table is hard to do anything with other then just try to hit it and hope for a good leave.
When you are moving the cue ball you want to leave it as close to another ball as possible, even frozen if you can. The closer the cue ball is to other balls the harder it is for the other guy do do anything.
There are many more things but these are a few things off the top of my head.
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Here is a post from Chris Tate that covers some situations that some up. He compiled some safety shots into kind of a workbook format.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=5067048&postcount=1
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=5067048&postcount=1
For my part, this is excellent advice. I appreciate it.
defense
If you're referring to 8-ball, I've had a series running in Pool & Billiard magazine for some time now..."Fifty Game-Winning 8-Ball Safety Shots". The July issue features Shot # 41.
I also teach this as a three-hour course. It includes fifteen varieties of safeties.
If you're referring to 8-ball, I've had a series running in Pool & Billiard magazine for some time now..."Fifty Game-Winning 8-Ball Safety Shots". The July issue features Shot # 41.
I also teach this as a three-hour course. It includes fifteen varieties of safeties.
What I like about safeties is that I have to think where both CB and OB are going to end up. Let's face it, in a normal shot you don't have to think about where the OB will end up; it's going in the pocket...end of story.
I seem to pay more attention to where the CB will end up, probably because I think I've got more control over it than the OB. However, a previous poster's examples seemed to emphasize OB location.
I'm sure it's different depending on the shot and table layout, but do you tend to focus more on the final location of either the CBor the OB?
I seem to pay more attention to where the CB will end up, probably because I think I've got more control over it than the OB. However, a previous poster's examples seemed to emphasize OB location.
I'm sure it's different depending on the shot and table layout, but do you tend to focus more on the final location of either the CBor the OB?