Safeties

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Quesports

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Safeties are one of the strongest moves you can use to gain control of the table.

I would like to discuss how to practice and play better safeties.

Are there and safety drills to practice? Is there safety games to play with another player?

I know they are a part of my game that could use improvement so any information or thoughts are appreciated!
 
I have a game that I have people play who are trying to improve their safety play.

9-ball rack and break. Every shot is an attempted safety. The goal is to get ball in hand off your opponent. Race to whatever.

Along with the obvious benefit of practicing object ball/cue ball position, it also forces them to look for and find possible safeties where they ordinarily might not have. For many, simply seeing the possible play is as challenging as executing the shot.
 
There’s a utube video somewhere called Safety Around The Rack…. Very good straight pool safeties when the 14 balls are racked.
 
play one pkt lol
or straight pool, where you have to defend every ball from every pocket when you dont have a shot.
 
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One Pocket will definitely improve your one cue ball control.

I was asking my trainer (Sandor Tot) same question. A way to improve my safety game. We watched a big collection of safety shots (pausing before the shot and trying to come with the right play). Then we picked the ones worth practicing and came up with a collection of most common safety shots for 10-Ball.

Kinda like Target Pool with the goal to get the CB ideally frozen to the ball cutting off most of one rail escapes. This is the compilation of these standart safety shots (coming up all the time in 10-Ball):

 
Quesports said:
Safeties are one of the strongest moves you can use to gain control of the table.

I would like to discuss how to practice and play better safeties.

Are there and safety drills to practice? Is there safety games to play with another player?

I know they are a part of my game that could use improvement so any information or thoughts are appreciated!
Click to expand...
My Kicks Like A Mule Challenge has such a scoring system that builds the skills necessary to play an effective safety.
My best safety lesson came at the hands of Rafael Martinez playing 8 ball on a 7' Valley. I held him off for 25 minutes. Then he put me in the handcuffs.
Precision cueball is the key.
My Challenge can be found here. https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/practice-practice-practice.523570/page-84#post-7594181
 
Quesports said:
Safeties are one of the strongest moves you can use to gain control of the table.

I would like to discuss how to practice and play better safeties.

Are there and safety drills to practice? Is there safety games to play with another player?

I know they are a part of my game that could use improvement so any information or thoughts are appreciated!
Click to expand...
I have actually created game what i call Safety Battle. It is quite fun too. It tells you fast how good is your safety game. What kinda safeties you should practice etc..
I have rules on my desktop. I will post them here when im back home.
 
Quesports said:
Safeties are one of the strongest moves you can use to gain control of the table.

I would like to discuss how to practice and play better safeties.

Are there and safety drills to practice? Is there safety games to play with another player?

I know they are a part of my game that could use improvement so any information or thoughts are appreciated!
Click to expand...
If you have someone to spar with: https://www.zerox-billiards.com/kicksafe

Watch the video on the page, it's a real neat game.

EDIT: I think they have the video on their youtube page for free.
 
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David in FL said:
I have a game that I have people play who are trying to improve their safety play.

9-ball rack and break. Every shot is an attempted safety. The goal is to get ball in hand off your opponent. Race to whatever.

Along with the obvious benefit of practicing object ball/cue ball position, it also forces them to look for and find possible safeties where they ordinarily might not have. For many, simply seeing the possible play is as challenging as executing the shot.
Click to expand...
This?
 
I'll restrict my comments to rotation games, coz there are specialty 1p/ 14.1 shots that defy expectations and are hangers if recognized and executed with appropriatalitationess.

I'd literally only suggest practiceing two safes:

A- thin OB and send CB in/ out of corner to stick onto other ball
2. Thin OB and send CB one rail to stick onto other ball.

A good sense of those two wil provide a practically infine set of responses to tough situations.
 
kev_eh said:
This?
Click to expand...

Not quite.

Sorry, I guess I didn't explain it very completely initially.

In mine you can shoot and make a ball to keep shooting until you work your way intentionally to a spot where you can play a good safe. I do that because there are a lot of times when that opportunity comes up in an actual game and it's part of managing your way through the game.

Only safeties resulting in ball in hand score a point though, not pocketed balls.

Once you're down to the last ball in the rack, rerack, break and continue the game.

I also allow jump cues, because in league or tournament play they are likely to be allowed and people need to learn that simply putting a blocking ball between the Q ball and the object ball may not qualify as much of a safety anymore.

Again, race to whatever you want.
 
David in FL said:
Not quite.

Sorry, I guess I didn't explain it very completely initially.

In mine you can shoot and make a ball to keep shooting until you work your way intentionally to a spot where you can play a good safe. I do that because there are a lot of times when that opportunity comes up in an actual game and it's part of managing your way through the game.

Only safeties resulting in ball in hand score a point though, not pocketed balls.

Once you're down to the last ball in the rack, rerack, break and continue the game.

I also allow jump cues, because in league or tournament play they are likely to be allowed and people need to learn that simply putting a blocking ball between the Q ball and the object ball may not qualify as much of a safety anymore.

Again, race to whatever you want.
Click to expand...
So if you never miss your turn goes on infinitely and you don't score any points toward a win?

This is why we need meetings.
 
Black-Balled said:
So if you never miss your turn goes on infinitely and you don't score any points toward a win?

This is why we need meetings.
Click to expand...

True dat! 😂

One other small advantage, and it's worth remembering that I really did it to help newer or less skilled players, is that I like to remind people that the object isn't necessarily to make balls.

The object is to win the game… 😁
 
Quesports said:
Safeties are one of the strongest moves you can use to gain control of the table.

I would like to discuss how to practice and play better safeties.

Are there and safety drills to practice? Is there safety games to play with another player?

I know they are a part of my game that could use improvement so any information or thoughts are appreciated!
Click to expand...

There is not much to practice safeties, it's same as any other shot, angles and speed. Setup some balls on the table, try to hide the shot where you can't hit it. Practice putting it on one side of the ball or another. With some experience you will be able to notice situations where you can play a great safe, or just try to do something to leave a harder shot, long distance, on the rail, half hooked, etc...
 
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