self practice
- Thread starter cfisher25
- Start date
jdxprs
Banned
play the ghost. break, take ball in hand and try to run out. if you do, you win. if you dont, ghost wins. play a race to whatever you want.
personally i use playing safes as well. if i execute a safe that would force a two rail out, i play it as if i kept control of the table. if i make the good hit, i play it as it lies. if i miss the good hit, i take ball in hand. fwiw, i usually at least get a good hit. if i pocket the ball off the two rail, ghost wins.
personally i use playing safes as well. if i execute a safe that would force a two rail out, i play it as if i kept control of the table. if i make the good hit, i play it as it lies. if i miss the good hit, i take ball in hand. fwiw, i usually at least get a good hit. if i pocket the ball off the two rail, ghost wins.
Practice with a Goal
I would suggest using the PAT (Players Ability Test) to practice once or twice a week. It really shows which portions of your game you need to work on. Here is a link with a lot of info on the system:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=170080
Wedge
I would suggest using the PAT (Players Ability Test) to practice once or twice a week. It really shows which portions of your game you need to work on. Here is a link with a lot of info on the system:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=170080
Wedge
I practice a rotation game that I invented but it is much more fun to play another person. I also will use different drills like the right angle drill. For speed and position I use variations of this drill and it works wonders for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_9VE21sV8
Good advice
Very good advice from "jdxprs". That is the best way to practice and it works for 8-ball too. Also, when you do practice 14.1 and you do not have a shot. Don't try to shoot an impossible shot. Play a safety. Defense is as important to any of the games as offense. Good luck.
Very good advice from "jdxprs". That is the best way to practice and it works for 8-ball too. Also, when you do practice 14.1 and you do not have a shot. Don't try to shoot an impossible shot. Play a safety. Defense is as important to any of the games as offense. Good luck.
jdxprs
Banned
nope, unless you want to include safes, as described earlier.
Good advice about playing the GHOST.....
Hi there,
great advice on this thread about playing the ghost already. What I like about playing the ghost is you have all the time in the world to try and figure something out.
If you have a shot or a kick or anything that you don't have a clue you can stop right there and work on it.
When I play the ghost I really get involved in the game sometimes. One time i played the ghost for 9 hours. A friend of mine was betting on the ghost. You can even work out spots with the ghost. With a side bet you get as big of pressure as you would get with any money game and you get more practice because you are doing the shooting all the time.
The ghost never gets to play. How cool is that.
This is how I used to get ready for a tournament if there was no opponent available. I just needed someone that was willing to make a small wager on the ghost. Doesn't need to be big.
Shooting against yourself is the toughest.
Good Luck. :yeah::lol:
Hi there,
great advice on this thread about playing the ghost already. What I like about playing the ghost is you have all the time in the world to try and figure something out.
If you have a shot or a kick or anything that you don't have a clue you can stop right there and work on it.
When I play the ghost I really get involved in the game sometimes. One time i played the ghost for 9 hours. A friend of mine was betting on the ghost. You can even work out spots with the ghost. With a side bet you get as big of pressure as you would get with any money game and you get more practice because you are doing the shooting all the time.
The ghost never gets to play. How cool is that.
This is how I used to get ready for a tournament if there was no opponent available. I just needed someone that was willing to make a small wager on the ghost. Doesn't need to be big.
Shooting against yourself is the toughest.
Good Luck. :yeah::lol:
8-ball
The way I practice 8-ball.
Take your break shot and try to run out. If you get stuck. Play a safety. Then you become the other player and try to shoot out of it and so on.
If you miss instead of being stuck. Become the other player and try to run out the table. It gives you the same type of situation as during a match.
The way I practice 8-ball.
Take your break shot and try to run out. If you get stuck. Play a safety. Then you become the other player and try to shoot out of it and so on.
If you miss instead of being stuck. Become the other player and try to run out the table. It gives you the same type of situation as during a match.
This is a good suggestion. The advantage to playing "both sides" is when your going to play safe it gets you in the habit of thinking "what the other guy will do if I put him there".
As far as nineball goes, playing the ghost if fine if you have a reasonable chance of running out at least half the time. If not there are a couple other ways I would practice.
One is a progressive drill, race to nine. Throw a ball on the table and get out. Then two balls, then 3 balls, then 4 balls.... you get the picture. If you get out you mark up a game for you, if you dont you mark up a game for the ghost and put the SAME number of balls on the table and try again. You will quickly find the number of balls you run consistently and you will spend a good portion of your practice time trying to run slightly over your current threshold. If you get to where you beat it consistently, then start with two balls for the first game, then 3 balls and so on.
Another good way to practice with the ghost in nineball is to keep score for 10 racks. Break, take ball in hand and try to get out. You get 1 pt for each ball made and 2 for the nine, so 10 pts possible for each rack. If you scratch on the break you get 0 for that rack. If you make the 9 early you get 10. After doing this a few times you will get an average score. Then you will always be trying to beat your average. This will keep players who cant beat the ghost from quickly getting bored and getting sloppy because every ball counts and you can feel like you have succeded even if you didnt actually beat the ghost.
Practice time is very important, and you have to have levels of success to make you want to keep going. You want to push yourself, but you dont want to always walk away from the practice table feeling like you just got your a$$ kicked or you wont want to do it very long.
Woody
I have an 8 ball practice game I play .. I call it stripes vs solids..
stripes always plays aggressive goes for the run out every time takes the risky shots.. always goes for it..
solids plays extremely cautious plays a lot of safes to break up clusters.. and only goes for the run out when it is high percentage..
you alternate back and forth until the 8 goes down.. I go races to 5..
I like it because it improves both extremes of the game.. and makes you better at all of it..
jdxprs
Banned
sounds cool. going to give this one a try.
consistenly
my biggest down fall in my game is not being consistent, i may play
great 3 or 4 games super fine but the next game looks like i have never
played .well may be not that bad . yet enuff to work on it. the way i
practice i do drills . have two of the pro skill drills number 52 and 54
i set up 8 balls in a row at center sight about 3 inches apart , up table
place cue ball in line with the third sight in line with ball #1 shoot
first 4 balls in left corner cue ball in hand each shot. go to # 5 do the same in right corner. i do this 10 times = 80 balls one set, keep score
each ball missed subtract from perfect score 80 just say i missed 5 balls
would give me score of 75, 5 or 6 sets a week should see improvement
in a few weeks. i do others as well , this is one of the good ones.
take care john107:anderson sc
my biggest down fall in my game is not being consistent, i may play
great 3 or 4 games super fine but the next game looks like i have never
played .well may be not that bad . yet enuff to work on it. the way i
practice i do drills . have two of the pro skill drills number 52 and 54
i set up 8 balls in a row at center sight about 3 inches apart , up table
place cue ball in line with the third sight in line with ball #1 shoot
first 4 balls in left corner cue ball in hand each shot. go to # 5 do the same in right corner. i do this 10 times = 80 balls one set, keep score
each ball missed subtract from perfect score 80 just say i missed 5 balls
would give me score of 75, 5 or 6 sets a week should see improvement
in a few weeks. i do others as well , this is one of the good ones.
take care john107:anderson sc
Wow I really like alot of these games. Another alternate for people who can't or shouldn't play the ghost is to throw out between 3 and 8 balls and try to get out ten straight times. If you can't go one ball less. It helps alot. You will be seeing more balls on the table within a few weeks. Also when your playing a match you can tell yourself that it is just like my drill. I can run out these 6 balls, I do it every day. Keep the pressure on yourself cause who wants to start over at 8?