There are some drills and books, as others have mentioned, that will help you get the rudimentary stuff down. Beyond that, a highly precise stroke is required for highly precise cueball movement, so an inconsistent or inaccurate stroke is going to be a limiting factor. (Edit: Sorry Randy, didn't mean to parrot your post. That's what happens when I start a post, walk away, then finish it two hours later, LOL.)
What I tell people who I feel are ready for the next level are the two techniques that are reinforced by most of the drills, games, books, etc. on the subject:
The first is to set precise position goals for yourself on each shot, a target if you prefer. If you are playing position into a 2' x 3' zone, which you land in, you will count that as a success when you actually should be making note of how badly you missed ideal position. This kind of laziness is easy to fall into in games like 9-ball, where "just anywhere over there" position is often good enough. We condition ourselves to hit these huge zones and then we kick the table and cuss when we hook ourselves trying to hit a 6" x 6" spot. Give yourself a smaller target on every shot by defining a circle, perhaps a foot in diameter in the beginning, and trying to land in it. This will not only provide a measurement of your success/failure on each position shot, it will at times allow you to see a position route you hadn't previously considered.
The second key to better cueball control is to really pay attention to what is happening when you fail to meet your position goals. One of the marks of a good road player is that he can adjust quickly to unfamiliar equipment. The way he does this is by a) setting precise position goals, and b) extracting the maximum amount of information from each shot. He is never going to consider hitting a 2' x 3' zone a success, instead he is going to know that he overran his spot by 4", and he's going to use that information to shape his understanding of the table. Every shot we shoot tells us something, and the better we are at using that information, the better we will be at tuning our strokes and adjusting to different conditions.
Best of luck,
Aaron
What I tell people who I feel are ready for the next level are the two techniques that are reinforced by most of the drills, games, books, etc. on the subject:
The first is to set precise position goals for yourself on each shot, a target if you prefer. If you are playing position into a 2' x 3' zone, which you land in, you will count that as a success when you actually should be making note of how badly you missed ideal position. This kind of laziness is easy to fall into in games like 9-ball, where "just anywhere over there" position is often good enough. We condition ourselves to hit these huge zones and then we kick the table and cuss when we hook ourselves trying to hit a 6" x 6" spot. Give yourself a smaller target on every shot by defining a circle, perhaps a foot in diameter in the beginning, and trying to land in it. This will not only provide a measurement of your success/failure on each position shot, it will at times allow you to see a position route you hadn't previously considered.
The second key to better cueball control is to really pay attention to what is happening when you fail to meet your position goals. One of the marks of a good road player is that he can adjust quickly to unfamiliar equipment. The way he does this is by a) setting precise position goals, and b) extracting the maximum amount of information from each shot. He is never going to consider hitting a 2' x 3' zone a success, instead he is going to know that he overran his spot by 4", and he's going to use that information to shape his understanding of the table. Every shot we shoot tells us something, and the better we are at using that information, the better we will be at tuning our strokes and adjusting to different conditions.
Best of luck,
Aaron
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