Speed Kills - Drills?

[DrCue'sProtege]

one of the absolute most critical areas of playing top level 9-Ball is to have proper speed. i am convinced of this. unless you have the proper speed to get on the Correct Side Of The Ball you are going to get hosed so much of the time.

lately i have been messing up racks because my speed has been off. Diana Minor told me one time that a huge factor in your success at 9-Ball is to be sure and get on the proper side of the ball, relative to your next shot. that way the cue ball will just naturally go in the direction it needs to go, and you dont have to try and force it, or go 3 rails perhaps.

anybody have any good drills to improve speed? there are simple speed drills, and there are more advanced drills i am sure.

appreciate any help.
Speed, or rather the lack of, is killing my game now.

DCP

p.s. again, serious replies only.

 

[Snapshot9]

Speed ...

one of the absolute most critical areas of playing top level 9-Ball is to have proper speed. i am convinced of this. unless you have the proper speed to get on the Correct Side Of The Ball you are going to get hosed so much of the time.

lately i have been messing up racks because my speed has been off. Diana Minor told me one time that a huge factor in your success at 9-Ball is to be sure and get on the proper side of the ball, relative to your next shot. that way the cue ball will just naturally go in the direction it needs to go, and you dont have to try and force it, or go 3 rails perhaps.

anybody have any good drills to improve speed? there are simple speed drills, and there are more advanced drills i am sure.

appreciate any help.
Speed, or rather the lack of, is killing my game now.

DCP

p.s. again, serious replies only.

You just have to train yourself. When you hit a shot good and get good
shape on the next ball, you have to memorize that feel of the shot into
your brain and muscles. I compare it a lot to getting the 'feel' of a basketball.
or perhaps to getting a feel of how to apply brakes when coming up to
a stoplight. I think it is best to start 'softly' and gradually work up from there.
Some players have a good feel for speed, others never get that feel, and there shots for shape always look like they are 'forcing' the issue. It's like the difference of an artist painting a picture, or someone just painting by numbers.

It's kind of a difference about thinking how hard to hit it as opposed to
knowing how hard to hit it. You have to work on it, practice hard shooting
table layouts that gradually allow you to learn to feel how to hit the cue
ball and how hard to get to where you should go. You just have to experience it, and learn from each experience.

 

[scottycoyote]

i had a book that dealt with this, im at work now and cant recall the title but it was the first book i had ever seen mention this aspect of right and wrong side of the object ball, i think they referred to it as the attack line. Shooting so ur cueball follows the attack line allows your speed to be off a little and youre still in perfect line for the shot. Ive never seen drills that specifically pertain to this though, probably the closest thing i can think of would be some of the drills in dan hennings pro book where you set up 2 balls and shoot one to get shape on the other as he describes it.

 

[DaveK]

one of the absolute most critical areas of playing top level 9-Ball is to have proper speed.
<edit>
anybody have any good drills to improve speed? there are simple speed drills, and there are more advanced drills i am sure.

appreciate any help.
Speed, or rather the lack of, is killing my game now.

DCP

p.s. again, serious replies only.

Serious reply here.

There was a thread a while back that you participated in. Check out post #11 where I descibe the drills I do for speed control. Are you doing these most basic drills ? How's the consistency ?

http://www.azbilliards.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=16947

For reference : I play at a B level I hope. From 1 diamond I can draw/follow from 0-7 diamonds, +- 0.25 diamonds about 95 % for 0 diamonds (stop shot, it's actually measured +- 0.5" or so), and +- .5 diamonds about 75% of the time for 7 diamonds, in between is in between. These numbers go down as the distance between CB-OB increases, as does my max-draw (but not my max-follow, it is pretty consistent). If you don't know your numbers, start recording them in some detail, after a few weeks a pattern will emerge. Any parts of the pattern that are disappointing should be practiced/drilled more.

Dave

 

[jjinfla]

Well, when practicing you can just place a sheet of paper on the table where you want the CB to end up (legal size if you are really bad). "A" players use a dollar bill. The pros use a quarter, unless you are Earl Strickland who uses a dime. Boy does he get pissed on the rare occasion that he misses it.

 

[NaClBandit]

Cross-training

Maybe play Straight Pool more often (this has helped my 9-ball game). This will greatly improve your short-distance speed (ie feel) which is the basis for long distance speed control.

Also I've been told by a very skilled player that playing 3 cushion helped him to fall on the correct side of balls more often. He did not go into further detail.

Hope this helps.

 

[azbluemach1]

i had a book that dealt with this, im at work now and cant recall the title but it was the first book i had ever seen mention this aspect of right and wrong side of the object ball, i think they referred to it as the attack line. Shooting so ur cueball follows the attack line allows your speed to be off a little and youre still in perfect line for the shot. Ive never seen drills that specifically pertain to this though, probably the closest thing i can think of would be some of the drills in dan hennings pro book where you set up 2 balls and shoot one to get shape on the other as he describes it.

I believe the book 'Precision Pool' covers that topic. I look at that more as a crutch than a method though. Great tactic to fall back on if your speed is off, or on very difficult shots, but it can force you to be more elaborate to move 'with' the line rather than 'against' it. I believe precision pool shows an example where they have the cueball travel 2 rails and probably 8 feet as the good example, and a 1 rail 2 foot move as the 'wrong' way to do it.

I think one of the best ways to practice speed is practicing safety play. When you practice 'shape' on a shot, it is pretty general - you can be online but 8 feet away (as I talk about above). With safes, you put the cue and object ball exactly where you wanted or you didn't. Also, having to control the distance traveled of 2 or more balls shows more about your speed than just the cueball after pocketing the object- imho.

 

[LowEnglish]

one of the absolute most critical areas of playing top level 9-Ball is to have proper speed. i am convinced of this. unless you have the proper speed to get on the Correct Side Of The Ball you are going to get hosed so much of the time.

lately i have been messing up racks because my speed has been off. Diana Minor told me one time that a huge factor in your success at 9-Ball is to be sure and get on the proper side of the ball, relative to your next shot. that way the cue ball will just naturally go in the direction it needs to go, and you dont have to try and force it, or go 3 rails perhaps.

anybody have any good drills to improve speed? there are simple speed drills, and there are more advanced drills i am sure.

appreciate any help.
Speed, or rather the lack of, is killing my game now.

DCP

p.s. again, serious replies only.

There are alot of shots that you are comfortable going one or multiple rails with to slow the cueball down, instead of using 0 rails and just controlling your speed really well. Those are the shots that separate the good from the great. Take 5 balls and spread them out in the middle of the table so that no ball is near a rail. Try to run them out in order without the cueball touching a rail.