The best drill you have ever tried

JamisonNeu said:
The very best game I ever played for myself is..Shooting them off the spot. The goal is to beat your own high score, so it is easy to track your progess.

Start with ball in hand, and the object ball on the spot. Shoot the ball off the spot into the closest corner, and put one back on the spot. Play shape to shoot it off the spot into the same hole. You can only take the ball in hand on the first shot, after that is is up to your cue ball control, and simple shot making to get higher scores. Score is finale when you miss.

This is a great game to learn all the basics, and to get corfortable at the table. It teaches you all the shots you should never miss. Missing a tough shot is fine (even expected by some) missing a easy one is not ok. This game teaches you to make all the easy ones, and get the shape on the next easy one.

You can play alternate corners as well.

If you make it to one hundred, and you think this is easy move to the sides for your humble pie. If you ever want to really see how pathetic you are shoot at the top corners...hehehe Good luck chuck.
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This is an awesome drill.

You can even modify it for a great side pocket workout just by using those little hole reinforcers. You know, the little sticky circles with a hole in them. Just drop on where you want, and do the same thing you did for the corner pockets.
 
8pack said:
.....................................
This drill can be like that bolt that won,t come lose and you can barely
reach it.


(It might make you say bad word's)lol
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Might?????! Come clean!! This is really a test to see if a person is a masochist right? Either that, or it's a test to see how quickly a person's hair can turn grey and fall out...... :wink:

td
 
twal said:
I think that 300 game looks like fun as well. I see it is broken down to 5 "frames" so this would move a little faster.
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It is fun! My son and I played with Royce in the Pool-300 league last session. We both improved each week and had a great time!
 
Brainwash Drill

The best drill I've ever tried is the "BrainWash" drill. Not as finicky as doing straight 'line' drills where you have to set it up in a line if you stuff it up.
Easy to setup, scatter balls randomly and pot each one without hitting another object ball AND rail. Sounds simple, but it really isn't.

The drill makes akes you very away of stun and slight follow through shots with the cue ball, and most importantly cue ball placement.

Here's one of me doing one a couple months ago.
http://youtu.be/2dnrPU12PzI
 
Here is a good drill for getting yourself in stroke and working on your draw shot position.

Shot each ball into a corner pocket then draw the cue back to the center of the table. You will quickly learn the value of getting on the right side of the "line" for a shot.

BTW this is Bert Kinister's Mighty X drill.

CueTable Help

 
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stevo_12v said:
The best drill I've ever tried is the "BrainWash" drill. Not as finicky as doing straight 'line' drills where you have to set it up in a line if you stuff it up.
Easy to setup, scatter balls randomly and pot each one without hitting another object ball AND rail. Sounds simple, but it really isn't.

The drill makes akes you very away of stun and slight follow through shots with the cue ball, and most importantly cue ball placement.

Here's one of me doing one a couple months ago.
http://youtu.be/2dnrPU12PzI
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Stevo:

To be honest, the drill you show in that video is made a heck of a lot easier because of the very slow nap cloth inherently found on English Blackball tables (like the one you're playing on in the video). The cue ball in your video almost appears as if it had adhesive on it, as it rapidly comes to a stop on non-stopshots (e.g. where you had an angle).

However, your point is very sound, in that this drill on a regular pool table with worsted cloth (not nap cloth) should prove quite a challenge. Especially a small table (e.g. bar box / 7-footer).

Great drill for cue ball control, and for spotting stop-shot patterns for use in e.g. 14.1!

-Sean
 
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I will do drills and find them useful but you also have to learn how to play the game. I entered a tournament and seen this player doing the "L" drill. He looked like a world class player and he appeared to be one of the top players. The problem was he couldn't play worth a darn. If the tournament was doing the "L" drill he would have won but his shot selection and other CB control skills were lacking. It was as if he had the pattern and control to do the drill but couldn't do anything else. While it is good to practice drills you need to mix them up understand how that skill applies to the game otherwise you will just become skilled at doing that drill.


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I have a large collection of drills from various sources, including info I've found on the internet and from many books and DVDS - Joe Tucker, Bert Kinister, Pro Skills Drills, etc. Certainly too many to list here, and I kind of rotate through them as I'm trying to work on various things - shotmaking, position play, etc.

I really like the PAT stuff as well, the books/DVDs are worth it, lot of good drills plus self adjusting for various levels of play by increasing balls or distances. Some of the drills are on youtube with Thorsten and others demonstrating.

Scott
 
TheBook said:
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I will do drills and find them useful but you also have to learn how to play the game. I entered a tournament and seen this player doing the "L" drill. He looked like a world class player and he appeared to be one of the top players. The problem was he couldn't play worth a darn. If the tournament was doing the "L" drill he would have won but his shot selection and other CB control skills were lacking. It was as if he had the pattern and control to do the drill but couldn't do anything else. While it is good to practice drills you need to mix them up understand how that skill applies to the game otherwise you will just become skilled at doing that drill.


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Lol. The L drill? I rather play checkers with my grandmother.
 
Cdryden said:
Here is a good drill for getting yourself in stroke and working on your draw shot position.

Shot each ball into a corner pocket then draw the cue back to the center of the table. You will quickly learn the value of getting on the right side of the "line" for a shot.

BTW this is Bert Kinister's Mighty X drill.

CueTable Help

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I did this drill a long time ago and a real player slapped me on the back of the head and told me to get on a table with real cloth. When I got on fast cloth, the cue ball got loose every time. It's almost like trying to find a stroke that is never needed or only rarely needed. And if you ever fall into that spot, you did something wrong.....why setup for another shot in the same manner? Just my thoughts.
 
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sfleinen said:
Stevo:

To be honest, the drill you show in that video is made a heck of a lot easier because of the very slow nap cloth inherently found on English Blackball tables (like the one you're playing on in the video). The cue ball in your video almost appears as if it had adhesive on it, as it rapidly comes to a stop on non-stopshots (e.g. where you had an angle).
-Sean
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Sean,

I'd love to see you do the same, exact spec drill(same colours/spots-strips, then black last) on an English type competition size(7ft) table with slow cloth. Those shots I took in most of that video are 'kill shots' or very gentle follow through shots.

Heck for me to do this drill on an american 9 ball table would be way easier as you don't need precise aim to pocket those object balls, the angled cuts allow you 'cheat' those pockets.
 
TheBook said:
...If the tournament was doing the "L" drill he would have won but his shot selection and other CB control skills were lacking. It was as if he had the pattern and control to do the drill but couldn't do anything else. While it is good to practice drills you need to mix them up understand how that skill applies to the game otherwise you will just become skilled at doing that drill.
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Good example of someone who is afraid to not do well and sticks to only what they know they can accomplish. If you want to excel, you have to practice the things you're not good at. The IPAT drills are an excellent improvement tool and move you from one skill to the next in an effort to improve your ability to play.

Simply mastering one drill won't make you a good player, it will make good at one drill. FastMikie has several of the IPAT drills available on YouTube. Anyone who wants to improve their game should give them a try, in order, and not just jump to one you know you can do. Even 1-1, the speed drill, can be challenging when trying to keep the ball within its lane at longer distances. I use 1-1 through to 1-5b to warm up.
 
The Chinchilla said:
This is the type of post i come here for. Good stuff man.

I watched thorsten hohman do a drill on youtube the other night. Has anybody ever seen Rocky 4, the one where he beats the russian. The way they trained the russian in that move was like the spitting image of thorten's "training" lol


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnD0O3fw6Ls
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Now that you put it that way, I guess drills are suppose to bring up similar situations during game play. But I'm not sure if it is the case...maybe to an extent. I can put in 8 hour days at the table, and still get drilled by the top 25% locals, so all my practicing really does nothing to improve my game. If I ever line up balls its because I want them close to each other so I don't have to travel too much or retrieve them.
 
The one problem I have with drills is they can be soooo boring. So I don't do the L drills or any of those types of drills anymore. I messed around with them for years and I didn't really see any improvement. Although I can't say I worked on them diligently. I mean, how could I? They were so boring. Anyway, I try to do things that are more exciting now. Things that can get you all pumped up about pool. The sort of feeling you got when you first started playing and you fell in love with the game.

If you’re not having fun while you’re practicing what's the point? I know I've unlocked my own secret for improvement and that has been focusing on putting the balls in the pocket. I know that's real profound stuff there - right? Shoot shots that are right outside your comfort zone and figure out how to put them in the hole. Once you do that - do it again - then do it again. Then what happens is you say to yourself - "Holy crap I can freakin' make those shots after all! (Some of you may use different words but you get the point). Somewhere along the path we told ourselves that we weren't capable of potting certain shots but why did we tell ourselves that lie? You start making shots that you previously had trouble with and you slip into that state where you could play for hours.

I think it is in these sorts of states that our games can actually jump up a notch. It's cheating. It's bypassing hours and hours of drills with all their monotony. If you can get yourself into the zone you become much more in tune with what you are doing. Your sense of feel is increased exponentially. All the little movements that you are making when you stroke the ball are so much easier to burn into our muscle memory when we are in this state. So, how do you get into the zone? Is it by practicing very rigid cue ball control? Not for me. It's slamming the balls into the pockets!

Okay, I'll calm down now. MAN I LOVE THIS GAME!!!

In twenty years or so I'm going to be writing my book - "Unconventional Methods for Playing Great Pool."

This is not something that I'm looking to argue about. This is just one of my own little personal truths about the game. I have nothing but my own experience to base my ramblings on, but I have a strong hunch I know what I'm talking about - just this once.
 
I like to practice 9 and 10 ball without using the side pockets. It forces you to play pinpoint shape with perfect angle, especially on the balls in the middle of the table. Then when you start using all the pockets again, its seems too easy!
 
The closest thing to a drill I'll do is short rail cuts from the outfield. Just in case some knucklehead misplays a safe....and expects to get back to the table.

rotation breaks. One pocket breaks and runout...but even that is boring now. It sounds boring but you get to a point that it dosen't seem boring anymore. It's actually fun to rack and hammer a few balls. I do this when no one is around because its embarrassing to jump the cueball 4-5 tables sometimes.
 
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