TheOne's Straight Pool 350 drill

papercut said:
Thanks a bunch for responding. I think I'm pretty stringent when it comes to rules (partly because I tend to look for the loopholes, I suppose). I like going for the aggressive shot, but seems as though one could cheat the system by just breaking up the rack and taking a "miss". Perhaps I'll incorporate my own rule where a miss followed by contact that moves, say, 3 or more balls is counted as 2 misses.

Yes but remember you're playing yourself! So who would u be cheating.....?
The idea is just to go for your shots and play to keep the run going and don't cheat, remember "youre only cheating yourself" he he ;-)
 
TheOne said:
Hey papercut, no hard and fast rules here but personally since the objective is to improve your positional game etc and its really a total offence drill then its tough, you need to try and make a ball. At least this might add a little magic to your game by trying the creative. Of course you could just push out into a better position and "waste" a miss but I can't see you learning much from that?
Good luck anyway, hope this helps
Or just crack the rack wide open if you would probably miss the tough shot... I suppose the "spirit" of this drill is to just go about it like yer actually playing 14.1, but you wouldn't safety yourself so whats the point... In the initial break do you do a wide open break, spot downed balls and take ball in hand behind the head string?

I kinda like the 10 inning drill where you go to 20 (for the record, but continue to see what yer big run is), but I see your point about reracking being a waste of time...

I will have to try this 350 drill out once before I complain anymore... :D The only thing is I can se myself be conflicted on whether I should just say screw it and crack the rack if I am missing too much (one shot to the bad for more overall success)... I would then feel like i am cheating the drill and would probably give up on it before 350...
 
for me now, 25 racks is a Hell of a lotta 14.1 in a single practice session. Back when I was first learning, probably not that much. I might cut it in half and do 12 or 15 racks. As far as a top flight 14.1 player and average misses?....I'd say Steve can do the drill with an over/under of maybe 9. A BPI average that high in a tournament is unheard of, but in a practice session, I bet he can do it, Vcash anyone?:).

As far as a the person who asked what level of player they are missing 40/50 times in 25 racks?.....uhhhh....stay with the practice drill, you'll get better quickly. If you average it out 350 divided by say 45 misses, your ball run average is 7.78, I would consider this a begginer. I'd say a good player would miss 1 shot in every 2 racks giving him an average run of 28. World class maybe, 6 or less misses. I might sound a bit harsh, but when this game is played at a top level, you don't miss much. The guy who taught me would gamble playing 80 no count, and always win! for you all that don't know what that is, if he ran 79 and missed his score is "0". He played this because if you gave him an open shot, chances are he's running out on you!...Good luck with the drill.....Gerry
 
hiya, thx for those who replied.

the how-good-ami-i question, was just because i see many players talk about A B C D class, and i had no idea what that physicaly ment.

now some answers.

i do brake the pack like in a 8ball game.

if i pot a ball and dont got good position: i dont just blow everything around. i mostly train combo shots for my 9ball game. or cussion first before contact, jump shots. whatever comes around. remember this is NOT A MATCH or NOT A STATMATCH FOR MONEY. u are practising.. the stats are just there to give u a indication of how u are improving. ofcourse i could just smack all the balls and hope one would drop , so my stats would look better.. but whats the point? when coming home, no one will give me more money because i missed less balls. its all about practice, and if u can practice jumpshots, combo's etc ull have trained shots u can use for other pool games. :eek:

if i dont pot a ball, no idea why, but i made the rule up, to not pot this ball straight away again with the new position. i just continue to play like if it was potted and pot the ball i played the position for.

missing avg 2 shots / rack doesnt sound elite, but u got some things to remember.
1/ this is a average over 25racks.. sometimes there is a rack that just is completly wrong for running out. bad brake, balls stuck together, balls plocking many pockets etc. it really hapens sometimes that i dont got a pottable ball even if i wanted, and i make a 6ball-miss-rack. meaning ill have to do 2 runing outs to keep the average at 2. ull find it out when doing the drill.

2/ your concentration level for 350 balls isnt as good as a first to 50 or 100 match. u lose concentration pritty easily. i found that with myself, my worst runs are at about 3/4 of the 350balls. the last runs are usually very good, as i know ill be driving home soon, and i want to quit the poolhall with a good feeling, so my concentration onthe last 3 4 racks is mostly high. but those right before it are hard.

i usually do 25 racks in about 1.5-2 hours. wich isnt really TO much or TO low for a practice, but exactly the amount of time i like to train in 1 day. (i do have a very quick playstile... im no mechanical player when i train, (weird but im mechanical when im playing a match).

id suggest to try it all out for 1 day, and see what your score is. good luck to all.

edit: ow one thing; to make it ever harder, u can use the rule to only be alowed to pot the ball u played for. even if u overrun it or anything. the ball u played for is the only one u are alowed to play for. (i dont use this :p to hard yet)

ps: im was doing 100misses/25 racks when i started pool, after 2 months im at 60-70. hope to do 30 misses at the end of this year... so avg for me is around doing 10 misses/ month less wich is very satisfying i think
 
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TheOne said:
Colin,
No worries mate, hope you start putting in the hours, from what I saw ou could do some damage in the IPT. I didn't really expect to be picked in the IPT after 10 years out of the game, but I still had hope. However given my lack of recent results I made the calculated risk of waiting until I had played in a few more tournaments before submitting my application - this turned out to be a mistake. However when I saw some of the names that where on the list I was dissapointed but after thinking about it its probably a blessing in disguise. I really needed to get back into my IT career after 9 months off and I was a little fed up of the hotel rooms too lol But the best reason was the one you pointed out, not being slected as far as we know isn't the end of the world. I hope to play in both the open events and taking into account the costs of the meeting etc for the international players there really isn't a big difference in cost. Of course non-members might have to win a few more matches but the best way to prove the "selecters" wrong is to beat pay your money and beat the "selected" members! So no hard feelings but I'm coming for ya Colin he he ;-)

:D
Hey Craig,
I'm also dissappointed you didn't get on the tour. I think you messed up, as you admitted. Your proven willingness to travel to tournaments as a foreigner, your Korea result and your background in 8-ball probably would have got you in if you were earlier. Anyway, at least there's a chance for you to get back in, and if you're good enough to be a top 50 player on the tour, then you should make it.

Hoping I don't get you in a first round :D Certainly hope I can meet you in the last 16 though :eek: :D

If that happens, free Shanghai Beer...on me!
 
Gerry said:
I'd say Steve can do the drill with an over/under of maybe 9.

I'd like to see Steve attempt the 350 drill. Let's get it on tape also :) ... then we can give his score to TheOne to beat!
 
hobokenapa said:
I'd like to see Steve attempt the 350 drill. Let's get it on tape also :) ... then we can give his score to TheOne to beat!

I appreciate the support, but I think that number (9) is too low, at least for how I am playing now. (On a side note, I just realized I am pretty much blind as a bat, and will be getting contacts very shortly. I'm very excited about being able to actually see what I am aiming at again, lol.)

I think averaging somewhere around 40 balls per inning in this drill is not realistic, though it can of course be done. It's a long drill, and to keep the focus over so many balls will be challenging.

I think I'd put the over/under at 15, and see how it goes. That said, I think if I were to attempt this drill 100 times, my lowest score would probably be about 5 misses and my highest about 25 misses.

I'm really very excited to try this...

- Steve
 
I think your in the ball park with your numbers Steve, I just said 9 thinking it would be a good number to shoot at. I also think this might be a great new drill to keep the concentration going through out the attempt. i know I can start to let up on the thinking end of things towards the end of my session, but if I have a new "low" miss number going, I'm gonna be bearing down like I'm gambling the mortgage payment....Gerry
 
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