What do you think of my practice drills?

mattman

mattman

Registered User
Silver Member
Ok...here are 5 drills that I have been working on the most. The one pictured below is actually 3 of the drills titled, stop, draw and follow. The CB is placed 2 diamonds off the foot rail. The one ball one diamond past it and lined up with the corner pocket. For a "ball 1" stop shot, the CB must land within the circle outlined. For a "ball 1-draw1", I must draw the CB not onto the paper, but the square that the paper is placed in. For a "ball 1-follow 1" shot, I must follow to square that the paper is placed on (to the right of the 2 ball).

I award myself 1/2 point for making the ball and 1/2 point for landing within the targeted area. I shoot the shot 20 times, for a possible 20 points. The drills are progressive. For example, if I succeed a "ball1-draw1" shot drill, then I shoot a "ball 2-draw1" shot...where the CB must land between the area between the CB and the 1 ball, pictured below. If you fail to score at least 15 points out of the possible 20, you move one step down. These might seem elementry, but at the same time doing the drills, I am working on my pre-shot routine. Once I become fairly consistant, I can always make the targeted areas smaller. They help with aiming, tip position, CB control and speed control as well.

If anybody is interested, I have these drills and the other two, that I will be including later, in .xls format. If you are interested, just PM me your email address and I will share.

What do you think?
Mattman
 

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Aiming Drill

In the picture you see where the 1 balls is placed (on the foot line). To the right of the one ball are 2 quarters. You can use 2 balls, but if you miss as often as I do, quarters work better. Place the CB between the 2 quarters. Object is to make the CB travel to rail and back through the 2 quarters without hitting them. If I can do this 15 of 20 times, then move quarters down (towards 2 ball) diamonds. If you complete that one, then move them to the orginal spot, but not you must strike two rails and back through the quarters. Each time you fail, move down one step.
 

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Speed Drill

This is just a simple speed drill that I work on. Place the CB on the line going through the foot spot. CB must conact end rail and come back to ball 1, plus or minus 1 diamond....and so on. Not progressive, but good practice and I do keep a score. There are 5 speeds to this test. #4 is the hardest for me.
 

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video

How about a video for us non visual people.Looks pretty good though from what I can surmise.
 
mattman said:
What do you think?
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These are pretty close to shots 1, 2, and 3 from Hennings Pro Book. I believe that you must master these draw and follow speeds to have any chance at being a good shape player.

Dave
 
Dude, there are "crop circles" on your table. Any aliens land?

Seriously though, I'm going to try your drills tonight. Good post.
 
alstl said:
In a set of equal offense on a 9' table, what is you average score?
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Couldn't tell ya....never played it. I have heard of the game, but that's about it.
 
seymore15074 said:
Seems a little excessive to me.
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I know the definition of excessive, but I don't understand what you mean. In you opinion, what kind of drill is not excessive?
 
mattman said:
Couldn't tell ya....never played it. I have heard of the game, but that's about it.
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Rack the balls like you would for 8 ball. Break and spot any balls made on the break in the same way that you would spot balls in 14.1. Take ball in hand behind the headstring, you can't shoot a ball in the kitchen on your first shot, and start running balls. If you make 14 balls, you rack and try to break open the rack like you would in 14.1. A perfect score for one inning is 20. When you get to 20 or if you miss a ball before you get to 20, that game is over. rack the balls and do it again.

Keep track of your score for each game, one set is 10 games. It's a good way to develop shotmaking skills, cueball control and breaking out clusters. You might already be beyond that, but maybe it would help your game a little.
 
mattman said:
Couldn't tell ya....never played it. I have heard of the game, but that's about it.
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There used to be on-line tournaments, a bunch of guys at a table by a computer and away they went, and compared scores to others around the world.

There is a game posted in the Tournaments section Drivermaker forum that is also a good barometer of your offensive play. Speaking of which, it's getting close to October and that means Thanksgiving and that means another DRIVERMAKER WOOHOO !

Dave, speaking of Canadian Thanksgiving :D
 
I feel that the best way is just running out 9-ball. If you miss, take out any balls made and start over. You'll find some shots that you might find overly difficult, replay those shots a few times and force yourself to shoot those shots. Pretend you're playing a real game, if it helps rerack when you miss and break and run out.

Edit - The reason why I feel that 9-ball is important to practice is because you are forced to set up for one OB, instead of having multiple balls to shoot at.
 
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Neil said:
They are good, but if you keep doing them from the same spots, you are going towear your cloth out in those areas way ahead of time. I suggest you get some paper hole reinforcements and shift around to different areas. That will also help train your mind for when those shots are not in that exact setup.
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Yea....I have been thinking the same thing. I already have a couple holes in the cloth, but not from where I have been practicing. The foot spot is one and near the head spot there is another....and the cloth is only 6 months old. I can't believe how much the camera shows crap on the table. I have brushed it since then. And yes, I know I need to run my excercises from different areas of the table and not only because of the cloth wear.

I did read the rules to equal offense and it sounds very similar to the Hopkins game that I play often.

Thanks for all the input.
Mattman
 
third_i said:
I feel that the best way is just running out 9-ball. If you miss, take out any balls made and start over. You'll find some shots that you might find overly difficult, replay those shots a few times and force yourself to shoot those shots. Pretend you're playing a real game, if it helps rerack when you miss and break and run out.

Edit - The reason why I feel that 9-ball is important to practice is because you are forced to set up for one OB, instead of having multiple balls to shoot at.
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I'm all about practicing racks like this, too. The shots you end up practicing most are the shots that you end up getting the most often...that's the best way to go.

I guess what I don't like about these drills is that they are too perticular. So you master drawing a ball back 2 diamonds or 3 diamonds on command; how often do you really do this? Is it practical? I'm sure these things could help speed control, but I'm not so sure if the "value added" is worth the effort.
 
seymore15074 said:
So you master drawing a ball back 2 diamonds or 3 diamonds on command; how often do you really do this?
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You're kidding, right ? The answer to your question is "all the time" so it is extremely important to practice it. That's why it is shot #3 in the Pro Book (#1 is the stop shot, #2 is straight follow).

Now to the practice session and how to improve. You need to play a single shot repeatedly with objective observation and specific adjustments in order to groove a shot, put in your motor-memory, make it your own, or any other cliche. Once you have a large repertoire of shots learned the repetitious way you can practice just running racks, but normal people should practice specific shots repeatedly if they want to make the shot whenever it comes up in a match.

Dave
 
Efren & Bustamante

mattman said:
Yea....I have been thinking the same thing. I already have a couple holes in the cloth, but not from where I have been practicing. The foot spot is one and near the head spot there is another....and the cloth is only 6 months old. I can't believe how much the camera shows crap on the table. I have brushed it since then. And yes, I know I need to run my excercises from different areas of the table and not only because of the cloth wear.

I did read the rules to equal offense and it sounds very similar to the Hopkins game that I play often.

Thanks for all the input.
Mattman
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DRILLS WILL NOT GET YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO BE. USE THE SAME AIMNG SYSTEM THAT EFREN AND BUSTAMANTE USE.
CALL ME AT 484 623 4144
 
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