What to practice NEXT?

L

Landplayer

Registered
Most of my practice times are used to practice two things: the fundamentals and “L-drill”.

I practice the fundamentals by shooting straight-in shoots. That’s fine and I have no questions for that. For the “L-drill”, I can see the improvement that I add more balls to the drill as I become good at it.

My question is, what should I practice NEXT? There are thousands of drills, but I believe the “quality” is much more important that the “quantity”, so I rather practice/focus on a few drills at one time than doing many together.

Can you give me just a couple of drills which are very important and can help to improve the game after I complete the L-drill? (In other words, they're the "must-practice-drills".)
 
Last edited:
Landplayer said:
Most of my practice times are used to practice two things: the fundamentals and “L-drill”.

I practice the fundamentals by shooting straight-in shoots. That’s fine and I have no questions for that. For the “L-drill”, I can see the improvement that I add more balls to the drill as I become good at it.

My question is, what should I practice NEXT? There are thousands of drills, but I believe the “quality” is much more important that the “quantity”, so I rather practice/focus on a few drills at one time than doing many together.

Can you give me just a couple of drills which are very important and can help to improve the game after I complete the L-drill? (In other words, they're the "must-practice-drills".)
Click to expand...

Stop, Draw, and follow shots...with your focus on not only making your shot, but pinpoint placement of the cue ball following the shot.
If you have ever worked with an SPF instructor, you know it as MD#6.

Steve
 
I beleive like most players do that practice is important. For myself I get bored just doing the regular drills. Personally I think it's more useful to practice in more like game situations. Here's one little thing I like to do.

Throw all the balls on the table, spread them out with no ball touching. Take ball in hand and shoot them all in. (Easy right) Now do it without the cue ball bumping into another ball. This (drill) I guess has help me with the one thing the will destroy a run out and thats bumping into balls when you don't want to.

Me and one of my buds sometimes play this. We do 10 racks each and count all balls made.
 
whatsupsport said:
I beleive like most players do that practice is important. For myself I get bored just doing the regular drills. Personally I think it's more useful to practice in more like game situations. Here's one little thing I like to do.

Throw all the balls on the table, spread them out with no ball touching. Take ball in hand and shoot them all in. (Easy right) Now do it without the cue ball bumping into another ball. This (drill) I guess has help me with the one thing the will destroy a run out and thats bumping into balls when you don't want to.

Me and one of my buds sometimes play this. We do 10 racks each and count all balls made.
Click to expand...

You can also do the same thing but create a few clusters that you have to break up to complete your run out. This is effective in 8 ball particularly.
 
Landplayer said:
Most of my practice times are used to practice two things: the fundamentals and “L-drill”.

I practice the fundamentals by shooting straight-in shoots. That’s fine and I have no questions for that. For the “L-drill”, I can see the improvement that I add more balls to the drill as I become good at it.

My question is, what should I practice NEXT? There are thousands of drills, but I believe the “quality” is much more important that the “quantity”, so I rather practice/focus on a few drills at one time than doing many together.

Can you give me just a couple of drills which are very important and can help to improve the game after I complete the L-drill? (In other words, they're the "must-practice-drills".)
Click to expand...

Try Blackjack Dave Sapolis's drill "The Center of the Universe" or circle drill..It is very challenging!!
 
Blackjack, is there any chance those drills are described and illustrated on your website, such that they could be printed and taken to the pool room? (For those of us who don't have a room at home.) I've looked and don't seem to find them there, but that could just be me. :p

Thanks
 
justadub said:
Blackjack, is there any chance those drills are described and illustrated on your website, such that they could be printed and taken to the pool room? (For those of us who don't have a room at home.) I've looked and don't seem to find them there, but that could just be me. :p

Thanks
Click to expand...

Gimme about an hour and I will post them up. I have diagrams for all of them somewhere. All of these drills are either from my book Lessons in 9 ball (available at Lulu.com) or my book Straight Pool for Crooked Strokes (currently unpublished). Lessons in 9 Ball has over 30 drills, plus a section on Practice Outs and Practice Shots - and an entire section dedicated to practicing safeties. It's $25 plus shipping thru Lulu - or $13 for the e-book download. The straight pool book has been finished for over a year - still undecided as to what I want to do with it because I started putting a lot of it on video to make a DVD - which seemed more practical. I'm not sure if I want to sell a DVD and book. LOL
 
whatsupsport...What you describe is "practicing playing", not disciplined practice. You can practice playing 24/7 and you may or may not improve. Disciplined practice (something like pooltcher described) is completely different, and when done correctly generates big dividends.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

whatsupsport said:
I beleive like most players do that practice is important. For myself I get bored just doing the regular drills. Personally I think it's more useful to practice in more like game situations. Here's one little thing I like to do.

Throw all the balls on the table, spread them out with no ball touching. Take ball in hand and shoot them all in. (Easy right) Now do it without the cue ball bumping into another ball. This (drill) I guess has help me with the one thing the will destroy a run out and thats bumping into balls when you don't want to.

Me and one of my buds sometimes play this. We do 10 racks each and count all balls made.
Click to expand...
 
justadub said:
Blackjack, is there any chance those drills are described and illustrated on your website, such that they could be printed and taken to the pool room? (For those of us who don't have a room at home.) I've looked and don't seem to find them there, but that could just be me. :p

Thanks
Click to expand...

These are some that I was able to find - I have the 3 rows of 5 somewhere - I'll add them if I find them.

The Crucifix
The_Crucifix.JPG



3 Rows of 3 - Level 1
3_rowsof3_level_1.JPG


3 Rows of 3 - Level 2
3_rowsof3_level_2.JPG


3 Rows of 3 - Level 3
3_rowsof3_level_3.JPG


The Center of the Universe
Center_of_the_Universe.JPG


The T Drill
http://deadstrokeuniversity.com/images/T-Drill.JPG
 
My friend had a circle rack similiar to this that included all 15 balls. The rules were to stay in the circle, shoot the balls wherever. If/when you miss - start over, cue ball out of the circle - start over, touch another ball - start over.

I think my speed jumped about a full ball after practicing with that evil thing. I only completed it 3 times, playing nonstop for those 12 hours on a super tight GC4. :banghead:

That was one of the most frustrating/rewarding drills I have ever done. Great for fine tune cue ball control, controlling shot speed, and nuances of english, etc.

Thanks to everyone for sharing all the drills!!

Circle Drill
Drill_CircleDrill.jpg
 
Drills

Practice Stop, Draw, Follow, replacement shots.

Start 1 diamond away from the object ball (straight in to the pocket):
Do 5 stop shots
Do 5 replacement shots (cue ball drift to the same location the object ball was in)
Do 5 shots where you draw back 1 diamond
Do 5 follow shots where you follow up 1 diamond

Then once you can consistantly do that, you can try drawing/following 2 diamonds, then 3, then 4...

Then when you get that consistant, place the object ball 2 diamonds away and go through the whole routine again. After that go 3 diamonds away, then 4, then 5...

If you get all of that pretty good, try to do all of the above with a good medium stroke on every single one of the shots, just get the position with how high/low you cue the cueball.
 
whatsupsport said:
I beleive like most players do that practice is important. For myself I get bored just doing the regular drills. Personally I think it's more useful to practice in more like game situations. Here's one little thing I like to do.

Throw all the balls on the table, spread them out with no ball touching. Take ball in hand and shoot them all in. (Easy right) Now do it without the cue ball bumping into another ball. This (drill) I guess has help me with the one thing the will destroy a run out and thats bumping into balls when you don't want to.

Me and one of my buds sometimes play this. We do 10 racks each and count all balls made.
Click to expand...

I usually do this, too.......but I shoot the balls in rotation.

I also like to shoot with the goal of bumping the next ball, but with precision...in order to continue my run. This is very helpful when you are playing a game and you need to break out clustered balls. This skill will enable you to turn a low percentage run out table, into a high percentage run out table.
 
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