Whats The Best Drills For 9 Ball?

midwest__player said:
Im not a good player but i play as much as possible and get in action when i can.But i dont know any drills besides playing the ghost any help is appreciated thanks much

Throw the 1, 2 and 3 ball on the table. Take ball in hand and pocket the 1 playing position on the 2 to play the 3. After you pocket the 1, throw the 4 ball up on the table in a random place and pocket the 2 ball... and so on.

Its a great way of building your runout skills without being overwhelmed with 9 balls on the table.
 
midwest__player said:
Im not a good player but i play as much as possible and get in action when i can.But i dont know any drills besides playing the ghost any help is appreciated thanks much
This is one I seen in a thread and went to the pool hall the next day and ran these drills,they helped out alot(link below). This is one drill a great player showed me awhile ago,throw around the 1,2,3,4 balls on the table with the leftover stripe balls(10 thru 15) also on the table and get position from one to another without touching any striped balls. There's alot out there.Hope this help's and thank's for the thread unknownpro and 1on1pooltournys. :thumbup:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126112
 
midwest__player said:
Im not a good player but i play as much as possible and get in action when i can.But i dont know any drills besides playing the ghost any help is appreciated thanks much
The ghost can be very helpful, but you need to take notes and review what you did wrong. Work on documenting and correcting your mistakes. Your training must have a purpose with a feedback loop so you can critique yourself. Video recording your sessions can help illuminate your faults. It's important that you know what to practice and how.
 
midwest__player said:
Im not a good player but i play as much as possible and get in action when i can.But i dont know any drills besides playing the ghost any help is appreciated thanks much


To play good 9 Ball you must be a good shot maker. The best 9 Ball players in the World to a single person are all great shot makers. You can't be afraid to shot difficult shots that have a percentage of being makable. The difference between the Pro's and the average A player people meet in local tournaments is their ability to run racks. Pro's do use safety play as part of their game, however, the shots they play safe on, are not the same shots that many A players would play safe upon. The A player will in many cases plays safe when under the exact same circumstances the Pro player would have shot the shot and run the rack.

So, the best practice technique you can use for yourself are those shots that give you trouble in the game of 9 ball. Build your confidants on the shots you repeatedly play safe on, shoot those shots over and over and over again. Then practice those patterns that allow you to move the cue ball freely around the table, and the shots that make up those patterns until you have complete confidants in your ability to make them.

There is no easy way to become a great shot maker or a great 9 Ball player, only Practice, Practice and more Practice will make the difference you want in your game. Along with this improving your shot making abilities instead of using safeties as a fail safe when you are afraid of a situation on the table will also help demoralize your opponent. By making the tough shots in place of playing safe, you will put your opponent on guard and once you crack your opponents armor you will achieve your goal.

Hope this helps
 
cleary said:
Throw the 1, 2 and 3 ball on the table. Take ball in hand and pocket the 1 playing position on the 2 to play the 3. After you pocket the 1, throw the 4 ball up on the table in a random place and pocket the 2 ball... and so on.

Its a great way of building your runout skills without being overwhelmed with 9 balls on the table.


it'll also give you a good idea of weather you should go for the runout or not. you can count the balls and say with 5 balls left on the table (nothing tied up) i usually get out *times out of 10
 
sk8ordie said:
This is one I seen in a thread and went to the pool hall the next day and ran these drills,they helped out alot(link below). This is one drill a great player showed me awhile ago,throw around the 1,2,3,4 balls on the table with the leftover stripe balls(10 thru 15) also on the table and get position from one to another without touching any striped balls. There's alot out there.Hope this help's and thank's for the thread unknownpro and 1on1pooltournys. :thumbup:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126112
Thanks i will try it later today when i get to the room pretty good idea
 
midwest__player said:
Im not a good player but i play as much as possible and get in action when i can.But i dont know any drills besides playing the ghost any help is appreciated thanks much

Play rotation :thumbup:
 
I'll show you the progressive practice game that Jon Kucharo showed me next time I see you at MTB. He'd start with a 9 or 10 ball rack and go up from there. He would hover in the 13-14 range. Sometimes he would have to steal a ball from another set to keep going. When I show it to you, you'll understand how strong that was.
 
There are a lot of good drills recommended here, and lots of good advice too. The important thing for you, though, is to determine what is best for your game at the current time.

Like any complex thing, a pool game must be built on a solid foundation. You said you weren't a good player. That means it's inappropriate for you to work on intermediate or advanced skills until after you have gained a level of competence over the basics.

You probably want to invest in a couple lessons to get some good, unbiased, objective advice of the state of your game and what you should work on next. Don't be disappointed if the instructor suggests working on things that appear simple to you, because mastery of the fundamentals enables you to make MUCH faster progress once you start working on the next level skills.

The things you do the most often are the things you must be able to do with the highest level of proficiency. If you cant control your speed, your follow or your draw, you'll have a very hard time getting shape. Start simple and work up.

A very good set of drills for someone at your level (probably) are Bert Kinister's short shape drills. There are numerous variations, but in each one you place the 1 through six balls in two lines of 3 at the same end of the table, either parallel to the long rails or parallel to the short rail. Each group of three has a ball just off the rail (1/4 inch), another at the intersection of the 1st diamonds, and the third ball in between. Put the balls down with the odds on one side and the evens on the other, and put them in order, sometimes outside in, and sometimes inside out (1, 3, 5 vs 5, 3, 1).

Make the 6 balls in rotation. If you miss or hit another ball you have to start over.

No shot should be difficult, since no object ball is very far from the pocket, but you'll probably find that you have to be careful not to get out of line or you won't be able to finish. I have a series of walk-throughs of these drills on my site, but you'll need to have Adobe Shockwave loaded before you can see the diagrams. That's the same software used to display the diagrams on AZ Billiards, so if you can see the diagrams here you should be good to go. Here's the table of links to the drills:

http://www.poolstudent.com/blog/short-shape/

The most important thing to do is to make sure you do the right work for your skill level. Otherwise you're not going to get very much out of the table time.
 
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