Your Recommended Practice Drills for 9ft Table

Callaghan

Callaghan

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
I've searched the forum here and have a few good ideas, but I wanted to get some fresh input on good practice drills for 9ft table play. I've just come back to pool after a lot of years away. Spent all my time in the past on 7ft and 8ft boxes. Recently made the bucket list GC1 9ft purchase and now find myself basically playing what feels like a new game. Looking for good drill/practice ideas to groove stroke mechanics as well as drills that will help with cue ball placement (seems like every leave is now on a rail). Thank you all for the time!
 
I know one of Willie Mosconi's used to like to do was shoot diagonally into the corner pockets. He also like shooting the balls very hard to the corners from 6-7+ away.

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When I go to the pool room I rent three tables. Sometimes I like the tables close, some times I like have a measured number of paces between tables. Sometimes I carry the cue, sometimes its laying and waiting for my stroke.

Then I rotate positions for each table this way I can have a shooting sequence of at most 21 shots.

I preset CB and OB dummies, then fire away.

There are a ton of military style shooting exercises if you like firearms competitions. Just adapt it to the pool table.

Spend the money and goto the room. It is important to practice in an observed or proctored environment.

Otherwise people make up 714 stories.
 
Callaghan said:
I've searched the forum here and have a few good ideas, but I wanted to get some fresh input on good practice drills for 9ft table play. I've just come back to pool after a lot of years away. Spent all my time in the past on 7ft and 8ft boxes. Recently made the bucket list GC1 9ft purchase and now find myself basically playing what feels like a new game. Looking for good drill/practice ideas to groove stroke mechanics as well as drills that will help with cue ball placement (seems like every leave is now on a rail). Thank you all for the time!
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Appleton, Feijen, Gorst all have great drill routines.
 
Progressive x-ball:
  • rack 5 balls
  • break
  • BiH
  • run out in one inning
  • if you make it: +1, if not -1
  • if you get to +5, you add a ball
  • if you get to -5, you take a ball away
  • early nine counts, nine on the break gets respotted
  • whatever else goes down on the break, stays down
You can do this for hours. It's harder than it sounds. Brings back your stamina. And if you want to get past 6 balls you really need to think 3 balls ahead. It also gives you a general feeling of where you stand, like being "stuck" at 8 balls and a score of +1 or +2. You will see yourself edging forward over time.

+1 for Niels Feijen's youtube channel
 
My favorite for grooving your stroke is the Mighty-X drill - long straight stops, follows, and draws. It will expose any flaws in your stroke, tip position, or aim. My home table has clear donuts on the diagonals at every diamond for easy setup at any distance (aligned with a laser to center pocket so I can be certain they’re perfectly straight). Jennifer Barretta said this is the only drill she does:


My favorite for CB control (and pocketing cut shots with sidespin) is the Centerfield drill (it’s addicting, requires frequent inside and outside english to get back in shape, and much harder than it looks to get a high run without missing). Plus returning to center table for shape happens frequently in games:


Those are basically the only drills I do these days. Otherwise I’m playing 9-ball ghost. I’ll change the OB ball positions around for the Centerfield drill sometimes, to along the rail or further towards the center, for variety.
 
One drill I enjoy a lot is to place some (I do 3 or 4 usually) small rectangular pieces of paper (around the same size as a pool ball, or slightly larger) anywhere on the table, rack 15 balls, break them (if you pot balls on the break, I usually just throw them on the table, so it's always 15 left) and then try to pot balls in any order such that you try to play shape with CB to land inside any of the paper pieces. +1 point for every shot where the OB is pocketed and CB lands inside a paper piece. -1 if you fail to pot a ball. -2 and BIH from scratching.

It's a tough drill, hard to even get a score of 2 or 3 even though 15 is the maximum. Obviously depends on the size, position and amount of paper pieces.

I like it because it forces you to play for exact points instead of just good lines or zones, so you can't get lazy with your speed control, and you have to be really precise with your spin and speed selection. Also, with the visual feedback of the paper pieces showing how far off you were and in what direction, you get instant feedback for how you visualized or executed something wrong.
 
Wow; these are superb suggestions. Enough here to keep me going for a long time. Big thanks to everyone here; and all before 3pm!
 
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DeadStick said:
My favorite for grooving your stroke is the Mighty-X drill - long straight stops, follows, and draws. It will expose any flaws in your stroke, tip position, or aim. My home table has clear donuts on the diagonals at every diamond for easy setup at any distance (aligned with a laser to center pocket so I can be certain they’re perfectly straight). Jennifer Barretta said this is the only drill she does:


My favorite for CB control (and pocketing cut shots with sidespin) is the Centerfield drill (it’s addicting, requires frequent inside and outside english to get back in shape, and much harder than it looks to get a high run without missing). Plus returning to center table for shape happens frequently in games:


Those are basically the only drills I do these days. Otherwise I’m playing 9-ball ghost. I’ll change the OB ball positions around for the Centerfield drill sometimes, to along the rail or further towards the center, for variety
Click to expand...
Oh yes…..these drills are already making a difference. I’m laughing because I’ve come across some long tables with the large faint chalk Xs in the middle and wondered what’s up with it. Thanks again.
 
garczar said:
Appleton 'single ball' drill. Looks easy, its not.
DA running 50 in this drill is SPORTY folks.
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So I gave this drill a try tonight with the must-hit-a-rail rule for a half hour or so, just before my ball cleaner incident. I used a hole protector sticker in the center so there was no chance of cheating ball placement.

Love it! It doesn’t have quite as much variety of shots as some, like the Centerfield drill, as I found I had to play nearly every shot with varying amounts of inside english, and somewhere between top (rolling) and just above center (stun forward).

But holy hell did it get me grooving on inside english shots hit with some pace. I felt like CJ Wiley on steroids, adjusting my cut thickness while down by the amount of inside I gave it to thin it up, all by feel. The cuts were just incredibly clean for the most part. Might be a WOOD (golf slang for Works Only One Day), but damn I may start playing a LOT more inside english in my patterns. When I tried low outside a few times, it felt weird and much more difficult to get the speed right (because of drawing vs rolling CB I think).

You’re right about it being tough. Averaged only about 7, had a high run of 13. What stopped me usually was landing short leaving a long thin cut requiring nearly max inside, or landing too straight and thick and having to pound it to get it off the end rail. But I’ll stick with it as my third regular drill, along with Mighty-X and Centerfield.
 
Mighty X

Appleton has another drill where he sets a ball on the foot spot and one on the head spot and goes back and forth, shooting them into the corner pockets. I also just like to put two balls anywhere on the table and practice shooting them in. Another drill I do is seeing a ball on the foot spot and shooting it into the corner from the head string, moving the cue ball across the table about 6" each shot. Then I go the other way, into the other corner. Move the object ball 6-8" towers the center of the table and repeat.
 
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