Get Practice Drill Results Banging Balls II

In my first post on how to get practice drill results from Banging Balls, I laid out my reasoning behind this approach and detailed 5 different ways to modify mindlessly banging balls so as to get much more out of the activity without boring yourself to death.

Today I will introduce another half dozen variations that should keep you interested for weeks to come. First, though, I want to suggest that you keep notes on your performance. An easy way to do this is to count how many strokes it takes you to remove all the balls from the table. You might find it easier, and more pressure inducing, if instead you keep track of your misses. To make it comparable from rack to rack I suggest that you eliminate any clusters and start with ball in hand at the beginning of each rack.

Record the date, which variation you’re doing and the number of shots to clear the table. When you get home, transcribe the info into your computer. After you’ve done it for awhile you’ll be able to see a trend, and if you keep at it the long term trend will undoubtedly show your improvement over time. It’s not reasonable to compare your scores for one variation to those for another because the different requirements make some variations harder than others. You can, and should compare scores within the same variation, though.

And now on to the variations themselves.

Stroke Builders

Play every shot with the cue ball on the rail. For every shot, move the cue ball to the closest rail, then shoot any ball on the table. It won’t be long before these shots won’t bother you any more because you’ll be making so many of them.

For the best accuracy keep your cue as level as possible. Learn where you can hit without miscuing and do it enough to give yourself confidence on these all to frequently occurring shots. You can make stop/stun and even draw shots from the rail, but you’ll need to elevate your cue. When you do your accuracy will go into the crapper unless you hit the cue ball on the exact vertical center line. If you don’t the cue ball will curve, and unless you’re trying to do a masse this is a very bad thing.

Play every shot over a ball. Like shooting off the rail, this drill will probably frustrate you for a few racks. Pretty soon, though, you’ll get the hang of it and with a little more effort these shots won’t be too much harder than without the obstacle.

Start out by placing an object ball 1 balls width away from your cue ball and directly behind it, so you have to cue directly over the obstacle. Cue with follow stun and draw to see what you can do with each of them. As you get used to doing this, put the obstacle ball closer and closer to the cue ball until eventually they’re touching. Sometimes put the obstacle off to one side or the other a little for a variation, but don’t cheat yourself; the whole idea of this exercise is to get comfortable with these tough shots.

Play every shot using a bridge. But you hate the bridge! I know, but do this for a few racks and you won’t hate it any more. When you spread the balls around the table for this one, put half on one end (within 2 diamonds of the end) and half on the other. Shoot any ball you want in any pocket you want, but use the bridge on every shot.

Used properly you can stroke the ball very well using a bridge, and get great follow, draw or English. It is different though, so it will take some getting used to before you have any kind of touch with it. But hey, that’s why you’re practicing, right? By eliminating your weaknesses one by one you are strengthening your whole game.

Pay attention to where you need to use the bridge, and where you’re using it just because of this exercise but could have reached the ball comfortably. If you learn the zones on the table that require you to use the bridge you can more easily stay out of them. Face it, even with this practice, using the rake will never be as comfortable as using your hand. So when you can avoid needing the bridge you can do so. Only you can decide whether to play for a closer shot that requires a bridge or a longer one that doesn’t, but you should know which you prefer.

Accuracy Builders

Play every shot as a cut to the left (right). Are you more accurate going right or left? Most people don’t know, but they should. Not so you can play around your weakness, but so you can work on it. For this variation, throw out all the balls and play every shot as a cut to the right. I know it will make for very peculiar patterns, but don’t let that bother you; we aren’t working on patterns here, just shot accuracy improvement.

Now do it again but with all shots as cuts to the left. Do you find this easier or harder? If one is harder than the other, work it until it isn’t. Please pay attention to your ability to get position. Are you finding that tougher when going left vs right too? I bet you learned something new here.

Position Builders

Play every shot with stun. When you first learned about pool you probably learned about the 90 rule, AKA the tangent rule. For cue balls that are sliding as they impact the object ball, they will leave the point of contact at 90 degrees to the direction of the object ball. Sadly, once some players learn about follow and draw they only ever use stun for stop shots from that point on. Not you. Not now.

You’re going to use stun for every shot, and get back to basics. Pay careful attention to where 90 degrees will take the cue ball, and then make sure that’s where it went. If you made the object ball, then only follow or draw will significantly affect the direction of the cue ball on its way to the first rail. Learn to pick out your spot on that 1st rail and learn to hit it with the same degree of accuracy you apply to making the object ball. As with stop shots, when it’s far from the object ball you’ll need to put just enough draw on the cue ball so that it is sliding at impact. This is much harder to learn on cut shots, which is why you need to plot out where the cue ball should go if you do it exactly right.

If you don’t hit your point, are you on the follow side or the draw side? Use that information as feedback to perfect your stun stroke. Your ability to direct the cue ball will benefit significantly, I promise.

Play every ball into a limited set of pockets. By limiting your options for where the balls can go, you increase the importance of getting the cue ball into exactly the right spot. Not only to make the ball you’re shooting at, but to make it easy to get on the next one and the one after that.

Start out by limiting yourself to half the pockets on the table, with the options being all three pockets on the same side or two corners on one side and the side pocket on the other. The next level is to cut your options to only two pockets, either both corners on one end, opposite corners (kitty corner) or both sides. When you’re ready, pick one corner pocket and make all balls in that one hole.

Playing great position is very important in this drill, but playing the balls in the right order, playing the right pattern, will make it easier. Take time to think about your approach. Clear out balls that are in the way and try to make balls in one area of the table before going to another. Be ready to move to plan B over and over, as this is quite a difficult test. But have fun, learn to move the cue ball around, and really get something out of your ball banging.

Related Posts

How to Maximize “Banging Balls”
Five Ways to Liven Up Your Practice Drills

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