Pieces Of Eight - Tip Of The Week

Number: 65 Jim Tellier September 2012

TOPIC: Shoot softly --- and carry a Big Stick!

CATEGORY: All Skill Levels

INTRODUCTION:

Most, if not all, beginners playing pool tend to blast the heck out of the ball. I often wondered why, until somebody confessed to me that he was just playing a hit and hope kind of game! If you hit the balls hard enough, something might go into a pocket! OMG. Im so happy to say were all well advanced beyond THAT kind of thinking! BUT, nevertheless, most of us still tend to hit shots with more speed or power than really necessary, at least Some of the time. Why? What can we do about this? Why should we care?

TECHNIQUE:

For a lot of players, the mechanics of an accurate stroke dont seem to work as well for a soft shot, as they might for a medium speed shot. Theres a gray area there for some players, and if you find yourself having accuracy problems shooting softly, but you believe that you make more of your shots by using more speed, then what you really want to work on is your stroke. In a game situation, there are going to be times that you must hit the shot with more speed than needed to pocket the ball; usually the only real justification for that is to get position on the next shot. HINT: try to see patterns of shots that will require the least amount of cue ball movement. In that way, you can minimize the speed required for each shot. This improves your chances of a) making the shot and b) getting the desired shape on the next one!

PRACTICE:

Practice long, straight in shots, like the diagonal of the table, rolling the cue ball forward until it just stops short of following the object ball into the pocket. Do this with varying ball-to-pocket and ball-to-ball distances.

Throw a few balls out on the table. Shoot each one, ONLY with enough speed to send the object ball TO the pocketso if you miss, it will hang in the pocket. Make the shot, then shoot the next one in the same way. Forget about playing position for this exercisejust take each shot from where the CB lands after the last shotand pay attention to that ball speed. This works on several skills at once, so I would call it an Intermediate drill. But its worthwhile no matter what your skill level, since it will show what you need to pay more attention to.

Shoot well, and keep your opponent in his chair!

Capn Carom

ARRRR!!!! J