A Bit of Practice - The L Drill

This weekend was pretty low-key.  I was supposed to have a friendly match with my brother in law, but he had his wisdom teeth removed earlier in the week and wasn't feeling up to playing; which I completely understand.  So, I went to the hall anyway and decided to do some work.

I warmed up with my new "usual" warmup exercise (see the Warm Up Drill video in a previous post), a few times around the table.  Then AJ asked if I cared to shoot a few games - sure.  So we played a while, then it got busy and he went to help at the counter.  Amongst all of the games, somewhere I found myself out of line and was jawing every other ball.  So, during this break, I did a stop-shot drill at varying distances along the long rail.  After that, I tried the "L" drill for the first time:

I did the drill on each corner.  Well, lets just say I worked through each ball in the drill on each corner.  I was unable to successfully run the balls in order without missing, all 9 in a row - but I never expected me to do that anyway.  My position play is decent - meaning I know where I want the CB to go, and generally how to get it there - but my speed control is lacking and I tend to overrun position.  When I try to combat that, I underrun by a significant amount.  Of course, the 2nd time I shoot the shot, I'm usually able to get it just about right.  Having the first shot as a guide is great - and I do learn from it - but it's very frustrating to so consistently come up short or long on a shot - and so rarely exactly on the spot.

I think I found this drill to be easier than the 9 balls down the center of the table drill.  Maybe because I was only working with one pocket? Or Maybe because getting position up the center line is easier for shorter distances?  I do know this ... by the time I was rounding the corner of the "L" my position was around the 1st diamond past the side-pocket (too far away).  This happened nearly every time I tried this drill.  Which inevitably led me, in an attempt to correct this, to come short on the last 2 balls.   It's strange, even the 4th time through the drill, I still managed to make the same mistakes - even while thinking that I can correct them.  *shrug*

My "shot of the night" was actually 2 shots back to back.  The situation: 9-ball game, opponent has left me half-hooked for the 5 ball.  I know I can hit this ball with a slight masse around the blocker - I think maybe if I'm lucky I'll make it, but I'll definitely hit it.  Well... I made it!  But, then the ball creeps on over to hide behind the 9 ball - hooking me for the 6.  It's essentially the same shot, so I line up, jack up, and pull the trigger ... and to my amazement, and those watching, I make that one as well!!  Here's the layout:

I quickly threw this layout together, and the 9 might not be in the exact spot.  It was only a half-ball (at most) blocker.








I spent the rest of the night playing one of the employees, making some good shots - working on safety plays rather than attacking all the time.  It was a good time.

Bullet has been bitten

So, today I went to the hall, as usual, with every intention on buying a break cue.  As luck would have it, the sales guy was on the phone when I entered, so I just grabbed some balls and went to shoot around for a bit.  Then Morris's game ended with someone else so he and I got together.  I haven't played him in a while and with my own perception of my game improving I was curious to see how I'd do.  Normally when we play, lets say we play 9 racks, I might win 2.  So... it's kind of a goal for me to break even at least.  Not surprising, coming on cold like that, he took the first 2 racks - finally my turn to break. But wait! I don't have a cue. *sigh* So I hurry on over to the counter and ask Chris for one of the cues I tried the other day; he tells me he got some others in today if I wanted to look at those as well.  I found a 19oz jump/break version of one of the ones I had been thinking about previously anyway.  So, I grabbed it, chalked it and broke and excellent break.  The day went on and we went back forth with tough shots and barely missed shots.  Overall, I think I won 5, but I know he won at least 9.  So... better? Maybe.  oh! I even got to try jumping a ball! :)  I know he didn't approve, but it wasn't very far away.  I said I had to try the cue to it's fullest potential and he said he needs to go move his car. HA!  I said not to worry, I probably won't make it over the blocking ball.  It turns out that I did, and had I lined it up a little better I would've banked that 1-ball right in the corner.  *sigh*  I'm pretty happy with just getting over the damn ball!

The best part of the day, in my opinion, was him complimenting me on the improvement of my game.  That was pretty cool. :)

I made three kick shots, one of them on the 9 even.  Well, technically, I made 5, but when the CB is dead straight along the rail into the OB sitting in the pocket and coming slightly off the rail first doesn't really mean "kick" to me.  But, technically, it is.  I also made a pretty nice masse shot - and the biggest example of applying some of the knowledge I picked up came when I a straight, full ball only view of the 1 ball just off the rail. I was basically surrounding by balls that prevented me from hitting the OB off-center to make it.  So, I lined up to hit the ball straight on, but with slow-medium speed and using hard right english.  The slow speed combined with the spin "threw" the ball straight down the rail into the pocket.  I could've also shot a masse into it, but the distance was longer that I have been able to control thus far.

Overall it was a pretty good day!  Except I noticed my left shoulder hurt quite a bit on my first shots of the day - hrmm.  Pool injuries are waiting in my future I think. :(

Simple Masse/Curve Shot

The last week or two I've been finding myself in semi-snookered positions (meaning there's a blocking ball between the cue call and the object ball).  Luckily, I found some videos which address what I'm calling a simple masse, others call it a curve shot.  However, none of those videos gave detailed instructions on exactly where to aim to get around or what kind of return you would get.  I've basically just been 'winging it' - with fairly pleasing results.

I was, just now, browsing around the apaleagues channel on youtube and found this:


This is a perfect example of what I've been working on/with lately.  I still haven't been able to get extreme masse action yet - meaning a hard curve with speed and/or power.  Playing mostly slow to medium these days though.