Practicing With Only the Cue Ball

5/8/2008 11:46:23 AM

The other day I spent two hours practicing pool and the only ball on the table was the cue ball. Would anyone care to guess what I was doing?

Mitch Alsup on 5/8/2008 12:33:31 PM
Really only three thiings one can do with only a cue ball: a) banks b) energy/speed control c) scratching and some combinations of a and b attempting to avoid c.

Although I often play energy control shots on unfamiliar tables (cue ball only) in order to read the amount of table roll and where it might happen to be.

quickshot on 5/8/2008 5:55:03 PM
What are a girl's best friend? Diamonds. I practiced diamonds side ways and lengthways. Actually, as MItch mentioned banks. But they were all related to an individual diamond from different CB positions and speed. I was alone and it was quiet, and the practice became intensive. If I missed I would do it over and over marking in my mind whether the point was the diamond, or a little to the left or right. It was a good session and I learned a lot of things to point my practice at. I started off with the side pocket to the corner. I numbered the diamonds 10 -20 -30 and the pocket 40. Across the table I mentally numbered the in-betweens.5-15-25-35. It worked out well from awkward positions. The following night, playing straight pool, I manged to bank 3 out of 5 balls clean. The other two just nipped the edge. This is a practice I will do as a routine thing.