Top 10 Aim, Alignment, and STROKE DRILLS

Dr. Dave here again to demonstrate the 10 most useful

drills

to test and improve your aiming and swing

alignment

. The first drill is a very simple way to test the straightness of your swing. Simply tap directly on the cushion line of the rail to ensure the cue stays straight. the line throughout the

stroke

, if you want to use a video camera to check the straightness of the

stroke

, be sure to align the camera very carefully so that the cue is perfectly centered in the frame. For more information, check out my previous video linked in the YouTube video description.

Another easy way to test the straightness of your shot is to hit between two golf tees. Obviously, if you don't go straight, the T's will move. You can move them closer as you improve and the tees work well for any straight shot drill where the cue ball is in a fixed position. A mirror can be very useful for checking the

alignment

of the center of vision and the straightness of the shot. You can also adjust your posture and head orientation in front of the mirror to try to find a comfortable way to make your face more square with your eyes more level.

For more information and tips see the vision center and find how-to videos. find your perfect stance linked in the video description here is a good drill for beginners to practice aiming alignment in a straight line and stroke simply shoot a row of balls into the corner by bridging over the rail As always, make sure to keep the head and body as still as possible during each stroke. If you can't do 10 in a row, you may want to get help from an instructor. This exercise is called mafidat, the most famous and useful exercise of all. When the goal is to hit the cue ball up and down the table and have it return directly to the tip, it can be helpful to place a golf tee on the rail to serve as a clear target to aim for.

It is also useful to use sentry balls to demand a precise contact point on the rail. You can reduce the spaces as you improve. This is what a good hit looks like. Make sure you stay down and still until the cue ball returns to your point. This is a good way to practice and reinforce what is important. habit of not jumping on your shots if your aim is slightly to the right, the cue ball will not hit the wing target accurately and the cue ball will return to your right and the same will happen if your miss is to the left If you have good aim but you don't hit the cue ball exactly on the vertical center line, the cue ball will hit the cushion in the right place but not return directly.

The spin to the right sends the cue ball to your right and the spin to the left. to the left if you use a stripe instead of the cue ball, the stripe will remain vertical only with a very good centered hit. If you hit the cue ball even a hair off center, the stripe will wobble slightly or a lot if you really want to test your aim. Alignment and Hit Use Backspin The drag action intensifies any unintentional side spin here is a good shot that is much more difficult to achieve with backspin with just a hair of the forehand the cue ball bounces to your right and with a hair of the left the cue ball goes If all this is too easy for you, add more speed, the accuracy and consistency of the shot is generally worse with faster speed.

If you hit it very well, the cue ball will bounce off the tip towards the padded target. I didn't quite do it, but that was pretty good. Here is the first of several ball pocketing

drills

to test the alignment of your aim and stroke. First, simply set up a line of balls and place the cue ball for a straight shot on each one. The goal is to hit saved shots as best you can. If your aim is off, the cue ball will not stop in place and if you have any side spin, it will be clearly revealed.

This is why you should strive for a stopped shot so that you can clearly identify your mistakes here. My aim was off to the left. and I had a correct touch of spin as you improve, add more balls and increase the shooting distance. Try to get to the point where you can do 10 in a row from long distance. If you miss any, start again and repeat until you do all 10 without. a miss, here is a fairly easy drill to test basic cue ball control. The cue ball is in the center of the table and the object ball is halfway to the pocket.

First try to make 5 shots in a row and then follow the cue ball to it. pocket again trying five in a row that shot had a little kick or skid caused by a chalk mark that ended up on the contact point of the cue ball object ball here it is again notice how it sounds and looks different from the others make sure clean the chalk marks on the cue ball periodically so this doesn't happen here are the last two shots now back to scratch on the opposite side five times in a row people generally have a lot more trouble with putt shots see my recent top 10 of shooting techniques Tips video linked in the video description if you want or need help, this drill involves a long shot along the diagonal of the table where the object ball is halfway between the cue ball and the pocket , making the shot as hard as possible to ensure that the shot is straight. help place balls along the shooting line this way and then mark the cue ball in target ball positions with donut stickers first try to pocket 10 shots in a row here is an example of good shooting, if you have any unintentional spin towards the right, the cue ball will spin counterclockwise, if there is any spin left on the bottom of the object ball, the cue ball will retreat slightly and if not aimed, the cue ball will move sideways again.

Strive for a perfect shot like this, then practice follow up shots by trying to hit the ball and scratch at least five times in a row, you will be able to do this just with good aim and alignment and with an accurate strike again, make sure you stay still and concentrate on your fundamentals, then try to pocket the ball and step back to scratch this. It's much harder if you can get one or more than five, you're doing it right. Here's a successful example that was actually my first attempt, but I'm embarrassed to show you my second attempt.

This shot is a real test, especially on cloths which is not very skillful or fast, in addition to marking the positions of the cue ball and the object ball, it is also useful to mark the position of straight follow-through that way you can check if your follow-through was straight or not after each shot. I have all three. positions marked with clear donut stickers here is a good example of stopped shot. I know the shot was straight because the tip ended up on my follow-through donut. The next set of drills is from the College Billiards Playing Skill Tests.

The bu exam exercises are scored and are called progressive exercises because when you do it wrong, the exercises get easier and when you do it right, they get harder. Progressive Pool Practice Exercises were first developed by Bob Jewett, my co-author of the Pool Practice Video Encyclopedia. The first exercise is for stopped shots in which you start with the cue ball four diamonds from the pocket, if you stop the cue ball within one ball of the target of the stopped shot, you move the cue ball back one diamond and, if not, you advance one diamond, the longest distance is seven diamonds and any shot you make from this position counts as a bonus point your score is the final position of the cue ball after 10 shots plus the number of bonus points here I ended up in the position 7 and I got 3 bonus points so my score was 10.

Keep track of your scores so you can see how you improve over time here is the progressive tracking exercise with these exercises helps you place 5 or 10 balls in the table so you can easily keep track of your number of shots. The objective here is to pocket the object ball and make the cue ball end up in the rectangle of the target paper, the cue ball moves as before and the object ball is always a diamond in front of the cue ball again when you miss move the cue ball forward one diamond if you want to see shane van boning and other pros who took the bu exams see the link in the video description with only one mistake i ended up in position seven with five bonus points, so my score was twelve with no errors, the maximum possible score is fourteen, here is the progressive draw exercise.

The objective is to pocket the object ball and drag the cue ball back to the 2x1 diamond area shown here after falling short in position 4. I should have moved back to position 3, but I moved to position 2 by mistake again With each success, I move the cue. ball back a diamond I came up short on that last shot of seven so my final cue ball position is six since I was successful once out of seven my score is final cue ball position six plus the bonus point for a total of seven in this drill It can be difficult, especially if you are not very good at taking shots.

Check out the link in the video description. If you want to improve, here is a progressive drill to practice sliced ​​shots. You can do this drill with different locations of the object ball, but this is a good spot. half ball from the rail on the third diamond, as with the other progressive drills, you move the cue ball to easier positions when you fail, to more difficult positions when you succeed, as with the other drills, start in cue ball position 4 .again with a failure. on 7 I go back to 6. and every shot pocketed from 7 counts as a bonus point.

I finished in position 7 with 5 bonus points for a score of 12 again out of a maximum of 14. Don't forget to record your scores so you can track improvement over time and set score goals to have something in mind. What to work on that makes practice more fun and adds little competitive pressure. The last drill was developed by Colin Kalenso to test and qualify a player's shooting skills. It consists of 16 different shots, eight on each side of the table, six different cue ball positions and eight object balls that go into the corner. The positions of the balls are easy to locate in relation to the diamonds, but it is not necessary to place them perfectly. a diagram that you can print at the link in the video description here are the eight shots one the two the three the four the five the six the seven and the eight here are demonstrations of each of the eight shots on this side of the table equal eight are also made on the other side.

I decided to shoot them left-handed, but you can use the same hand to shoot both sides. In fact, I'm kidding you. I just mirrored the video using my video editing software to save time. Do you see the upside down text on the poster? Anyway, you get the idea that there are 16 total shots and you get one point for each ball pocketed. You are not penalized for a scratch if you make each of the 16 shots five times, the total possible score is. 80. Alternatively, you can make each throw only twice and multiply your point total by 2.5 or you can make each throw only once and multiply your point total by 5.

Either way, the maximum possible score is 80. Again, always Keep track of your scores. You can see how it improves over time. Here is a grading system that relates the score to an approximate skill level on the standard abcd scale and the link in the video description shows how this relates to expected bu exam scores, league handicaps and fargo ratings. Have fun with the exercises and good luck with your Dr. Dave You game.