Top 10 PATTERN PLAY Principles and Techniques

Hi Dr. Dave, here to cover the 10 most important

pattern

play

ing

principles

that have to do with strategy for choosing ball exit order and positional

play

options. These skills really help separate the great players from everyone else and learning these

principles

can really help your game before explaining. and demonstrating what I recommend for each shot, first I show the layout of the ball, if you want to practice a little, pause the video on each of these screens and ask yourself what I would do here, even without access to a pool table, you can improve your strategy. When thinking about how you would approach different situations, the first important principle of the game

pattern

is to keep things simple.

There are many options here, but this is the easiest. Every shot is almost a stop shot and with so little cue ball movement, there isn't much that can go wrong. You don't want to go off several cushions if you don't have to, even though it was a good shot, you also don't want to move the cue ball more than necessary, you don't want to use a side spin and go around the table. to show off and you certainly don't want to resort to bank shots, you might think you're good at banks, but if your goal is to win consistently you should avoid missed shots like this, here's another place you can pause and think that I win.

I don't keep reminding you, but if you want to get the best value out of this video, hit the pause button every time I show a new design so you can test and develop your decision-making skills in this situation. The best way to keep things simple is to simply roll forward on each shot, it's easy to control the distance and direction of travel of the cue ball by rolling the ball here, you could be fancy and draw with side spin for a shape perfect at the 10 up table, it was a good shot, but it was a bit risky.

Because it was possible to make a mistake and I could have scratched the corner here, I need to reach the shot, which can make control more difficult and again, anytime you come out of multiple cushions and have a lot of white balls, things can happen. bad. A much simpler approach. It's just rolling forward to get the short side shape on the 12. then I can roll forward again. I have several options here, but moving forward with a small turn to the left produces a simple path to victory. Here's another example of how keeping things simple is a good approach.

I could just roll this slowly and leave a long shot, but if I hit the object ball too thin or use too much speed, I could play pool behind the five. I could go off five rails this way instead, but it's unnecessary and there are things that could go wrong, the simplest and most reliable approach here is to use the 5 ball to hold the cue ball this way, which limits movement of the cue ball and leaves an easy shot on the 8. A very important principle of position control and playing pattern is to leave angles on shots.

If you leave the next shot straight in this way, you drastically reduce your cue ball control options . All you can do is roll forward, stop in place, or back up like this. Not a good permission to win the game. A better approach is to advance on the first shot to leave an angle on the second shot. Good form on the eight is now easy to get and nothing fancy was required. Leave an angle. It is important to leave it on the correct side of the ball here if rolling forward I need to move the cue ball a lot to shape the figure eight.

A better approach is to leave the cue ball above the 11 ball shot line. Now all I need to do is roll the cue ball to easily shape it and win. Here's another good example where it's important to leave an angle on a shot. If I roll forward, the shot is hard to hit here and I need to power the cue ball to take shape on the 8. That was a lot harder than it should have been. If instead I leave an angle at 11, the exit is much easier. Here is a similar example where leaving the 11 almost straight requires a power shot that was a good shot, but when you use so much speed there is a greater risk of vibrating the ball in the pocket and if you do not judge the angle and the amount of throw, other bad things can happen when leaving an angle.

I can use much less speed to move the cue ball along a more natural and safer path at a slower speed, the pocket accepts the ball more easily, that was much easier, probably the most important pattern playing principle is Always think at least three balls ahead and identify key balls to help shape important balls like the game winning eight, of course this assumes you are good enough. to run at least three balls in a row; Otherwise, you should probably watch videos that are more about the basics. Check out the online tutorial link in the video description.

If you want to improve other aspects of your game, here you could shoot any of the stripes first. the 10 looks tempting as it's straight now and the 3 ball makes it difficult to get good shape later on, but the 13 is a great key ball to get to the 10 and the 10 would allow me to go straight to the eight, so is the best. the starting ball is the nine, two parries and a straight shot were as simple as you could ask for if you started with the 10 instead, the first few things can go wrong, the 9 would be a poor choice as a key ball to get to the 8.

The solids dramatically limit the cue ball control options, however the 13 isn't much better, especially if I leave it too straight like this. Now I need to power the shot with the correct spin to try to get the form that wasn't enough with the side spin. I always think again. three balls ahead to anticipate problems that may arise whenever possible you should try to enter the line of the next shot to increase your margin of error with the speed of shot here is a good example a good play here is to hold the cue ball to leave a angle on the nine, the natural angle from the touchline is directed directly to the eleven line.

From here, a wide range of shooting speeds will allow me to see the 11. I could have gone short or long and still would have done it. the tee, if instead you leave the cue ball directly toward the nine, it is easy to roll too far or come up short because the cue ball crosses the 11 line, so the margin for error is small. Here is another good entry example. the next shot line here is the desired shape zone for the eight along the line on the shot you don't want to cross the line, especially in the narrow part of the shape zone where the margin for error is very small, especially if the cue ball needs to travel a long distance, instead you want to hit the thick part of the shape zone, a long throwing line whenever possible.

Here is another example where crossing the eight line is not a good approach. I fell very short. In that, but it's also easy to go too far. One option here is to simply roll the cue ball in the direction of the natural angle to get closer to the line of the shot from behind, so even better, you can go out of two cushions to get to the right. Along the line on the shot to get the best margin of error with speed, I used a lot more speed than I needed on this one, but I still have an easy shot to win if I had the ball in my hand due to a foul from the opponent in the previous one. shot I would put the cue ball here where a stun shot along the tangent line easily takes me along the desired line these principles apply even if there are only two balls left on the table there are many options here but some are better than Others I could just roll the cue ball in the direction of the natural angle, but that crosses the line on the shot, so my speed control must be relatively good.

If instead I come out of two cushions with a little left turn, I can get closer to the line of the shot with a greater margin of error, an example of a bad choice would be using a lot of lateral turn to cross the line of eight in the other side, unless the corners were blocked and you're playing for form in the side pocket, there would be an alternative instead. be entering the line of eight from the end rail for a top corner if the cue ball was in a slightly different position, you could come out of four cushions like this using the last two rails as breaks to help slow the cue ball.

I also came out of three cushion more towards the line of eight from the back like this, I overtook him a little bit, but again, since I was entering the line, I had a lot of room for error. All of these shots are good for practicing because sometimes other balls on the table could force you to go for some of these options, as we have seen, sometimes it is useful to use the rails as breaks to help slow down the cue ball. Here is a good example where this principle applies. We need to play short side shape on the 8 as the 4 blocks the near corner don't try to fine tune the shape on a shot like this it's very easy to come up short or go too far instead of playing from the wing because the wing kills half the speed of the cue ball with a shot like this.

The margin of error is double. The band can be your friend in a situation like this. Here's another example where it's best not to try to fine-tune your shot from the wing. On the other hand, to have a greater margin of error, the cushions can also help stop the cue ball. When spinning around the table on four cushions like this, another important principle of pattern play is to choose your ball groups wisely. It is generally best to pocket groups of balls that are close together to minimize cue ball movement. Here is a good example of where it is best to clear the area. 11-13-14 group first and then move up the table for group 10 12 9 another good reason for this is that the 9 is a good key ball for the 8 even though it is far from the 8. the two cushion path out of nine It is very natural to avoid the obstacle balls and reach the line of eight.

Another smart game strategy is to solve any problems as early as possible during the race. I have two problems here: the 9 has no pocket and the 12 and 13 are in a group, you don't want to start with a 10 here, even though it is the easiest option. I need the 10 to help break up the group. If I start with the 15, I can discard the 1 to clear the 9. the bottom right corner the natural angle also leads me to the perfect short side shape and the 9 is a perfect key ball to get the right angle on the 10 to break the group now the rest of the race is relatively simple it is often important to be able to reach or pass through the center of the table when playing in these situations it is useful to know the 45 degree rule which states that if the cue ball goes toward the end rail about 45 degrees, the cue ball will head toward or Through the center of the table it is easy to visualize a 45-degree angle with reference lines through equal diamonds along the corner.

Here I need to get to the center of the table to shoot the tough 11 on the side because it was going straight. for the six in the middle of the table, even if he had used a lot more speed, he would still have ended up with a shot at 11. A good positional shot like this can help you win games. Here's an example I'm going with. an angle on the 11 to go through the center of the table for the eight again. I just need to send the cue ball to the end of the cushion at an angle close to 45 degrees because the center of the table is so important that it helps clear the balls. from the center early in a run here starting with 14 I can remove all the balls in the center of the table so I can easily go from 9 to 10 13 8 grouping the table here I actually want to go under the center of the table so I need to reach the end of the cushion at an angle slightly less than 45 degrees.

The rest is simple. Knowing all of these principles really helps simplify the game, allowing you to win more. Now let's look at some general tips related to the game. Smart shape first, it is generally better to place the shape for the corners rather than the sides, unless the side pocket shape is natural and easy. Here playing with the short lateral shape for the 8 on the side is the best option. Here you could play the position for the 11th side, but the shape is a bit finicky with a small margin for error, also shooting to the side from a steep angle can be dangerous, especially on tables with tight pockets, one option is slowly roll the cue ball for a short side shape to the top corner, but the five looks big and was close, a better option is to play a long side shape for the 11 in the bottom left corner, which is very natural and there is a wide margin of error with the shot speed since I am entering the line of The eleven also the corner shot is quite easy in a wide range of cue ball positions.

It's usually best to play with the long side shape when possible, but here the short side shape is natural and easy. I might try drawing with the running side for a long time. lateral form, but 1, 3 and 7 are important obstacles. Here is another example where you couldslightly cheat the pocket and hit the cue ball with stun to try to get a long side shape. One problem with this is that the ball can rattle if you also cheat the pocket. A much shorter side shape is much easier and safer here. A useful cue ball control principle for lane-cutting shots like this is that with the right amount of outside shot it is always possible to get the cue ball back along the shooting line if you don't know it.

This principle one might doubt the shot and think that it requires tracking power with spin when running to get off three rails through the obstacle wall, even with a good hit and a lucky clear through the obstacles. I still came up a little short. I need to go on the rail. first on the 8. Another useful tip for position play is to stay off the sidelines here if I hit the cue ball against the sideline the next shot where I need to back off for the 8 becomes much more difficult, a better play is around Coming outside the cushion, where I will have more control with the six there, the angle of my cue ball doesn't need to be perfect.

Another tip for position play is to make sure all cue ball positions are easily accessible. Here's a pattern we saw before where a bad decision to roll forward leaves me with an awkward reach on both the 11 and 8. With smarter position play I don't need to stretch at all playing a reliable position in a pocket hanger where the object ball is in the jaws of the pocket. It is a very important skill. I have an entire video dedicated to this topic linked in the video description, but I wanted to go over some important points here. When I roll the cue ball along a rail, a half-ball hit sends the cue ball diagonally into the pocket.

On the opposite side here it leaves me in perfect form with very little effort and when entering diagonally, a rolling half ball shot sends the cue ball along the rail. Here I can use this natural path to break the 1014 group and by thinning a hanger with run tracking, you can easily get the cue ball out of the corner and table up in this case for the shape on the 8. If one didn't know how to do this , you could choose to backtrack, but this is not a good option unless you get it absolutely perfect, which is difficult, I hope you enjoyed it and benefited from it.

Of all the pattern playing tips I covered, just keep in mind that depending on your skill level, the options I showed may not always be the best for you, the only way to know for sure is to practice several options on one actual table if you wish. learn more and see countless examples of playing situations, get volume 4 of the video encyclopedia of pool shots, and if you want to learn specific strategies and tips on the 9 and 10 balls, check out the vent and for tips and strategies Specifics about 8-balls, see the 8ball Video Encyclopedia. These products are linked in the video description.

They can be streamed, downloaded, or purchased as physical DVDs. As always, don't forget to click the thumbs up, like if you found this video useful and if you don't want to get lost. any of my future videos be sure to hit subscribe and turn on the bell notifications.