Play Better Pool With This Fantastic Practice Game
Play Better Pool With This Fantastic Practice Game
Amateur pool players often fail to plan ahead, even when they think they are trying to play better pool. It doesn't matter if they're playing 8 ball, 9 ball, or straight pool, they just struggle, confused, when they attempt to understand the big picture. And so they blank it out and focus on one shot at a time. Instead of trying to untangle everything in their mind, they will look at the lay of the table, try to find out where the easiest balls are to shoot in, and then they will simply attack the closest easy ball first while praying they have another shot afterward.
Often, these players may look ahead to the next ball and attempt to get position on it, but they will fail to analyze the table for an entire run-out, or even just two or three balls ahead. They could easily play better pool than this, with just a little bit of preparation and practice, but they struggle even with their practice time, and utilize it poorly because of a lack of direction, a lack of knowing WHAT they should be practicing.
So, if you're reading this article, congratulations! You understood that you needed some direction with how to play pool, you took the initiative and went looking for that direction, and you've found me! Hopefully you'll come along for the whole ride, and follow me through my other articles. There are plenty of pool lessons here to learn.
In order to play better pool, you need to learn to plan ahead! And it's not that difficult, it just requires some focused practice, just like all the other aspects of learning to play pool. I'm going to give you a simple practice tool that will be fun and engaging yet effective as long as you keep your concentration on absorbing all the results of your actions during practice.
Here's the game (and the best part of this is that it IS a game):
* You and your opponent will play whatever game it is that you both enjoy. This will work for pretty much any pocket billiards game.
* Each player receives ball-in-hand to begin every turn.
* The shooting player must plan out three balls to shoot in consecutively before he/she begins to shoot, and then tell their opponent which balls (yes, in 9 ball this rule doesn't fit well because you're forced to shoot in sequence anyway, but you may expand the rule to demand that the cue ball must land in a specified positional area for each shot, and mark those areas with napkins or coasters or some other method).
* Place the cue ball and begin shooting. The balls must be shot in the order that was chosen. If the shooter fails to complete the sequence properly, then the turn is over and next player steps up with ball-in-hand.
* When the player has reached the final ball of a sequence, he must choose two more balls to shoot in sequentially following that final shot. This is repeated until the last possible ball is pocketed.
* The next tier of this practice game requires the shooting player to declare a new third ball for the sequence after every successful shot of the first ball in a sequence. This way you are continually planning your table three balls at a time.
This is practice designed to hone you planning skills. You need direction in your growth as you learn how to play pool for beginners, and hopefully I've supplied you with a manageable chunk of pool and billiards lessons to keep you moving down the right path.
If you perform this sort of practice on a regular basis you will see significant improvements in your competition results. Once planning three balls ahead becomes second nature, you can move on to planning out four and five balls, even entire run-outs. Make planning ahead second nature, and you will not stand at the pool table flummoxed and clueless ever again!
Amateur pool players often fail to plan ahead, even when they think they are trying to play better pool. It doesn't matter if they're playing 8 ball, 9 ball, or straight pool, they just struggle, confused, when they attempt to understand the big picture. And so they blank it out and focus on one shot at a time. Instead of trying to untangle everything in their mind, they will look at the lay of the table, try to find out where the easiest balls are to shoot in, and then they will simply attack the closest easy ball first while praying they have another shot afterward.
Often, these players may look ahead to the next ball and attempt to get position on it, but they will fail to analyze the table for an entire run-out, or even just two or three balls ahead. They could easily play better pool than this, with just a little bit of preparation and practice, but they struggle even with their practice time, and utilize it poorly because of a lack of direction, a lack of knowing WHAT they should be practicing.
So, if you're reading this article, congratulations! You understood that you needed some direction with how to play pool, you took the initiative and went looking for that direction, and you've found me! Hopefully you'll come along for the whole ride, and follow me through my other articles. There are plenty of pool lessons here to learn.
In order to play better pool, you need to learn to plan ahead! And it's not that difficult, it just requires some focused practice, just like all the other aspects of learning to play pool. I'm going to give you a simple practice tool that will be fun and engaging yet effective as long as you keep your concentration on absorbing all the results of your actions during practice.
Here's the game (and the best part of this is that it IS a game):
* You and your opponent will play whatever game it is that you both enjoy. This will work for pretty much any pocket billiards game.
* Each player receives ball-in-hand to begin every turn.
* The shooting player must plan out three balls to shoot in consecutively before he/she begins to shoot, and then tell their opponent which balls (yes, in 9 ball this rule doesn't fit well because you're forced to shoot in sequence anyway, but you may expand the rule to demand that the cue ball must land in a specified positional area for each shot, and mark those areas with napkins or coasters or some other method).
* Place the cue ball and begin shooting. The balls must be shot in the order that was chosen. If the shooter fails to complete the sequence properly, then the turn is over and next player steps up with ball-in-hand.
* When the player has reached the final ball of a sequence, he must choose two more balls to shoot in sequentially following that final shot. This is repeated until the last possible ball is pocketed.
* The next tier of this practice game requires the shooting player to declare a new third ball for the sequence after every successful shot of the first ball in a sequence. This way you are continually planning your table three balls at a time.
This is practice designed to hone you planning skills. You need direction in your growth as you learn how to play pool for beginners, and hopefully I've supplied you with a manageable chunk of pool and billiards lessons to keep you moving down the right path.
If you perform this sort of practice on a regular basis you will see significant improvements in your competition results. Once planning three balls ahead becomes second nature, you can move on to planning out four and five balls, even entire run-outs. Make planning ahead second nature, and you will not stand at the pool table flummoxed and clueless ever again!
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