Billiardclick.com

The most important thing if you want to become an ace in billiards is the accuracy. As there is really a very small margin of error while playing with a formidable opponent, you need to think before any shot you take.

The billiard drills can teach you how to get into the mind of your opponent. The constant practice will hone up your skills as an accurate billiard player. These billiard drills are actually a plan about playing a series of successful shots in order to have the larger share of the score. The plan is to hit the balls in such as way that the cue ball is well placed for your next shot. In professional billiards this is regarded as the single most element of success. Being a beginner you can learn to play billiards like a professional, if you can spend sometime everyday on the practicing the billiards drills.

The billiard drills can provide with the special tips, help you to be patient and relax while you are in a shot. But the last word is always the practice. The more you practice, more you improvise on your skill. Once you are sure about your techniques, practice them and you can see yourself succeeding in this skill.

Photo © Dmitry Kudryavtsev - Fotolia.com

Practice makes perfect. And that is true for billiards as well. As you know full well, it is not just about hitting the ball with the cue but a substantial set of subtler skills that makes a billiard player a true master at his game. Hence you need to practice if you wish to compete and show those casual friends of yours where they stand. A fine set of billiard drills can be utilized by you to improve your skills
Concentrating on the cue ball
For most new players, the object ball takes up more of their attention than the cue ball itself. End result? A bungled shot. Line up a series of object balls in a horizontal line across the table. Try and hit each ball absolutely straight after lining up the cue ball with it. If it deviates from the rectilinear, you did not stroke straight and lost concentration.
Perfect Shot control
Set the cue ball and the object ball a little distance away from the rail, in a straight line. Try to hit the object ball with a perfect kill shot and make the cue ball follow the object ball into the corner pocket. Neither should touch the rail.

Photo © Duncan Noakes - Fotolia.com

Billiard practice drills are practice modules to impose better perfection and control over the game of the players. Before start playing with billiards drills-practice module, you should better set you own goal for the year, otherwise the repetitiveness of the practice drill module may hamper on play style.

The popular billiard drill practices are:
When the ball is thrown on the table, in any order, you should run 100 balls consecutively.
You need to run 100 balls without making a miss without allowing the cue ball in touching a rail.
Running three successive sets of 13-ball exercise without a single miss
Running three successive sets of 12 ball exercise without any miss
Running one set of the 14-ball exercise without making a miss
Scoring a 16 or higher in the 8-ball mid term exam
Scoring a 16 or higher count in 9-ball-mid –term exam
Shooting 100 stop shots, keeping apart 3-4 diamonds into pocket of the corner without making any miss
Delivering 20 successful stun shots without making any miss
Delivering15 uninterrupted 2-7-2’s, connecting the diamonds, and stopping the cue ball within a CD diameter of the center of the table
Shooting all lessons from the Lesson in order with maximum five misses
Shooting 25 sets of the 4-ball exercise without making any mistake in the session

These practice drills will ensure a consistence in performance and ideal technique for the beginners as well as for the average players. We cannot count the masters for their practice skill because they are genius and genius designs his own way to practice.

For more info please take a look at www.themonk.com/

Photo © a4stockphotos - Fotolia.com

Checking the difficult balls first

What are your difficult balls, where are they at and what will it take to sort these situations out.

On your opening shot after the break take a good look arond the table.  Are there any balls stuck to a rail,
blocked by other balls or locked in a cluster.  How can you make these situations good. Can you cannon these balls
after a pot.  Will they free up with a small nudge or will it take a larger impact to make the shot.
Will the opponent do this for you.  If they need to free their own balls from your then why not let them do it.  Makes sense.

On the practice table try pocketing one ball and making an impact with another.  It takes practice at first but then you start
to get a feel for the shot.

Remove the difficult balls then you have a real chance at the run out.  Balance the game, don’t let the opponent take the initiative.

Make them play the game your way

Photo © Jeff Wilson - Fotolia.com

Practice is the sole means to excel in the game of billiards. Billiard players should note that the practice techniques should be accurate so that it can help them in perfecting and improving the overall game.

First of all, billiard practice techniques are categorized into two parts-pool specific and game specific. Let’s start with pool specific methods. Here you have to keep your head down when you are shooting the pool. Your eye should aim direct over the shooting pool cue so that you can take the right sight down the stick’s shaft. It will help you to see right down the shot path and then aim.

Remember to follow through your own shots when you are playing. Take strokes that are long and smooth and allow the cue tip to follow through the cue ball. Avoid small choppy strokes. It will help to make your own shoots much straighter. You require to chalk the cup tip before each shot as it offers better grip and stops miscues. Concentrate and avoid all types of distractions to give your best.

The game specific tips says to avoid the bank shots as they are difficult than cut shots, plan your shots as 8 ball game is more of positioning your shots. Opt for hard break shots that provide you advantage to shoot balls on break. You can try to hit the cue ball from the side of the game table. Try to place cue ball in a better spot that helps you to make the next shot easily. Moreover, observing experienced players will help you to select particular shots.

Photo © Deklofenak - Fotolia.com

Everyone would love to run an 8ball rack every game.  Although its unlikely to happen every single game we can at least increase our chances, increasing our winning margin in the process.

Strategy no.1 - Not leaving an open shot for your opponent

Every shot you play in a game has two purposes.  The first purpose being pot a ball and the second to make sure that you have not left an opportunity for the opponent should you miss.  Its a sort of yin/wang of the pool world.

When you fully commit to a shot without at least an idea of safety then you are leaving the gate open for your opponent to win.  I’m not saying that we can manage to play every shot with safety but the greater the amount of shots played that way then the greater our chances of winning.  You’ll see the safety shot a lot more toward end-game when players are trying to give it their all not to lose, but why not play these shots from the start.  It will always force the opponent to think, taking them out of their confident zone.

Make them play the game your way.

Photo © Erick Nguyen - Fotolia.com

Pool Tips for Absolute Beginners - Article 1

Pool Cues
This is a matter of preference and a very individual thing.  I would advise that you begin by using a ‘house cue’ until you get a feel for the game.  Once you feel you are progressing visit a sports store and try out their cues.  If you are playing with friends have a go of their cues to find out what you like.  You can also visit websites and check out what they have to offer. If you find a cue you like it always pays to shop around to get the best deal.

Chalk
You should also make sure you have a supply of chalk to put on your cue tip.  The rule of thumb with this is to chalk up after every shot.  This will reduce the likelihood of bad contacts and increase your accuracy in the shots you make.  Be consistent now, it will pay off in the long run.

Invest in a Good Instructional book
This kind of book should be dipped into when you want to improve a certain area of your game.  Invaluable knowledge can be gained from a little reading now and then.

photo © nazira_g - Fotolia.com

Learning to win again - making 8ball great once more

After we have not played for a while we sometimes get lazy to win.  We lose the initiative to go out to win and it becomes a burden upon us.  In occasions like these w need to step back from the normal and refocus.

Prepare well
When we prepare well we increase our chances of making that vital shot.  Make sure that if you’ve been away from it all for a while or if you not been playing well that you get down to the practice room.  Try out all the shots which bother you, after all there’s no need in practicing the shots you can manage already.

Commit to win
Make a commitment now as you read this that you will win x amount of games next time you play.  Don’t suddenly expect to win every game right-away.

It will all take time but one things for sure, each game will make you a better player.

Photo © thegarden - Fotolia.com

These guys have done an amazing job creating a digitally assisted billiards system.  The systems basically is a webcam, projector and some software.   This simple ideas are always the genius ones.  The system maps and projects the trajectories of the cueball and object balls.  This really would be a great learning tool.

Some great footage here.  I want one!