Solo Practice Drills

A couple ways to kill time and improve your game:

I love drills because I’m the type of guy who needs structure when practicing. If I set out a target like I have to finish 3 runs of X or 5 runs of Y, it ensures that I use my practice time productively and not just piss it away.

Anyway, here are a couple of my personal favorites:

Billiards Bowling

I like this one because a) it’s fun, and not just a repetitive grind. Also, I can always work to try and beat my personal best score, so the motivation is there to keep improving. Anyway, here’s how to play:

1. Set up the rack and break.
2. After the break, choose stripes or solids. Keep shooting until you miss, calling all shots. Then shoot the other group until you miss.
3. That makes the first of ten frames. Here’s how to score:

a. If you don’t run out, just score one point for every ball you made (max 14, 7 for each group).

b. If you have run out:

• If you made a ball on the break, and ran out the second group, score 25.

• If you didn’t make a ball on the break, and run out first group, score 20.

• If you didn’t make a ball on the break, and run out second group, score 15.

• During a run, if you foul at any time, score 0 for that group.

• If you scratch on the first group, take the ball in hand for the second group.

• If you scratch on the break, shoot from the kitchen but remove five points from your score for that frame.

4. Just like in bowling, the maximum score is 300.

3-ball Drill

You guys may already know about this one because it’s quite common, but it’s probably one of the best drills for developing a good offense. It works like this:

1. Decide on a number of patterns you want to run. I usually do 20 patterns at a time.

2. Take the 1-ball, 2-ball, and 3-ball and throw them on the the table at random. If a ball drops, just throw it (again randomly) back on the table.

3. Take the cue ball in hand, and pocket the three balls, starting with the 1-ball then moving onto the 2-ball and 3-ball.

4. Write down how many 3-ball patterns you run successfully, and see if you can gradually improve it each time.

Once you’re doing really well with 3 balls, you can increase it up to four, then five, and so on.