Pool Shots to Practice

There are several positional and defensive shots which can help your game a lot if you practice them. The key to getting good at these pool shots is to shoot them over and over and observe what happens when you shoot the shots, so you can figure out how to adjust. If you want to get better at pool you should have your own set of pool shots to practice, but here are a couple standard ones you can try to improve:

Wagon Wheel Drill

This is one of the best pool shots to practice because it helps with a couple aspect of positional play. The first is it helps understand how much you can cheat the pocket. The other is that it helps understand how to use center ball to play position better.

To set up the drill you want to put 15 balls evenly spaced along both long rails and the bottom rail on one side of the table. Each ball will serve as a target that you need to physically hit with the cue ball in order to progress to the next ball. Place an object ball about a foot from straight in the side pocket and place the cue ball at around a 30 degree angle to that ball. This should give you enough angle to hit every ball with your cue ball around the table.

Clock System Drill

This drill helps with learning how to use english on the cue ball to get position. The idea is you look at the cue ball like the face of a clock where each number represents how much english you should use to get position on the next shot. The set up is simple. Place the object ball on the first diamond from the end rail and the side rail. The take the cue ball and place that one diamond away from the object ball with the cue ball aligned with the edge of the object ball. Try to hit each diamond on the other side of the table consistently by using the clock system which is explained in the video below.

End Rail Safety Shot

One of the most versatile pool shots to practice is when the cue ball and object ball are across from each other with the object ball on the side rail. You can go for the risky bank or play a safety leaving your opponent with a much harder safety. The goal of the drill is to send the cue ball off the side rail all the way to the opposite end rail as close as you can get it. At the same time you want to bank the object ball on the end rail that’s closest to the object ball so that it also can’t be pocketed. This leaves your opponent with a very risky bank or a tough safety. And considering how often this shot comes up you be glad you picked this pool shot to practice when the time comes to execute it.

Categorised in: Pool Shots, Uncategorized