[FASTLARRY]

The pool chat drill challenge is here.

I know, you don’t wanna do drills, ya ya ya. You don’t wanna eat yo spinach either. You don’t wanna take your one a day vitamin. You want to get better, take your medicine, and do your drills. Let’s have some fun with this. Everyone on the board does a drill every day, or every day you play. No cheating, be honest, if you only run 2 balls post it. Don’t run 2 and say you ran 100. There is no prize here because there is no way to verify the runs. You can run the drill once, or 100 times, it does not matter how many attempts, just your best and high run of the day.

You can compare your abilities with your pals on the board. It will give every one a feel of others skill levels. Remember we have world champion Grady Mathews on here down to total beginners so do not be afraid to post and play. We will do a different drill every week. This first one I may let run for a couple of weeks for it to be seen.

First Drill of the contest. The 8-7 Drill.

My high run on this was 300. I never missed, just got so tired I just quit. I was in such dead stroke I could not miss and saw no point to go beyond that. I was on a real easy gandy 4x8 with 5” pockets. You could run a thousand at this and it would mean nothing as it is not a game and the drill is too easy. If you have a high run at 14.1 and its witnesses and verified, that means something. My high run there is 274. 100 are considered great, like shooting par at golf. Any 200 run is pro stuff. Few I a repeat few ever ran 300; it must be less than 15 or 20. 400 are very rare, less than 10 did it. 500-600, 3 or 4.

You minimum achievement here is to run 15 with out missing, if you do, set up and do it again and again. When you run 15 and out with out a foul or miss or scratch, you are a good player. This drill is to get you confidence you are running at least 10 each time you come to the table so when you play 8 ball and see an open table after the break running 8 is not longer that big of a deal to you mentally.
Run 45 you are a very good player.
Run 85 you are an excellent player.
Run over 100 you are semi pro status

Go into www.fastlarrypool.com enter
Top left tab open Encyclopedia register, this is an no charge and you only have to do it once. Every time you come back your codes are automatically entered for you.
Open Drills, open 8-7 Drill.

Good Luck, Good shooting. Come out firing dudes and dudessess.

Fast Larry Guninger

[Sodapop]

Well I tried this drill tonight, and I'm shocked at how much I suck at it. I know I can run well over 100 balls, but my concentration sucks, I miss the simplist shots, from lack of concentration. I usually miss within the first 2 or 3 racks but once I get past that my concentration increases and I focus much harder, I guess its out of fear of starting over at 0 once you get to about 45. My best tonight is 72 balls which i missed a dog 2 ball hanging in the side pocket thought it was a gimme and missed by a mile.
It goes back to what Willie Mosconi said the key to being a great player is don't miss. They don't miss because top players concentration levels and focus our 10 times higher then lower level players. If I learnt anything from this drill its that no matter how simple a layout is, if your not willing to bare down and give it 100% focus and concentration you will screw up no matter how easy the situation is.
I am playing on a 4.5 by 9 foot table with 4 and 1/4 inch pockets which makes it tuff but pocket size is not why I did so poorly on this drill, because I never really had to shoot a hard shot, the shots I missed were pathetically easy. But concentration killed me on this drill over and over.
Who ever has a table please get involved with these drills and friendly competitions, and lets help motivate each other to practice more and improve our games. Especially our concentration because without it you will never be a great player. Thanks for this pathetically simple drill Larry it taught me plenty.

[ Edited by Sodapop on 2005/11/8 22:44 ]

[FASTLARRY]

ah so grasshopper, you finde reason for drill...

It is to train you to maintain concentration for long periods of time and not dog some simple shot. You treat ever shot with respect and the same amout of time and concentration, the easiest to the hardest. Yes running 100 for any good solid apa 6 and above is possible and resonable. You must develop that tight focus and not let the mind wander.

[Pelican]

Truer words were never spoken FL. When I help Grady with the Gulf Coast Classic I had an opportunity to watch a lot of high level players up close. One that really impressed me was Buddy Hall. You could tell that he NEVER took any shot for granted. It could be straight in 6" from the pocket and he would study it just as much as if it was a 60 degree cut the length of the table with the pocket partially blocked. That is what separates them from us :-D

Pel

[Pin]

This is a fantastic idea, a great way to add a bit of interest and motivation to doing drills.

I found there's a snooker club reasonably close to my new place, so I'll go check it out tomorrow.

It'll be nice not to have to walk half an hour (with my cue-length box case) to play. Now if I could sort out my financial life. Must get decent job.

So, tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to report back on how I did.
It'll be english pool tables, and for tomorrow a house cue (I don't want to take mine down there on my first visit, it's a bit of a dodgy area, so I'll check it out first). So the excuses are in place ;-)

To be honest, I've not been confident in the level of my play lately, so I'm not really looking forward to what I'll find out. But a dose of brutal honesty will at least clarify where I really am.

[gian323]

is this the 8-7 8 ball drill or just the straight pool drill?

and how do you set up the table after you have run a rack?

[Sodapop]

Just spread out 15 balls evenly 8 on one side of the table 7 on the other, no balls touching the rail or tide up. Then take ball in hand and run out. Do the same after each rack and count how many balls you run. Simple drill but great drill

[Sodapop]

Did it, ran 102 Balls. My concentration is getting better, screwed up shape did'nt miss an easy shot, just got bad shape and I had no shot. I think I was missing easy shots because I was shooting before I was ready, so I changed it to using the exact same number of strokes on every shot. I now stroke 3 warm up strokes, pause fine tune my aim to the exact spot on the object I want to hit then make sure my eyes stay on that contact point then shoot. Before I just kept stroking until I felt I was ready to shoot and I think I was shooting unconsciously before I was ready or even meant to shoot. Sometimes 1 stroke sometimes 2 or 3 or 4, but now do 4 every time pausing at the end of the third stroke then shooting.

[ Edited by Sodapop on 2005/11/15 2:21 ]

[FASTLARRY]

You have no idea what this is going to do for your confidence knowing you have ran a century, 100, even if it is an easy drill that does not matter, your brain records you ran 100.

[Pelican]

Hell, I'm still trying for 15. Do I suck or what!!!!!!!!!!

[FASTLARRY]

Yes you suck, the truth she does sting like da bitch. Sober up and you might run 100. Just kidding.

[Big_Bad_Bern]

I tried the 8-7 drill, started slow lots of 40's , 50's but I finally hit a 107 and then a 189. The table was a Brunswick Metro with 5 inch pockets. I'm really excited what a great drill.

[Sodapop]

Congrats Bern we will have to try this drill against each other next time you come over. We both beat 100. Was this on your home table?

[Big_Bad_Bern]

No on my bosses table at the store. Next time I'm over we'll see who can get the highest run.

Bern