Advice for improving at billiards

The Game Room
1

I’m looking for some resources on improving at billiards. I saw this earlier thread and was wondering if anyone had more recent advice. I’m a mediocre player. I can move the ball around the table a bit to set up position on my next shot although not with great consistency.

I know playing games is an important part to improving play, and I plan to do that, but most of my games are against people at my skill level or only a little better. Plus I’m looking to improve my fundamentals and am looking to learn the right way to practice.

I’ve order Byrne’s New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, Martin’s 99 Critical Shots in Pool, and Alciatore’s Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards. So I’ll read through those once they get here. I’m really looking for other resources, particularly online, that could help. So any youtube channels on pool instruction (not trick shots) and sites with practice drills would be helpful.

2

I don’t know of any tutorials – I read a bunch of books, including the Byrne one, and those are helpful.

I don’t play much anymore, but it’s still one of my favorite things to do, even though I’m nearsighted more than before, and glasses are notoriously a real pain in the ass to sight the pocket and the cue ball at the same time. I think the only way is to practice.

Bars are fun with their usually fucked up tables and cues and characters, but pool halls, if there are any, are where it’s at, especially if you have a friend who’ll hand for at least an hour or so playing straight pool (continuous 8.1) or nine ball – things you can’t really play at a coin-op table. You already know there’s strategy – position defensive and offensive.

My only tip – not officially from anything but a wannabe player – is avoid playing side English. Use the position of the cue ball and its contact with the object ball to get the motion you want. Too many things to go wrong, especially with a bad tip on your stick, or a floppy bridge.

Breaking? I don’t like breaking from the side in eight-ball – I go straight in with top spin. And speaking of spin – if you can draw a ball well you’ve got about 90% of position play covered, IMlimitedE.

I think theory’s too complicated without intuition and experience, although fun to read – and forget about the diamond system! The classic practicing setups are good, though. One good things I got from books are advice on how to slide a ball right down the rail to a pocket, whether or not it’s flush against the rail, and how to avoid making bad choices doomed to fall by pretending to cheat the horns on the side pockets.

At least on a tiny bar table, you have a good chance of making impressive long banks that you hardly ever see people waste time on in televised matches.

Also, read McGoorty co-written by Byrne (“as told to Danny McGoorty”) – best pool memoir ever written.