Out of The Box Tips

Sometimes it's cool to do out of the ordinary practice to help your game.

Most people think of the obvious:  hit balls, gamble, play in tournaments, etc.

What about some out-of-the-box things?

• Work on your stroke by trying to get your cue tip consistently into a coke bottle.  This can be done at home without a pool table.
• Try hitting balls for an hour or two with a mud ball.  If you can control a mudball cueball, imagine how much better you will be with a regular cueball!
• Use dumbbells regularly to build your arm muscles.  This helps your stroke be more solid.
• Practice "Carom Nine" (see rules at bottom of this page).  Helps you learn carom shots in a fun yet frustrating way, lol.  (basically, the object ball must make first contact with the cue ball to count as a legal shot, the goal being to carom the object ball into a pocket or into another ball.)
• Don't shy away from the "non perfect" tables.  Also, it's okay to practice on slow tables and fast tables every once in a way - after all, the conditions are different at different tournaments.
• While this isn't out of the box, this is a good time to remind people to work on your break.  Practice it.  Get it down pat.  It's the opening shot - it's an important part of the game a lot of us don't give enough attention to.
• Speaking of breaks, practice your break using different racks - magic rack, accu-rack, and also regular wooden/plastic racks from the pool room.  Especially pick a certain one when your next upcoming big tournament uses a special rack.
• Play snooker on a 10 foot table.  Talk about a test!  And then when you get back on an 8 foot table, you'll see just how small that platform is and you'll be at smiling the whole time.
• Play opposite handed.  That's fun!
• Play one-handed.  Even tougher!

 Enjoy!