Video Diary - Drill To Practice Back and Forth a Safety

Enjoy!

     

This is a drill where you practice putting the object ball on the end rail, and after you are successful, then you go to the other end of the table and repeat the shot.  On a 9 foot table, you are simply using top English.  On a bar table, you might need to use inside English. 

It's a fun drill and you'll be surprised when the opportunity will come up to use this nugget.

Thank you to my friend Tammy for being the camera woman!

Interesting Safe

While playing in the women's team event this weekend, I was playing against a certain player and she was about to play safe, or so it seemed.

When you play safe you're supposed to call out the word 'safe' to your opponent so that they know what they are about to shoot.

As she turned around and looked at me to call her safe, she said, "shit."

So I thought she was disgusted with herself that she had to play safe. I won that game and a few other games later she happened to be playing another one of my teammates on the table in front of my team.  Again she had to play safe, and she turned to my teammate and said, "shit."

And then it finally dawned on me (and also the rest of my teammates as we all started laughing) that instead of saying 'safe,' she says 'shit.' Lol.  And I don't mean she says the word calmly I mean she says it kind of sarcastically and funny.  It was really quite amusing and certainly a different take on playing safe!

Safeties are Important Shots, too

One thing I learned over the years was that I was not giving my safeties due respect.

And I wasn't giving them as much attention as I did with all my other shots.

Treat them the same:

• Walk around the table.
• Take your time shooting them.
• Use your pre-shot routine.

I have failed on many safeties because I didn't give them the credit that they deserved.  Kind of like the same credit you give a 9-ball in a match.

They are important.

It could lead to ball in hand.

Or, if you don't give it enough attention, you could leave them a shot to where they kick safe against you and then YOU are hooked, forced to kick back. 

Don't just hook them, FREEZE them up against another ball.

Don't be lazy or sloppy.

Don't be like I used to be with safeties.  They are a key part to our game and key component in our box of tools.  Use it wisely and smart.

Call Your Safes

Sometimes I feel really silly in a tight 8 ball match when we each keep playing safe back and forth, and I call "safe" every single time, even when the safe is obvious and when the past 5 to 10 trips to the table I've already called safe.

But, I have found myself in a couple of pickles in last 2 months.  Once in Vegas and once in league.

In both matches, we keep playing safe.  Obvious safes, too.

But at one point in each match, I played a safe, didn't say "safe" out loud because it was very obvious I was going to make contact with my ball first and continue the safety battle.

Well, I made my ball!

You may think this is no big deal, but most of the time in 8 ball you want to leave as many of your balls on the table as possible.   AND THEN it was my shot again!  When I had just made a ball by accident, and now have to get out of my own safe!

If I at least would have said "safe" they would have had to get out of my safe, not myself.

Sheeeesh, Melinda.  Learn already, lol.

In Vegas, it was REALLY brutal.  I only tried to "hit" my ball.  In my mind, there was NO chance I would make my ball so I didn't call safe.  Well, I hit it SO badly, I made my ball.  I sat down, ready for my opponent to shoot, but she's looking at me funny.

OH SH!T!  It's still my shot!

I was playing a safe in my mind, but she didn't know it, and so it was my shot next.  Ugh.  Even one of my friends who was watching said after the match, "I was hoping you'd stop making your balls."

I replied, "I know - it was an accident, lol!"

Luckily, I was able to play an even better safe that time (and yes I said "safe," lol).

Three Hundred Sixty Degrees

I thoroughly enjoy better players watching me play pool.  I love to pick their brains after shots or matches.  It either confirms I played a shot correctly, or maybe there was another option I could have played differently that would have had a better outcome.

This happened during my Sunday league playoffs in July.

My friend Greg was watching our team, and we would talk about shots and I would ask him questions.

After one of my matches, a very very long safety game where I had the upper hand but ended up losing, we talked about my last (failed) safety.

He said that it was obvious to play safe the opposite way I did.  He said if I would have walked around the entire shot, I would have seen it.  Most people watching were looking at the shot from his view also, and they all saw the better safe, too.

But not I.

I was frozen to my ball, and only saw a few safes.  And I actually studied it for a long while because I didn't see an obvious good safe.  But the better/obvious safe was one in which I didn't see.... because I didn't walk all the way around the shot.

360 degrees people!

Think Ahead on Safeties

The other night at league, I found myself in this situation after my opponent missed her 7ball:  (click photos to enlarge)

I told myself that it meant MORE to hide the cueball, than to make the ten ball.  I had to slide over enough to NOT leave a shot on her 7-ball.

I WAS SO WRONG!

As soon as I focused more on the safe, and missed my bank, I saw that she could play a devilish safety on me.  And she did!  :(

Ugh.

I was able to hit my ten ball, but that still left her with another shot at the safety, to which she hit even better the second time.  That gave her ball in hand and an easy win.

This is a reminder to THINK AHEAD.

I normally do, but didn't this time.

I should have just nailed the bank, which would have given me a shot on the 8ball no matter where my cueball landed (or I could have played a safe then, if somehow I didn't have a shot on the 8ball).

Ugh.