What are good drills for measuring and monitoring a player’s aiming and shot making ability?
Several are demonstrated in the following video:
Colin Colenso came up with a useful potting drill to assess shot making ability for a wide range of shots over various cut angles, distances, and directions. It consists of 80 shots, and takes a while to complete (e.g., 30-50 minutes), but it is time well spent. More info can be found below.
Here is a useful printable file containing the diagram, along with scoring sheets, and here’s an automatic-scoring spreadsheet from dquarasr on AZB.
Another good shot-making drill is drill F6 in Billiard University (BU) Playing Ability Exam I.
from Colin Colenso:
Here is a test I devised to see how well you pot.
There are 16 pot challenges (see diagram below). They challenge your potting from both sides of the table. Perform each pot 5 times and make a total out of 80. Scratching is ok, slop is not ok.
If you’re not patient just do 2 of each pot and multiply your total by 2.5.
Rating System:
– Under 20: Bad eyes, possibly drunk, needs a doctor, doesn’t know what the chalk is for, should try bowling.
– 20-29: Beginner / Casual Player
– 30-44: C
– 45-59: B
– 60-69: A
– 70-79: Pro Level Potter – Not necessarily pro level player of course.
– 80: Please take up bowling so the rest of us can have a chance.
from dr_dave (from AZB post by theUBC):
Here’s another useful shot-making drill from Ekkes that also include practice with stun, follow, and draw:
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