What are good drills for improving my break shot?
Vol. V of the Video Encyclopedia of Pool Practice (VEPP) has a good 9-ball break drill for evaluating and improving your 9-ball break.
from Patrick Johnson:
The idea is to learn to aim the break shot as accurately as any other shot so you can consistently hit the head ball dead square, getting maximum power transfer into the rack and planting the cue ball in the middle of the table. It comes from a piece of advice I heard once and have repeated often to players who are learning to break:
Your break speed should be the maximum speed at which you can consistently pocket a straight-in shot with the cue ball on the head string and the object ball on the foot string, and stop the cue ball dead.
And that pretty much describes the drill:
1. place the cue ball in its normal breaking position
2. place a single object ball on the foot string directly in line with a corner pocket
3. shoot the OB straight into the pocket with a stop shot
4. hit the shot as hard as you think you can, but if you miss the pocket or the cue ball doesn’t stop dead, slow the next shot down
5. only speed the shot up again when you’ve made several successful stop shots in a row
6. gradually build your speed up following the above rule
Here’s the setup:
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