We all want to get better at pool.  We buy the best equipment, use the latest chalk, have a well manicured layered tip, buy all the books, watch all the DVD’s, take lessons, and play in tournaments or gamble,  yet some how we still are missing a key shot or losing a game we think we should have won.  Pool is a very frustrating game sometimes. 

Hold that thought as I digress a bit, and we will get back to it. 

I watched Ronnie O’Sullivan, the great snooker player, run a perfect 147 frame on Youtube.  He didn’t have perfect form, it looked like he was hitting down a little and it got me wondering what he did that made him so great?  After watching frame after frame, I realized how close he was to every shot.  Ronnie never really took very long shots most of the time.

I took that idea and started to look at what Efren does when he plays nine ball.  Sure enough, Efren gets much closer to every shot than his opponent.  In one match Efren averaged a diamond to a diamond and half away from every object ball.  Being that close makes pocketing and positional skills so much easier.

I think I am on to something that will help you with your frustrations in the first part of this article.  In most cases, your job is pocketing the object ball and getting as close as you can to the next shot!  That’s it.

I watch a lot of pool, and what I do see is folks getting a shot, but not really trying hard enough to get as close as possible.  Let’s look at some ideas on the table about how we can do that.


Here is an example that I see happen a lot.

We shoot the 8 ball and roll across the table leaving a fairly long shot on the 9 that can be missed.  Efren and Ronnie go one rail and get a lot closer to the 9, making sure they have a much better chance to pocket the 9, and if they needed to play position somewhere from the 9, they are close and have more room for error.


Let’s look at a random rack of 9 ball and see how this plays out.

Getting on the 2 ball looks like the key to this rack.  If we get straight on the 2 (as in the white track line), we pull back a little for the 3 and stop, pull back on the 4 to get straight on the 5, pull back a little on the 5 to get an angle on the 6 to get close to the 7, pocket the 7 in the side and the 8 in the corner.  Now I know a lot can go wrong in doing this, but I want you to see the idea. 

Now what a lot of players would do here is leave the cue ball where the black arrowhead is.  From there they have to turn the cue ball loose, probably going two rails and getting on the three.  This track takes the cue ball to the wrong side of the three making the 4 ball tough position.  You get the idea.  I don’t see this as an easy out at all.

The moral of this story is that to improve your pocketing skills, reduce your frustration with pool, and win more is to try and get closer to the next shot.  Incorporate this skill into your game and I’m sure you will like the result.

In the next article I’ll give you some ideas about how to practice getting closer to the next shot.

See you on the road.