Cue ball control drills
Potting is the part of pool you can see going right. Cue-ball control is the part that decides whether you get another shot. These drills are ordered by how much of the table the white has to travel, because distance is what turns a small stroke error into a missed position.
The stop shot, properly
Centre-ball, straight in, white stops dead. Then repeat it at three distances: cue ball one foot from the object ball, half a table away, and full length. The same stroke does not produce a stop at all three distances, and finding out where your natural stop distance is tells you more about your stroke than any theory.
Follow to a line
Chalk a line across the table (or use the second diamond). Pot straight, and stop the white on the line using follow only. Vary the line's distance rather than the shot. You are learning the mapping between tip height, stroke speed and roll-out distance — and it is a mapping you have to build by observation, not by being told.
Draw ladder
Same idea, backwards. Pot straight and draw the white back to a target one diamond away, then two, then three. Most players over-hit draw because they compensate for a low tip they never actually reach. If the white jumps or skids, you are hitting harder to fix a contact-point problem.
Stun-run-through
The most useful cue-ball action in eight-ball, and the least practised. Straight pot, and leave the white six inches forward — not one inch, not two feet. It demands precise speed rather than precise spin, which is exactly the skill that fails under pressure.
Angle and the tangent line
Set a half-ball cut and, without touching the object ball position, play it three ways: stun, follow, draw. Watch the three cue-ball paths from the same contact. This is the drill that converts "I know about the tangent line" into something your hands believe.
Progressive position zones
Pot a ball and land the white inside a zone you mark on the cloth. Then shrink the zone. Start with a rectangle roughly the size of a hand; when you hit it 7 times in 10, halve it. Progressive difficulty keeps the drill at the edge of your ability, which is where practice actually produces change.
| Drill | Trains | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Stop shot at 3 distances | Contact point, speed | 8/10 dead stops |
| Follow to a line | Roll-out distance control | 6/10 within a ball |
| Draw ladder | Low-tip consistency | 6/10 at two diamonds |
| Stun-run-through | Fine speed control | 6/10 within a ball |
| Tangent line, three ways | Path prediction | Predict before shooting |
| Progressive zones | All of the above | Shrink on 7/10 |
Common questions
Why does my draw shot work in practice but not in a match?
Because in practice you draw from six inches and in a match you draw from four feet. Drill the distance you actually face, not the one that succeeds.
Should I practise cue ball control or potting first?
Neither, exclusively. A session with one accuracy drill and one cue-ball drill keeps both moving, and control drills require potting anyway.
How do I know if my cue ball control is improving?
Shrink the target. If you are landing inside a zone half the size you managed a month ago, that is improvement you cannot argue with.
Pool & Billiards Self-Trainer includes these as levelled drills with diagrams and per-set scoring, so the "shrink the zone when you hit 7/10" logic is handled for you. Get the app.