Tips
On Safety Play
Submitted by Joe D'Aguanno
Good
safety play will win you more pool games than any other technique
that you will learn. I make this statement with the assumption
that you are capable of running at least 3 or 4 balls when you
have ball in hand or an open shot. Good safeties frustrate
your opponent and often results in ball in hand for you.
Probably the most important tip I can give you on playing
a good safety is to try to precisely control where either the
cue ball or the object ball ends up but not both.
You do need to be aware of general direction where the ball that
you are not trying to control is going. It doesn't do any
good to hide the cue ball and have the object ball roll around
the table and end up where your opponent can easily hit it and
play a better safety on you. About 90% of the safeties I
play involve controlling where the cue ball ends up rather than
the object ball.
When the
object ball is on or close to the rail mostly centered between
pockets with the cue ball at a steep acute angle (90
to 60 degrees) to the shot a thin soft cut with
english usually works best. Inside english on
the cue ball will keep the object ball from moving very far after
it strikes the rail. Outside english will make the object
ball roll farther. As the object ball is stationary
in this type of shot it will not move very far as there is very
little transfer of energy from the cue ball to the object ball. The
cue ball on the other hand will travel quite a distance because
it retains most of the energy gained from the impact of the cue.
As you are shooting the shot soft you will have much greater control
of the cue ball and where it ends up.
Thin
cuts often work when the object ball is not close to the
rail. Just shoot softly and use english if necessary to
change the direction of the cue ball to bury it behind a cluster
of balls or leave it on the other end of the table.
If
you have a straight on shot where the object ball is close
to another ball shoot a stop shot to keep the cue ball behind
the second ball. Of course you don't want to shoot the stop
shot hard because the object ball will probably roll around the
table and make itself visible to the cue ball. In this case
shoot soft draw just hard enough where the cue ball will quit
spinning backwards when it strikes the object ball. The
end result is the same as a stop shot using center ball with no
english.
If
you are playing a weaker player in a handicap match that where
they are under rated and you have to give them a game or 2 on
the wire there are 2 methods that will help you win. In
this case we are talking about a 5 or 6 rated player that actually
shoots 6 or 7 speed (Arizona ratings that goes from 4 to
10) and you are either a 7, 8 or 9. The first method
is very simple. Play as many safeties as you have to
until you get to a point where you can comfortably run out the
table. The other method is to simply give this player a
shot they can make early in the game. The huge majority
of underrated 6 or even 7 rated players can't run out the table
with either ball in hand or an open shot. After they make
3 or 4 balls you should have no problem finishing the rack.
Credits
: Contents, concepts
and images Copyright 2004, Joe D'Aguanno. This information may
be shared freely so long as the Copyright notice is included.
If any contents or images are used in any commercial way, permission
must be obtained from Joe D'Aguanno.
Game
Plan For Safety Play
Submitted by Buddy Lory
After
deciding to play a safe, a lot of players have no idea of what
to do next. Listed below are some of the criteria I use for executing
a safety and hints for good safety play.
Criteria:
1.
Snooker or hide opponent so he cannot shoot directly at
the object ball.
2.
Do not put the object ball near a pocket.
3.
If the situation dictates that you cannot hide or snooker the
opponent. Leave him a bank; preferably long one or a short
bank with a bad angle.
4.
On certain safeties leaving a long straight in shot will
work.
5.
Leave the cue ball on the rail or cushion, this will cut down the area
on the cue ball he can hit.
6.
Another good safety is to leave your opponent over a ball (jacked
up), where he is forced to elevate the butt of the cue.
Hints:
1.
Travel of the cue ball or the object ball should be kept to a
minimum. If both balls are traveling long distances they are harder
to control. I usually pick one or the other, if I choose a cue
ball safety I will hit object ball thin (little movement) then
try to place the cue ball in a safe position. If I choose an object
ball safe I will stop or stun the cue ball (little movement)
shooting the object ball to a safe position.
2.
When shooting a soft safety where both balls are close together
and will not travel far, use a very short stroke. Using a long
stroke will make it difficult to stop the cue stick. Try this,
using a long stroke hit the cue ball and make it travel around 1
or 2 inches, very hard if not impossible to do. Now try the same
shot with a very short stroke.
I
cannot count the number of times I witnessed games being won with
a good safety. Defense is just as much a part of playing high
level pool as is running out. Armed with these criteria and hints
I hope your safety play will improve.
Credits : Student
and teacher of pool.
Advanced
Safety Play With Multiple Objectives
Submitted by Anonymous
Safety
play is essential with most pocket billiard games, especially
8-ball, which we'll concentrate on here. Most mid-level players
have a basic understanding of safeties, but few achieve successful
safety shots when an important game is on the line.
The
key difference between a typical league-level safety shot and
a professional safety shot is that the professional shot achieves
two or more things. Simply hooking your opponent behind a ball
is not sufficient is most competitive scenarios. We've all had
instances in games where we hook an opponent, and they simply
kick the cue ball off of a rail into their ball. These games usually
result in the opponents kicking at their balls until one of them
finally has a shot at something. Again, most average players at
this point are only trying to avoid a foul, and any goals or plans
on how to run the table and win the game are forgotten.
The
key to safety play is not only hooking your opponent and making
him try a difficult shot, but improving your own table as well.
For instance, your opponent, playing solids, may have his three-ball
blocking a pocket with four of your striped balls sitting around
it in a traffic jam. One option for you is to attempt to cheat
one of your balls around the three-ball, or carom your ball off
of the three and into the pocket. Depending on how the three-ball
sits, this might be the best option. But sometimes there is no
way to get your balls into that pocket, and out of frustration
a typical player will attempt to spread the balls to another part
of the table, or try a very difficult cut shot into another pocket.
A
safety option for this situation is what I call 'stealing your
opponent's shot'. What you want to accomplish, of course, is to
take your opponent's three-ball shot (what he might think of as
his 'insurance' ball, or 'goalie' ball) away from him by pocketing
it yourself! This is the first goal. The second goal is to free
up that pocket for your own balls. The third goal is to hide the
cue ball amongst your own balls, hopefully glueing it to one or
more of them so your opponent has to attempt a two- or three-rail
kick to get to his own balls (remember, he doesn't have his easy
three-ball to shoot anymore). You must also, obviously, carom
the cue ball off of one of your own balls and then into his three-ball
to make a legal hit. This type of shot is very simple, and advanced
players know it well, but it is one of those options average players
simply don't see, and is a perfect example of accomplishing several
things with one shot.
Another
example is a ball-in-hand situation. Your opponent has ran all
of his balls but hooked himself on the eight-ball. After his foul,
you have ball-in-hand. All of your balls are spread out well except
for three balls in a cluster along a rail. Many times a player
will attempt a break out shot by slamming a ball into a pocket
and sending the cue ball flying into the cluster. This is unwise
for at least two reasons: hitting hard makes the balls do unpredictable
things, and 'breaking up' the balls at that velocity might very
well form other clusters somewhere else on the table.
An
option here, depending on how the cluster sits, is to 'tap' the
cluster at fairly close range, again accomplishing multiple goals:
your cluster is broken (at a manageable speed so you can somewhat
control where the balls end up on the table), and you freeze the
cue ball in a spot where your opponent has to pull off a three
rail kick shot with his cue at a sixty-degree angle just to avoid
giving you another ball in hand!
There
are countless ways this principle applies, especially is position-oriented
games such as eight-ball and one-pocket. Against a skilled opponent,
every shot must take into account multiple objectives. On a crowded
seven-foot table, an expert player playing eight-ball, or nine-ball
for that matter, will not attempt to run his balls until he has
everything right where he wants it. This may mean taking care
of a cluster, clustering his opponent, adjusting a key ball, etc.
I've known a few players who, if they deem it necessary, will,
with a wide-open table, play four evil safeties in a row in order
to adjust the ball spread. By evil I mean safeties in which my
cue ball was frozen to at least one of his balls or a rail, and
virtually no legal shot was available.
When
playing safe, always take into account all the factors: Where
will my balls be after this shot? Where will my opponent's ball
be? Is he just going to safety me back?
Also,
give yourself leeway. Don't attempt a shot which, if your speed
is off just a little bit, your opponent will have an easy run-out.
A good benefit of multiple-objective safeties is that even if
one of the goals isn't met, the other one probably will be.
Finally,
always ask yourself how the shot is benefitting you, not just
how it will hurt your opponent. Safety play requires foresight,
not just making your opponent shoot a difficult shot.
Credits
: 15 years of
shooting balls into pockets, three years of actually playing pool.
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