Here’s a drill I invented a few months ago to help me work on my rolling safes. As I’ve stated before, the ability to execute a good safe can easily mean the difference between winning or losing a match against a tough opponent. Very few people practice safes. Dont’ fall into that trap! If you maintain discipline and practice your safeties, you’ll have an advantage over more skilled opponents and you’ll win many more matches. I filed this drill in The Drills tab under Safeties.
See the setup in the diagram below. The cue ball is on the head spot. The object ball is one diamond down table from the cue ball. The objective is to shoot the cue ball through the object ball using normal follow, and make the cue ball come to rest in one of the ghost ball spots. Start on the far right side and try to hit each ghost ball spot. This is not as easy as it looks, but with practice you will develop a feel for it.
One of my friends at California Billiards claims I’ve developed an analytical method for determining exactly where to aim on the object ball to hit each of these spots. According to him, I developed this method based on some of the theoretical work of Dr. Dave Alciatore, who works in the Mechanical Engineering department at Colorado State University. At this point, I will neither confirm nor deny this accusation. 😉
Rolling Safe Drill
Angle of Reflection 