Hello Class!
Are you ready to get on your way to earning your black belt in billiards? I will guarantee you, if you complete all of the games and skills exercises in this series, you will have earned it! Ready to get started? Great!
This game is the advanced version from the “Hurricane’s” Hot Seat section.
First we need to determine your skill level in billiards. The best way to do this is with a very easy game called Straight Pool.
Straight pool will determine your ball pocketing ability by keeping count of how many balls you can continually pocket without missing. It will also measure your cue ball control, by how you use English with cue ball speed, to place the cue ball for your next shot. It will also help you focus mentally for longer periods of time as your scores begin to increase each time you play the game. You will need to have five scores that you can average together. This could take some time depending on your skill level, but is necessary for your overall belt ranking at the end of the series.
There are also a few rules to follow when playing these games and be honest in your scoring. You will only cheat yourself. Do not restart a game or skill challenge because you got off to a bad start. You will only cheat yourself. Don’t ever give up or quit in the middle of what seems like a losing effort. You will only cheat yourself. Have fun!
Straight pool
This is an excellent game to find out your true ranking and follow your improvement. Rack the 1-10 balls with the 8 ball in the middle and place the 8 ball over the center spot of the table. Break the balls. After the break you have ball in hand.
All balls pocketed on the break stay pocketed. If you scratch on the break you still have ball in hand after the break. Pocket all balls in any order, leaving the 8 ball for last. You can pocket the 8 ball to play for position or breakout. If you pocket the 8 ball before you finish pocketing the other balls, spot the 8 ball back on the table on any of the 3 spot locations and continue shooting.
Each ball is worth one point. Each rack is worth 10 points. Keep a running total until you miss a ball, foul, or scratch.
Add your five running totals together, and then divide that number by five to get your average. Good luck!
Here are the Straight Pool scores needed to achieve each level.
Check out my youtube.com channel for the video lesson on this article.
Photo: Hurricane Wayne Jenkins Editor: Dana Gornall