A Winning Defensive Game Part III By Dominic Esposito aka “The Drill Instructor
This month, I want to teach you two Defensive Drill Shots. You have to get this through your head, “Practicing Defensive Drills Develops Defensive Skills.” There’s no way around it. If you don’t practice defensive shots and defense skill building drills, you’re only taking a flyer with a prayer that you’re going to pull off a Safety Shot in a match as well as you should and could have done. Situation No. 1: You can hit the target ball, but there is no clear path to pocket it. You must do something to Control your opponent and Control the table. Notice, in each case, you must be in control. Objective: Execute a safety shot that hides the cue ball behind an object ball, and/or hides the object ball behind another object ball. In either case, you are forcing your opponent to bank the cue ball to hit the target object ball. Common Mistakes to Avoid: Not visualizing the completed safety play. in particular, seeing where you want the Cue Ball and Object Ball to land. Lingering over your frustration that you can’t pocket the ball instead of getting mentally focused that you’re playing a safety shot. 44
