Playing in quadrants will help your cue ball control.

The most beneficial drills are ones that have versions that increase the difficulty. It’s great to be able to add a degree of difficulty to drills after you’ve mastered the beginner or intermediate level. Here’s a great 16-ball drill that focuses on touch and cue ball control. It will teach you to keep your stroke under control, although some bigger shots may also be required.

This will require 16 balls, so use an extra cue ball or an extra object ball if you have one. It’s not a rotation drill, so the balls can be placed randomly (Diagram One). And you can shoot the balls in any order, but you must take one from each quadrant in rotation (marked Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4), and the cue ball must land in the quadrant of the object ball you contact. As always, no bumping other object balls.

For example, let’s start with the 1 ball in Q1 (Diagram Two). You need to keep the cue ball in Q1 after the shot, so just use a soft draw here. Then select a ball from Q2. Again, soft draw, low on the cue ball. Not too hard because you need to stay in that quadrant. Again, select a ball from Q3 that will allow you to punch the cue ball with a little left english. Finally, a ball from Q4, playing the cue ball for a shot back across to Q1 on the next shot.



To make sure we’re on the same page, let’s look at the next sequence in Diagram Three. In this case, I selected the 3 ball with a punch draw and a little right. You want to leave angles for the next shot. Select the ball based on the angle. For this shot, I’ll shoot the 11 with a punch shot. That will leave me the 8 ball in Q3, using a nice smooth draw (with perhaps a touch of left) for shape on the 12 ball in Q4.

That’s the gist of the drill. If it’s too difficult, it’s okay to take balls from any quadrant. For example, go from Q1 to Q3, then Q4 and back to Q2. Tweak to allow yourself the chance to succeed and improve.

This drill will improve your cue ball control in no time. It’s easy to set up and easy to replace balls if you miss.

It’s something I say all the time, but the secret to success and consistency is great cue ball control. Better cue ball control leads to less stress, not having to constantly make great shots to get back in line. Solid cue ball control makes the balls unmissable.