The Yo-Yo Drill - Fast Improvement For Amateur Pool Players! (Cue Ball Speed And Direction Training)

Hi pool players, it's The Terminator. Welcome back to another episode of Terminator Tips. In this lesson, I have a great drill for you that's gonna work on your shot making, your speed control and your cue ball direction. It's gonna work great for amateur pool players that wanna build up their game to the next level. So let's jump onto the pool table now and show you how it's done. Here it is pool players, the yo-yo. Only two balls on the table. It looks easy, but it's much harder than you think. It was developed over 25 years ago by the Moscone legend coach, Johan Ruysink. He gave this drill to players from all kinds of levels, beginners to even very good players. And you will be amazed how many good players are having trouble with this drill. All you have to do basically is pocket one ball and cross over to the other side for the other ball and keep doing that. So you're going back and forth like a yo-yo, back and forth. There's only one rule to this drill and that is you're not allowed to touch the bottom rail. I'm gonna show you three basic positions that come up all the time in this drill and that you need to master to make some nice runs. These kind of shots, they come up in pool games all the time so they're extremely useful and you must have them in your pool bag. The middle of the table would be a 45 degree shot on each of these balls. From here, it would be a 90 degree cut. So we're moving over here. It's about 45 degree angle and a very standard position is when you're around this diamond right here. That's when I'm going two rails. I always wanna come past the side, that way I'm not risking of looking for the side pocket. That's what this drill is gonna teach you. With low left, you wanna come past the side pocket, bounce off the rail for a nice angle on the next shot. So that was about 22 and a half degree angle. It works all the way up to just about here. Coming more to the middle of the table, I will show you that in a minute. That's when the scratch gets really big. What I wanna show you next, we come to the inside of that angle. So a little bit more straighter than this 22 and a half. That's when I don't wanna touch the second rail. I'm coming one rail straight out and I wanna try and give myself that same angle. See if I can pull it off. Low left, that's where the speed control, the speed training comes into play. I get a lot of questions in the comments, how do I train my touch? This is one of these drills where your touch will be developed. And then what do we do when we come away from that 22 and a half degree angle? Like I said, so about here, we can still draw it past the side, but when we land around the middle of the table, even over here, here, that's when we have to start rolling the ball with some outside English. So in this case, that would be a high ball with some right spin. We wanna try and come back above the one. And depending on the speed, sometimes it takes one or two or three shots before we can start drawing it again. But that's what we have to do to survive our run. We have to stay alive. So let me show you this one roll shot. Just a nice high ball. I would say two o'clock on the cue ball. Roll it in. Now we have that nice, almost 22 and a half degree angle to go two rails again. So as you see, shot making, cue ball direction, cue ball control and speed control all in one. If you like what you're seeing, if this is helpful for you, please give me a thumbs up and leave a comment below. I always try to read everything and respond to as many as possible. Let's continue our run. It can also happen in this drill that you land fairly straight. What are we gonna do? We have to draw it all the way back with that power stroke, little bit of right spin, come back towards the one, give us a nice angle. If you wanna know how to develop that stroke, check out the video in the link above here. Let's see now if I can pull one off. Low right spin, a nice stroke, let the spin carry it towards the one. And now we're back in line to continue our run. So what would be a good goal for you as a player to do this drill? If you're a beginner player, try to run four to six balls in a row. If you're having trouble with these shots, just set them up individually, like I just show you and work on those. It's very rewarding when they start coming together and you can start building a run. If you're an intermediate player, try to run 10, 10 plus. More advanced players, try to start hitting those 16 ball runs, 15 plus, 20. And if you're an advanced to pro player, you gotta really start hitting those 25 plus runs. I've done 30, 40s, 50s of these because I've mastered the speed and direction. And that's something that I wanna show you and that you can learn and master for your game. Let me walk you through a nice little run here. Let's see if we can do six to 10 and I'll show you my choices. Here, I wanna just stay on a one rail line. I don't wanna go to the second rail. There, I have a nice angle now to go two rails. Low right, putting back some balls now. I have a nice angle again to go one rail. Low right, all about speed control. Hit it a little bit soft. See, now I have to make a correction. I'm gonna roll this one. Let's see how the angle is after that shot. I'm gonna run a four. Just have enough angle, I think, to cross past the side. Low left. Very close, but I know those angles, so that's not luck. I know my limits there. And my advice is as much as possible, go past the side, because if you go in front of the side and you hit it short, now you're coming here and your run's almost over. It's very risky to go to this area and that's where a lot of mistakes are made. So I'm on a run of five. I think this angle, I can go two rails. Shot making, speed control, correction, knowledge. I hit that one a bit soft again. I'm on six. See if I can make a correction. I'm gonna come with a nice stroke here. Really great stroke building. I'm back in line for a two railer. Nice shot there. I'm on eight. See if we can do two more for you. Then I get the bragging rights. First attempt, 10, two rails. And let's see if we can continue this run after this shot in fast forward. That was 10. Nice 20 ball run. Had to stop somewhere. As you can see, I've done this a lot over the years when I was starting to play pool and Johan gave me this drill. We did this all the time as youngsters. Just a nice overall drill to work on your skills. So I think it's very powerful. I wanted to share that with you. There you go, pool players. A great little drill that's really gonna do something for your pool game. Work on this and I promise you you're gonna get better from this. Don't forget to check out all the other great content on the channel. There's tips and lessons here uploaded weekly. And if you're interested in the mental side of the game, head over to terminatorcollege.com and check out all the courses that are waiting there for you. See you next time.