UFO or pool game training device?

What the hell is that thing? At least that was my reaction the first time I saw this UFO-looking triangular thing sitting on the railing. I figured we were going to go to Tazer/Shock therapy for missed shots. Turns out it’s not a Tazer or an unidentified flying object; but it’s actually a fairly easy-to-use stroke training device. It has 3 settings and can be set to: Easy, Medium, or Hard. I’d say there’s nothing super easy about this, but I started in the middle, which gives you a target to hit about ¼ inch in size.

How this works is that you set it on the end rail in line with one of the diamonds (Denny has me use the center diamonds on the table that way we can tell if the ball bounces off in a fun way and doesn’t go right back to the center). Then aim exactly at the center illuminated with green light. If the cue ball hits the exact center, the light just above the green dot (also a green dot) turns on. To quote Gordon Gecko:

Green is good!

However, if the left (like me) or right fails, you’ll hear a beep… and see a yellow light. This will start coming to you after 100 attempts. It turns out that it would be completely natural in this if the idea was to hit just a hair to the left of center and have this thing emit an SOS message. It’s possible to score a point with a little less than the center cue ball hit in this drill, but it’s not likely.

I’m nowhere near ready to move on to the hard setting which, take heart: it’s the thickness of a credit card! But I’m really looking forward to improving my stance, direction and stroke with this drill and working up to the hardest setup. However, this is a great tool to help you take your pool game and fundamentals to the next level and I highly suggest you invest in one of these. If you have time to practice with it for 10 minutes or more a day, you should see a huge improvement in your aim and accuracy in a matter of days.

Who wants to hear In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida… on Morris Code? Thank you for reading.