Watching some Accu-Stats 1pocket tapes is almost as good as practiciting. For strictly instructional purposes, I'd look for those with commentary by Icardonna and Grady.
As to actual practice, that's a tough one, because so much depends upon what level of play you're at -- what I might practice might not be what you need to practice, so it's hard to say. 1pocket has so many shots that are
peculiar to it… but for starters, here's five things you might try:
Take two object balls and play some straight rail, just between the foot
rail and the spot, making sure the cue ball dies just as it contacts the
second ball. Besides speed control, what's important during this exercise
is to play close attention to whether the thickness of hit you use off the
first object ball produces your anticipated cue ball path. Too thick? Too
thin? You're trying to build up a "data bank" of what you think is going to
happen Vs what actually does happen, so that the next time the same angle or shot comes up, you can adjust for greater accuracy. A few hours of this,
especially if you set up caroms that are typical 1pocket opening game
situations, will greatly enhance your safety play.
Put an object ball at various spots between one diamond and two diamonds
from your opponent's pocket, an inch or less off the side rail. Put the
rack where the balls would be racked and take cue ball in hand behind the
line. From various angles, try and stop the cue ball *absolutely dead* while
sending the object ball two rails into the rack (presumably, pushing balls
there to your side). Then practice this while bridging off the head rail.
This will help when your opponent sends you up table.
Put an object ball on the spot. Shooting off the side rail (cue ball not
frozen, perhaps a few inches off) just a little lower than the spot, try and
stop the cue ball so that it comes to rest absolutely dead on the spot. The
ability to kill the cue ball -- with a high degree of precision in this
area -- will get you out of many jams.
Throw the one, two, and three ball out around the bottom of the table and,
starting with ball in hand behind the line, shoot them into your pocket in
rotation. (Obviously, you need to give yourself a starting shot on the one
ball.) Depending on your skill level, you can increase the number of balls
and how far up table you spread them. You'll learn position plays you
certainly wouldn't ever select to shoot of your own free will and volition,
but that the table (opponent) might force you to play during a game.
Lastly, throw just a few balls out between the foot rail and spot. Shooting
off the head rail, make the cue ball travel absolutely straight through the
object ball and die on the foot rail. Do this on shots that will have the
cue ball traveling straight to the foot rail as well as shots that have it
going off a side rail to the foot rail. It's important to pay attention and
make sure your cue ball is tracking straight through the object ball,
because in a game situation, you'll often be "threading the needle" past
other balls or trying to avoid a scratch. This is will help you greatly in
end game situations.
Obviously there are many, many more you could practice, but these are the
ones, off the top of my head, that I thought would be worth working on.
