I'm looking for good ways to practice and measure progress.  Please describe the Q-Skill rating system...Thanks

Editor note: Allen's system is a very good way to keep track of your progress.  It's more difficult to accomplish than it sounds.  Contact Hopkins productions to find out what rooms participate in the system, or get additional information.  609-562-6116

Rack 15 balls at random, and blast-break them open as you would in 8-ball or Chicago (that's also Rotation, depending on what part of the country you live in). Playing the cue ball from where it lies, try to run the first 10 balls as you would in straight pool, then the last five in numerical order. (You may leave any five balls you wish for last.) You get one point for each of the first ten balls, and two points each for the last five, so a perfect score would be 20. The system's creator, Allen Hopkins, recommends you shoot at least 10 frames of this for a projectable rating. While a perfect score that way would be 200, no one including the top pros who have tried this have got much past 180.

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