Can you repaint certain elements (ie a ball) while NOT repainting the board

Question

I'm really just starting out writing java applets. I don't use Applet, i use JApplet because the coding is much more familiar. I understand that this might be a bad decision and if it is, please tell me! Anyway, my question is: Can I have the paint method (called via repaint()) paint the board one time, then only repaint the ball and it's constant change in position? I want to do this because the only way I can think of to have constant motion of the ball (I'm trying to simulate Pong) is by adding repaint() to the end of the paint function. This causes the applet to repaint very rapidly and everything gets all cut up and looks like crap. Any ideas on how I can make it run smoother? my code is teh following, if it helps (I realize that it isn't really commented, I am very messy and I do apologize):
import java.util.Random;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.Date;
public class NewProj extends JApplet implements ActionListener, MouseListener, MouseMotionListener, KeyListener{
/** Creates a new instance of NewProj */
private int xBar1,yBar1,xBar2,yBar2;
private String code;
private int bar1H, bar2H, yMovement, xMovement;
private int frame;
private int ballX,ballY;
private boolean hitTop,hitBottom,hitLeft,hitRight,hitPaddle1,hitPaddle2;
private int score1,score2;
private Date date;
public NewProj() {
date = new Date();
score1=0;
score2=0;
ballX=175;
ballY=125;
yMovement=ballY+3;
xMovement=ballX+3;
frame=0;
bar1H=40;
bar2H=40;
code="";
xBar1=30;
yBar1=130;
xBar2=320;
yBar2=130;
this.addMouseMotionListener(this);
this.addMouseListener(this);
this.addKeyListener(this);
public void paint(Graphics g){
super.paint(g);
g.drawString("Score: "+score1,220,20);
g.drawString("Score: " + score2,80,20);
if(frame==25){
//initiate a and xMovement as moving linearly with a slope of 1.
yMovement=ballY+3;
xMovement=ballX+3;
if(ballX<=xBar1+8 && ballX>=xBar1 && ballY<=yBar1+bar1H && ballY>=yBar1){
hitPaddle1=true;
hitPaddle2=false;
hitRight=false;
hitLeft=false;
if(ballX<=xBar2+8 && ballX>=xBar2 && ballY<=yBar2+bar2H && ballY>=yBar2){
hitPaddle2=true;
hitRight=false;
hitLeft=false;
//check if the ball hit the Top
if(ballY<1){
hitBottom=false;
hitTop=true;
if(ballY>250){
hitTop=false;
hitBottom=true;
if(ballX<10){
hitPaddle2=false;
hitPaddle1=false;
hitRight=false;
hitLeft=true;
score1++;
if(ballX>350){
hitPaddle2=false;
hitPaddle1=false;
hitLeft=false;
hitRight=true;
score2++;
if(hitBottom){
yMovement=ballY-3;
if(hitTop){
yMovement=ballY+3;
if(hitLeft){
xMovement=ballX+3;
if(hitRight)
xMovement=ballX-3;
if(hitPaddle1){
xMovement=ballX+3;
if(hitPaddle2){
xMovement=ballX-3;
System.out.println(yMovement+" is yMovement " + "and" + xMovement + " is xmove");
ballY=yMovement;
ballX=xMovement;
frame=0;
repaint();
if(code.equals("penis")){
if(bar1H>=60)
bar1H=60;
else bar1H+=5;
code="";
//top & bottom
g.drawLine(0,0,350, 0);
g.drawLine(0,250,350,250);
//left & right sides
g.drawLine(0,0,0,250);
g.drawLine(350,0,350,250);
//Midline
g.drawLine(175,0,175,250);
//ball
g.setColor(Color.MAGENTA);
g.fillOval(ballX,ballY,8,8);
g.setColor(Color.RED);
g.fillRect(xBar1,yBar1,5,bar1H);
g.setColor(Color.BLUE);
g.fillRect(xBar2,yBar2,5,bar2H);
frame++;
for(int b = 0; b<1000;b++){
int hilbo=b+3;
repaint();
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
repaint();
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
int y = e.getY();
if(y<=(250-bar1H))
yBar1 = y-(int)bar1H/2;
else yBar1 = 250-bar1H;
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
if(e.getKeyCode()==40){
yBar2+=10;
if(e.getKeyCode()==38){
yBar2-=10;
if(yBar2>=225)
yBar2=225;
if(yBar2<=0)
yBar2=0;
repaint();
for(int i=65;i<=90;i++){
String s = "";
switch(e.getKeyCode()){
case 80: code=code+"p";
break;
case 69: code=code+"e";
break;
case 78: code=code+"n";
break;
case 73: code=code+"i";
break;
case 83: code=code+"s";
break;
case 82: code=code+"r";
break;
case 65: code=code+"a";
break;
case 75: code=code+"k";
default:code="";
break;
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {

Answer 1

Check out the tutorials on this site. Start here: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/
You can have a thread like this:public class Game extends java.awt.Component {
  public void init() {
    Thread t = new Thread(new GameLoop());
    t.start();
  public void paint(Graphics g) {
    // draw your game here.  Do nothing other than drawing.
  private class GameLoop { // inner class
    public void run() {
       while(true) {
          // update your game state here -- e.g., move the ball's position
          try {
             Thread.sleep(200); // 200 miliseconds, 1/5 of a second
           catch(InterruptedException e) {
              // this is the rare exception that it's generally OK to ignore
           repaint();
}that's not perfect but it will get you started