Then we agree, fundamentals are very important and should be given a lot of time. I am already doing this, but I am not sure how to improve them anymore since I think I corrected the flaws I knew I had.
Quickest path for improvement: Drills, ghost or a mix of both?
- Thread starter SamLambert
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Then we agree, fundamentals are very important and should be given a lot of time. I am already doing this, but I am not sure how to improve them anymore since I think I corrected the flaws I knew I had.
Sam, you can take this to heart, or you can dismiss it. You have 4 1/2 years left to your goal. You have a limited amount of time available. The last thing you want to be doing at this stage in your game is wasting time playing others. All you will learn playing better players at this point is how to lose. If you win, you won't learn anything either because your opponent will be a low enough skill level as to not be able to teach you anything.
Right now, you need to heavily concentrate on these things in this order:
1. Fundamentals
2. Shot making
3. Speed control
4.Positional play
5. Use of english and how it affects the shot line and angle off rails
6. Pattern play
7. Once you get a handle on those, THEN start playing opponents.
The first five you can't learn just by watching others. (with leeway given for #1 on how to do it) But you learn by yourself on the table. If you are playing someone else, you are giving up your table time and learning time to them. You don't have that kind of time to give away.
Right now, you are learning to crawl, do you really think it is a good idea to get into a foot race at this point in time?
Right now, you need to heavily concentrate on these things in this order:
1. Fundamentals
2. Shot making
3. Speed control
4.Positional play
5. Use of english and how it affects the shot line and angle off rails
6. Pattern play
7. Once you get a handle on those, THEN start playing opponents.
The first five you can't learn just by watching others. (with leeway given for #1 on how to do it) But you learn by yourself on the table. If you are playing someone else, you are giving up your table time and learning time to them. You don't have that kind of time to give away.
Right now, you are learning to crawl, do you really think it is a good idea to get into a foot race at this point in time?
One way is by doing repetition drills. Do you get the same result on each attempt, or does the position of the ob and cb direction after the hit vary? If it varies, then guess what, there is something wrong with your fundamentals because you aren't hitting the same spot each time to try to.
Hey Neil,
You always give me very good advice. I think your "methodology" is the one I'm going to follow. It makes a lot of sense to me.
Thanks again!
Gonna have to work on my fundamentals it seems.
Playing the Ghost is just another drill.
There are almost infinite drills that can be developed to both improve certain skill sets and measure one's performance or progress at them.
Learning also requires experimentation of various aspects, be it, specific shot you've seen and want to play more consistently, or aspects of aiming, cueing, jumping, kicking etc.
Even game play might be called a type of drill.
I think it helps if all aspects of practice have one or several set goals. The types are up to your imagination. When errors occur, solutions are sought, these provide almost endless things to work on for the dedicated player.
Identify weaknesses and focus in on their causes and cures. Identify other's strengths, that you do not posses, and pursue a similar mastery.
Mix things up, keep it interesting, but pursue with regularity areas that you recognize as short-comings.
Colin
There are almost infinite drills that can be developed to both improve certain skill sets and measure one's performance or progress at them.
Learning also requires experimentation of various aspects, be it, specific shot you've seen and want to play more consistently, or aspects of aiming, cueing, jumping, kicking etc.
Even game play might be called a type of drill.
I think it helps if all aspects of practice have one or several set goals. The types are up to your imagination. When errors occur, solutions are sought, these provide almost endless things to work on for the dedicated player.
Identify weaknesses and focus in on their causes and cures. Identify other's strengths, that you do not posses, and pursue a similar mastery.
Mix things up, keep it interesting, but pursue with regularity areas that you recognize as short-comings.
Colin
Didnt you say that you have a top player as a coach?
How much time do you spend with him?
Why not discuss your goals with him and have him develope a plan to get you there?
Then if you trust him stick to it and dont get too many cooks in the kitchen.
How much time do you spend with him?
Why not discuss your goals with him and have him develope a plan to get you there?
Then if you trust him stick to it and dont get too many cooks in the kitchen.
The absolute best players I know - for reference, they're around the 720-740 mark in their Fargo Ratings and none of them did drills, and I really can't do them either for long periods of time. Every once in a while I'll set-up a drill and see if I've progressed any from just shooting and playing... and interestingly enough, I have progressed in many drills.
If I'm made aware of any flaw you have in my game then I focus on that when I shoot racks with people. Doing that has helped my position play, my thinking at the table, and my ball control.
Drills just don't do it for me and since I know many people got to a very high level without them then I know I can as well.
If I'm made aware of any flaw you have in my game then I focus on that when I shoot racks with people. Doing that has helped my position play, my thinking at the table, and my ball control.
Drills just don't do it for me and since I know many people got to a very high level without them then I know I can as well.
Ditto. My attention span isn't long enough to keep drills interesting and I can't practice shots one after the other for too long. Ghost drills do keep me interested the longest though.
Yeah, you can get to a high level of playing without doing drills. It'll just take longer.
Imagine a situation you find hard, in a game, you play it, make it or not, but you can't try different speed, spin to see how it changes the end result.
While you do a drill or practice a specific type of shot, you can try a lot of variant and quickly learn what speed and/or spin will affect the outcome.
It can get boring.. strike that, it WILL get boring, but still, no one in here will make me believe that doint drills won't make you learn faster..
Imagine a situation you find hard, in a game, you play it, make it or not, but you can't try different speed, spin to see how it changes the end result.
While you do a drill or practice a specific type of shot, you can try a lot of variant and quickly learn what speed and/or spin will affect the outcome.
It can get boring.. strike that, it WILL get boring, but still, no one in here will make me believe that doint drills won't make you learn faster..
One hour and a half per week roughly. I have discussed my goals with him and he has already told me that getting me there as quickly as possible was also one of his goals, mostly because he thinks it would be good publicity for his pool academy.
We often say that top players don't automatically make good coaches and I think it applies here. Sylvain is a very, very good player, but he seems to have trouble coming up with a good routine for me. He is great at explaining everything and telling me what I did wrong and how to correct it though and the lessons we have together do help in a variety of ways. I think he is improving quickly at "how to coach" though because he is coming up with great new things every few lessons.
He is of the opinion that drills are the way to go and he wish he had started doing them much earlier in his pool "career", so that does make me inclined to practice drills more than just playing the ghost over and over.
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Copious amounts of alcohol on a consistent basis.
Back then, information was not readily available as it is today.
Nowaday, no one can say "I did not know", I mean there are plenty of website, DVDs, books and pretty much everyone says the same about pool physics (cut induced throw, swerve, etc etc).
The first step in my opinion, is to learn the theory, then practice it using drills and apply it in game situation.
Cheers!
Nowaday, no one can say "I did not know", I mean there are plenty of website, DVDs, books and pretty much everyone says the same about pool physics (cut induced throw, swerve, etc etc).
The first step in my opinion, is to learn the theory, then practice it using drills and apply it in game situation.
Cheers!
I see.
Darren Appleton has some good dvd's where he describes his practice routine. I recommend those.
Write it in a reply.
I definitely play better sipping on a beer than sipping on soda water.:wink:
Ghost and Competition mostly... drill your problems...
Agree with your point for sure. I went through a period where I wanted to learn/experience how different speeds and spin affected the CB path. I spent some time shooting the same shots over and over and recorded the different results.
Thankfully I'm a very quick learner because this only lasted so for so long. The results and information sticks very quick for me.