I completely agree with this but I think it's unrealistic to expect that most people will be runout players in a year. I'm not saying its impossible but it would be the exception and not the rule.
Realistically, how much can one improve in under a year?
- Thread starter Positively Ralf
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I completely agree with this but I think it's unrealistic to expect that most people will be runout players in a year. I'm not saying its impossible but it would be the exception and not the rule.
We will see if this holds true for me as i have dedicated myself to doing just that. Time will tell. No excuses, just table time.
I think someone could become pretty damn good in pool in a period of a year with daily practice of a couple hours. Depends on the person as well as the quality of practice
The first month just focus on fundamentals , doing the same preshot routine every shot and most importantly, cueing action IMO.
The first month just focus on fundamentals , doing the same preshot routine every shot and most importantly, cueing action IMO.
Of course this is all a little subjective and a little vague, but C to a true A player in less than a year with only a few hours a week practice? I think that would be the exception, unless by "a few hours" you mean 2 hours a day. That I could see within a year.
You can't imagine it happening because pool players have been told for too many years that we must hit a million balls or practice 5 hours or more every day if we expect to become great players. We have accept this because that's how the greatest players in recent history have done it -- they worked hard.
But over the years there have been great strides made in the understanding of how our brain learns and develops complicated skills. A couple of short and focused practice sessions, 30min or so every day, can often prove more beneficial than mindlessly beating in 2 to 5 hours of straight practice. Numerous books have been written about this, covering a wide range of sports skills and academic learning, yet most pool players remain stuck thinking that they have to practice 5 hours a day or they'll never be the player they want to be. And most just don't have that kind of time to dedicate to their game, despite the desire to improve.
All I'm saying is that we can practice smarter, not harder, and usually achieve better results.
Absolutely! However, no matter how quickly we learn something, I think time at the table is needed for that skill to become seasoned, if that makes sense.
I agree. You can learn and develop the skills and be consistent performing what you've learned, but keeping that consistency under pressure of is where seasoning comes in, else we choke. And that is another topic that is misunderstood by some players, and by some instructors.
We've all heard or read that choking is the result of weak or poor fundamentals. But that's not true. When a player with weak fundamentals misses an easy shot, it may or may not be due to choking. More than likely it's due to a poor stroke or poor/inconsistent fundamentals, not to fact that they "choked".
Choking is the result of your conscious brain function interfering with what your subconscious brain function has already been programmed to do -- "left brain" thought mucking up "right brain" execution. Stress, anxiety, fear, anger, despair, etc... All of these are like huge monkey wrenches when it comes to the brain's automatic performance/execution mode. If we don't know how to deal with these culprits consciously within the left brain, they can easily fall into the right brain, bringing it to a grinding hault, and then everything that we know perfectly well how to do is jammed up. Instead of automatically doing it we feel almost like a beginner. We find ourselves TRYING to do it instead of just doing it. This is choke mode.
Sometimes an emotional monkey wrench or distraction can be so big that we can't do anything about it. But the more we learn to recognize, acknowledge, and deal with these things the better we get at keeping them from interfering with the skills that we've worked so hard to learn and develop. This, imo, is "seasoning".
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Times have definitely changed. If you pass by some construction sites, you'll see most of the young lazy guys sitting around watching the old man doing the grunt work. They don't make them like they use to be, the young guys have to sit down with just the thought of it. lol
It most likely hasn't been done, but I'd love to see two equal level C players get with two different good instructors. One instructor with the soft heart training one and another hard ball instructor busting the other students ass and see the outcome in six months of time. I'm a visual kind of person and got to see it to believe it. lol
I understand completely. But I'm not talking about a difference in instruction or coaching. I'm just talking about effective learning and skill development processes. Regardless of whether or not you have an instructor with a nonchalant approach that says "just practice whenever", or one with a hard approach that stands over you and pushes long grueling practice sessions onto you, or one somewhere between these two, the brain still has an optimal learning process.
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I know you understand. It just makes my stomach stir when someone does something half ass and has poor work ethics that they think they're entitled to the same thing to someone that has great work ethics and bust their ass. I'm referring to everything in life. Sadly, it seems today it's the new norm.
Same here....can't stand to see someone halfass an effort but expect the same return as someone who puts more into it.