Tips for focused practice for better players

If you feel all your fundamentals are firing and I'm assuming that you have achieved great cue ball control and proper speed, then I would start to spend time on your kicking systems and the diamond system....things like that.

At the advanced level, safety play will make or break you.

It's often easy enough to play a safety but hard as hell to get out of them.

The most useful tip I have every received and use daily is the
20/20 Rule for Practice.

randyg

randyg said:

The most useful tip I have every received and use daily is the
20/20 Rule for Practice.

randyg

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what is the 20/20 rule?????.......
please explain

By now you know what you need to work on, and your focus should mainly be on any flaws in your game. With the occasional time spent on the things you're already good at just to stay good at them.

Since you've got a ton of drills, here's a little way to add some variety. Take the drills you feel you have mastered, and then do them opposite handed.

You could also try writing up a structured routine around your schedule based on what you feel needs the most work.

Try working on the BU exams and try and get a perfect score. That will increase your focus.

scottjen26 said:

After some increased practice time and work in various parts of my game a few months ago, I find myself playing better than ever. My stroke feels great, PSR is good, aiming is fantastic, just overall approach to the game feels improved. I’m no longer constantly tweaking this and that, pretty satisfied with my approach at the moment. Since I’m a perfectionist and very hard on myself, that’s saying something…

I know I need to get out of my comfort zone and start playing more tournaments to put the new game to the test, but other than that I’m looking for tips on focused practice. Since I’m not tweaking (or twerking…) like I used to, I find myself almost getting bored after just an hour or so, sometimes less. I feel I’m potentially losing valuable practice time and I start getting sloppy or nonchalant or end up talking, screwing around, switching games, etc.

Not sure whether to focus more on ghost type practice, and really challenge myself to stay focused and concentrate, or work on certain individual aspects of my game (stroke, draw, follow, cuts, banks, etc.), or do drills. If drills would be good, I have so many, not sure which ones would be the most useful, or how long to do each one. I thought about going through my binder and just doing one drill at a time until successful just for variety. I think a more formalized ghost practice could work, especially if I kept a log, would be a good simulation of an actual game minus safety play.

Basically, I just need a kick in the a$$ to get me motivated again, and I’m wondering what better players do or how they practice when everything is sort of working. It would be like going to the driving range and every shot just goes where you want, feels great, etc. - after a while, the practice gets boring and you just want to play. Yet I feel I still need the practice as I made quite a few changes that were a culmination of many things and they are only a few months old, I feel the need to still ingrain the routine and continue to smooth everything out, I put too much work in to “lose” it one day and go backwards…

Thanks!
Scott

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Compete, compete, and then compete some more. It's time to throw your hat into the ring. If you pay attention while you are competing, you'll find many things that are related to your personal game to take to the practice table.

FranCrimi said:

Compete, compete, and then compete some more. It's time to throw your hat into the ring. If you pay attention while you are competing, you'll find many things that are related to your personal game to take to the practice table.

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Great advice Fran! I would like to add that you can also learn from watching others. Monday night I was watching a rack running player in 9 ball. He was taking his time on each and every shot. When he got down to shoot the 9, which was a fairly easy cut shot, he hurried the shot, forgetting his PSR, and missed. Some times when I do this it doesn't quite sink in. However, when you realize that a player of his calibre can miss, it really drives the point home. Treat every shot the same.

bbb said:

what is the 20/20 rule?????.......
please explain

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I have explained this many times out here.

One more time.

The 20/20 Practice Rules:


For normal humans the length of time that they can focus on one thing is very limited. After that time expires any practice time becomes counter productive. In five minutes you can ruin what you just practiced in the last twenty minutes.

The 20/20 Rule states that we should keep our routines to a minimum time frame (20 minutes). 20 perfect repeats is more than enough for the Brain to comprehend. When we practice we want QUALITY not Quantity!

It goes like this:

In one 20 minute work-out I may:
20 Stop Shots
20 Bank Shots
20 Kick shots
and call it quits


If you were to do this routine twice a day you could install a new habit quicker than hitting 1000 balls in one setting.

I believe that LONG IS WRONG & SHORT IS SWEET!

Remember: All Practice Routines should be REPEATABLE & MEASUREABLE.

randyg

randyg said:

I have explained this many times out here.

One more time.

The 20/20 Practice Rules:


For normal humans the length of time that they can focus on one thing is very limited. After that time expires any practice time becomes counter productive. In five minutes you can ruin what you just practiced in the last twenty minutes.

The 20/20 Rule states that we should keep our routines to a minimum time frame (20 minutes). 20 perfect repeats is more than enough for the Brain to comprehend. When we practice we want QUALITY not Quantity!

It goes like this:

In one 20 minute work-out I may:
20 Stop Shots
20 Bank Shots
20 Kick shots
and call it quits


If you were to do this routine twice a day you could install a new habit quicker than hitting 1000 balls in one setting.

I believe that LONG IS WRONG & SHORT IS SWEET!

Remember: All Practice Routines should be REPEATABLE & MEASUREABLE.

randyg

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thanks randy for answering my question

Hi Scott,

I just wanted to add my experience with getting bored practicing. I used to practice 6-8 hours a day for about 2 years and loved it. Then I started getting bored with practice. I would run drills and play the ghost and then would find myself just banging the balls around. I decided then that maybe playing tournaments would help me. So I would play in all the tournaments that I could. This did help my focus as I played more tournaments and kept my enthusiasm going for the game that I love so much. Well then tournaments got boring for me because I had to wait for the next game and waiting for others to finish. So if it was a 5 or 10 dollar tournament it just wasn't that exciting to keep waiting for the next game. I started then playing small cash games with other players that I was equal to or not as good. I would allow myself not to lose more than 100 dollars to a better player and hopefully recoup that when I played someone that I was equal to in skill or maybe a little better or win a small tournament. I noticed that win I lost it gave me the motivation to practice harder and more intense. Sometimes when I was on the winning end of beating a player my arm would start shaking when shooting the winning shot. The more I played under stress the less I would get nervous and the shaking eventually went away. I would replay those losses in my mind when I practiced and it gave me the drive to become a better player and made my practice sessions more enjoyable. I am in way no telling you to do what I did but just giving you my experience when practicing got bored for me.

Good for you, Scott. There's no better gauge to see where you're at than with competition because you only have one chance at any given shot. Once you can consistently execute a particular shot on demand, then you know you've got it.

Even when playing the ghost in practice: Try to resist the temptation after an error to rack the balls up and start again. Finish the rack. See it through to the end. Then practice the shot later that tripped you up.

FranCrimi said:

Good for you, Scott. There's no better gauge to see where you're at than with competition because you only have one chance at any given shot. Once you can consistently execute a particular shot on demand, then you know you've got it.

Even when playing the ghost in practice: Try to resist the temptation after an error to rack the balls up and start again. Finish the rack. See it through to the end. Then practice the shot later that tripped you up.

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Fran is this advice for game mode mental toughness? One needs to put the miss behind
them and focus on the present?

Scott, what I have done in the past that really helped my focus and endurance, was to rack all 15 balls, break them open, then run them out from where the cue ball lies. See how many racks you can run, and try and break your high run.

You will find, as did I, that almost all misses are on makeable balls. You HAVE to play professionally and really focus on each and every shot to get a good run going. NEVER take a single shot for granted. Be very precise on each shot.

At first, you may find that you loose focus after 3-4 racks. Keep trying it, in a few days you will see your focus lasting longer.

alphadog said:

Fran is this advice for game mode mental toughness? One needs to put the miss behind
them and focus on the present?

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I wasn't thinking of that exactly but yes, it will help there as well.

My thoughts were that when you are practicing, you will tend to have a higher opinion of your game than reality because you don't consider all the 'I'll just start over' times.

We all suffer from selective memory at times; particularly when we practice.

Any of this sound familiar?

Hey Scott.

Been a while, how you doing? Watch out for that ghost, he just don't miss! Although you play pretty sporty yourself. As for your post here, I'm glad I'm not alone in this mindset. I've actually had to force myself away from the table many of times catching myself in the act of mindlessly banging, or as you stated (pulling the trigger on a shot even though you knew you were lined up wrong. Then get angry because you missed and you knew you were going to miss before you pulled the trigger but continue to shoot it anyways, so that makes you even angrier..."the snowball effect" ).

Since our last discussion I've worked on many of the issues of my game that you (and others) have pointed out. I wish I had some exciting news to report on that, but I don't. I have seen minor improvements, but nothing I feel is getting me to that next level. I would gladly trade the high peaks (in the zone, catching a gear, Zen state or whatever its called) of my game if it meant I no longer had those moments where my concentration isn't there and basic shots are missed or shape goes bad and results in being hooked.

Sometimes it's as if my game is like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, and that fear of not knowing whom of the two will be playing in the next five minutes. For me, it boils down to concentration & motivation. If either of those two aren't 100%, things are not going to go as well as I hoped they could. I wish I had the answers, but I'm "Up in arms" too. I'm convinced that this game at the higher levels, will drive a person to insanity (I wonder if that's why Earl, oh never mind) .

I liked Randyg's 20/20 rule tip, I'm keeping that little gem in my notes for sure. For me though I think I may modify it to the 60/60 rule. Reason being is I usually find myself reaching this point after about an hour of intense 10-ball ghost or 14.1 play.

I also liked Neil's (Howdy Neil :thumbup suggestion, one that I actually do myself quite often. I love full rack rotation using 10-ball rules. As with any ghost style game, I try not to use the BIH option on the break, but at times my breaks just simply suck so bad I'm forced to use the BIH on the break crutch.

I wish I had some insight, wisdom or inspirational thoughts to throw your way, but there isn't much I could say that you don't already know. Glad to hear your still pounding away on the tables. Keep in touch.

Dopc.

I like playing the ten and 15 ball ghost to find what I need to practice. The 15 ball ghost requires more kicking and banking.

When I miss I play that shot 20 /20 as Randy suggests. Over time the 10 and 15 ball ghost shows all of my weaknesses. It also has the advantage of changing up my practice routines as I do not determine what I should practice. Adds variety and some spice to my practice routines.

The errors for that day may also lead to other practice routines I haven't used in a while.

I dislike having to shoot off the rail and damn if that does show up with a great deal of consistency.