Practice Routine

mr5994 · Jan 5, 2011

I will spend around a third of my practice time setting up a shot on my home table and repeating it over and over again. I'll change one thing at a time, like play shape on a second ball - shoot it 10 times.....then find another route to get on that second ball - shoot it 10 times.....move the second ball to another location.....change the angle of the shot.....change the distance of OB to pocket....you get the idea. This has helped me a great deal in learning the path the CB will take off various shots, how much to compensate for deflection, and I learn my own limitations with shotmaking. In a typical session, I'll work for 20 minutes or so on the same setup shooting it maybe 100 times.

The choice of what to practice is completely random, maybe a missed shot on league night or a shot I tend to struggle with. I am wondering if there is a more structured approach that I can take. Maybe a book, DVD or even free material on the web that has a good selection of different shots and maybe a progressive method of scoring, etc. Anything like this out there?

JolietJames · Jan 12, 2011

What are you doing with the other 2/3 of your practice time? Do you play one game more than another or have a favorite?

Cameron Smith · Jan 12, 2011

mr5994 said:
I will spend around a third of my practice time setting up a shot on my home table and repeating it over and over again. I'll change one thing at a time, like play shape on a second ball - shoot it 10 times.....then find another route to get on that second ball - shoot it 10 times.....move the second ball to another location.....change the angle of the shot.....change the distance of OB to pocket....you get the idea. This has helped me a great deal in learning the path the CB will take off various shots, how much to compensate for deflection, and I learn my own limitations with shotmaking. In a typical session, I'll work for 20 minutes or so on the same setup shooting it maybe 100 times.

The choice of what to practice is completely random, maybe a missed shot on league night or a shot I tend to struggle with. I am wondering if there is a more structured approach that I can take. Maybe a book, DVD or even free material on the web that has a good selection of different shots and maybe a progressive method of scoring, etc. Anything like this out there?

I'm sure you can find plent of drills to play. Look for Forcefollows channel on youtube, he provides millions of them.

Ensure you are putting a heavy focus on improving your mechanics. If they do not progress you will see limited improvement. Always go to the practice table with a plan, something specific to work on. For example, if I am having trouble staying down on the shot, I spend the entire practice session making sure that if nothing else I stay down whilst going through my routine. Simply executing drills without considering your fundamentals will not yield as much results.

Learn all of the cue games that you can. The cool thing is that every game almost serves as a drill focusing on a specific skills. 9 ball - shot making and position play. One Pocket - position play, banking, kicking, caroms. Bank Pool - obvious. Straight Pool - consistency, position play, shot making. Snooker - accuracy of stroke. Also, if you can play any carom billiards, this will teach you exact cue ball paths. It has a huge impact on your position play. Even if you only play 8 ball or 9 ball, you will see the results fairly quickly in regards to being an all around player.

mr5994 · Jan 15, 2011

JolietJames said:
What are you doing with the other 2/3 of your practice time? Do you play one game more than another or have a favorite?

Roughly 1/3 of my time is spent playing the 6 ball ghost, and the other 1/3 is spent on various drills (Bob Jewett's progressive practice, L-Drill, Dr Dave drills, etc.)

mr5994 · Jan 15, 2011

Cameron Smith said:
I'm sure you can find plent of drills to play. Look for Forcefollows channel on youtube, he provides millions of them.

Ensure you are putting a heavy focus on improving your mechanics. If they do not progress you will see limited improvement. Always go to the practice table with a plan, something specific to work on. For example, if I am having trouble staying down on the shot, I spend the entire practice session making sure that if nothing else I stay down whilst going through my routine. Simply executing drills without considering your fundamentals will not yield as much results.

Learn all of the cue games that you can. The cool thing is that every game almost serves as a drill focusing on a specific skills. 9 ball - shot making and position play. One Pocket - position play, banking, kicking, caroms. Bank Pool - obvious. Straight Pool - consistency, position play, shot making. Snooker - accuracy of stroke. Also, if you can play any carom billiards, this will teach you exact cue ball paths. It has a huge impact on your position play. Even if you only play 8 ball or 9 ball, you will see the results fairly quickly in regards to being an all around player.

I agree with everything you say, and I do incorporate many drills in my practice routine. More specifically, with this post I am looking for drills that involve setting up a variety of different shots and shooting each one multiple times to learn cue ball path, throw, cue ball speed, etc.

pooltchr · Jan 16, 2011

mr5994 said:
, with this post I am looking for drills that involve setting up a variety of different shots and shooting each one multiple times to learn cue ball path, throw, cue ball speed, etc.

You have just described what you want to accomplish. Just do it. You don't need anyone to tell you where to place the balls. You can learn something from every shot you set up and shoot. I will say that if you want to shoot the same shot multiple times, it's important to make sure it's the exact same shot. Get some of the paper renforcements from Office Depot and use them to mark ball position.

Steve

2rgrbn · Jan 16, 2011

A little drill I came up with myself years ago I don't know if the experts will back it but it worked for me.......As my game progressed and I started running out on occasion I noticed that I was getting a concentration break as I neared the end of a rack. (I see it in other players as well) so I still executed my practice shots in areas that I felt it was needed but added to the session run out practice....I broke, moved a ball here and there so the table was fairly easy to get out on, took ball in hand and practiced running out. As time progressed I increased the difficulty of the layout until finally I was just breaking and playing it from there. End result, It became more normal to run out than not and during "runout" practice I was still practicing position play etc it was just rolled into one. Practice your break it is the most important shot of the game if you want to beat a player.

mr5994 · Jan 16, 2011

pooltchr said:
You have just described what you want to accomplish. Just do it. You don't need anyone to tell you where to place the balls. You can learn something from every shot you set up and shoot. I will say that if you want to shoot the same shot multiple times, it's important to make sure it's the exact same shot. Get some of the paper renforcements from Office Depot and use them to mark ball position.

Steve

The drill, as I am doing it now, does add value and I will continue to do it. I am more or less looking to see if there is a drill with a similar concept developed by an instructor. It seems like the good instructors on here (yourself included) have a knack for developing drills that can optimize the students progress. Here is an example: Prior to visiting this site or owning any instructional videos or books, I would setup my own simple stop shot, draw, and follow drill similar to Bob Jewett's Progressive Practice. It made me a better player but when I learned about and began to apply the Progressive Practice drill, my game improved dramatically.

But if nothing like this exists, I will keep on with my own drill.

mr5994 · Jan 16, 2011

2rgrbn said:
A little drill I came up with myself years ago I don't know if the experts will back it but it worked for me.......As my game progressed and I started running out on occasion I noticed that I was getting a concentration break as I neared the end of a rack. (I see it in other players as well) so I still executed my practice shots in areas that I felt it was needed but added to the session run out practice....I broke, moved a ball here and there so the table was fairly easy to get out on, took ball in hand and practiced running out. As time progressed I increased the difficulty of the layout until finally I was just breaking and playing it from there. End result, It became more normal to run out than not and during "runout" practice I was still practicing position play etc it was just rolled into one. Practice your break it is the most important shot of the game if you want to beat a player.

Good idea, I am going to try this on my next practice session.

pooltchr · Jan 17, 2011

All good drills should be progressive in nature. Rail shots? Start with the OB a short distance from the pocket, then gradually move it farther away until you are testing your comfort level. Gradualliy increase the separation of CB and OB the same way.

Stop shots? Start at one diamond separation, then increase it to 2, 3 etc until you can hit a dead stop shot from 7 or 8 diamonds away. Back cuts,,,do the exact same thing. Start close, then gradually increase your distance.

Whatever shot you are working on, this is the way to do it. This serves our natural learning system. When you learned to read, you didn't start with War and Peace...you started with Dick and Jane and worked your way up.

Think about this for just a minute. If you can learn to shoot straight in shots, cut shots, and rail shots, all that is left is to learn how to position the cue ball for your next shot.
All straight in shots are done the same way, it's just the distances that change. Also true for cut shots (angles and distances), rail shots, etc.

If you are trying to learn specific shots, you have to ask yourself how often that specific shot will come up in a match. If you are learning different types of shots, you end up getting a much more well rounded education that is applicable much more often in game situations.

I watched a girl practicing the L-drill for nearly an hour the other night. I finally asked her what she was doing and she said someone told her she needed to learn it. I pointed out that it's pretty rare that the balls end up lined up like that in an actual game. I gave her a couple of suggestions, and I suspect I will see her in class very soon.

The bottom line...it's not WHAT you practice....it's HOW you practice.

Steve

Practice Routine

mr5994

AzB Silver Member

JolietJames

Boot Party Coordinator

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...

mr5994

AzB Silver Member

mr5994

AzB Silver Member

pooltchr

Prof. Billiard Instructor

2rgrbn

"Sua Sponte"

mr5994

AzB Silver Member

mr5994

AzB Silver Member

pooltchr

Prof. Billiard Instructor