1 hour a day, what do you practice and why

Race2-9...The Mother Drills are not part of Randy and my instructional series, Play Better Pool, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. You will, however, learn the Mother Drills by attending pool school, or taking a private lesson from any SPF instructor. Our DVDs are, we believe, some of the best instructional materials available. Anyone interested, can PM either Randyg or myself, for details on how to purchase them.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Race2-9 said:
First I think it's great that you get 1 hour with no interuption. That being said, I would suggest you call Randy Goettlicher about his CD and follow the Mother drills. Not only making balls but practice your concentration. good luck
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Scott Lee said:
Race2-9...The Mother Drills are not part of Randy and my instructional series, Play Better Pool, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. You will, however, learn the Mother Drills by attending pool school, or taking a private lesson from any SPF instructor. Our DVDs are, we believe, some of the best instructional materials available. Anyone interested, can PM either Randyg or myself, for details on how to purchase them.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
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the 2 and 3 rail kick systems on volume 2 are the first time I ever understood.. how diamonds systems work... very strong info...


now translate the 2 rail.kick. into hitting the long rail first.. where is my mother track now?
 
SoundWaves said:
Thanks for the responses. More than anything I was looking forward to the "why" part of the answers. What drives the answer is as least as important as the answer I think.

Any more?
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if you have a consistent stroke a consistent grip and a consistent speed...
you will get real good real quick... and that only takes half an hour.. then all you have to do is spend the other half an hour on alighnment.. and you are well on your way to getting very good very fast.. at a hour a day..

seriously call Scott or Randy.. they will teach you ...how to teach yourself to get really good at this..

it works..
 
Scott Lee said:
softshot...Soundwaves has already worked with me, and, like you, learned a lot! :grin:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
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excellent... he is one of us ... now my first post will help him even more LOL... back to the two rail kick :)

where is mother track when hitting the long rail first?:confused:
 
there are different drill for different games

play pool on a snooker table with the pool balls, play all games- accuracy and shape are learned on this table. Get a book by the Austrialian champion ,snooker and billiards- his drills for the snooker table are great. Can't remember the guys name from like the 30-40's, he ran in competion play,2,800 something centurys, and a 2 game score of like 285 after 2 consecutive opp. was the billiards champ- and in the bk they shoot trick shots on 6-12. pm and i will look up in the bk,name and exact stuff, mark
 
here is the cuetable of the drill i was describing in the my first post in this thread. I like the drill because #1 its a game type situation, potting balls/running out. I also like it because it helps you with position and after you master the first layout and change the balls around you will see patterns from this drill in your matches.
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CueTable Help




Ben
 
For me it would be 14.1.

Why?

First of all, it is the game's best teacher. You can challenge yourself constantly with 14.1 - and you will also learn intricate position, patterns, breaking up clusters, etc.

Playing a good game of straight pool requires excellent fundamentals. Your game relies on perfect application of the basic fundamentals in the same way that a chain relies upon its links. Weaken one link and the chain is useless.

I wish I had a dime for every time a player asked me what they had to do to get to the next level. I usually tell them to learn how to play straight pool.

The next time I see them, they are usually playing 9 ball.

For me, I practice 14.1 because it keeps me from getting lazy.

I can constantly challenge myself. During practice, I can constantly and very easily apply situational pressure that is equal to the pressure that I will experience during competition. 14.1 demands my best performance at all times, and it very rarely leaves me feeling as if I was not challenged.

I talk to a lot of players that just play 9 ball. They feel as if something is missing from their game. I believe that what is missing from their game is a firm foundation based in 14.1 continuous.

FWIW, when Johnny Archer practices, straight pool is a LARGE part of what he works on every day - he plays straight pool more than 9 ball.

Look at some of the great all-around players - Danny Harriman, Oliver Ortmann, John Schmidt, Thorsten Hohmann, Johnny Archer, Max Eberle, Niels Feijen, Mika Immonen, Allen Hopkins, Ralf Souquet, Nick Varner, Mike Sigel, Grady Mathews, Ray Martin, (the list goes on and on) these players all have a solid foundation to their games based in straight pool.

Warning: Ralf Souquet lost all of his hair by playing too much straight pool. Back in the day, every time he missed a shot he would go into a rage and pull his hair out in clumps. Today he is bald not because he wants to be stylish; it is to keep him from hurting himself. We have no idea what happened to Forsyth's hair.
 
Shots that use inside english

When the shots come up in a game, I want to be more confident that I can execute them the way I want to.

Practicing inside english shots are good for the stroke and confidence.
 
Blackjack said:
FWIW, when Johnny Archer practices, straight pool is a LARGE part of what he works on every day - he plays straight pool more than 9 ball.
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Very true. At Turning Stone a couple of years ago my buddy and I watched Johnny practice straight pool. He ran over 50 like it was nothing and then handed the table over to someone else to practice. He made it look too damn easy.
 
This is what I do

I am in the same situation with about an hour a day to practice sometimes less. My sports background is in running so I start off with a warm up - then workout - then cool down.

Warm up
- throw 15 balls on the table and shoot them in - I will shoot them like 8 ball unless I get out of line then I shoot whatever (this is to get your stroke moving - not the time to get mad if you don't end up perfect on a ball)

Work out
- MAKE 10 long striaght in corner to corner shots (moving from corner to corner) - on this make sure you follow thru is the correct length and on line (my big problem) - make sure your grip is the right pressure - make sure your grip is pointed in the right direction and in the right place - and last STAY DOWN. I try to get a little draw on these that way it stesses my stroke a little and I can see where my flaws are.
- Then work on position shots - there are so many just pick some you like (not b/c they are easy) and work them in alternating these on different days
- Work on banks and safes for a few minutes
- Rack the 6,7,8, and 9 and break them - anything that is pocketed gets spotted - take ball in hand and lay your cue down and pick the zone that you want the CB to stop in after each shot -plan then entire run out

Cool Down
Do something you enjoy for 10 minutes or so - that way you will leave the table with positive thoughts and want to return and do it all again tomorrow. I like to rack the balls like 8 ball and break - then shoot any object ball into the cue ball making the object ball scratch. Once you get good at this you will realize how fun this can be - once you get good you will learn to make the OB ball in the desired pocket and send the CB to a location where you can hit it with another OB ball. This helped me tremendously with cue ball position, tangent lines, and caroms. I keep up with the number of misses that it takes me to clear the table.

I hope this helps.
Razor
 
14.1 because I can measure my improvement accurately. Just take a break-shot and see how many you get. When you miss, start over.
 
SoundWaves said:
If you where to have one hour a day to be at the table what do you think would help your game the most and why. You will be alone with no interruptions, so playing a better player is not an option. The goal of your practice is long term quality of play.
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15 minutes of drills, varying every other day. Every day do 85% cut shots - with and w/o english.

Everyday - 15 minutes of throwing 15 balls out on the table and then: shooting 15 with top, then center ball, then bottom, then top outside english, the side outside english, the bottom outside english, then the same routine with inside english. I can't stress how important this is - you are learning by feel to throw the ball into the pocket using english (or not).

Be sure to hit a good share of long shots just to get confidence with your stroke.

Time permitting - 9 ball with the ghost - at least every other day.
 
This is a nice thread that might help many newer players to the game like myself. I hope many more people resond with what they do and why it works. Thanks
 
I would practice my pre shot routine - exaggerate all the steps in the process so it becomes second nature to me when I play in tournaments/matches no matter if I'm playing a weaker player or in a high pressure situation.

Ah.... euphoria!
 
The break is a very important shot that can be practiced in an hour with noticeable results in muscle memory if nothing else. Pool for me has had various humps to pass. For example when you get to the point where you start running out somewhere along the way the awe of running out has to go away and has to be normal to run out not special, when my game got to where I was running out with some consistency I began to notice an occasional break in concentration with people watching etc. So I practiced running out by setting balls in a moderate setup for getting out and ran them until it was more normal to get out then not. I think you have to assess what your "humps" are and practice based on that. I play running english real well but have weakness in reverse so if I practiced I would focus on reverse but include enough running to maintain it. Practice based on your game.
 
Practice.........

SoundWaves said:
If you where to have one hour a day to be at the table what do you think would help your game the most and why. You will be alone with no interruptions, so playing a better player is not an option. The goal of your practice is long term quality of play.
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One full hour is really a long time when you are by yourself. I start with just throwing 4 or 5 balls out on the table, then run em out in order like 9 ball. After doing this a few times I start setting up long straight in shots. On these I practice stopping the cue ball, drawing it 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet. I also do the straight in and follow with the cue ball 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet. Then I move on to other position drills.These drills vary from day to day, depending on what I feel needs work. If I still have my focus I will practice breaking about 10-15 racks and that about raps it up. This takes about 45minutes to an hour, any more and I lose focus and start to make mistakes. It's hard to bear down when there is no pressure and you are by yourself. But, I've found that a good practice like this helps keep me in stroke so when I get to the pool hall I am not practicing and don't feel the need to warm up like some folks.
When practicing I concentrate on all the fundamentals, stance, lining up the shot, and mainly on follow through on every shot. This makes everything constant so when I do play at the pool hall, I don't have to think about these things. I just let my game take over and everything falls in place.
One thing I would stress is "only practice by youself until ya lose what I call focus". If you are just beating balls into the rails you are only reinforcing bad habits. So.....practice could be a good 20 minute session, or if you have really good concentration, maybe for 2 hours. This depends on the person and what they have going on at that particular time. But, once you start getting distracted or lose your concentration, quit practicing for that day and move onto something else for the day. Hope this helps.
Keep on strokin........:thumbup:
 
where can I find the mother drills?

I don't always have an hour and its usually not uninterrupted(kids like to watch and ask questions), but am always looking for more drills.
 
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