5 Laws of Practice

[lewdo26]

Seeing the recent practice threads, I thought I'd share the 5 things that improved my practice sessions exponentially and made them more enjoyable. This is what practice sessions have to be for me:

1) limited and frequent

2) varied and pre-planned around priorities

3) progressively challenging

4) quantified and annotated

5) 60% ghost/ 40% drills

I define practice as anything that addresses a specific skill through repetition (drills), and playing the ghost. I do short drills, and then play the ghost. The latter motivates me to do more drills and vice-versa.

Those skeptical about drills, I think, miss the point. You don't do drills to encounter the exact same layout in front of you in competition. You do them to zero in on a specific skill that will have application across a variety of layouts and shots. Drills have certainly accelerated my improvement as a player and I hope to do even more of them.

 

[42NateBaller]

Good summary, observations, and post.

I liken the drill practice and play practice to a football team. In brief, they hit blocking sleds, run cones, do read and react drills, then they scrimage.

In pool we use drills to work on stroke fundamentals, then we play practice (ghost or otherwise) to work on putting it all together in game conditions. Both have their value to building a complete player.

IMHO

 

[DaveK]

4) quantified and annotated

This, in my opinion, is the key. Unfortunately too many are scared to continually measure themselves, it can be hard on the ego. However, as the saying goes, you can't fix what you can't measure. Those who keep track of their practice sessions and shots will ultimately benefit in game situations by having a much better understanding of their TRUE game, which allows them to make much wiser shot selections.

Dave

 

[acedotcom]

Good plan! I used to play the Position Game described in one of Byrnes's books. I actually annotated the results until I started aceing everything. Since then I stopped keeping stats. My wife throws my data sheets out anyway. Besides, I know the more I practice, the better I get.

 

[lewdo26]

This, in my opinion, is the key. Unfortunately too many are scared to continually measure themselves, it can be hard on the ego. However, as the saying goes, you can't fix what you can't measure. Those who keep track of their practice sessions and shots will ultimately benefit in game situations by having a much better understanding of their TRUE game, which allows them to make much wiser shot selections.

Dave

Yes. An additional value is, scoring my drills motivates me to go back to them and beat my percentages. But what you said is very true, looking at a shot and saying, I'm 70% making this, makes a decided difference in the effectiveness of your shot selection.

 

[TX Poolnut]

Nice post.

 

[Stones]

Great post!

Got me to thinking what I'm going to do the next time at the pool room.

 

[KCarson]

Productive Practice

I am a competitive "archer" (bow&arrow not Johnny). Organized competition is uncommon and making good productive use of my practice time was hard until I started using my new digital camera to record my actual shot patterns. It didn't make me any better but it did show me exactly how I was shooting. I think I used to just remember the good shot groups and forget the bad ones. I may not like it but I can look at the pictures and see what I needed to work on.

 

[Brian in VA]

Thanks!

Seeing the recent practice threads, I thought I'd share the 5 things that improved my practice sessions exponentially and made them more enjoyable. This is what practice sessions have to be for me:

1) limited and frequent

2) varied and pre-planned around priorities

3) progressively challenging

4) quantified and annotated

5) 60% ghost/ 40% drills

I define practice as anything that addresses a specific skill through repetition (drills), and playing the ghost. I do short drills, and then play the ghost. The latter motivates me to do more drills and vice-versa.

Those skeptical about drills, I think, miss the point. You don't do drills to encounter the exact same layout in front of you in competition. You do them to zero in on a specific skill that will have application across a variety of layouts and shots. Drills have certainly accelerated my improvement as a player and I hope to do even more of them.

You've just given me something that was missing in my pool room, a binder to track progress. I'm going to start charting my practice and playing sessions as a way to become more thoughtful and intentional about how I'm progressing.

Excellent post!

Brian in VA

 

[renard]

Great post, couldn't have said it better!

 

[The CheeZe]

great post. do you guys have any websites for some drills i can practice? thanks in advance

 

[chilli66]

Great stuff lewdo. You've given me some food for thought there!

 

[acedotcom]

great post. do you guys have any websites for some drills i can practice? thanks in advance

I found this link on my resource page: http://www.tableskills.com/

The news hasn't been kept up to date, but links to drills are working.

 

[lewdo26]

I found this link on my resource page: http://www.tableskills.com/

The news hasn't been kept up to date, but links to drills are working.

Bob Jewett's site has a lot of good drills. I'd recommend Bob Henning's Pro Book and the Pro Skill Drills series. Also, Blackjack's site and Joe Tucker's drill books. Also, Bert Kinister's videos. Bob Byrne and Ray Martin's books didn't influence my game as much, but they have drills as well.

 

[alpine9430]

I found this link on my resource page: http://www.tableskills.com/

The news hasn't been kept up to date, but links to drills are working.

Good site!
Here is another to consider and it has the option of submitting a drill to be added (I have yet to use this feature):
http://billiardsdrills.com/

Myron

 

[arsenius]

I would add one more.
6) Goal setting

This is related to quantified. If you have a skill you want to work on this week, or this month, it helps tremendously. "I want to increase my ability at this drill by 25% this week."

 

[akaTrigger]

Seeing the recent practice threads, I thought I'd share the 5 things that improved my practice sessions exponentially and made them more enjoyable. This is what practice sessions have to be for me:

1) limited and frequent

2) varied and pre-planned around priorities

3) progressively challenging

4) quantified and annotated

5) 60% ghost/ 40% drills

I define practice as anything that addresses a specific skill through repetition (drills), and playing the ghost. I do short drills, and then play the ghost. The latter motivates me to do more drills and vice-versa.

Those skeptical about drills, I think, miss the point. You don't do drills to encounter the exact same layout in front of you in competition. You do them to zero in on a specific skill that will have application across a variety of layouts and shots. Drills have certainly accelerated my improvement as a player and I hope to do even more of them.

lewdo26 - check your inbox, it's full. Trying to PM you.

Thanks,
Melinda

 

[TheConArtist]

Those skeptical about drills, I think, miss the point. You don't do drills to encounter the exact same layout in front of you in competition. You do them to zero in on a specific skill that will have application across a variety of layouts and shots. Drills have certainly accelerated my improvement as a player and I hope to do even more of them.

Awww great Post. I am a drilling fool myself. What i want to add is if you play on big tables and switch to barbox tables once a week or so, is practice with a an oversized bar cueball. As it will expand your range on a bar box. Plus keeping practice sessions short, as concentration from one person to another differs. As for me i find myself getting exhausted mentally and physically after a hour or two, esp. doing drills. So either i switch up drills a half and hour or so or i just work on a certain thing a day. Great Thread.

 

[JimS]

7. NO non-chalantin.

 

[matcase]

An excellent outline for newbie and old hand alike. thanks.