Some players can't wait to get to the table to practice. Some players look at practice as an unsavory and grueling task, like homework, when they'd rather be out doing something more fun.
If you don't enjoy practicing, do you find yourself finding reasons not to practice?
I've encountered this with students who don't even consciously realize how much they hate to practice.
Just some food for thought in case you're one of those players who wants to improve but can't seem to find the time to practice. Maybe you really don't have the time. But just maybe it's something more than that.
Do you really know yourself?
Instructors: Have you noticed this about students?
Hi Fran:
Definitely. I'm not an instructor (in the certified sense), but I do often get asked for lessons.
One of my students -- we'll call him Doug -- also later became one of Scott Lee's students. Doug is an older gentleman (l-o-n-g retired school teacher) and is a "fixated" type of player -- meaning, he has his fixed ideas on how pool should be played, what to him means excellence, and even what constitutes "practice and drilling." He (at the time, when he was asking me for lessons) was an APA "4" in 8-ball.
Doug likes to specialize at the "singles boards" in the APA -- meaning, he's not into the team format, but rather goes his own to the regional singles boards (held at a regional APA stronghold in East Windsor, CT). In weeks prior to those events, he would say that he sequesters himself in his home, and in his words, "drills and drills and drills 'til his fingers bleed." He would spend entire weekends doing this, and when I'd see him on Tuesday league nights (back then -- a couple of years ago) -- I'd see no difference in his playing abilities. He'd miss the same type of shots he always had, blunder the same type of safeties he always had, and just in general "be the same old Doug." I even pointed that out to him -- in a respectful but tough love way -- and he admitted that he was lost, and didn't know what to do to break through to the next level of play. He asked me for lessons.
With my hectic work schedule, I don't have enough hours in the day to give formal regimented lessons, so when Doug asked me for lessons, I gave him tips on fundamentals (I saw many weaknesses in his form -- classic APA skill-level 4 stuff). However, I knew right away that I was only scratching the iceberg with Doug, and he needed more than I could give him, time-commitment and breadth-of-structured-content wise.
So I sent Doug to Scott. Fast forward, and needless to say, the lesson (a day commitment) went extremely well. Doug came back with his head spinning, and his form definitely looked different -- it looked a lot better. Video playback and analysis does wonders for resetting your view of what you think you're doing, vs. what you're actually doing. That same year, Doug went really deep in the 4/5 bracket Nationals in Vegas (he came in 9th and 5th in consecutive years, when he wouldn't even cash prior).
He openly admits the time and funds he spent on formal lessons was the best money he ever spent on pool. Yet, he knows he needs more, and when Scott's in the area for potential follow-up lessons, Doug will find an excuse out of it. He has the same old practice regimen,
which is no regimen at all. Instead of practicing his Mother Drills, he just throws balls up on the table and proceeds to pocket them. No practicing his break (his break is weak by even 4/5 standards), no practicing banks, no practice in spin/follow/draw, no position-play practice, nothing. Just randomly throw balls up on the table and try to pocket them.
And each time when he complains that, although the lessons were the best thing he ever did, when I mention that Scott might be in the area or close, or that he could follow-on with lessons from Tony Robles, et al., Doug would reply with excuses that he can't, because he would be "embarrassed" that he didn't practice his Mother Drills, and that Scott would see this right away.
Instead, he tries to tap me for "freebie" quickie tips, in much the same as most pool players (that've never experienced a regimented way of learning how to play pool) do. You know, the "magic pill" approach that sadly, most pool players at his (and even lower/upper) levels do. And I'll quickly tell him -- when he asks "how to do so-and-so" -- that it's covered in his Mother Drills.
He's got himself in a never-ending spiral, like a dog chasing its tail.
It's really frustrating, too, because he has the wherewithal to become better, yet chooses to not change his ways.
-Sean
