Best path to improvement...practice or competition?

Really great advice here from dardusm. You should practice with diligence for short bursts of highly focused disciplined exercises (you know why you're doing something, what you expect to gain from it, and have a way to measure your improvement). Then you need to "test" that improvement with some short competitive sessions. They don't have to be gambling (but can be), tournament play, or league play. All of those help, but you can compete against yourself (play the ghost), or play with your neighbor and get the same results.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

dardusm said:
The problem that I see with practicing for such a long stretch is the ability to maintain focus. I think you can do more harm than good if you just go through the motions without focus for hours upon hours. If you are matched up with someone, that focus is motivated by the match/money and could be much more beneficial. But, with that said, if a player has the motivation and focus to play for hours and deliberately practice, they are going to improve.
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If

If you had to choose just one I would pick competition. Concentration is stronger when competing.
 
If possible, make a video of yourself each time you practice or play and review ASAP.

One good practice is rack for 8 ball, break, take ball in hand.
Choose one side and try to get out.
If you miss, take ball in hand and try to run the other side.
Repeat until you pocket the 8 ball.
Then take ball in hand and run the rest in order.

If your struggling and can't figure out why, post a link the the videos on here and I'm sure someone will suggest ways to improve.
 
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Practice 70%. Small bet sparring matches 20% preferably against as good as you or little better player. Competition\gambling 10%.

Keep this until you are A-player.
Then drop practice to 25-50% keep sparring matches same and get 30-50% competition /gambling.

Also you try get better on all aspects by learning and analyzing from other areas.
Why you can't get your game to tournaments? Why you can't get same focus to practice as gambling? Why I lost that match? What I did right and wrong there. And so on...
Analyzing have to come day or two after tournament.
Lot of mental imagination needed there. Just still try do that even you can't first. Slowly you will improve if you just keep trying and keep your analysis as objective as you can.

Could write lot more on this topic because I just got back to tournament pool. Got more than 5 years break from it.
 
Jose Parica said, "Practice is for those that don't know what they are doing."....like sex?
 
Competition and focus may only allow you to play at your peak. Practice will allow you to work exclusively on areas of weakness. If you suck at kick shots. I don't think you get better playing someone. You may learn strategy or different ways to play position. Practice is where you develop the confidence to do shots you might not try in a match. The two balls and toss the on the table. Now take one ball you wish to pocket. From there try to play for position for the next ball. Keep repeating but each time play position for another pocket. Helps work on kicks, banks etc. Now toss a rack of 9 balls on the table. Now kick at the one ball every shot. You can even kick for safes. Your not going to gain consistency with so many aspects of pool and different shots by playing someone.
 
I think some of the posts in this thread have hinted at a distinction that needs to be made more clearly: skill vs competition. Good practice will give one the skills, the fundamental knowledge to make balls and achieve cue ball control. However, practice does not teach the necessary components needed to compete. Only competition can do that. Obviously there are other elements but these two are key. So doing both and doing them well are both important. Practice to be a better skilled player. Compete to become a better competitor.
 
Simply follow the basic business tenant that 80% of your revenue typically comes from 20% of your customer base..........practice 80% of the time so that you play better the other 20%.........a real simple yardstick is practice Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri for a tournament on Saturday........obviously that doesn't balance out for your actual time but it illustrates the point.......got 20 hrs. of table time this week, invest 16 hrs of practice so that the remaining 4 hours are monetarily profitable for you......simply stated again.......practice Mon thru Thurs for action for weekend action.

Matt B.
 
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