Crazy amount of practice

[Black-Balled]

You never contribute much except 🗑.

Yum.

 

[Black-Balled]

Eric, are you referring to the room with the goldcrown 5 where Max filmed his videos? I need to come visit you again, it's been too long my friend...

Jaden

p.s. I'll never forget the first time I met Max, it was at your house... You couldn't get away from LA and let me in and I was there in the room practicing and Max comes in. He says "Oh are you a friend of Eric's?" and I said yeah. He asked if I wanted to play some and I said sure.

He says "I'll rack" and I proceeded to put a 3 pack on him.

He gets this quizzical look on his face and says "How do you know Eric again?"... lol

He's the only one who's ever beaten me at my house...

 

[dquarasr]

So when you are practicing for, say, an hour, and you have something basic wrong (you miss a practice shot the same way over and over and over), do you: stop and take a break; keep shooting hoping it will “come” to you; or analyze what might be off then keep going? Sometimes I’m stuck and I cannot get over a problem and I can’t figure out why, and I don’t know if I should keep going until it corrects itself or stop, walk away, then come back refreshed.

 

[bbb]

Personally if there’s a shot I don’t “ get “
At some point I stop beating my head against the wall with missing missing missing
I change the shot a little either by changing the distance /the angle / the spin something to where I can make it consistently
Then slowly move back towards my trouble area

 

[Jaden]

He's the only one who's ever beaten me at my house...

Lol. I almost told that story... I came pretty close to being another one though if I remember correctly. Lol

Jaden

 

[Poolmanis]

This true as well. Denis works hard too. Most top players do. Sitting watching TV has never helped anyone’s pool game.

best
Fatboy

unless you watch Efren play and try learn from him..

 

[gypsy_soul]

At one time, I was playing 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Then I took 6 years off. At the height of my skill I was playing the same 10-12 hours a day six or seven days a week. It was 2012. At the time, Johnny Archer called me over and said, "Jaden, you practice more than anyone I've ever seen" I replied, "What about Shane?" He said "True..." and I went back to playing.

Jaden

I did the same in 1988 and in two years I was beating the ghost for $$$$ around my city , it was stealing, I made so much money in 2 weeks around DFW then life hit me like a ton of bricks and I went to work lol !!!!!! So much for my pool career lol ……. Now I hit balls for 5 min and it’s time to mow the lawn

 

[Fatboy]

unless you watch Efren play and try learn from him..

Good point!

 

[BC21]

How much time do you spend working at your job each week?

Exactly. I have a buddy that ran a 6-pack on me a couple of months ago, 8ball on a Diamond barbox.

After breaking and running 6 racks, he ended up missing a cut shot into the side pocket. It was a tight fit passed another ball and it brushed that ball. Anyway, I told him he played great pool, pro level pool for about 30min. He said, "A pro wouldn't have missed that twelve ball." Then I said, "Well, you can quit your job and start playing pool 40 hours a week, then you might never miss a shot like that either."

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

I did the same in 1988 and in two years I was beating the ghost for $$$$ around my city , it was stealing, I made so much money in 2 weeks around DFW then life hit me like a ton of bricks and I went to work lol !!!!!! So much for my pool career lol ……. Now I hit balls for 5 min and it’s time to mow the lawn

Well maybe you should write book about your making money at pool. Justnum could be your promotion guy.

 

[DaveK]

This has been studied, how people gain skills and reach the pinnacle of their chosen field. One good book that discuses the subject is :

Amazon.ca

Research shows that achieving greatness requires a huge investment in practice, and that practice needs to be properly focused and ideally guided. There is no suggestion that some are "born" with some talent or superiority, other than obvious traits that are required by the endeavor (tall people are better at basketball, it is hard to play cello with extremely short fingers, etc.).

My understanding is that SVB's family is heavily involved with the game, no doubt an influence on him when young. Mosconi had his father and his father's poolroom. These advantages are real and when combined with focused practice and training the result is superior performance. These people were born into a good situation and have motivation and persistence, they were not born with the talent.

Dave

Oops, the book above is not the one I meant to link ... bad googling and misremembering the author . While the above book could be very good, this is the one I read :

Amazon.ca

www.amazon.ca

Dave

 

[livemusic]

Oops, the book above is not the one I meant to link ... bad googling and misremembering the author . While the above book could be very good, this is the one I read :

Amazon.ca

www.amazon.ca

Dave

I wondered about that when I read your first recommendation.

FWIW, I have no idea, but this book below was also recommended in a comment for the 'corrected' book you mentioned...

'Getting Things Done' by David Allen.

 

[easy-e]

Well maybe you should write book about your making money at pool. Justnum could be your promotion guy.

You should get someone to read it to you!

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

You should get someone to read it to you!

You and justnum should go on road and make your fortune at pool.

Take some cliff Bars so you have food.

 

[8intheside]

I saw something recently where SVB purportedly said he practiced 7-8 hours/day 7 days/week. Also that his fave game is 8-ball. If that is true, for someone to practice that much you pretty much have to be addicted to it. I can't imagine giving that much time. To anything. I know it takes crazy amounts of time for many years to get to top level but to maintain that amount of practice over a long period of time, it just seems super-human. Maybe it's such that the ones at the very top truly are freaks of nature. One-in-a-million talent, yes, but practice dedication that seems unreal?

keep In mind this is his job. So 8 hours a day seems normal for most professionals, im assuming,

 

[livemusic]

keep In mind this is his job. So 8 hours a day seems normal for most professionals, im assuming,

Yes, but I have known professional golfers and they do not practice like that week in week out. They do a little R&R. At least the ones I know. There are exceptions who play/practice as much as possible. But it goes back to what I said in the OP -- addiction. I am no expert, I just suspect that there might be an addiction type of brain thing going on with certain superstars. Then again, what do I know, not much. Tis just an interesting subject.

I suppose what I was thinking in the OP is that I have no doubt it takes that amount of practice/play in the "it takes 10,000 hours to master anything" time period. (Which is your teens and early 20s for any sport or endeavor.) But once you get to be world class... needing to practice that much... that is surprising... and the pro golfers I know kind of guided that thinking. I also know pro musicians such as guitarists and they don't practice that much. They practice a few hours but 8 hour days almost 7 days/week? I don't think so. And even in that profession, there might be exceptions. It would be interesting to find out how much Tommy Emmanuel practices. His skill level is other-worldly, just eye-popping skill.

 

[rexus31]

Shane takes lots of time away from pool to fish. He usually ramps up the practice regimen when there are upcoming matches and/or tournaments.

 

[Jaden]

Yes, but I have known professional golfers and they do not practice like that week in week out. They do a little R&R. At least the ones I know. There are exceptions who play/practice as much as possible. But it goes back to what I said in the OP -- addiction. I am no expert, I just suspect that there might be an addiction type of brain thing going on with certain superstars. Then again, what do I know, not much. Tis just an interesting subject.

I suppose what I was thinking in the OP is that I have no doubt it takes that amount of practice/play in the "it takes 10,000 hours to master anything" time period. (Which is your teens and early 20s for any sport or endeavor.) But once you get to be world class... needing to practice that much... that is surprising... and the pro golfers I know kind of guided that thinking. I also know pro musicians such as guitarists and they don't practice that much. They practice a few hours but 8 hour days almost 7 days/week? I don't think so. And even in that profession, there might be exceptions. It would be interesting to find out how much Tommy Emmanuel practices. His skill level is other-worldly, just eye-popping skill.

To maintain a top level of skill, it's not necessary, but the best at anything you will typically find are the ones who practice the most, consistently. When Shane is doing more fishing than practicing, he doesn't perform as well. It's obvious that he has been practicing a lot lately.

Jaden

 

[livemusic]

To maintain a top level of skill, it's not necessary, but the best at anything you will typically find are the ones who practice the most, consistently. When Shane is doing more fishing than practicing, he doesn't perform as well. It's obvious that he has been practicing a lot lately.

Jaden

And for all I know, pool might be that particular sport/endeavor that requires more practice time during a stretch of pro/gambling matches versus other sports/professions.

Please allow me to add on a question... how long does it take a pro to get the feel for a table before he begins play? 5 minutes? 30 minutes? More? How much time do you have? Does it matter?

 

[Jaden]

And for all I know, pool might be that particular sport/endeavor that requires more practice time during a stretch of pro/gambling matches versus other sports/professions.

Please allow me to add on a question... how long does it take a pro to get the feel for a table before he begins play? 5 minutes? 30 minutes? More? How much time do you have? Does it matter?

I think it will vary from pro to pro. If I'm playing on a similar table in a similar location, I can have a table down in 5-20 minutes for that location. Now if there are jacked up conditions, different types of tables, etc...it becomes more difficult.

I've found that diamonds are probably the most consistent tables from place to place, and unless you're going from a really dry climate like Phoenix, to a really wet one like Florida, or other parts of the south, they play mostly the same.

I traveled and played ALL over the country. I've gone from playing in Jersey one day, to OKC the next, and I would say there can be greater variance within a pool hall on different tables than there is from state to state.

But again, some players can adjust to conditions better than others.

I was visiting Matt in Virginia, can't remember his handle now on here for some reason and a friend of his had a really nice older cue, so normal deflection.

I explained the pivot point and showed them my low deflection shaft and they made the comment, I can't get used to low deflection.

I shot the cb 2 times against the back rail to find the pivot point and then ran 2 racks with his cue. They were all surprised that I could adjust to a different cue that was a different level of deflection so easily.

The more knowledge you get, the more experience you get, the easier it is to adjust to conditions.

Jaden