Creating a practice regime

[dardusm]

Hello,

I would like some idea's on setting up a practice regime that will help improve my game. I'm a solid player B+ range and would like to set up a practice schedule that would be beneficial in improving my game. I've never really set up structured practice sessions and would like to get some input. Generally, I just play in tournaments and leagues and rarely practice.

How long should one practice for a session? I know that if I practice too long then I lose focus. I was thinking of making my practice sessions around 90 minutes and practice 2 times a week.

The majority of the tournaments that I play are on the bar tables. I may play in 3 - 4 big table tournaments a year. So, would it be better to practice on a bar table or big table? When I do play on a big table, it seems to take me awhile to adjust. I sometimes get complacent on my shotmaking on a bar table but when I do play on a big table then those bad habits such as not focusing really stand out. Would be practicing on both size tables be beneficial?

What should the content of my practice session? I was thinking of playing the 10-ball ghost a race to 5 for part of the sessions. Maybe break the 90 minutes up into 30 minutes sessions with playing the ghost or playing call shot for a session. Work on drills that address certain situations such as the break, kicking, etc. and then do something else the other 30.

Thanks for any input.

Darryl

 

[randyg]

A perfect practice routine would be about 20-30 minutes in the am and the same in the pm. Over practice is very counter productive....SPF=randyg

 

[Scott Lee]

dardusm...I would like to address a specific issue with you, and many players get confused about it. There is a huge difference between practicing playing and disciplined practice. You can practice playing (i.e.: playing the ghost or call shot) for hours at a time, with potentially little improvement. Conversely you can do some strategic disciplined practice (what randyg was referring to) in short bursts of highly focused attention and energy (10 minutes or so at a time), and get a LOT of improvement. In order for drills or exercises to provide the greatest benefit, they have to have an achievable goal, a measurable result, not be too easy or too hard, or last too long (we all have short attention span). No matter what you do, it's always best to end your session with a reward for disciplined practice. Here's my suggestion for your 90 minute 'regimen'. Break the first 60 minutes down into 6-12 five-ten minute portions. Do disciplined practice drills with these time allotments. Pay attention to detail here. Take the last 30 minutes and reward yourself for the hour of disciplined practice, with playing the ghost or call shot. The 'reward' part means you should enjoy yourself playing.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Hello,

I would like some idea's on setting up a practice regime that will help improve my game. I'm a solid player B+ range and would like to set up a practice schedule that would be beneficial in improving my game. I've never really set up structured practice sessions and would like to get some input. Generally, I just play in tournaments and leagues and rarely practice.

How long should one practice for a session? I know that if I practice too long then I lose focus. I was thinking of making my practice sessions around 90 minutes and practice 2 times a week.

The majority of the tournaments that I play are on the bar tables. I may play in 3 - 4 big table tournaments a year. So, would it be better to practice on a bar table or big table? When I do play on a big table, it seems to take me awhile to adjust. I sometimes get complacent on my shotmaking on a bar table but when I do play on a big table then those bad habits such as not focusing really stand out. Would be practicing on both size tables be beneficial?

What should the content of my practice session? I was thinking of playing the 10-ball ghost a race to 5 for part of the sessions. Maybe break the 90 minutes up into 30 minutes sessions with playing the ghost or playing call shot for a session. Work on drills that address certain situations such as the break, kicking, etc. and then do something else the other 30.

Thanks for any input.

Darryl

 

[justadub]

I am interested in the make-up of a practice routine. In my instance, I am still clearly in the beginner stage, so what might you folks suggest for short sessions for someone like myself? Start with 2-foot shots, 3 to 5 stops, draws, follows, low-left/low-rights. Then perhaps back to 4 or 5 feet, repeat? And then back to 8-9 feet? If that makes sense, perhaps if I had a longer time to practice, then I could add in banks, kicks and off-the-rail shots as well.

Am I on the right track? I usualy only get the chance to play league nights, and maybe sneak in another night or two. Without a home table and very little time after work and family I would like to be able to maximize what time I can get on a table. (I used to take my lunch breaks at the pool hall near work, but they recently backed off their operating hours to evenings only, well after lunch-time. There is a bowling alley nearby with some tables that I may use, but those tables haven't been re-clothed in many years and are significantly slower than any of the tables in any of the rooms I play league in.)

 

[jblaze2201]

My game has risen fast due to lots of practice. I am now on the rise again. Here is my routine. Pile up rocks. This is running 100 balls each day any order. Make sure you follow a good preshot routine for each shot. Ie. Chalk up see the shot determine the stroke shoot the shot. It only takes 7 full racks and about an hour tops. Once you can consistently run all without missing then place all balls back on table and add the variation of touch no rail. Once you are finished with your piling up rocks for the day do 7 racks of nine ball. Break remove the one and the two if they are on the table ball in hand and get out.
The first part is really to groove your stroke and help on mechanics and fundamentals. Second part puts position play in

 

[dardusm]

dardusm...I would like to address a specific issue with you, and many players get confused about it. There is a huge difference between practicing playing and disciplined practice. You can practice playing (i.e.: playing the ghost or call shot) for hours at a time, with potentially little improvement. Conversely you can do some strategic disciplined practice (what randyg was referring to) in short bursts of highly focused attention and energy (10 minutes or so at a time), and get a LOT of improvement. In order for drills or exercises to provide the greatest benefit, they have to have an achievable goal, a measurable result, not be too easy or too hard, or last too long (we all have short attention span). No matter what you do, it's always best to end your session with a reward for disciplined practice. Here's my suggestion for your 90 minute 'regimen'. Break the first 60 minutes down into 6-12 five-ten minute portions. Do disciplined practice drills with these time allotments. Pay attention to detail here. Take the last 30 minutes and reward yourself for the hour of disciplined practice, with playing the ghost or call shot. The 'reward' part means you should enjoy yourself playing.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Thanks for the input. I'm going to use both of your guys advice. Like justadub, I don't own a home table and need to get out to a pool room to practice. I'm going to cut my practice session down to an hour and concentrate the first half on drills with focus. The other half will consist of a short race with the ghost, call shot, break, etc.

Just curious what sized table I should practice my drills? I like playing on the 9 footers but most of my tournament play is on the 7 footers.

Darryl

 

[Scott Lee]

Darryl...The size of the table you practice on is not as important as the quality of practice you do on it while you're there. While a 9' table may be preferable, you can practice with discipline on any size table. It's not what you do...it's how you do it!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Thanks for the input. I'm going to use both of your guys advice. Like justadub, I don't own a home table and need to get out to a pool room to practice. I'm going to cut my practice session down to an hour and concentrate the first half on drills with focus. The other half will consist of a short race with the ghost, call shot, break, etc.

Just curious what sized table I should practice my drills? I like playing on the 9 footers but most of my tournament play is on the 7 footers.

Darryl

 

[LApoolbum]

A loud amen to everything Scott Lee said. I was fortunate to receive instruction early on from a Pro who was not only a skilled player but also a skilled teacher and I can vouch for everyone of those points from experience.

 

[Bob Jewett]

I am interested in the make-up of a practice routine. In my instance, I am still clearly in the beginner stage, so what might you folks suggest for short sessions for someone like myself? ...

Here is a set of basic position drills. There is a log at the end of the handout. Start with the shots in level 1 and use the instructions at the start. Don't move on to level 2 until you routinely score at least 4 on each of the 4 diagrams.

How many shots you shoot on each diagram is up to you, but I'd recommend 15. That means you will be shooting 60 shots in each session. Make sure you work on your fundamentals while you're at it, especially when you start.

 

[justadub]

Here is a set of basic position drills. There is a log at the end of the handout. Start with the shots in level 1 and use the instructions at the start. Don't move on to level 2 until you routinely score at least 4 on each of the 4 diagrams.

How many shots you shoot on each diagram is up to you, but I'd recommend 15. That means you will be shooting 60 shots in each session. Make sure you work on your fundamentals while you're at it, especially when you start.

Wow. Here I am, goofing off at work and surfing AZB, and I find this wonderful reply. This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for.

Thank you, Bob.

P.S. And after looking at it a bit more, I can see I have LOTs of work ahead of me! At least now I have something structured to work with. Very cool.

 

[Desmondp]

I have the echo the old sentiment

Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect

Just banging balls around aimlessly can hurt your game

I practice 60-90 minutes a day weekdays and 2-3 hours a day on the weekend. I do have the TV on in the background and catch up on a few shows whilst practicing.(hey shows like Gossip girl, 90210 and hellcats, you don't need to watch , u can just listen )

I always start with 10-15 minutes technique work. Just ensuring my fundamentals are looking good and everything is in line.

Then whilst i am fresh, i make myself practice something i need to work on. E.g. bridging over balls, using the rest, bridging off rails, tough bank shots, rail shooting etc etc

Then i move onto various drills, mostly potting and cueball control drills with some safety drills too

then i usually do some break practice

then i play some practice games (usually modified versions).

The minute i feel my concentration going, i stop playing. Sometimes after a hard day at work, i can only concentrate for 30 minutes.

My concentration is never affected too much in competition because of the crowds, the energy and focus but i can lose it in practice and don't want to engrain any bad habits into my game when my concentration isn't there.

I also sometimes finish a practice session short if i have done a particularly sexy break and finish. It's a great feeling to leave the table that day after clearing a tough runout.

 

[lynx]

I have tried to open this progressive practice it will not open for me to look at it will try again soon would like to try it and see if it works for me it somone has it could you send it to me Thanks

 

[Bob Jewett]

I have tried to open this progressive practice it will not open for me to look at it will try again soon would like to try it and see if it works for me it someone has it could you send it to me Thanks

The file was from a rather old PDF generator. Please try the new version that I just made: http://www.sfbilliards.com/progpract.pdf and let me know if it works for you. It should be compatible with any version of Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 or higher. (You may need to get a new version from www.adobe.com -- it's free.)

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

i hear on TV, ESPN, the Accu-Stats tapes/dvds of top level players getting where they are by practicing 8 hours a day. thats eight hours a day.

this seems to somewhat differ from what is being talked about on here. all i can say is those people are on TV, ESPN, Accu-Stats, etc, you can draw your own conclusions.

Mike

 

[pooltchr]

Mike,
If you are a pro, then, playing pool is your JOB. Most of us work at least 8 hours a day at our job. Why would a pro player be any different.
Most players I encounter have other employment and don't have 8 hours a day to spend practicing. So you are talking about a very small percentage of players when you talk about the full time players.
Most of the recommendations on here are directed to the majority. The pro's aren't on here asking how they should practice.

Steve

 

[justadub]

i hear on TV, ESPN, the Accu-Stats tapes/dvds of top level players getting where they are by practicing 8 hours a day. thats eight hours a day.

this seems to somewhat differ from what is being talked about on here. all i can say is those people are on TV, ESPN, Accu-Stats, etc, you can draw your own conclusions.

Mike

I think you're missing the point. For professional, top-level players, multiple hours a day to refine their profession seems completely reasonable.

For the rest of us mere mortals, we need to get the fundamental stuff to the point where it becomes second nature. Like it is for the pro's.

In anything I've studied over the years, it was always pointed out that short, concentrated practice sessions get more accomplished than long drawn-out sessions. The lay-person is more focused in that short period of time, and will have less chance of "bad-practice", doing something wrong enough that it becomes routine.

In youth sports, you'll notice that most teams will do some streching/cardio stuff to begin with, then they begin the "practice" portion where any new concepts are taught. After that short portion of the practice, they then move on to older concepts and more physical training. But the 'new" stuff is taught in a shorter time-frame, early in the session. In my karate training (years ago) the same thing applied. Heck, when I was learning morse code for the amateur radio service, it was common knowledge that you would get better results studying for about 20 minutes at a time, anything after that was counter-productive.

Professionals at sport can and do practice longer because they know every nuance of their game. They are at a different level than the rest of us.

I would expect that the instructors will come along and explain it better than I have. But I believe the shorter "practice" portions of any session are indeed more productive. And as Scott points out, after the "practice" time, you can always continue shooting, which could certainly reinforce your stroke.

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

I think you're missing the point. For professional, top-level players, multiple hours a day to refine their profession seems completely reasonable.

well, okay, but in your first post you said you are a solid B+ player. i just assumed there wasnt too much else for you to learn if you are that good.

Mike

 

[PaulieB]

Glad to see that I'm not just being a wimp about practicing. When I hit the table to actually practice, not just play ghost or run balls, but do actual drills ... I always seem to become "saturated" after 30-40 minutes and it's hard for me to keep my focus.

I usually do two or three different style drills. For example, I'll do a 3 rail position shot on to a target piece of paper, or set up eight balls across the table and practice running them all by using draw for position, whatever the drills of the day happen to be. I have a 3 ring binder with various drills in it, the ones posted from the link by Bob Jewett, photocopies of the Joe Tucker Guaranteed Improvement book (yes, I own the original with DVD, I photocopy them so they are the same size as all my other drill pages in the binder ), and some photocopied pages of drills from various magazines. I usually do one drill for 15 minutes on something I feel I need to improve on specifically and then randomly flip through the book and run another drill for 15 minutes or so and if I'm feeling focused enough I'll do a third for the day.

Possibly you could incorporate something from my method of practicing into your regimen, it's what works best for the amount of time I have and the level of focus I can maintain. I always heard about the pros practicing 8 hours a day and thought it sounded like torture, I can't get past 45 minutes of pure drills. I guess that's why they are pros and I'm not!

 

[pooltchr]

well, okay, but in your first post you said you are a solid B+ player. i just assumed there wasnt too much else for you to learn if you are that good.

Mike

You never reach a point in this game where there still aren't things to learn.
Why do you think the pros still seek out instructors?
Why do you think instructors spend time with other instructors?

If I ever reach the point where I feel there is little new for me to learn, I will quit!

We don't know what we don't know.

Steve

 

[justadub]

well, okay, but in your first post you said you are a solid B+ player. i just assumed there wasnt too much else for you to learn if you are that good.

Mike

I think you're mixing up who you're replying to!

I would NEVER refer to myself as a B+ player. I am FAR away from that level, from everything I can gather about the letter-ranking system. I am a beginners beginner, trying to get better. Some days I might string along a few balls like a player of that level, but never consistently, game to game. I'm an APA SL5, barely. (Certainly not the way I've been playing the last 2 months, sigh.) For what that's worth.

I think someone else said it in another thread, DCP. (Perhaps it was GreyGhost.) It seems like you're over-thinking it. Paralysis by analysis. I can say this because I believe it sometimes applies to me, as well. You are doing me a great service, by helping me recognize that issue in my playing and practicing.

Hang in there. It sounds like you're certainly motivated enough to get better. I understand the frustration when it doesn't happen like you want it to. It also sounds like you've got a great group of people to help you, if you let them!