Drills are a waste of time! What do you say?

T

The Drill Instructor

Registered
Hi Sonia,

Thanks for your honest comments. Let me reply.

Another name for drills would be rudiments.

No great artest became great without hours and hours of focused practice on drills.

No great coach brings out the best in his player without drills.

Drills isolate where your weaknesses may be hiding.

Six hours of playing pool games will not have the effect one hour of drills will have for sharpening or increasing your skill levels.

Personal trainers will tell you that working out alone wont get you the results you'd get if they worked with you for the same amount of time.

Please consider writing a pole and ask for top skill level players to give you their honest opinions about drills vs just playing games for making your game move to it's best level.

Thanks again for your honest comments and keep having fun with this great game we all love.

Dominic "The Drill Instructor" Esposito

www.ProSkillDrills.com
 
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I don't have a problem with drills and they certainly have there benefit to any player. The one problem with drills though is that you have to be focused and motivated to complete them time and againit does take dedication. I have not been able to find that in me just yet!!!
 
You have to find, or make up drills that are fun and you will want to do. Not many people can hit 3 foot stop shots for an hour, or want to.

I like making fun drills that challenge me to complete them and get harder as they go on, like hitting draw shots up the rail with the object ball on the first diamond, cue ball 1 diamond up and drawing the cue ball back to the diamond it started at. Then, move the cue ball to the next diamond up and repeat.

G.
 
I am learning the game, and improving.

I can thank 90% of this to the drills I work on.
 
That's funny I get "on line' make up a new thread on practice drills and then later I see this thread!

When I'm doing drills. I stop frequently, not trying to force myself thru the session.

As for motivation, I mark my missed shots and reasons as to why. I concentrate on cueball position, and if the object ball deviates to the left or right going into the pocket (even though I aimed for dead center.)

I get to look more closely at my fundametals and to try the specialty shots that don't come up in play as often.
 
The_Teach said:
I don't have a problem with drills and they certainly have there benefit to any player. The one problem with drills though is that you have to be focused and motivated to complete them time and againit does take dedication. I have not been able to find that in me just yet!!!
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That may be the most benefit of drills.

I know that I struggle with consistency in regard to focus and decision making. I can be playing well in a tournament and then all of a sudden I miss a "routine" shot...Looking back it is "usually" a lapse in focus...I rushed the "easy" shot and missed shape, or dogged a super easy shot and gave away a game, or in some cases against the wrong player two or three games before I get another decent look at the table.

Honestly (unless there is a specific shot I am struggling with, or a new shot I am learning) I rarely do drills, and I don't believe in drills where you hit the same exact shot over and over...(you don't get second chances in a match)

I do belive drills that require focus and CB contol to complete would be benificial in match time.

This was told to me by a Golf instructor, but I believe it applies to pool as well..."If you can't do it on the practice range (focus), how do you expect to do it on the golf course" .....

Some will say..."raise the bet"......I would say that may work for the brief moment, but long term..."when you get a one or two game lead" ...your focus may wander or lapse just enough to let the guy back in the match...from there...anything can happen.

After reading this post, and my performace from this weekend, I think its time for me to start doing those pain in the arse "focus" type drills...
 
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Please don't take this as an anti-drill rambling; I'm not really qualified to enter a pro or con on the efficacy of drills, but just wanted to add an old-timer's perspective. Thinking back, if I had jumped on a table at Cochran's and started doing drills, I woulda had Ronnie Allen, Al the Plumber, Filipino Gene and others come over and probably say: "hey, kid, whatcha doin? Wanna bet on who can do this silly stuff without missing first? No? Then get off the table...these tables are for players, not nits. If you want to learn how to play pool, then play pool and bet it up. This aint solitaire". I can honestly say that in all the years I've been watching pros practice, the only drills I've seen are the 9-ball break (if that's considered a drill) and a few things that Nick Varner would play around with once in awhile. Who knows, maybe if I had done drills back in the day, I coulda been a contendah. I certainly don't see how drills can hurt a person's game, but I don't know that it replaces the basic premise of improving your game: play as much as you can against progressively better opposition, play a variety of games, and, if you still suck...just lie about how good you play - trust me, you can convince yourself you're a great player IF...you will do these mental drills, as follows:
 
The problem with this game is that there are a lot of common shots which you frequently shoot - and thus get good at them. However there are zillions of seldom used shots which you might shoot once in an evening or once in a week. So you never get good at these unless you spend time practicing these specific shots.

A good example is using the mechanical bridge (crutch). I see a lot of players who seldom use this, have not practiced using it, then miss their shot when using it. They say "I hate using this thing!"

Well practice using the mechanical bridge. Shoot in all 15 balls using the bridge. Everyone else in the room will make fun of you, laugh, etc. But when you get into a tournament , use the mechanical bridge, and make your shot, let's see who is laughing.

And same with a lot of other shots. Practice seldom used shots which you are not good at. Then when you need to use one of these seldom used shots, you will have a better chance of making it.
 
Drills

Drills are good for the beginning players and intermediate players, but advanced players usually do not do drills very often. Advanced players usually only need to tune a few things before playing a match or to test the table. All players will try shots they have doubts about or haven't figured
out, but most advanced players have it down by the 3rd try. But even the best basketball players have to practice Free Throws (their coaches make them), so I practice spot shots now and then, and the only regular thing
I practice is banking, all types of banks. Most good players win because they know how to maximize their odds of winning. Knowing how to play well and knowing how to win are 2 different things, that's why you have tournament winners, and players that take the cash down. Your mental and emotional states have just as much to do with winning as your skills do.
 
Snapshot9 said:
Drills are good for the beginning players and intermediate players, but advanced players usually do not do drills very often. Advanced players usually only need to tune a few things before playing a match or to test the table. All players will try shots they have doubts about or haven't figured
out, but most advanced players have it down by the 3rd try. But even the best basketball players have to practice Free Throws (their coaches make them), so I practice spot shots now and then, and the only regular thing
I practice is banking, all types of banks. Most good players win because they know how to maximize their odds of winning. Knowing how to play well and knowing how to win are 2 different things, that's why you have tournament winners, and players that take the cash down. Your mental and emotional states have just as much to do with winning as your skills do.
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LOL, although this is probably true for most..Don't tell Niels this, he is a drilling fool.
 
Right on regarding bridge practise. After spending 30 minutes or so doing bridge drills, my pocketing - using the bridge - improved 100%.

And there are days when I need to spend time doing straight in shots to the corner pocket (the object ball is placed at least 3 ft away from the pocket itself and the cue ball around 2 feet away from the object ball).
 
To Drill or Not to Drill???

Dom...

I purchased PSD I, Book & DVD...and I can say to execute the drills you guys layout your prescribed 10x without missing being out of shape etc...is real tough...is the DVD edited???, or are these sessions done with continuity?

I do them frequently, and they will show you all of your flaws...

That said...I think drills are for building muscle, eye and alignment memory...shooting 'stop shots' , or any other shot, pattern or position play for an hour from all angles and intervals around the table means that in match play you 'will' with a high degree of consistency execute these 'routines' . After all practice is all about making the routines required by what ever activity one pusues...well, routine, automatic...you know when you do it, and it's done and you don't even remember doing it?

I love when I run a pack and don't realise until I'm pulling up balls for my opponent to rackem'...:D
 
Jersey said:
Dom...

I purchased PSD I, Book & DVD...and I can say to execute the drills you guys layout your prescribed 10x without missing being out of shape etc...is real tough...is the DVD edited???, or are these sessions done with continuity?
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I don't know about that video, but in Bert Kinister's DVD's pertaining to drills, either he or a student will do the drill in one take. It is refreshing to see it done without a cut. JMO
 
I like the bridge post!......I'd also add....shooting opposite handed...

G.
 
Donovan said:
LOL, although this is probably true for most..Don't tell Niels this, he is a drilling fool.
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Exactly bro, this is why he is my Hero. I find that people can all get to the same level of play by practicing some might have trouble getting there and the others just have great natural talent. Like some have trouble holding the cue just right and the others pick up a cue and can knock down a few balls. But both players can reach a great level of play by practicing and by practicing drills are a big part of that, although they do get boring time to time. Drills can take some time but just playing alot and having that experience they both lead to the same thing, so anyone can become a pro just if you want to become one, time, practice and having a dream is all you need. I do alot of drills on my daily practice routine, but i don't do all the drills in one day one day a drill may be rail shots the other day shot making, the other day positioning this way they don't get boring to me. I would rather set up some drills and practice and perfect them even if remember'd something i did wrong in a match i would execute that shot over and over to learn from it this is a drill for me but i only do drills when i play by myself other then that i focus on other parts of the game when playing an opponent so i don't think they are a waste of time.
 
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I think 9 ball is almost a drill in itself. If I want to do some solid practice, I will decide where I want to be on the next 4-5 balls. I will shoot the 1 ball and try to get where I planned to on the 2. If I miss any of these objectives, I put the 1 ball back and try it again. I do this all the way up until the 9 ball.

I agree with an earlier post that drills are good for beginners and intermediate players but not so much the advanced. I find that they tend to be impractical. Ok I can run all 15 balls in rotation if they are lined up the middle of the table, but what if they are spread in no paticular order? Its a little tougher.

One practice regimine that is kinda fun (and i guess its kind of a drill), is to try and run a 14.1 rack without hitting a rail. I've gotten close (my best 14 balls, got the wrong angle on the last ball), but not quite.
 
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