Drills vs. tight pockets?

[PaulieB]

I just had a thought after looking at one of realkingcobras threads regarding reworking a table...

I have a standard "furniture" style Brunswick at my house and I love my man cave. I play out at halls and bars here and there but also love having people over playing on my table. When I'm not playing others, I'm practicing drills. Sometimes when I get bored with drills I play a "ghost opponent" and if he gets up to the table more than 2 times he auto wins. Of course, if I'm playing my "ghost opponents" turn and he wins on his first or second time at the table it's still a loss for me.

Regardless of all that, I was wondering.... do you think running drills is more helpful to my overall game or would tightening up my pockets so that I learned to play with tighter conditions help more? I like the idea of just being able to play practice games and managing to improve my game (via tighter pockets), but part of me thinks I'm looking for a shortcut with this method.

So what do you think? Practice drills help more than tight pockets or the other way around? I know it will be easy to say "both" as a lot of drills practice position and tight pockets reinforce shot making, but I'm looking for a "which one do you think is better to improve your overall game" response, if you can please.

 

[pooltchr]

Perfect practice is the key to improvement. And by that, we mean practicing the right things the right way.

Tight pockets are only a way of measuring your accuracy. You said you enjoy having friends over to play on your table. I assume they have fun, but may not be as dedicated to the game as you. If you tighten the pockets, your friends will find they are not making many shots, and could lose interest.

You can work on your game with any size pockets. You just need to make sure you are working smart.

Steve

 

[PaulieB]

Good point, I wasn't thinking about the frustration factor for the more casual players. Thanks for the response.

 

[Cameron Smith]

Depends on what you mean by tight pockets. If you mean 4 inch pockets or tighter, forget it. I don't think that is the best way to build your game. You'll find certain types of rail shots are very difficult to impossible and you wont get as much practice running out. It's important to see yourself running out often or else you won't be walking to the table with that confidence on easier tables. You will be more comfortable pocketing balls, but mastering that is only a small part of the game. You would probably benefit from 4.5 inch pockets (assuming your table is currently 4.75 inches). This is a happy medium, they keep you honest but they're still easy to run out on.

Drills are fine, but the very act of doing them does nothing for you unless you are using them to find weaknesses in your game and actively improving them.

If you want to get better, identify areas that are lacking. Be specific. Don't just say my safety game sucks, there are re-occuring layouts choose one that you perform poorly on and shoot it again and again. Same thing for position play, find a position which you always under perform on, watch some matches and identify how the pros shoot said shot, then practice it.

Every practice session should have a purpose. You should be working on a specific area of your game. Always, always always devote a significant amount of time to improving your mechanics. They may be called the basics, but they are the most important area of the game and the most difficult to perfect.

So my answer is...drills, kinda. It doesn't matter what you do if you don't practice properly. Lots of people practice on super tight pockets and never improve. Lots of people do drills on a daily basis and only ever get better at that drill. Comparatively, there are players who never shoot a drill, play on normal sized pockets but speed through the skill level ratings because they were always tweaking their stroke and perfecting their weakest shots.

 

[pooltchr]

Every practice session should have a purpose. You should be working on a specific area of your game. Always, always always devote a significant amount of time to improving your mechanics. They may be called the basics, but they are the most important area of the game and the most difficult to perfect.

.

That should probably be printed out and read before every practice session!

Practice without purpose is just playing by yourself.

Steve

 

[Scott Lee]

I agree Steve...and someone can practice playing 24/7/365, and you may or may not significantly improve, over the course of tiime. I disagree with Cameron that doing a drill has no affect on the outcome, unless you're trying to "fix" something. While specific measurable drills can be effectively used to change behavior, and correct stroke errors, many of us do simple drills daily, just to hone our strokes! These drills have an achievable goal, a measurable result, aren't too easy or hard, and don't take too long. I spend about 15 minutes a day doing mine. :grin:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

That should probably be printed out and read before every practice session!

Practice without purpose is just playing by yourself.

Steve

 

[Scott Lee]

Excellent post, with one exception (noted in above post). I
lke the way you detailed out your thoughts on different parts of the playing and practicing process. It's important to understand the difference between them. :grin:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Depends on what you mean by tight pockets. If you mean 4 inch pockets or tighter, forget it. I don't think that is the best way to build your game. You'll find certain types of rail shots are very difficult to impossible and you wont get as much practice running out. It's important to see yourself running out often or else you won't be walking to the table with that confidence on easier tables. You will be more comfortable pocketing balls, but mastering that is only a small part of the game. You would probably benefit from 4.5 inch pockets (assuming your table is currently 4.75 inches). This is a happy medium, they keep you honest but they're still easy to run out on.

Drills are fine, but the very act of doing them does nothing for you unless you are using them to find weaknesses in your game and actively improving them.

If you want to get better, identify areas that are lacking. Be specific. Don't just say my safety game sucks, there are re-occuring layouts choose one that you perform poorly on and shoot it again and again. Same thing for position play, find a position which you always under perform on, watch some matches and identify how the pros shoot said shot, then practice it.

Every practice session should have a purpose. You should be working on a specific area of your game. Always, always always devote a significant amount of time to improving your mechanics. They may be called the basics, but they are the most important area of the game and the most difficult to perfect.

So my answer is...drills, kinda. It doesn't matter what you do if you don't practice properly. Lots of people practice on super tight pockets and never improve. Lots of people do drills on a daily basis and only ever get better at that drill. Comparatively, there are players who never shoot a drill, play on normal sized pockets but speed through the skill level ratings because they were always tweaking their stroke and perfecting their weakest shots.

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

Drills

I just had a thought after looking at one of realkingcobras threads regarding reworking a table...

I have a standard "furniture" style Brunswick at my house and I love my man cave. I play out at halls and bars here and there but also love having people over playing on my table. When I'm not playing others, I'm practicing drills. Sometimes when I get bored with drills I play a "ghost opponent" and if he gets up to the table more than 2 times he auto wins. Of course, if I'm playing my "ghost opponents" turn and he wins on his first or second time at the table it's still a loss for me.

Regardless of all that, I was wondering.... do you think running drills is more helpful to my overall game or would tightening up my pockets so that I learned to play with tighter conditions help more? I like the idea of just being able to play practice games and managing to improve my game (via tighter pockets), but part of me thinks I'm looking for a shortcut with this method.

So what do you think? Practice drills help more than tight pockets or the other way around? I know it will be easy to say "both" as a lot of drills practice position and tight pockets reinforce shot making, but I'm looking for a "which one do you think is better to improve your overall game" response, if you can please.

I always start out with a drill I heard of right here on AZ. Straight in shots, going longer and longer. Stop, draw and the real stroke shot the follow right into the hole shot. Simple but very effective!