How Do You Practice?

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wswhiting

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What is your practice routine? Do you enter a local tournament? Do you go to the pool room and match up against someone? Do you throw out balls and bang them around until you are bored senseless? Do you rack nine balls and see if you can run the rack? Do you practice shots by setting up the same shot until you can do it five times in a row, 10 times in a row, or 30 times in a row?

I've done all of these and according to Daniel Coyle, author of the Talent Code, I'm wasting my time. Coyle maintains that in order for practice to be effective it must be deep practice. Deep practice is finding that spot where you struggle and reach just beyond your current level of ability, fail, and then reach again. It reminds me of a quote by Buddy Hall, "If a shot is giving you trouble, shoot it 200 times and it will be your friend."

I have set up long straight in shots (head string to foot string) and set a goal of making 30 consecutive shots. If I make 28 or 29, that's not good enough and I start over. Waste of time. Now I seek out the level of difficulty where my success rate is only 50-80%. That means moving the CB only one diamond further away. Now my bridge is on the rail over the pocket and my comfort level significantly decreases. Success rate is only 60% telling me there is work yet to be done.

When I miss a ball, I tend to move on (after a couple of choice words and telling myself what an idiot I am) and push it out of my mind. Now I am forcing my self to analyze the mistake and try not to repeat it.
 
I use the 20/20 rule of practice.

20 minutes of hard deep focus on one issue.

I may do this twice a day for about a week.

randyg
 
wswhiting...While Buddy is a legendary player, who has my complete respect, it has been proven that practicing something hundreds of times is not the most effective to learn for many players. By having ways to measure what you're doing, you can actually get more 'feedback' doing a drill/shot for 10-20 reps. Naturally the conditions have to be exactly the same.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

wswhiting said:
It reminds me of a quote by Buddy Hall, "If a shot is giving you trouble, shoot it 200 times and it will be your friend." .
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When I'm working on something, I will practice it until I can get the desired result, and then I will continue to practice it until I can remember what it feels like to do it right. So, for me, it varies. If I can grab quickly onto how something feels, then it's a fast process. But in some cases I have to work harder and longer to get to that point.

But in the end, the result will be the same: I will know what it feels like so I can produce it on demand in order to get it right the first time ---- Because as we know, in competition you don't get another chance to set it up and try again.
 
Competition is not practice. Hitting balls with your friends is not practice. You can learn while doing both but for learning purposes both are inferior to practice. When I am preparing for competition I try to practice at least 4 times a week and each session is structured as following.

1) WRITE DOWN my goal for the session.
2) set the timer and do a 15 minute warm up. I shoot easy shots and easy patterns while focusing on my mechanics.
3) set the timer and work for 30 min or an hour on specific areas. This could be my break, safeties, specific shots, caroms, combinations, whatever.
4) WRITE DOWN what I learned, what I did good, & what problem I am searching for an answer to.
5) I finish each session with a game scenario so that I can work on my routine and rythem. This is usually playing the ghost or some straight pool.
 
When I miss a ball, I tend to move on (after a couple of choice words and telling myself what an idiot I am) and push it out of my mind. Now I am forcing my self to analyze the mistake and try not to repeat it.
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The mental game is so huge in pool. The skills required to play good pool are easy to acquire. Learning the physics of the game is easy. Learning strategy is easy. Yet people make the game hard. Confidence is a big factor. You have to see yourself as capable. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. Not too long ago I was watching a world class player play Shane Van Boening in a tournament. He was on the hill and had not one but two good chances to finish him off. On one of the outs he dogged an easy cut shot and on the other he missed a combination on the ten ball. Why did he miss? This guy clearly has the skill to execute both shots Andy's has shown before that he can handle pressure so what was it?

The problem was his self image. He did not see himself as being capable of beating SVB and his subconscious mind responded accordingly. I see this same process occur in lesser players to. Can you picture a C player almost making a tough out that Johnny Archer would be proud to make, working his way through the tough key shots only to dog it at the end? That's self image that prevented him from executing the shot and finishing the out.

My point is this. You have to be very careful and take care of your self image. What you think about, what you talk about, and what you write about is what you become.

Everyone is aware of visualization & affirmation to build self image but your post above brings to mind another lesser known way of affecting your self image. It is reinforcement. What you think about after a shot.

Self image is grooved into your mind and every time you think about something, wether positive or negative it digs that groove a little deeper. When you miss a shot and you call yourself a loser, you dig that groove.

I often hear guys make a poorly executed shot and they say, angrily, precisely how they messed that shot up. I think to myself, yep, dig that groove. Take for example someone who has a long backwards cut in the corner and after he misses it he says "shit, I always overcut that shot." What's likely to happen to him the next time he is faced with that same shot under pressure?

The lesson here is, if you don't execute a shot how you want to, simply think about how it would feel to hit it right. What would the shot have looked like, what would it have felt like? In this way you are grooving a nice groove into your mind from a shot that wasn't even executed properly.

If you are in practice when you do this then, get the feeling and then repeat the shot again. If you are in competition though, then get the feeling and on e you have it, let the shot go. This will not only prevent a negative groove while creating a positive one but it will also keep your mental state in the right place to compete. Once the match is over, then you can return to the shot and groove it over and over again with physical execution until you know what will happen the next time you come across that shot.
 
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I understand some of the theories on practice, but in reality everyone is a little different. Some people will do better with less repetitions, or less time per practice session, while others need or crave those long practice sessions with lots of reps. Whether that person could be more effective with a different practice routine I'm not sure, but it occurs in golf, tennis, pool, etc.

I've done both, and have limited time to practice/play vs. what I would ideally like. I'm a big fan of challenging yourself, just outside your comfort zone, Also a big fan of the "pro" adage that an amateur shoots a shot until they make it, a pro shoots it until they never miss. A little OCD goes a long way with this type of practice, something I think Shane, Earl, and other have if you've ever watched them practice. If not OCD then discipline, something someone like Thorsten had instilled into him at a young age. Some of the drills he did were crazy...

However, in reality most of us have limited practice time. Shooting a long straight in shot for hours each day is probably not the best use of time, nor is doing the same drill over and over, or doing a drill that is too comfortable for you. I think a balance is healthy - time for drills (pick 1 - 3 each day you practice, maybe 15 - 30 minutes each depending on the drill), practice play (ghost etc.), and competition. Hard to do in reality.

When I was golfing more seriously, I had a "pro" game on the range, loved to practice and hit hundreds of balls a day. Yet I was still shooting 77/78 on the course. I had to transition those practice shots to the course, and develop the mental focus to execute those same shots under pressure, especially the short game shots that just required feel and muscle memory. Letting go was something I had to learn to do. Eventually I was able to do that, and drop those last few strokes by allowing myself to perform the way I knew I could.

Frankly still working on that in pool to some degree, and I think the only answer is to keep playing in competitive situations until I'm able to "let go" and play like I can in practice, then go back in between and practice shots or situations where I didn't execute properly, rinse and repeat until it all comes together or I go crazy trying...

Scott
 
My practice typically varies regularly. My practice session Saturday was as follows:

A little over an hour of just breaking practice. I racked up 9 ball - break and then evaluate. I try to squat the cue ball and pocket balls - if i did this I score it up as a point for good guys. If nothing is pocketed and/or I scratch (or even lose control of the cue ball) then it is scored up as a point for bad guys. Kind of like playing the ghost, i did a race. Then after finishing the set of 9 ball breaking I racked up 10 ball and did the same thing.

I took a short break, then worked on particular shots, but make a drill out of it. Example - Object ball 1 balls width off the rail - 2nd diamond on the long rail. Object ball # 2 was in the same position but opposite long rail. My goal was to make the 1st ball, play position for ball #2, then spot ball #1. Then shoot ball #2 while playing position back and to the 1st ball. No bank shots, just running the ball down the rail into the same 2 corner pockets. 25 minutes of this

Then another short break then I played through several 15 ball racks of just banking shots. If I miss a bank by more than a small margin - i set it up and try again until i make it.

Other things I typically practice is speed control, safeties, position play, and ball pocketing.
 
I start with two tough shots (corner to corner straight in stop shots 7 feet or more (ball-length roll offs don't count) and 45 degree cut shots up the rail, left and right cuts) that usually require a little sighting in. I do these until I make 10 in a row in each direction. Then I spend the rest of the session shooting racks of 15 ball rotation. Seems to maximize the effectiveness of my time for me...it's how I warm up for tournament matches, too. If I'm really struggling, I'll do box drills for one hour (7 x 7 ball box two diamonds out, run them without missing or hitting another ball or start over). That'll put lead in your pencil!
 
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