How Do You Practice?

Pidge

Pidge

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've never been one for practice in the traditional sense. Drills, going through the same table layouts and shooting up and down the table bores the hell out of me.

Normally I would just play by my self and consider that practice. My game was 14.1, I could spend hours every day just playing by my self. I might have thrown in a few racks of 9 ball in between but that was about it.

Recently though I've been hitting nothing but straight ins. I must have hit maybe 1-2 thousand straight ins the past month. Over and over, day after day was nothing but straight ins. Most would be stop shots, trying to get the CB to stop dead, no side spin, not stunning along a tangent line slightly and no follow or draw. I'd do this every day until I managed 10 in a row with around 7ft distance between OB and CB. I'd also try drawing the CB straight back, so it touched my tip on its travels, then I'd draw back 1 diamond, 2 diamonds and so on until I managed 10 in a row again. This is the kind of stuff that normally made me want to go to sleep but I found it extremely addictive trying to better my self each day.

My game has benefited far more recently because of this. Well, should I say my stroke has.

I'm curious as to how other AZers spend their table time.
 
Pidge said:
My game has benefited far more recently because of this. Well, should I say my stroke has.

I'm curious as to how other AZers spend their table time.
Click to expand...


IMO anytime you work on improving your stroke, you should see an improvement to your game.

I practice and do drills anytime I am at the table without an opponent. Straight in shots with follow, stop and draw are my primary drills. Finding center (top of cb to top of ob) can be frustrating. Speed drills are next.

I do play the 9 ball ghost and the 1 Pocket ghost to mix it up.

 
Pidge said:
I've never been one for practice in the traditional sense. Drills, going through the same table layouts and shooting up and down the table bores the hell out of me.

Normally I would just play by my self and consider that practice. My game was 14.1, I could spend hours every day just playing by my self. I might have thrown in a few racks of 9 ball in between but that was about it.

Recently though I've been hitting nothing but straight ins. I must have hit maybe 1-2 thousand straight ins the past month. Over and over, day after day was nothing but straight ins. Most would be stop shots, trying to get the CB to stop dead, no side spin, not stunning along a tangent line slightly and no follow or draw. I'd do this every day until I managed 10 in a row with around 7ft distance between OB and CB. I'd also try drawing the CB straight back, so it touched my tip on its travels, then I'd draw back 1 diamond, 2 diamonds and so on until I managed 10 in a row again. This is the kind of stuff that normally made me want to go to sleep but I found it extremely addictive trying to better my self each day.

My game has benefited far more recently because of this. Well, should I say my stroke has.

I'm curious as to how other AZers spend their table time.
Click to expand...

I do drills of my own design. I like to play some 14.1 and also 9-ball. I like to practice running balls into one pocket. This is not just a one pocket drill but helps your overall position play and creativity. Not just the corner pockets but the side pocket as well. I often run the whole rack into a corner pocket.

The main thing if I am being serious is to keep the sessions short and focused, usually no more then an hour or so several times a day. This is one of the luxuries of having your own table. If you have to practice at the pool room there are a lot of distractions and you often are trying to get everything into one long session.
 
I work on a few different things:

- Straight in shots like you do. I'll try to do between 30 and 50 before I move on to anything else.
- Positional shots. Helps me with shotmaking and speed control.
- Frozen rail drill
- 14.1 (just break shots). I'll practice all kinds of break shots with different speeds and spin.
- 14.1 to try and break my high run
- 8 ball ghost
- Progressive 9 ball. I'll start with 3 balls and work my way up.
- 9 ball break
- 9 ball ghost

If I have time, I like to try and do a little 15 ball as well.
 
For the most part, I just play. If I'm by myself, I'll try to run out 8b racks and when I fail, just bank the remaining balls. Of course, it tends to devolve into setting up a couple of banks, like straight-backs and so on. The closest I may get to any kind of drill would just be hitting the same bank for a dozen or so tries before I get bored with it. Playing on Diamonds now, I'm finding that a few of my banks have become much easier, while a few others have suffered. Depending on how it's going, I'll try running out racks of 9b, since it's more straight-forward on the offensive side and quicker to rack. That's about the extent of my practice. Unless something is riding on the game(league, money, etc), I consider it all practice.
 
I use the total offense 9-ball drills including a camera-phone pic of the leave after the break or chalk to mark the felt of the ball position. Then I can methodically practice that rack to work towards a run out.

If you do 15 racks of this in a row it will take the better part of 2 hours and it's surprising how many times this sort of run-out drill helps during a match as shots come up and you have a knowledge base of what you've already tried in a given situation.
 
Banks said:
For the most part, I just play. If I'm by myself, I'll try to run out 8b racks and when I fail, just bank the remaining balls. Of course, it tends to devolve into setting up a couple of banks, like straight-backs and so on. The closest I may get to any kind of drill would just be hitting the same bank for a dozen or so tries before I get bored with it. Playing on Diamonds now, I'm finding that a few of my banks have become much easier, while a few others have suffered. Depending on how it's going, I'll try running out racks of 9b, since it's more straight-forward on the offensive side and quicker to rack. That's about the extent of my practice. Unless something is riding on the game(league, money, etc), I consider it all practice.
Click to expand...
You wouldn't deserve your AZ alias if you didn't throw in a few banks! I do like to try finish off failed ghost games by banking the remaining balls, but my banking isn't the best. Easy-medium banks I'm fine with, but once they move over into the medium-difficult range its a bit iffy. I avoid them like the plague when playing a match.

I agree all table time is practice, but I think I'm addicted to hitting 7ft straight ins :( I don't know why, they're simple shots. I think I'm more addicted to seeing how the cue ball reacts. Its far easier to tell if you hit where you intended in a straight in rather than a 1/4 ball hit for example.
 
I practice the wagon wheel.. A very old system requiring exact tip placement on the CB.. My game has benefitted from this more than anything I've learned in the past 30 years..
 
How do I practice?

Under control!

I like to Practice on M-W-F for about 1/2 hour a day.

I break each practice routine into the different parts of my game.
Stroke-Aim-Cue ball-Routines.

I think the things that help me the most are:
1. A written goal.
2. A set routine.
3. A measureable result.

I just happen to play about three nights a week. This is the time I spend on my play game. If anything goes wrong I take that error into my practice routine.

I have fun
randyg
 
I like the straight in shot drill also. I'll shoot it varying between stop shots, following the cue ball straight in the pocket, or drawing straight back into the opposite pocket.
 
randyg said:
How do I practice?

Under control!

I like to Practice on M-W-F for about 1/2 hour a day.

I break each practice routine into the different parts of my game.
Stroke-Aim-Cue ball-Routines.

I think the things that help me the most are:
1. A written goal.
2. A set routine.
3. A measureable result.

I just happen to play about three nights a week. This is the time I spend on my play game. If anything goes wrong I take that error into my practice routine.

I have fun
randyg
Click to expand...
What would you define that practice schedule as? It seems like it may be a maintenance schedule. If a player is trying to up their game though I think it takes a lot more table time then that. I like the short sessions, but more frequent, as much as several times a day if one has the time. As well as keeping track of what you are working on and a way of measuring your progress.
 
I practice straight ins a lot as the op described. I've also been going through the drills in Mark Wilson's book that are great. Just bought the Ipat books and dvds from a guy here in the trading room and plan on working with it.

One thing I've found that is key for me, that is, creating some kind of spread sheet to track your results. I started doing that with the drills is Wilson's book and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of focus and intensity that adds to your effort. Scott Lee tried to tell me this in our lessons and like a moron, I didn't listen. Lol
 
Pidge said:
I've never been one for practice in the traditional sense. Drills, going through the same table layouts and shooting up and down the table bores the hell out of me.

Normally I would just play by my self and consider that practice. My game was 14.1, I could spend hours every day just playing by my self. I might have thrown in a few racks of 9 ball in between but that was about it.

Recently though I've been hitting nothing but straight ins. I must have hit maybe 1-2 thousand straight ins the past month. Over and over, day after day was nothing but straight ins. Most would be stop shots, trying to get the CB to stop dead, no side spin, not stunning along a tangent line slightly and no follow or draw. I'd do this every day until I managed 10 in a row with around 7ft distance between OB and CB. I'd also try drawing the CB straight back, so it touched my tip on its travels, then I'd draw back 1 diamond, 2 diamonds and so on until I managed 10 in a row again. This is the kind of stuff that normally made me want to go to sleep but I found it extremely addictive trying to better my self each day.

My game has benefited far more recently because of this. Well, should I say my stroke has.

I'm curious as to how other AZers spend their table time.
Click to expand...

keep doing that, also, you should buy a poqet trainer to recored the shots you miss. do a search or contact nme007
 
I work mainly on a very few shots - straight in from various distances, shots on the rail with different angle and spin, and the basic stop shot. I'll play myself or the ghost mainly 8 ball or 9 ball, every now and then 14.1. When I play the ghost I'll keep track of innings, missed shots and I'll keep a book of what I did, then I'll set the last two shots up again until I can make it consistently, each time I'll record everything from my preshot routine to the number of practice strokes. I'll try try to be conscious of where and how I struck the cue ball, then analyze why it did or didn't go in the pocket. I have discovered that taking videos of myself just makes me self-conscious and uncomfortable so I don't do it anymore. It's when I put myself in a game situation against the ghost or myself that I can apply what I've been working on. That's more when I am able to work on position, throw shot making and the general aspects of the game. I make myself because I'll play a safe on myself then then talk to myself: "A safe? You asshole" "Yeah I know, you thought this was a friendly game, well it's not".
One thing I've never been able to practice though is getting rid of any anxiety before a meaningful match, I've never been able to figure that one out.
 
macguy said:
What would you define that practice schedule as? It seems like it may be a maintenance schedule. If a player is trying to up their game though I think it takes a lot more table time then that. I like the short sessions, but more frequent, as much as several times a day if one has the time. As well as keeping track of what you are working on and a way of measuring your progress.
Click to expand...



Practice and Maintenance, different.

Practice is maybe adding something new or correcting an error.

Maintenance is making sure what you have works great.

Both are required.
randyg
 
I play 9ball with myself more than not. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll set up shots I know give me trouble and practice them until I get a little more consistant with them.... I can only play by myself for so long before I get bored. If a bud comes over, we can play for ours on end and still not be tired of it.
 
I play 12b...pretty much exclusively.

If I don't like how I execute something, I might set it back up, bit that is rare.
 
I go into the pool hall with a very detailed set of goals. Prior to getting there I read a list of "stroke keys" I made on how I want to stroke my cue, similar to what golfers do with "swing keys". I get to the pool hall & practice some straight strokes with just the CB up & down the length of the table for about 10 minutes. Then I work on cut shots down the rail followed by stop, draw & follow drills.

This last all but 30-45 minutes then I'm racking up & playing games. Sometimes I will play the ghost in 8 or 9 ball & keep track but most of the time I just play & have fun. I am not as disciplined as I want to be, not even close. :embarrassed2:
 
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