How long does it take to see positive results?

8

8-Ball Player

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just got a new table about a week ago, now I am putting an average a 5 hours of practice a day on it. ( 8 hours stright the first 3 days) Its been a week now, Im not really seeing any inprovment, my stroke is a little smoother, and my shot is a little better. But for the amount I have practiced I should be seeing a little more positive results, dont you think? How long does it take before you know your game is improving?

Thanks in advance.
 
IMO, you won't notice the results until you play someone you normally play or even a tournament.

I used to practice a lot solo. I didn't think I was getting better until I played a friend. We used to be pretty even, but I was just running on him. I thought maybe he had an off day, but we continued to play for a couple of weeks afterwards and I just noticed I had improved a little bit.
 
One other thing to keep in mind is it's not just how much you practice it is how and what you practice. If you are practicing the exact same things as in the past or executing bad habits from the past for 5 hours a day - you will only solidify those bad habits. I am not saying that you are doing that but it's JMO.

BVal
 
you didnt explain how you were practicing. if your just shooting balls the way you usually do, you may get to a point where you wont improve much or very slowly. you may want to concentrate on shots that you not good at, speed control, and position.
 
IMO you need to pick something,one thing,and work on it.Like draw or banks for instance and work on it.That way improvement will be easier to see (or the lack there of).If you see thats its not getting better get back on these boards and get some ideas or advice as to the possibilities for improvement.

Get one thing worked out and move on to another.Just banging em in for a week is not how I would go about it anyway.
Best of luck,
 
Very solid advice!

BVal said:
One other thing to keep in mind is it's not just how much you practice it is how and what you practice. If you are practicing the exact same things as in the past or executing bad habits from the past for 5 hours a day - you will only solidify those bad habits. I am not saying that you are doing that but it's JMO.

BVal
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This is absolutely true. Playing pool is not practicing. Practicing correctly for even just a few minutes a day will result in much quicker, more permanent gains in your playing ability. You can play pool for 12 hrs a day, but you cannot practice for even a quarter of that time...if you're doing it right. Our brains are just not built for that kind of extended attention span. That's why getting some quality instruction provides a great platform, and a detailed process, on how to achieve what you're looking for.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
8-Ball Player said:
Just got a new table about a week ago, now I am putting an average a 5 hours of practice a day on it. ( 8 hours stright the first 3 days) Its been a week now, Im not really seeing any inprovment, my stroke is a little smoother, and my shot is a little better. But for the amount I have practiced I should be seeing a little more positive results, dont you think? How long does it take before you know your game is improving?

Thanks in advance.
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I think 2-3 hours of solo practice is sufficient. After that you are just tired and may start getting lazy. Usually when you hear about players practicing for 8-10 hours, a lot of that is probably matching up.

Practice your fundamentals,

Here is the only drill that I do. Line all the balls across the centre of the table (side pocket to side pocket).

Place your cue ball behind the head string. Set up a straight in shot and pot it, then move the cue ball to the next ball and set up another straight in shot, always keeping the cue ball behind the head string.

Play stop shots. If the cue ball sits and spins (because of unintentinional side), count it as a miss. If an object ball touches the rail on the way into the pocket, count it as a miss.

If you can pocket all 15 balls consistently, then you are doing well.

The other part to this drill is try drawing the cueball back to the end cusion after each shot.
 
I've had a table for over 3 years and I still haven't improved. It's not an overnight thing. Give it some time.
 
Play people better than yourself. Watch matches and how players get from A to B. Some people can be awesome within a year. Some will just never get it after thirty years. Put yourself around action and tournaments, not recreational stuff. No offense to some people but some league play, people just don't care if they get any better. They just like the comradery and s$^$. If you want to be a player, be consumed by it. Live it. But it still will take time. Scwarzenegger didn't become Mr Olympia in one year; but, he was competing in his first year. Make sense? There are guys who play every free moment in hopes of one day knocking off one of the big guys. After knocking off a good player, it can become even more obsessive. I know all of these drills help stay in stroke and stuff but by playing an opponent better than yourself, you'll eventually get the idea and just plain get tired of getting beat on. Get in there and mix it up. I've lost thousands of dollars at two and five bucks a game, but you might "click" one day and start getting it all back. Who knows, maybe even in one night. That first thousand dollar hit is better than two hot twins, a glass top table and a feather.
 
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I know how people hate putting numbers on things especially something like this because we have no idea of the quality of practice you put forth but my results are as followed. Based on 10-14 hours a week of practice concentrating on 4 areas or 4 specific drills. Practicing 7 days a week isn't a good idea I like 5 or 6 days.

Approx 20-25 days to create a habit.

Approx 60-75 days to execute the habit consistantly.

Then move on to 4 more drills.

Its never the same for everyone but I've been doing this pattern for some time with reasonable success.
 
I bought a table about 1 1/2 years ago and I have improved, but in my case progress is on a long, slow curve. The thing that helped me the most is figuring out what the cue ball is going to do with various types of english applied to it. 2 years ago I was constantly surprised by where the cue ball went after it hit the rail. Shotmaking and speed control also will improve with time. I'm not a really good player, but better than I used to be.

I imaging a youngster would improve more quickly. I played when I was a kid but then quit until after I retired. Young people absorb things faster.
 
Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice will make you better. Get some instructions from a qualified teacher and then practice what they tell you to for 30 minutes to an hour per day. (If you're able to practice more than that in a focused manner, you're a freak.) 30 minutes of focused practice with each shot and drill being treated as life or death is far more effective than 12 hours of ball banging.

Had a table for 8 months now and am seeing improvements every week. Little tiny improvements with the occasional quantum leap. :D

Brian in VA - used to hit 1000 golf balls a day when he should have hit 150 quality shots instead.
 
Thank you sooo much everyone!

I guess I need to give it more time.

ANd for the record, about 2 hours a day I practice specific drills and shots that I find difficult, and for the rest of the 3-6 hours I play my brother in 10-ball.

Thanks again
 
8-Ball Player said:
Just got a new table about a week ago, now I am putting an average a 5 hours of practice a day on it. ( 8 hours stright the first 3 days) Its been a week now, Im not really seeing any inprovment, my stroke is a little smoother, and my shot is a little better. But for the amount I have practiced I should be seeing a little more positive results, dont you think? How long does it take before you know your game is improving?

Thanks in advance.
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This reminds me of my standard line years ago, when asked how long it would take to become a good player.

I used to say it takes about a year to learn how to make balls and three years of OBSESSION to really learn how to play.

Five hours of practice is good, but 8-10 is even better. Nearly every top player (maybe all) went thru a period in their life where they played Pool to the exclusion of all else. I mean like every waking minute was spent hitting balls.

Sorry, but that's the bad news. There just doesn't seem to be a substitute for hitting many, many thousands of balls.
 
8-Ball Player said:
Just got a new table about a week ago, now I am putting an average a 5 hours of practice a day on it. ( 8 hours stright the first 3 days) Its been a week now, Im not really seeing any inprovment, my stroke is a little smoother, and my shot is a little better. But for the amount I have practiced I should be seeing a little more positive results, dont you think? How long does it take before you know your game is improving?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I have had my table for about a year and a half and I thought I was a decent player when I got it. I jumped in and praticed for 4-6 hours every afternoon when I got home from work for the first 3 months and did not improve at all. Then I started winding down after work before I would begin pratice and held my practice sessions to 1.5-2.0 hours of fully focused pratice. If I missed a shot I would set it up and make the shot 10 times in a row before going on to run the rack. After 9 months of this type of practice my 9-ball Break and run percentage has gone from ~20%(Before I got the Table) to a monthly average of 48%.
 
jay helfert said:
Five hours of practice is good, but 8-10 is even better. Nearly every top player (maybe all) went thru a period in their life where they played Pool to the exclusion of all else. I mean like every waking minute was spent hitting balls.

Sorry, but that's the bad news. There just doesn't seem to be a substitute for hitting many, many thousands of balls.
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I've personally heard this about Tony Watson. If he was awake, he was playing/practicing. Also, Gene Nagy, IIRC, was mentioned in "Hustlers and Heroes, Legends and Lies and the Search for the Higher Truth on the Green Felt", as playing/practicing for "six to twelve hours a day, for weeks on end". I knew a guy in Binghamton who ran 80 balls his second year playing but it don't happen too often.
 
The time required to actually become good is far more than most will ever put into it. Improvement, however, is a very realistic goal and will come in stages often called plateaus. You will experience noticable improvement, followed by a leveling-off or even a slump for a while and then the cycle repeats. The more times you make it through this cycle, the better you will be.
 
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