How often do pros "practice"? What is enough?

[SeniorTom]

Someone mentioned earlier it's quality over quantity time. I couldn't agree more. When I go to the pool hall before League I start running through different drills that challenge various position skills and shot skills around the table. I get so much more out of that than banging balls with friends, although I enjoy shooting with my friends it's nothing like honing your practice skills. I'm sure the pros spend many hours on practice drills and not just running balls out.

 

[VarmintKong]

Definitely playing daily, or very close to it. I would doubt beyond a small handful of hours unless they were trying work something drastic into their games.

It doesn't take much to maintain. I'd be surprised if it was any different for the elite

So ya think they lose their passion for it?

Dang, there’s days I daydream about spending my productive hours listening to balls clicking and pockets dropping. It’s not like a video game; you can’t beat pool.

No matter how good I think I am there is something to improve on. Next time I say screw that and start banging balls cuz I’m still thinking about that bad shot, remember the next guy is focused and dedicated to improving his weakness.

 

[Miller]

its both. repition and quality.

i played baseball when i was a kid, was convinced i would be in the bigs someday. spent countless hours throwing a pinky ball off a stone wall. literally thousands/maybe million of reps. to this day, imagine i can pick em as good as anyone (as long as they are hit right at me and don't have to move too far...lol).

foundational skills and reps are everything. you build off of that, don't matter what is it is.

reps will produce quality/expertise.

 

[The_JV]

So ya think they lose their passion for it?

Well I've been speculating entirely thus far but I'd say no.

Over training is a real thing. While I don't doubt pros will practice intensely if they feel it's required. I'd expect they dial it way back while continuously playing events. Just to an hour or 2 a day just to keep themselves in stroke.

 

[jbart65]

Well I've been speculating entirely thus far but I'd say no.

Over training is a real thing. While I don't doubt pros will practice intensely if they feel it's required. I'd expect they dial it way back while continuously playing events. Just to an hour or 2 a day just to keep themselves in stroke.

Top athletes as they age often can't practice as much due to injuries or chronic issues. They usually know just how much they need to do to stay sharp and remain at a high level. All the reps they did earlier in their careers, combined with a more select approach to training, enables them to do it.

 

[SeniorTom]

Top athletes as they age often can't practice as much due to injuries or chronic issues. They usually know just how much they need to do to stay sharp and remain at a high level. All the reps they did earlier in their careers, combined with a more select approach to training, enables them to do it.

At 68 years old, I know what you are talking about. Most of my joints are a bit achy some worse than others, but they limit how much time I can put into practicing. My best practicing is doing ball arrangement exercises on the table. It's amazing how much this helps my game, as opposed to just shooting balls in with my friends.

 

[maha]

i bet when you get old you arent going to say i am glad i spent 20 % of my waking hours of my life doing drills playing pool.

and if you put in more, thinking you may become a pro and make 50 to 100,000 a year at best you are wasting your life.

play for fun, or to accomplish something like making money gambling, or prestige from a trophy.

 

[easy-e]

i bet when you get old you arent going to say i am glad i spent 20 % of my waking hours of my life doing drills playing pool.

and if you put in more, thinking you may become a pro and make 50 to 100,000 a year at best you are wasting your life.

play for fun, or to accomplish something like making money gambling, or prestige from a trophy.

I agree with you. BUT, I know lots of people who enjoy doing drills. I think those people need to go to the train station, but to each their own.

 

[SeniorTom]

i bet when you get old you arent going to say i am glad i spent 20 % of my waking hours of my life doing drills playing pool.

and if you put in more, thinking you may become a pro and make 50 to 100,000 a year at best you are wasting your life.

play for fun, or to accomplish something like making money gambling, or prestige from a trophy.

There's something called personal pride where people excel at whatever they do. This is a characteristic that brings out the best in humanity, no matter what the endeavor. Nothing wrong with practice drills, it allows a person like me to open a can of whoop ass on an individual like you.

 

[Tobermory]

There’s a lot of interesting and valuable material in this thread. I’m going to make a couple of observations, some of which will echo what others have said. I’m afraid that I haven’t noted my predecessors in the thread where that qualification applies. Keep in mind that I myself am the “test.” That is, if you can’t beat me in pool you can’t play pool.

#1. Recall for a second Steve Cook. I have in my mind a quote from Cook when he was asked how much he practiced. He is supposed to have said that he could not practice the way his competition did. He claimed he had two strokes. He had a stroke he fell into when he practiced and a stroke he fell into naturally when he played in competition. He claimed it was pointless for him to practice because he knew that as soon he was in competition his practice stroke would disappear and his competitive stroke would take over. No, I don’t have a source.

In the same way, I recently heard a snooker player talk about an opponent of his who missed a very simple shot at a critical moment. The speaker said that later he passed a practice table and his former opponent was practicing the same simple shot over and over. The speaker reflected that there was no doubt at all in his own mind that his opponent could make the ball fifty times in a row practicing. The question was why he had missed such a simple shot one time in competition. That was what the opponent should be investigating — in the terms of Steve Cook, what was wrong with his competitive stroke.

#2. A music pedagogue named Eloise Ristad some years ago published a book about musical performance titled “A Soprano on Her Head.” If you are interested in overcoming choking you might want to look it up. (In music conservatories they don’t use words like “choking” or “dogging it.“ The professional expression is “performance anxiety.”) She addresses extremely long sessions of practice. Like Calvin Coolidge’s minister on the subject of sin, she’s “agin it.” She thinks if you are putting in long, long sessions of practise, then you are practicing wrong. Someone in the thread above said, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” Bob Byrne’s expression was, “Practice does NOT make perfect. It makes PERMANENT.” You can be digging yourself a hole If you’re doing it wrong.

In addition Ristad draws attention to the physical damage long hours of practice can cause.

 

[Chili Palmer]

There’s a lot of interesting and valuable material in this thread. I’m going to make a couple of observations, some of which will echo what others have said. I’m afraid that I haven’t noted my predecessors in the thread where that qualification applies. Keep in mind that I myself am the “test.” That is, if you can’t beat me in pool you can’t play pool.

#1. Recall for a second Steve Cook. I have in my mind a quote from Cook when he was asked how much he practiced. He is supposed to have said that he could not practice the way his competition did. He claimed he had two strokes. He had a stroke he fell into when he practiced and a stroke he fell into naturally when he played in competition. He claimed it was pointless for him to practice because he knew that as soon he was in competition his practice stroke would disappear and his competitive stroke would take over. No, I don’t have a source.

In the same way, I recently heard a snooker player talk about an opponent of his who missed a very simple shot at a critical moment. The speaker said that later he passed a practice table and his former opponent was practicing the same simple shot over and over. The speaker reflected that there was no doubt at all in his own mind that his opponent could make the ball fifty times in a row practicing. The question was why he had missed such a simple shot one time in competition. That was what the opponent should be investigating — in the terms of Steve Cook, what was wrong with his competitive stroke.

#2. A music pedagogue named Eloise Ristad some years ago published a book about musical performance titled “A Soprano on Her Head.” If you are interested in overcoming choking you might want to look it up. (In music conservatories they don’t use words like “choking” or “dogging it.“ The professional expression is “performance anxiety.”) She addresses extremely long sessions of practice. Like Calvin Coolidge’s minister on the subject of sin, she’s “agin it.” She thinks if you are putting in long, long sessions of practise, then you are practicing wrong. Someone in the thread above said, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” Bob Byrne’s expression was, “Practice does NOT make perfect. It makes PERMANENT.” You can be digging yourself a hole If you’re doing it wrong.

In addition Ristad draws attention to the physical damage long hours of practice can cause.

Excellent post and that was me that said perfect practice makes perfect but I like the take on permanent. I'm assuming Bob was essentially saying the same thing, if you're not practicing right, you shouldn't be practicing, which could also correlate to Steve Cook, maybe he simply wasn't practicing right?

 

[ShootingArts]

Sometimes we are practicing, sometimes we are just going through the motions. My first circle tracking was on dirt. You not only found yourself racing on a different track every week, you often found yourself racing on a different track every time you pulled out of the pits!

I started out admiring the super consistent drivers so I tried to be super consistent too. I tried to steer the exact same pattern every lap once I found one that worked. Throttle on and off the same, every lap.

Often discoveries are made when we are tired. With the dirt car sometimes as a farm boy what I could most accurately describe myself doing was herding it around the track like herding cows to the barn. I didn't care the exact path the cows took, just that they ended up at the barn without aggravating me too much.

The same proved true with the race car. When I controlled the general direction but let it find it's own path it was fastest. It was also super consistent.

When learning we have to micro-manage everything. However, there comes a time when the pool cue is like the race car. You have to give it a bit of slack and let it run. I no doubt annoyed a lot of people when they asked me how I shot a particular shot. "A lot of low and a scooch, maybe two scooches right. OK, the scooches part was being tongue in cheek but even if I had been able to say two tips low and a half tip right it wouldn't have meant the same to the other person as it did to me. In fact, I have never communicated well in tips. Starts off from center. Some people call moving the outside of the tip to center a half tip, some call it a tip. When we can't consistently count to one, we ain't gonna make it to two!

I learn more from asides than the main lesson a lot of times and it may be my asides that excite others. The little things aren't always little and the big things are often being made overimportant.

So how much does a pro practice? "Enough" is really the answer. At times they need lots more practice than others, other times they can just go with the flow without much in the way of practice. Of course I have heard people say they haven't been practicing when they were only putting in twenty or twenty-five hours a week. For them, serious practice was two or three times that.

Hu

 

[LG9BallFan]

Not trying to be jerk or a negative nancy but, if practicing before league, I don't call that practicing (for me), it's simply warming up, IMHO. My practice is done alone, without interruptions or other distractions, then I warm up to play. Just my personal experience.

Maybe not reading you right, Chili. When I practice, I practice alone. Agree on without interruptions or distractions. I think 'we're good'.

 

[Chili Palmer]

Maybe not reading you right, Chili. When I practice, I practice alone. Agree on without interruptions or distractions. I think 'we're good'.

I was just referring to the general concept of league players showing up early to "practice" with each other. If you're banging balls on the table with someone else before league you're not really practicing, you're simply warming up. As mentioned, wasn't trying to be a jerk, was just giving my personal opinion on the differences between practicing and warming up. And yep, we're good