How to improve with only 30 minutes a day?

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sorin

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I have just managed to build my man cave and now have an 8ft pool table in there. I love the game but unfortunately I have a very demanding job and before covid I used to get about 3-4hrs a week to play with a friend of mine, mostly 9-ball. When I was younger (mostly in high school and during university) used to play more but never actually practiced. Always got to the pool hall and played with friends so some of the basics were learned the hard way.
Anyway, now that I have a pool table at home I will be able to practice to improve my game. However I still have a very demanding job and now I have a very young son so this means I am only able to get about 30 minutes a day at the table, maybe 1hr on a Saturday or Sunday. Since I never really practiced and only played I am not sure what to focus on...I searched online a little but most people on youtube suggest drills, others to play agains the ghost...I am not sure if I should focus more on drills or just studying some specific shots... I tried drills but they seems really boring and it seems like I waste a good part of my time at the table setting them up.
Currently I am throwing a few balls on the table and run them in order. When I run 10 sets in a row I add one ball (as suggested by Tor Lowry I believe). I am currently up to 4 balls only as I am not very good, I would say I am probably somewhere between beginner and low intermediate.

Any suggestions from people here on how to structure my practice?

I am also member of a group now that organizez regular tournaments and hope to attend more often as soon as my kid grows a little and will go to nursery as now he takes most of my spare time.

Many thanks
 
sorin said:
I have just managed to build my man cave and now have an 8ft pool table in there. I love the game but unfortunately I have a very demanding job and before covid I used to get about 3-4hrs a week to play with a friend of mine, mostly 9-ball. When I was younger (mostly in high school and during university) used to play more but never actually practiced. Always got to the pool hall and played with friends so some of the basics were learned the hard way.
Anyway, now that I have a pool table at home I will be able to practice to improve my game. However I still have a very demanding job and now I have a very young son so this means I am only able to get about 30 minutes a day at the table, maybe 1hr on a Saturday or Sunday. Since I never really practiced and only played I am not sure what to focus on...I searched online a little but most people on youtube suggest drills, others to play agains the ghost...I am not sure if I should focus more on drills or just studying some specific shots... I tried drills but they seems really boring and it seems like I waste a good part of my time at the table setting them up.
Currently I am throwing a few balls on the table and run them in order. When I run 10 sets in a row I add one ball (as suggested by Tor Lowry I believe). I am currently up to 4 balls only as I am not very good, I would say I am probably somewhere between beginner and low intermediate.

Any suggestions from people here on how to structure my practice?

I am also member of a group now that organizez regular tournaments and hope to attend more often as soon as my kid grows a little and will go to nursery as now he takes most of my spare time.

Many thanks
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go on yt and find some drills. darren appleton, niels feijen, billiard brothers(gorst) all have good practice drills. shoot spot shots too. come up often in 1p.
 
Video every session, find one flaw, use that for making a drill. 5-10 shots, take a 1 minute break. 30 min is more than enough, most can't even stay 100% focused in that time. Don't play every day, every other. Need to be hungry. Set small goals. In the Tor rotation game, take your time, figure out where to be on the next ball( go look). Go slow, there is no shot clock. It's like a hard math problem, don't rush, speed will come if you are intentionally trying to be perfect on each shot. Perfect shape, angle on next ball, pre shot routine, exact part of the pocket, etc. When you watch your video see if you could have run the pattern other ways, better ways. This will help you see the best route next time.
Drills are boring, you must do what others won't.
 
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Like all sports the best practice is in a group setting. Solo practice is good for specific skills.
The group experience is the best way to grow.
 
My favorite short session practice is 3 ball. Especially if 9 ball is most frequent competition.
The break is King in 9 ball. 3 ball outs will win money in the average (cheap) ring game. Cheap ring games give friends the opportunity to improve together. Well until you start to dominate.😉
If I can leave the table uncovered, I can knock out a rack in passing.
As far as improving.....start over at the beginning. Model after.....well, Barry Stark teaches good basics on YouTube. Ronnie O'Sullivan said he modeled after Steve Davis, right down to the shoes he wore.
My solution for the bad habits break being double difficult, was teach the other hand.🤷
My basics in the second hand Are "by habit" more sound. Plus the right hand has been able to learn as well.
My second hand is now my Money hand....go figure?
 
Shoot short straight in shots. As you get proficient make the shots longer. You have to develop a stroke first.
 
sorin said:
Currently I am throwing a few balls on the table and run them in order. When I run 10 sets in a row I add one ball (as suggested by Tor Lowry I believe). I am currently up to 4 balls only as I am not very good, I would say I am probably somewhere between beginner and low intermediate.
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10 sets of 3 in a row is no joke. That's pretty respectable. I do something similar, but I just do a set of 20 and calculate my percentage. Tin Man who posts here on AZB has a YouTube channel where he and a friend discuss pool and he has a lot of advice. A lot of his advice had to do with getting the most out of the skills you have by having a good attitude and playing smart.

I'd want to make sure my mechanics are solid just because you don't want to advance to a level where they are holding you back and then you have to reprogram your stroke.
gregcantrall said:
If I can leave the table uncovered, I can knock out a rack in passing.
Click to expand...
I'm always unsatisfied with my performance and have to shoot again, and again, and again...

garczar said:
go on yt and find some drills. darren appleton, niels feijen, billiard brothers(gorst) all have good practice drills. shoot spot shots too. come up often in 1p.
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I haven't checked out Gorst's videos yet but Feijen is a favorite. Appleton is great, too. He has a lot of drills that only use 2 object balls so you aren't spending a lot of time bumping into and resetting balls. This game can be frustrating enough as it is.
 
IMO, if you’re practicing to play 8-ball and 9-ball, you’re doing the correct practice now. Maybe throw 3 solids and 3 stripes out then run a group to practice avoiding traffic and mimic 8-ball.

I’ve always been a believer in practicing, at what you want to get better. You want to be better at spot shots, practice them. You want to be better at straight in shots, practice them. You want to be better at drills, practice them. You see where I’m going. You have :30 and you want to get better at several things. What you are doing helps you in several areas. Just keep doing it and congrats on getting the home table! Keep on playing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
all the above is great advise. Patience is the key…stick with the plan. 30 min drills are great for perfecting the 1 mm stroke accuracy. YT is your buddy.
 
I’d choose two drills and spend 15 minutes on each. Do one that is focused on fundamentals and one that is focused on position. Switch them up to keep them interesting and make sure you aren’t doing drill you can complete a high percentage of the time.
 
Cameron Smith said:
I’d choose two drills and spend 15 minutes on each. Do one that is focused on fundamentals and one that is focused on position. Switch them up to keep them interesting and make sure you aren’t doing drill you can complete a high percentage of the time.
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Yes, yes yes! The drills need to be super challenging, often times we get discouraged from missing so often, but those misses are quality misses, and before you know it the low percentage stuff becomes high percentage.
 
Start with mastering the 99 Critical Shots in Pool using the book as a guide.
Next master Banking With The Beard, another great book. Everyday you
either progress to the next lesson or shot or else stay with it until you’ve
mastered the shot in question. Use the spot shit drill & establish an average
for both corner pockets. There are so many things you can structure your
practice time around besides just banging balls around or playing against
an imaginary opponent. Practice with purpose or don’t bother & just bang balls.
 
I would spend those 30 minutes a few times a week shooting different length stop shots to make sure the stroke and aim are solid at your skill level. Straight in shots, make sure the cueball is not drifting off the line or is spinning too much after contact, practice at different distances to tune in how well you can do a stop shot at length, which will also help with your draw and follow shots as well since how you hit those also depend on the distance. To get past just an average league player you need to master playing position from and to all parts of the table, which requires speed control at different shot lengths. Almost any lower level player just has no stroke to do what they need to and end up at horrible angles and table length shots to shoot all the time. If you learn to shoot a stop shot at say 3/4 table length that is the beginning of getting the stoke and control needed to play most shots. The rest of the time what you are doing should be OK but keep in mind you would want to practice any shot you messed up several times to learn how to shoot it properly.
 
All do respect, but that spare time. Spend it with your kid. I was getting better when we had our first kid. I would set her on our centennial table with a baby Minnie Mouse blanket and let he have a toy. I would shoot balls around her on the table. It taught me to shoot easy, along with shooting different English on soft touch shots. Pool is fun. But our kids are a blast, enjoy them when you can.
 
Bavafongoul said:
Start with mastering the 99 Critical Shots in Pool using the book as a guide.
Next master Banking With The Beard, another great book. Everyday you
either progress to the next lesson or shot or else stay with it until you’ve
mastered the shot in question. Use the spot shit drill & establish an average
for both corner pockets. There are so many things you can structure your
practice time around besides just banging balls around or playing against
an imaginary opponent. Practice with purpose or don’t bother & just bang balls.
Click to expand...
The book is outdated, gets things wrong in places, and sometimes there are better alternatives. I respect Ray Martin, but he is no Dr. Dave/Bob Jewett. Dr. Dave did a video covering 10 of the shots in that book. I think the op would be better off going through all of Dr. Dave's videos. He could pick one, watch it, then spend 20 minutes practicing what was in the video, then go on to the next video. When the op is done with Dr. Dave's videos, he could even circle back around and do them all again to ingrain what he learned. I think that would be way more educational, and afterwards the op would understand how things actually work on a pool table, and he would be able to apply that knowledge to any shot.

Of course, Dr. Dave trains your pool knowledge, but you still need to train your stroke by practicing rock solid fundamentals. If the op is interested in learning and practicing the fundamentals of the stroke: "Play Great Pool" by Mark Wilson.
 
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7stud said:
The book is outdated, gets things wrong in places, and sometimes there are better alternatives. I respect Ray Martin, but he is no Dr. Dave/Bob Jewett. Dr. Dave did a video covering 10 of the shots in that book. I think the op would be better off going through all Dr. Dave's videos. He could pick one, watch it, then spend 20 minutes practicing what was in the video, then go on to the next video. When the op is done with Dr. Dave's videos, he could even circle back around and do them all again to ingrain what he learned. I think that would be way more educational, and afterwards the op would understand how things actually work on a pool table, and he would be able to apply that knowledge to any shot.

Of course, Dr. Dave trains your pool knowledge, but you still need to train your stroke by practicing rock solid fundamentals. If the op is interested in learning and practicing the fundamentals of the stroke: "Play Great Pool" by Mark Wilson.
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I have no idea what the player’s skill level is. I also mentioned Banking With The Beard which is pretty comprehensive
just like his 2nd book, The Gospool of Bank Pool. The book I’d recommend to everyone is Pool Player’s Edge by Gerry Kanov & Shari Stauch. I have lots of other book on a variety of topics incldg strategy but for someone with only 30 mins a day and a hour or so on weekends, the books I mentioned are suitable, especially when the skills of the player are not known.
Remember lots of players overassess their pool abilities & any self assigned rating so viewing them play is the best way.
 

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sorin said:
... I tried drills but they seems really boring and it seems like I waste a good part of my time at the table setting them up. ...

Any suggestions from people here on how to structure my practice? ...
Click to expand...
Some excellent drills take more or less no time to set up.

You are currently a "four" at progressive rotation ghost (as described in your original post). At that level, you probably need to work on very basic position play. It will be impossible to plan patterns until you have a few more tools to build the patterns with. If you consistently fail at a certain shot -- ball near the cushion, outside draw to get the cue ball to the next ball -- you need a drill to practice that shot. If you do not yet recognize that path as a possible position play, then you need more fundamental work.
 
g-string said:
All do respect, but that spare time. Spend it with your kid. I was getting better when we had our first kid. I would set her on our centennial table with a baby Minnie Mouse blanket and let he have a toy. I would shoot balls around her on the table. It taught me to shoot easy, along with shooting different English on soft touch shots. Pool is fun. But our kids are a blast, enjoy them when you can.
Click to expand...
When I say "spare time" I mean I get 30 mins to practice once my son is asleep when I usually practice.
There is some good advice here, thank you. I will try to work more on my fundamentals for now and go through the Dr Dave and the pro players' video lessons.
 
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