How to improve with only 30 minutes a day?

[Zerksies]

I might have an hour a day. For the first 30 i usually work on my stroke. I work on a center axis stop, Follow, draw drill.

 

[gregcantrall]

3 Ball break and kick 'em in is the most powerful short practice that I have employed.

 

[dr_dave]

The book is outdated, gets things wrong in places, and sometimes there are better alternatives.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.

For those interested, here's the video:

Enjoy!

 

[DaveK]

Whatever you decide on as a practice / improvement routine (many good suggestions have been made, although I prefer Hennings Pro Book to 99 Critical Shots) remember that you need to focus. Without complete focus the 30 minutes will be wasted. Going to the table thinking of work issues, family issues or anything other than the specific practice you are attempting will reduce or even eliminate any opportunity to improve. You need deliberate practice to improve efficiently.

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Dave

 

[WobblyStroke]

Like with any improvement plan, you have to plug up your biggest leaks first. For a beginner, stroke drills and potting drills would probably be best. For someone who pots okay but relies too much shot making because position is weak, working on position drills and pattern play with the small runouts or half table runouts works nicely. Those also scale well in difficulty as you can always just add balls. Then if you are more advanced, you go into more exotic rare shots and safety play, building up table knowledge and really learning the tracks around the table and how diamonds connect. But in general, using your 30min to work on whatever is ruining your game the most is best imo.

 

[center pocket]

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.

This is exactly what Bert Kinister had me doing, table length stop shots from corner to opposite corner. Not just any stop shot, but perfectly replace the object ball with the cue Ball in a paper donut. I used to shoot this shot 100 times a day when I had my own table, and maybe hit it perfect 3 to 5 times out of 100. It was so difficult, but eventually I became ultra aware of the cue and the feel of the tip contacting the cue Ball. That feel took my game to another level for sure, plus my stroke became very accurate. Speed control and accuracy improved drastically. You can not play high level if "your gun doesn't shoot straight."

 

[Black-Balled]

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.

A wise pool bum once told me when I was whining about familial duty:
When you're on your deathbed you won't wish for another day at the pool room. You'll wish for another day with your loved ones.

Have fun with pool. No matter how good you get there will always be someone better and you'll never get to a point where you are perfect.

 

[Steve2022]

Play Great Pool by Mark Wilson & Donald Wardell, M.D. is a very good book, https://playgreatpool.com/ It emphasizes building a consistent stroke with a proper stance, those are the foundation to get better at pool. The book is a hardcover textbook of over 200 pages with a wealth of information that would allow a person to get as good they want if they're willing to put in the effort, it might seem a bit pricey at $100, but it is well worth it.