Minimum Days/Sessions/Hours Per Week Needed to Improve

C

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
For any level of player, assuming every session/hour of play/practice is a quality session, and you have a fairly solid base of fundamentals, how many days/sessions/hours per week is the minimum amount most of you feel is realistically needed to maintain, and how many more is needed to improve?

I realize everyone is different, and at lower skill levels you have to put in more time to get to the higher skill levels, but that once you get to a certain skill level, it becomes increasingly harder to continue to improve without a lot of time put in. Obviously age is a factor as well - particularly beyond 50.

I'm feeling like 2-3 sessions a week for say 3 hours per session - 6-9 hours total, might be enough to at least maintain my current level, but is probably not enough, at least for me, at 60, to improve my game beyond my current level.

Most all of us have priorities and time constraints as to how much we can play/practice, but my goal is to try to get to an average of 2 hours per day (14 hours a week). As I can't play every day, I'm hoping to do it by averaging 3-1/2 hours per session, 4 days per week.

At least half of those sessions, I'd prefer to play in match races against other players of similar or better skill levels, as I feel that's the best quality practice. The sessions I practice by myself, I like to practice the L drill making balls in any order, or playing the 9 or 10 ball ghost, or playing straight pool.

Just curious as to others on here that have that burning passion to improve, but have limited time to spend on the table, how much time at the table do you feel is needed to realistically keep that dream alive of making it to the next level.
 
Three days per week, three hours a day, will help you. I highly suggest that you only practice drills, and maintain the discipline to do so. Do not play any actual game by yourself, it isn't nearly as productive. Only compete after you finish your drills and do not allow for interruptions.

Warning. This sounds boring, and can be at first until you get used to it. But it is the fastest way to improve and learn. I recommend Joe Tucker's workouts.
 
Improve
no one knows why people improve

I know a guy who practices 5 or 6 hours pr day
can not play a lick

then along comes a kid who gets great almost overnight

every good player i ever knew got really good in the first year or two

I reached my top level in a year or so
62 years later I still play about the same level
 
deanoc said:
Improve
no one knows why people improve

I know a guy who practices 5 or 6 hours pr day
can not play a lick

then along comes a kid who gets great almost overnight

every good player i ever knew got really good in the first year or two

I reached my top level in a year or so
62 years later I still play about the same level
Click to expand...
So you're 70+ and still playing about the same level? That's encouraging, as I'm 61. Now that I'm playing a lot again, even at 61, as long as my vision remains the good, I still feel like I could compete with the player I was 40 years ago. Maybe not quite with the long shots, but with virtually every other aspect of the game, and of course, I feel like my knowledge of the game is far superior compared to those days.
 
To improve

If I were out to get the maximum improvement this is what I'd do.

I would play at least 2 hour a day. During that time I would shoot 1 kind of shot and that would be at 1 diamond of distance between the Object Ball and Cue Ball from various angles at first just to make and then I'd try and place the cue ball at various places shooting each shot at least 3 to 5 times.

The next day I would go to 2 diamonds of distance, the next day 3 and the next day 4 and then 5 diamonds of distance. Then I would start all over again so that I'd know all of my spin shots a different strokes and be able to put the cue ball practically anywhere I wanted.

I'd mix in some straight shots with follow and draw and then Id practice cue ball control techniques to min draw and all distance separations. Then do follow for all distances after object ball contact. If I were to train and could do it all of the time Id sure mix it up.

If I only had a couple of hours per day this is what Id do.
 
It depends on your mindset, the quality of your drills and the research you make.

I'm playing for 2 years and I'm already better than most people at my club. Some of them are playing 20h/week for 10-20 years.
 
I'd venture that playing for a couple of hours two or three days a week is enough to maintain whatever level you currently play at. To make some real improvements in your game, put in a 6-8 hour session (against competition) two or three times a week. It takes a good two hours just to get warmed up where you can begin to improve. Play a couple of all nighters against some real competition and that's when your game can really go up. When you play to the point of exhaustion is when you have breakthroughs in your game!
 
jay helfert said:
I'd venture that playing for a couple of hours two or three days a week is enough to maintain whatever level you currently play at. To make some real improvements in your game, put in a 6-8 hour session (against competition) two or three times a week. It takes a good two hours just to get warmed up where you can begin to improve. Play a couple of all nighters against some real competition and that's when your game can really go up. When you play to the point of exhaustion is when you have breakthroughs in your game!
Click to expand...

In another thread a while back I think Jay mentioned that playing every other day is the minimum to maintain your current speed. I agree with that thought process as to play your best you need consistency in your stroke which can only be achieved through hitting balls and repetition. So taking that idea and applying it to improvement means that instead of every other day, you should probably be playing every day. Duration, intensity, and how meaningful the practice will be is up to the individual. Sounds exhausting and obviously there should be more important things to do in life (unless you're a pro I suppose), but I guess that's why all the top players started really young.
 
LHP5 said:
In another thread a while back I think Jay mentioned that playing every other day is the minimum to maintain your current speed. I agree with that thought process as to play your best you need consistency in your stroke which can only be achieved through hitting balls and repetition. So taking that idea and applying it to improvement means that instead of every other day, you should probably be playing every day. Duration, intensity, and how meaningful the practice will be is up to the individual. Sounds exhausting and obviously there should be more important things to do in life (unless you're a pro I suppose), but I guess that's why all the top players started really young.
Click to expand...

Guys at the top today (Dennis, Shane, Wu, Chang etc.) will play as long as 10-12 hours a day when getting ready for competition. They may take a break between events, but leading up to a big tournament this is what you can expect from them in the way of preparation. In this respect it may mean that playing high level pool is just as difficult as playing high level golf.
 
ChrisinNC said:
For any level of player, assuming every session/hour of play/practice is a quality session, and you have a fairly solid base of fundamentals, how many days/sessions/hours per week is the minimum amount most of you feel is realistically needed to maintain, and how many more is needed to improve?

I realize everyone is different, and at lower skill levels you have to put in more time to get to the higher skill levels, but that once you get to a certain skill level, it becomes increasingly harder to continue to improve without a lot of time put in. Obviously age is a factor as well - particularly beyond 50.

I'm feeling like 2-3 sessions a week for say 3 hours per session - 6-9 hours total, might be enough to at least maintain my current level, but is probably not enough, at least for me, at 60, to improve my game beyond my current level.

Most all of us have priorities and time constraints as to how much we can play/practice, but my goal is to try to get to an average of 2 hours per day (14 hours a week). As I can't play every day, I'm hoping to do it by averaging 3-1/2 hours per session, 4 days per week.

At least half of those sessions, I'd prefer to play in match races against other players of similar or better skill levels, as I feel that's the best quality practice. The sessions I practice by myself, I like to practice the L drill making balls in any order, or playing the 9 or 10 ball ghost, or playing straight pool.

Just curious as to others on here that have that burning passion to improve, but have limited time to spend on the table, how much time at the table do you feel is needed to realistically keep that dream alive of making it to the next level.
Click to expand...


My experience has been that if you’re truly concentrating during your practice sessions the insights come about the three or four hour mark. I don’t know if that’s a Zen thing or something else but that’s just been my personal experience.

I have also found that practice alone is not the best path towards improvement, because frankly, you can convince yourself of some pretty crazy things practicing by yourself. So you need a mix of practice and competition to improve, IMO.

Lou Figueroa
 
I work a full time job and have three children between age 7-13. They are with me 50% of the time, so two days during the week and every other weekend.

I generally average about an hour of practice a day. The weekends I don't have my kids I am often playing a tournament or if there's none going on I put in at least one all day session at the pool hall.

This has been enough for me to get to playing the best pool of my life. Of course to get to a strong level I played for years as a kid where I played 10-12 hours a day, and throughout my 20s put in many gambling sessions and played many tournaments. But where I'm at now these frequent bursts of daily practice and getting into regular competition on my weekends without the kids has been enough for me to feel I can keep getting better.

When I practice during the week it's generally after I tuck my kids in at 9:30. I usually spend around 45 minutes working on a certain shot or a certain drill. For those who haven't done this it is very hard. I have a 9' table and the shot I've been obsessed with lately is a long diagonal with the object ball in the middle of the table and the cue ball deep in the corner jaws requiring me to elevate to shoot a stop shot. I've been hitting this shot for 30-60 minutes most days for several weeks now. Before that I was working on shots off the end rail.

By the end of 45 minutes or so of working on one difficult shot I feel that I've put in a good workout session. Then I just hit some balls. Practice is good to strengthen your 'grind' muscle, but you need to shoot open racks to keep your rhythm and flow. For a while it was straight pool, I was determined to put up some good runs. Now I'm playing mostly 10 ball to let me stroke out and make sure my pocketing stays strong and I keep working on moving the cue ball around. I switched from the ghost to practice games as I needed to keep hitting safeties, kicks, etc.

Oh, I forgot, I am putting in some sessions with the break rak as well.

My resources may be limited, but I am confident I can keep getting better. I make it a point to hit balls nearly every day. I put in highly focused work on certain shots, long enough to make improvements, short enough to hold my interest and cover a wide array of selections. I get into stroke each night playing open racks at the end of my sessions. And I constantly test myself in competition on my free weekends to put those skills to use, get pushed to my highest levels, and uncover opportunities that I am inspired to improve when I get back to the practice table.

By the way, a few days before a competition I tend to steer more towards working on just my break and open pool to get in stroke, then right after a tournament I tend to focus more on the grind drills. I don't like working on shots in the days just before a tournament because I want to stop thinking about how I'm doing things and just start letting it happen.
 
I agree...

jay helfert said:
I'd venture that playing for a couple of hours two or three days a week is enough to maintain whatever level you currently play at. To make some real improvements in your game, put in a 6-8 hour session (against competition) two or three times a week. It takes a good two hours just to get warmed up where you can begin to improve. Play a couple of all nighters against some real competition and that's when your game can really go up. When you play to the point of exhaustion is when you have breakthroughs in your game!
Click to expand...

Every great player I know at some point has ate, drank, and slept pool for a year or more...

For the first two years I took the game seriously, I was playing 10-15 hours a day six or seven days a week.

When I was playing my best I was playing probably 40-50 hours a week.

Now I haven't been playing at all aside from a couple of 3 hour sessions with John Schmidt...(and it showed...lol)

Jaden
 
The game is a game of feel and knowledge...

Tin Man said:
I work a full time job and have three children between age 7-13. They are with me 50% of the time, so two days during the week and every other weekend.

I generally average about an hour of practice a day. The weekends I don't have my kids I am often playing a tournament or if there's none going on I put in at least one all day session at the pool hall.

This has been enough for me to get to playing the best pool of my life. Of course to get to a strong level I played for years as a kid where I played 10-12 hours a day, and throughout my 20s put in many gambling sessions and played many tournaments. But where I'm at now these frequent bursts of daily practice and getting into regular competition on my weekends without the kids has been enough for me to feel I can keep getting better.

When I practice during the week it's generally after I tuck my kids in at 9:30. I usually spend around 45 minutes working on a certain shot or a certain drill. For those who haven't done this it is very hard. I have a 9' table and the shot I've been obsessed with lately is a long diagonal with the object ball in the middle of the table and the cue ball deep in the corner jaws requiring me to elevate to shoot a stop shot. I've been hitting this shot for 30-60 minutes most days for several weeks now. Before that I was working on shots off the end rail.

By the end of 45 minutes or so of working on one difficult shot I feel that I've put in a good workout session. Then I just hit some balls. Practice is good to strengthen your 'grind' muscle, but you need to shoot open racks to keep your rhythm and flow. For a while it was straight pool, I was determined to put up some good runs. Now I'm playing mostly 10 ball to let me stroke out and make sure my pocketing stays strong and I keep working on moving the cue ball around. I switched from the ghost to practice games as I needed to keep hitting safeties, kicks, etc.

Oh, I forgot, I am putting in some sessions with the break rak as well.

My resources may be limited, but I am confident I can keep getting better. I make it a point to hit balls nearly every day. I put in highly focused work on certain shots, long enough to make improvements, short enough to hold my interest and cover a wide array of selections. I get into stroke each night playing open racks at the end of my sessions. And I constantly test myself in competition on my free weekends to put those skills to use, get pushed to my highest levels, and uncover opportunities that I am inspired to improve when I get back to the practice table.

By the way, a few days before a competition I tend to steer more towards working on just my break and open pool to get in stroke, then right after a tournament I tend to focus more on the grind drills. I don't like working on shots in the days just before a tournament because I want to stop thinking about how I'm doing things and just start letting it happen.
Click to expand...

I feel the same as you. I think what it was was all those years where we were playing 10-12+ hours a day gave us the feel. Then the years of playing and competing gave us the knowledge and now, if we can play enough to keep in stroke, we're good.

Unfortunately, at the moment I haven't been able to play hardly at all.

I went up and played a couple of sessions with John Schmidt just to see how far down I've come from not playing. It's not as far as it could be, but it's far enough for me to want to start playing again enough to get a little bit back in stroke...

Jaden
 
I find playing for about an hour at a time, 2 or 3 days a week, is sufficient for me to play about 60-70% of my best.
 
ChrisinNC said:
For any level of player, assuming every session/hour of play/practice is a quality session, and you have a fairly solid base of fundamentals, how many days/sessions/hours per week is the minimum amount most of you feel is realistically needed to maintain, and how many more is needed to improve?

I realize everyone is different, and at lower skill levels you have to put in more time to get to the higher skill levels, but that once you get to a certain skill level, it becomes increasingly harder to continue to improve without a lot of time put in. Obviously age is a factor as well - particularly beyond 50.

I'm feeling like 2-3 sessions a week for say 3 hours per session - 6-9 hours total, might be enough to at least maintain my current level, but is probably not enough, at least for me, at 60, to improve my game beyond my current level.

Most all of us have priorities and time constraints as to how much we can play/practice, but my goal is to try to get to an average of 2 hours per day (14 hours a week). As I can't play every day, I'm hoping to do it by averaging 3-1/2 hours per session, 4 days per week.

At least half of those sessions, I'd prefer to play in match races against other players of similar or better skill levels, as I feel that's the best quality practice. The sessions I practice by myself, I like to practice the L drill making balls in any order, or playing the 9 or 10 ball ghost, or playing straight pool.

Just curious as to others on here that have that burning passion to improve, but have limited time to spend on the table, how much time at the table do you feel is needed to realistically keep that dream alive of making it to the next level.
Click to expand...

I have just recently started to play again, break because of my Masters program. I have started keeping track of the number of times it takes me to finish a 9-ball game. This way it shows improvement in your average. I will also do this with a couple of drills I like to do.

If I may make a suggestion at your age I would probably spend less time in a setting but focus on one drill/shot. Spend 30 minutes of practice, then rest and review your results. Then do another 30 minute practice session.
 
Pool is like Golf. You'll get to a point over time where there is no more significant improvement in your skill set.
 
nataddrho said:
Three days per week, three hours a day, will help you. I highly suggest that you only practice drills, and maintain the discipline to do so. Do not play any actual game by yourself, it isn't nearly as productive. Only compete after you finish your drills and do not allow for interruptions.

Warning. This sounds boring, and can be at first until you get used to it. But it is the fastest way to improve and learn. I recommend Joe Tucker's workouts.
Click to expand...

I disagree about drills...I think when someone asked Shane about drills he said he doesn't do drills. The reason drills are not as productive is because they do not replicate real game situations. Also, 10 minutes spent on fundamentals is better than 10 hours doing drills or banging balls around. You are only as good as your fundamentals.

Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/billiards/...en_know_what_a_drill/?st=jdkitx87&sh=bc29dc59

It's like practicing trick shots...they help you get good at trick shots...drills will help you get good at drills.
 
Last edited:
Based on the tried-n-true HAMB theory: If you hit 500shots/day you'd be a champion in 1000days. Now, get to work.:thumbup:
 
PRED said:
Pool is like Golf. You'll get to a point over time where there is no more significant improvement in your skill set.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is exactly what I'm fighting to convince myself I have not yet come to that point! I think if I get to where I'm putting in 15+ hours a week of quality time at the table over say 6 months, and still no improvement, I may have to face that realization - but I'm not quite there yet!
 
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