Practice practice practice

gregcantrall

gregcantrall

Just Don't Dog it. 🤷‍♂️
Silver Member
How to do it right:
1. Why are you practicing? What are your goals?
2. Start with the beginning. The foundation or shooting platform.
I think of a dance step as I first find the line of aim, placing my belly button on it. I think Briesath teaches the chin. Possibly better. Then stride onto that line. Placing my body into an orientation to shoot one handed. Practice this for at least a week by completing the shot.
The most stable platform is a tripod. I try for a wide base for stability. Cole took the leg spread to the extreme. I noticed Incardona does much the same. Both known for their shot making. I was taught and espouse to be a shooter first. Think of Quigly Down Under. Snooker players have pretty much a universal stance. With the bridge hand emulating the broadest tripod possible.
This should take another week.
See Barry Stark on YouTube and learn how he teaches the stance. And on thru to the fingers. He teaches object ball last but that’s the only thing I differ with him on. His reasoning is vague to me. I am confident in my choice but will save that for later.
3. Absolutely make sure you are practicing right. Practice forms habits. Bad habits are hard to break. It’s so much easier to have a good solid foundation before adding the ornaments. I started lessons with the piano in the 1950s. An hour lesson each week with one hour practice each day. My daily practice started with the scales. I emulate that with my shot making drill. Which is based on Colin’s shot making drill which I got from Dr Dave(excellent source like my encyclopedia). I have recently modified the drill to include phenolic tip with no chalk. Oh yeah!! I am so happy with what I am learning or relearning.
Second scales drill is based on the snooker based drill I got from uh maybe Scott Lee. Gets into shape precision.
I compete with left hand against the right to emulate competition.
I try execute each dance step precisely thru all things I practice and stay alert for any laziness.
After the scales it’s game competition left against right. I used to give the left a spot but not any more. 3 ball, 9 ball and 8 ball are my favorites.
I try not to go beyond my attention span. Practice that’s fun is much more effective for me 😎😀.
 
I am willing to bet that I have spent as much time practicing as playing, maybe more. Like 99% of us, I was never told what or how -- I picked up a cue and tried to make the cue ball go. I wanted to be good at pool, but I had no idea how to get there except by playing and watching and talking with better players. I recall older players correcting my gross deficiencies (get your butt down) but the subtler aspects of my game were left for me to figure out.

Around the age of 18, I undertook a comprehensive review of my game after I found a book on pool basics, with photographs and drawings. I took my mechanical game down to bare metal and reconstructed it from a to z. I spent months examining, analyzing, changing, correcting grips and strokes. In the course of this, I learned that changing one thing probably affected many other things and that unconscious consistency was the key for me.
 
bbb said:
greg
could you explain the drill to me?
thanks
if there are any other important drills you like to do to practice i would love to start doing them myself
stay safe
Click to expand...
Hi bbb, I am not very good navigation with the new format. Just stumbled upon this inquiry.
The snooker drill I use:
Stripes serve as reds.
I use the solids 2-7 and placing them on respective spots. (Found a site with image for location on different sizes tables)
The reds are placed on the center line with 3 equal spaced from 5-6. Then 3 between 6 & 7. The last between 7 and end rail.
Taking ball in hand started with a red then color with colors respoting as in snooker. Run em out just like snooker!
Heard Steven Hendry did this drill with a huge number of consecutive pots. I am happy to get a clearance once in a practice session. I have one perfect clearance which would be the black after all reds.

Having my table set up in my “shop”🥴, makes it easy for my to stay safe!
If I am posting most likely I am in front of the heater, as it’s cold in the morning.

Just came across something that made me say, “Hmmmm?” Ronnie Allen on YouTube extolling the skills of Harold Worst, (his pick for GOAT) mentioned that he was a protege of...................drum roll. Willie Hoppe. Billiard Digest selection for player of the last century. Willie taught cue ball last.
Harold was world class in all versions of billiards and snooker and pool. Hmmmmm. A very interesting story. On my phone and not savy enough to link to it.
Ronnie Allen was one of the earliest players that I had heard so many stories of his accomplishments on the pool table. His opinion of GOAT carried a lot of weight with me.
 
I never practice. I also don’t practice fishing in the backyard or ball hockey or playing my guitars.

At 66 I have fun. I may be the 399th best snooker player in the world and no real desire to move up to 350. In Anerican Pool it would be even less incentive...who cares who is 98th?

Over the years I’ve improved skills by making up a variety of unique games that are fun in themselves. Practice for the sake of it would get dull...just like kids are turned of playing music by repeating scales.

The reason there is a million ‘how to’ videos’ is most dabblers follow one regimen for a couple weeks. Lets it slide then searches for the next ‘best big thing‘. Every new system or drill is the ‘best ever’ until the new one next week.

Funniest are all the players who claim to practice religiously but then still search for the magic cue and tip so they can actualky sink a ball.
 
We talkin’ about practice man!
Bringing what I‘ve got to competition is well to quote Yogi. Half the game is 80% mental. But my practice gives me more skill to bring to the game. Having the skills and being able to deliver on time is another thing.😀
 
If there are any other important drills you like to do to practice i would love to start doing them myself.
Click to expand...
Not sure how important 😉 but to improve my visual perception. I use the break cue/no chalk and standing at the head just dribble the cue ball off the foot rail. (As in basketball not grandpa at the urinal):eek: 15 is my best before a CLANK.
It is just a quick check, I lose interest quickly.
[/QUOTE]
 
Biloxi Boy said:
I am willing to bet that I have spent as much time practicing as playing, maybe more. Like 99% of us, I was never told what or how -- I picked up a cue and tried to make the cue ball go. I wanted to be good at pool, but I had no idea how to get there except by playing and watching and talking with better players. I recall older players correcting my gross deficiencies (get your butt down) but the subtler aspects of my game were left for me to figure out.

Around the age of 18, I undertook a comprehensive review of my game after I found a book on pool basics, with photographs and drawings. I took my mechanical game down to bare metal and reconstructed it from a to z. I spent months examining, analyzing, changing, correcting grips and strokes. In the course of this, I learned that changing one thing probably affected many other things and that unconscious consistency was the key for me.
Click to expand...
Where can I find a picture of the layout? Seems interesting
 
My practice routine is maniacally crazy.
It is based on becoming increasingly harder.

Average time takes 2 hrs to do all these drills.
Tracking your average & progress is important.

A golf handicap let’s you see how well you played
your last of round of golf, pool drills are the same.

By establishing an average score, you know whether
you are improving or have plateaued or playing bad.

Here is the cardinal rule. Don’t ignore it and just accept
that the best players in any sports endeavor embrace it.

“Always practice with a purpose or goal or don’t bother.”
 
The phenolic tip with no chalk is gettin’good to me. I started using it on my shot making drill. After how ever many weeks it has been, I took it to my snooker drill. Made a full clearance last night and am stoked.
What I have improved:
Accurate striking of the cue ball.
Shot choice and planning.
Cue ball placement and cinching the right side.
 
I noticed the discussion of Ronnie O’Sullivan and striking off center.

My practice with NCPT (I abhor acronyms but no chalk phenolic tip is cumbersome 🥴) is bringing me closer to Ronnie.

The ncpt practice has given me the ability to strike the ball off center more accurately. The hard tip does not maintain contact as long. Staying within the flavor zone (how far I can go with out the dreaded Clank) gives me negligible deflection and yet very helpful rotation on the cue ball.

My theory is that a big part of Ronnie’s superior play is him staying within the Flavor zone.

Last but not least from my soap box. Uh I forgot. Back to practice.
 
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If it isn’t obvious I am still learning to navigate the site.

Found by soap box, now I have misplaced it. Marijuana can be purchased in Kingman now! LEGALLY!

Oh yea, uh practice needs to be fun for me. As I am now doing it for fun.

At one time I worked the $5 tournament circuits. My strategy in a new place was to break and run the first rack(8 ball strategy). As everyone wants to check out the new guy. Then fall back and play a solid game but no attempt at tough. (Drop down under the radar). I always got extra shots and my opponents would feel like I didn’t beat them. I could then play tournaments that barred players that didn’t play any better than me. It was always about salesmanship.🥴
 
Ok on topic (I hope). The NCPT experiments experience is a strong tool but could favor looking at the cue ball and watching the tip path through the ball. The path is not required through center ball but it is my experience that the closer I am to center the more accurate I can be.

I am confident I have the knowledge of the best shot routine for me. My biggest hurdle now is breaking old habits. That for me boils down to the tigger finger. If I can wait at the back for the signal to get to the ring finger (not the index) I enjoy some rewards. That again requires that I watch the tip strike and go through the ball.(my second alternate tripped point)
 
As a cadet at the Air Force Academy, they told us that the SR-71(formerly the YF-12A{experimental fighter}) held the world speed record at something like Mac 2.? The classified part was well the red Chinese had tracked one at 120,000 feet at Mach 4. But don’t put 5 out of your mind🥴.
My fargorate is uh under 570. I touched 630 once for about a week but uh don’t put a much larger number out of your mind.🥴🤪😎
 
Bringing The Pony Theory to practice. You know looking for the pony that left this huge pile of manure.

My latest pony search came when my precision started to fade. Hmmm further examination revealed that I had modified on the hand processing I got from Barry Stark. It has 3 points of reference for me. I love simplicity and 3 steps at a time is all I can remember when under extreme pressure 🥴. Anyway I overlooked the importance of the middle point, the web of the hand. On low velocity shots I don’t draw back far enough to put pressure on the web. So I had started skipping that reference. Ooooops bad decision or well I just found a Pony. The loop of thumb and forefinger then the position in the web then the ring finger trigger.
Still enjoying the NCPT practice.
 
Like A Bolt From the Blue.

So lightning follows the path that started from the ground up. So I figured the path from the pocket to object ball then to cue ball should be first. Then after establishing the most stable shooting platform available that puts me on path. I focus on the path of the cue through the ball.

I have discovered that with the NCPT, that if I can strike pure center ball while focusing on the contact and result.(Only with NCPT) I can see the little blue tendrils of electric that flow from the tip to the cue ball after separating.(This only comes with the perfect hit. The sound is also a tip that the hit was perfect 🥴) I thence observe the cue ball’s path and rotation as it departs. My tendrils of electricity are not nearly as long as Ronnie O’Sullivan can create.
And oh yeah I have hidden this here because it is classified.
Now I understand why the Air Force Academy had lightning bolts on the football helmets.
 
Construction think

Building the foundation starts with ground clearance and then placing the footings.

Then I need a structurally sound shooting platform. Triangles rule when it comes to the most stable structure.



Ok so I start with survey. Walking a complete loop around the table taking a quick assessment of the layout.

Now I draw up the plan and submit it for review. Standing behind the shot I build the lightning from the pocket to object ball to cue ball to cue tip. Now I have the line I want my cue to follow to send the cue tip through the ball. standing erect. using my cue stick held at the balance point as a gauge for the distance from the ball for the footing. I place my belly button and chin on that line. Then the dance steps of striding on to the line then placing the other 2 points of the triangle. My goal is to have the vertical plane from the line pass through my instep. Then the front foot at least a shoulder width from the other and slightly forward. My rear leg remains straight(not locked) and the front bent to allow a slight forward lean that puts a little weight on the bridge.
As long as I have been following this process that works well for me. Daily audit is required in my practice.
 
Eople HATE doing the difficult things in Life, Pool, or Career. Friend was in sales, he knew product backwards, and forward. Love & believe product. Guy could have been big bucks salesman, but hated prospecting for clients, to present product too.

learn to live with doing what you hate until it become easy, then the hate will go bye bye. People hate practicing, because it boring, or some other reason.
 
The discipline

My experience has been the degree of discipline being better in military brats. 😎
Finding a way to add the fun factor can eliminate the drudgery of repetitive exercises.(I prefer exercise to drill 😉) Ronnie O’Sullivan has stated that he enjoys practicing. I have added the competition between my left and right to help make it fun.
I have read that Walter Lindrum under his father’s tutelage practiced for a month with only one ball.
I have gone down that path with NCPT and still find it fun. The clanks are entertaining for me. Sometimes it is due to a technical failure sometimes a mechanical failure and sometimes it just means I am nailing down the limits.
 
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