Practice vs play
- Thread starter Jodacus
- Start date
for the past year or so there has been good action in my area so between that and tournaments, my "playing" time is probably dominating my practice time 5 to 1 or something like that. i dont know about an optimal ratio though. for me it would probably be 1 to 1. for a pro, well they play like 10 hours a day so lots more practice than play...
Depends. Are you running drills and working on your trouble areas or just hitting the ball? I usually run drills and 10 ball vs the ghost for a few hours a night. Actual play and tourneys about 5-6 hours a week or whenever I can find somebody to play with. Which isn't often.
Hours per week
Serious play - ~7 hours.
Hittin' 'em around - ~ 10-15 hours.
Focused practice - ~ 45 minutes.
So yeah, I gotta work on that :/
The 'optimum amount' of practice is as much as you can stand before boredom or frustration make the practice unproductive.
A little practice goes a long way when you're at lower skill levels because there's more "ah-ha" moments where you figure out how to execute new things that you couldn't before. But you also haven't hit a million balls yet so you need to spend a lot of time just filling pockets.
At higher skill levels, you already know how to do almost everything, so you're unlikely to have any epiphanies just practicing. You've already sunk a million balls. So practicing is more just to stay in stroke. You need a ton of it to jump to the next level (for example to go from A to A+/shortstop) but if you don't have the burning drive to do that, you can get away with a few minutes a week just "keeping warm".
Serious play - ~7 hours.
Hittin' 'em around - ~ 10-15 hours.
Focused practice - ~ 45 minutes.
So yeah, I gotta work on that :/
The 'optimum amount' of practice is as much as you can stand before boredom or frustration make the practice unproductive.
A little practice goes a long way when you're at lower skill levels because there's more "ah-ha" moments where you figure out how to execute new things that you couldn't before. But you also haven't hit a million balls yet so you need to spend a lot of time just filling pockets.
At higher skill levels, you already know how to do almost everything, so you're unlikely to have any epiphanies just practicing. You've already sunk a million balls. So practicing is more just to stay in stroke. You need a ton of it to jump to the next level (for example to go from A to A+/shortstop) but if you don't have the burning drive to do that, you can get away with a few minutes a week just "keeping warm".
I think it depends on how good you are and the quality of your practice. It a very delicate balance but I always been told practice your weaknesses. and always work on your stroke.
Best advice I ever got was that the easiest way to get better, is to play better players.
Now, although its the best advice ever given to me its not entirely true. If a new player plays Darren Appleton they're going to get amazing at sitting down. That's it. Playing someone who is slightly better and willing to give you tips is far more productive than just practicing alone trying to beat the ghost (for a beginner anyway) IMO.
That being said, you get more table time practicing alone. Once you reach a certain level practicing one, two or three weak areas (maybe noticed from your last game) in a 3 hour session is far more productive than playing 20 hours against someone I'd say.
Then there are those freaks of nature that don't practice, or play very often and are still able to play amazing. I hate those guys! Haha
The moral of the story is there is no magic ratio. Each person has to find their right balance between the two, and for me its not a ratio between time:time, more of if I have a game coming up, I will practice the areas I struggled with last game until I no longer struggle.
Regards
Now, although its the best advice ever given to me its not entirely true. If a new player plays Darren Appleton they're going to get amazing at sitting down. That's it. Playing someone who is slightly better and willing to give you tips is far more productive than just practicing alone trying to beat the ghost (for a beginner anyway) IMO.
That being said, you get more table time practicing alone. Once you reach a certain level practicing one, two or three weak areas (maybe noticed from your last game) in a 3 hour session is far more productive than playing 20 hours against someone I'd say.
Then there are those freaks of nature that don't practice, or play very often and are still able to play amazing. I hate those guys! Haha
The moral of the story is there is no magic ratio. Each person has to find their right balance between the two, and for me its not a ratio between time:time, more of if I have a game coming up, I will practice the areas I struggled with last game until I no longer struggle.
Regards
when i was getting plenty of action i still tried to practice about an hour a day, but realistically i would be lucky to have only a couple days to practice for an hour each of those days. these practice sessions would be intense and i would probably only work on 2-3 elements of my game, but i would work on these aspects while i was running racks; not separately. after all that is the goal when u play is not missing. i would also try and practice when no one was around. if u have a table at home make sure there are no kids, girlfriends, or running buddies around when u practice. i never owned a table so i always tried to get to the pool room during slow times.
it's difficult to find quality time to practice but when done seriously it can definitely improve your game. the reverse is also true, hitting balls while helpful is not the same as serious practice and it can often lead to a false sense of security.
it's difficult to find quality time to practice but when done seriously it can definitely improve your game. the reverse is also true, hitting balls while helpful is not the same as serious practice and it can often lead to a false sense of security.
I don't have a table at home like some of the more fortunate people do so it's hard to find time to practice, especially now when I am broke and out of work.
Usually I am able to hustle up enough money for one day of practice a week at the local pool hall. 5 hours for 5 bucks.
Then I go three to four times a week to different bars where they have "free pool" nights and sometimes I get lucky and once a while nobody at the table and I can practice. But most of the time I have to just play, usually against bangers, so I try to incorporate practice in my game.
When I am at home I practice masse shots on the floor. Someone gave me used table cloth which I lay down and.... shoot away!!!
If I had a table I would practice all the time, I never get tired.
When I was working in Vegas, we had unlimited access to the table and I practiced sometimes 15 hours a day, would have practiced more, but I had to sleep at least a couple of hours and work got in the way of my practice. :grin:
Usually I am able to hustle up enough money for one day of practice a week at the local pool hall. 5 hours for 5 bucks.
Then I go three to four times a week to different bars where they have "free pool" nights and sometimes I get lucky and once a while nobody at the table and I can practice. But most of the time I have to just play, usually against bangers, so I try to incorporate practice in my game.
When I am at home I practice masse shots on the floor. Someone gave me used table cloth which I lay down and.... shoot away!!!
If I had a table I would practice all the time, I never get tired.
When I was working in Vegas, we had unlimited access to the table and I practiced sometimes 15 hours a day, would have practiced more, but I had to sleep at least a couple of hours and work got in the way of my practice. :grin:
Probably 4 to 5:1 practice to play. Most of the practice is drill oriented. I'm fortunate enough to have a table at home so that makes the practicing much easier.
Nice post. I especially agree about the practice, as for me, practice means doing a few drills and such. I do enough as not to get bored, then move on.
Unfortunately, I haven't got much practice or play time since the start of the summer. Duty called at work and it's been a miserable summer for my pool game. Good for my wallet, but bad for my game as I am the kind of player that needs to hit balls very often to be consistent.
I don't practice at all, but then I'm not into any serious tournament play, nor am I dependent upon my pool play for putting beans on the table.
One Pocket with the usual suspects, is about it for me. :smile:
One Pocket with the usual suspects, is about it for me. :smile:
finding your own "pace" is the key. As others have pointed out each person is different, so you need to know which person are you. I am one that believe that practice is key but we also all know that there is no sub for real table time/competition.
Two HUGE problems that I have come to find and also have pointed out is that (1) an individual can become "king" of practice or programed (by shooting drills it is common that only playing that shot is what the body knows thus when comes to a game where conditions change a person no longer feel comfortable playing a similiar shot that has a slightly different position if even only by a few inchs. (2, and possibly most importantly) the lack of a good coach is crucial to ones practice as not knowing right from wrong can create a false sence of security. trying on your own to figure out why you missed, how was your stroke or form, is your problem seeing the contact point or interpreting the contact point. This is why having a partner or "good coach" is vital to practice if only to tell you that you jumped up on a shot, as long as that person is as serious about improving and practice as you are.
The best info that I got was by Holden Chin
"you can read all the books and do all the simulation of flying humanly possible on flying a plane, but you will never get a license unless you actucallly "fly a plane".
Now you just go out there and figure out how many flight time you need to log vs how many simulations you perform.
Two HUGE problems that I have come to find and also have pointed out is that (1) an individual can become "king" of practice or programed (by shooting drills it is common that only playing that shot is what the body knows thus when comes to a game where conditions change a person no longer feel comfortable playing a similiar shot that has a slightly different position if even only by a few inchs. (2, and possibly most importantly) the lack of a good coach is crucial to ones practice as not knowing right from wrong can create a false sence of security. trying on your own to figure out why you missed, how was your stroke or form, is your problem seeing the contact point or interpreting the contact point. This is why having a partner or "good coach" is vital to practice if only to tell you that you jumped up on a shot, as long as that person is as serious about improving and practice as you are.
The best info that I got was by Holden Chin
"you can read all the books and do all the simulation of flying humanly possible on flying a plane, but you will never get a license unless you actucallly "fly a plane".
Now you just go out there and figure out how many flight time you need to log vs how many simulations you perform.