Practice vs playing

mvp

mvp

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
if you play everygame to win and to improve doesnt this count as practice? I hate drills but still play 10-14hrs a week with freinds. Without telling them i work on differnt things that night, for example safties,runouts,breakouts,super shape vs zone etc. I work on one thing and still try to win each game, what I practice depends on the skill of my opponent. I found this to be alot less boring and have been seeing good results when i test my skills in tournys. DO you think I still need drills??
 
If you want to improve, you need to practice. If you want to do it quickly, you need perfect practice. What is perfect practice. It is practicing very specific aspects of your game with very specific goals.

I'm not a huge fan of drills that you find in most pool books. The "set up this shot and shoot it until you hit it 9 out of 10 times, then set up this shot and shoot it until you hit it 9 out of 10 times" is a very slow and frustrating way to try to get better.

Instead, pick one aspect of your game, like alignment, speed control, building your stroke, whatever. Then find a single drill that works that one part of your game. There are a million possible shots on a pool table, and it will take a long time to learn them all. Why not develop the skills that can be applied to every shot you shoot?

Set a goal for practice. do your practice. Then forget about practice and go play. You can not practice and play at the same time. When you play, you should play well. When you practice, you should practice well. Mixing the two prevents you from focusing on either one. When you try to chase two rabbits, they will both get away.

Steve
 
Nope, dosen't count.

Playing is from the Creative side of the Brain. Practice is from the Analytical (learning)side of the Brain.

Have you overlooked your Training Routines?

Proper Training & Practice is not boring....SPF=randyg
 
Amen to that, I am enjoying the practice routines Bert gave me more and more every day i do them.
 
Does not count at all. When your playing with people there really is no opportunity to set up difficult shots or work on specifics of you game.

Depending on the game you play, you may only have to shoot 5 kick shots all night, each one different and if you missed all 5 you've gained nothing from it. Same thing with safeties or tough pots.

If you never take time to focus on anything that's giving you trouble it's going to take a long time before you start getting more comfortable with it. For the most part you'll ingrain the fact that you aren't any good at that specific aspect of the game.
 
I have my own table and could spend 30-60min a night to practice with out my freinds but im clueless on how to practice. Ive purcased almost all the major books and still find myself hateing drills, what did you guys do to get so hooked on them? I'm not in the APA but Play against local 7's even and spot The 6's a game or two. I made it this far without drills but I seem to have stalled out on getting better!!
 
mvp said:
what did you guys do to get so hooked on them?!
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I got hooked when I started seeing real improvement..and not just the illusion of thinking i was getting better...

real tangible results that's what gets you hooked

if you only ever do one drill your whole life make it the stop shot line..start with 4 diamonds 1 for the CB and 3 for OB straight line into the pocket..shoot 5 or 10 shots at each position and strive for a perfect dead CB no movement at all after impact..

do just that drill. if you do 5 shots at each position you'll be done in less than 15 minutes.. grade every shot.. and mark it down

do it every day for 2 weeks.. then just look at the score sheets.. if you do it every day you WILL get better you'll know it.. you won't be guessing any more..

after you master the shot at all 3 distances.. make the line 2 diamonds longer.

if you get that far you'll know the value of drills..then you take your weaknesses and find or make a drill to work on that and poof... it's not a weakness anymore...do that for all your weaknesses.. and you won't have any..

good luck:thumbup:
 
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What softshot is talking about is basic coaching mentality applied to yourself. The best thing you can do is document what is going wrong in your games and then work on the what is going wrong with a homemade drill which is short and pinpoint. I usually begin with something like breaking practice or some basic shooting repitition to make sure I'm in groove for the actual drill and finish by trying to run 7 ball or 9 ball in a very dedicated manor. Dedicated meaning I will reshoot any focus items until I get it right.

Then take a break and play someone for fun.
 
mvp...If you are "stalled out" you could really benefit from a lesson with a qualified instructor (one who uses video review). If you let us know where you are located, we can steer you to a qualified instructor.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

mvp said:
I have my own table and could spend 30-60min a night to practice with out my freinds but im clueless on how to practice. Ive purcased almost all the major books and still find myself hateing drills, what did you guys do to get so hooked on them? I'm not in the APA but Play against local 7's even and spot The 6's a game or two. I made it this far without drills but I seem to have stalled out on getting better!!
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instructors.

im from central Illinois, I know of the school in wis. but i cant justify paying his costly rates!!! I would like a 6 hr or so lesson does this exist? I have a nice table at my house, would they come to me?
 
center pocket said:
Amen to that, I am enjoying the practice routines Bert gave me more and more every day i do them.
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well thats good sir, care to share some of it?:):):)

well what i do practice are long straight shots, it just look easy but during games, this shot are the hardest to do, one slight movement of the hand, wola miss, this also makes me aware of my alignment and aiming
 
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mvp said:
im from central Illinois, I know of the school in wis. but i cant justify paying his costly rates!!! I would like a 6 hr or so lesson does this exist? I have a nice table at my house, would they come to me?
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Call Scott Lee and set up a time.

Scott ....773 551-7473
 
Mindless drills (even though they had a point) drove me nuts too. The only drills that actually made me practice were the ones that had point values and also had a "sudden death" factor. Such as, if you miss a shot you stop scoring that round of practice and move to the next round .. really makes you concentrate so you don't mess up early and get a low score. Sorta like casual golf, makes you compete against your own previous best scores.

The other awesome thing about practicing certain drills is when you are in a competitive game and hit a shot and as the cue ball falls perfectly on the line you were going for you realize "hey, that was directly from drill XXX that I practiced the other night!"
 
Dont forget to work on the Mental side of the game...something I am currently working on with a few books I am reading. I like to do drills and play. I set my goals and make sure I achieve them.
 
scott lee

Im sorry I missed you in illinois, but Im planing to contact you possibly this winter. To any one who has not talked with scott lee, he is a great guy, a real class act!!!! A 15min phone call has allready helped me with my stroke.thank you for talking to me "MVP"
 
Bart...You're welcome. Let me know when you're ready, and we'll find a time, date, and place to get together. I will be in OK this week. Anyone wishing to work with me, can pm me here.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

mvp said:
Im sorry I missed you in illinois, but Im planing to contact you possibly this winter. To any one who has not talked with scott lee, he is a great guy, a real class act!!!! A 15min phone call has allready helped me with my stroke.thank you for talking to me "MVP"
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Hey guys! I've followed the forum for a long time now, but this is my first post. I know this thread is older now, butI actually have an experience that goes well with this topic.

All summer long, I'd practice anytime I had any free time. I'd spend each day working on a specific aspect of my game and then end the day with a race to 5 against myself where I had to run out or play a successful safety in order to continue at the table. Failure to run-out or an unsuccessful safety would be a loss for me. This style kept the practice fun while still working on my game.

Over the last couple weeks, I've been playing more games each day, which obviously has cut into my practice time. While I'm playing great pool, I can definitely tell that I'm struggling with some of the shots that I was hitting on a regular basis during practice either because of mishitting the object ball or not leaving myself properly.

While it's possible to have a bad day, these were shots that I'd miss probably 50% of the time over the last couple weeks when I should be making them 90+% of the time as they were basically shots that anybody with a straight stroke should hit on a regular basis. So earlier this week, I went back to a schedule similar to my summer practice schedule, but think I have found a pretty good balance of practice and play. Despite just being back on this schedule for a couple days now, I've already seen an improvement in my play again. So I've learned from my own experience that even if you play a lot, you still need practice time.
 
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mdlee3 said:
So I've learned from my own experience that even if you play a lot, you still need practice time.
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While nothing can match the excitement of two hours of pure competition, nothing can replace the value of 15 minutes of perfect practice!

Steve
 
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