Training Focus

nksmfamjp

nksmfamjp

Refugee...
Silver Member
Just looking for a little advice. . . .How did you train yourself to focus 100% on every shot?

For example, sometimes you are shooting a shot that even when focused that your percentages are not real high and you miss. I get that.

I'm talking about shooting 200 shots. 1 foot pocket to OB, 1 foot OB to CB and room to bridge flat on the bed of the table. After like 80 or so, I feel myself skipping steps, not aiming, forgeting to pause, forgetting to pause to aim, brige moves, etc.

On a tougher shot, these are misses.
 
strengthen your preshot routine....the longer you go the stronger it must and will be ingrained
 
When I hear someone ask about "focus" in shot execution, I always must ask...exactly what is it YOU would like to "focus" on?

My point being, if you consciously focus on the same thing everytime you shoot you will have made yourself "rigid" and you will often if not always be "focusing" on the wrong thing! "Focus" should be whatever requires your conscious attention at the moment of executing a shot! That will change from shot to shot! We practice so that most of the elements of consistent shotmaking become unconscious! As GG suggests, developing a consistent routine will "ingrain" the elements of good shotmaking to the unconscious!
 
I agree having good routines are the first step. But I would also add that attempting to shoot the same shot 200 times is almost always going to result in a loss of focus.

When we work with our students, we always make sure they understand how important it is to limit the time they spend doing any one drill. Many of our drills, I have students repeat a shot no more than 10 to 15 times. Too much repetition can result in your practicing bad habits.

Steve
 
A few thoughts that might help. I am not trying to be semantic here as there is a real distinction that you may find helpful.

When we focus on a shot we are adjusting our eyes to bring something into sharp relief relative to the background. It may be a real spot on the object ball or it may be an imaginary spot that we create to help with aiming.

To focus our eyes when playing pool requires concentration. Concentration is the ability to eliminate irrelevant information. The two words are similar in meaning but are not the same thing in my thinking. Concentration is a broader term and refers to sights, sounds, intruding thoughts and all other information.

In this context when the player wants to focus they must first improve their concentration. For lack of a better way to put it, there is a pre-focus routine that needs to be learned and practiced to improve one’s focus.

While in the standing position, begin to eliminate all distractions that impede your concentration. You concentrate on eliminating distractions such as sounds, thoughts, etc, this will help you improve the construction of your focus as you bend to the shot. It is a two step process, eliminate and then construct. It helps to know what one is doing through the use of words which later become mental routines.

I use the pre-focus routine imagery to present the idea that focus is a multi-stage process that needs to be constructed by the player and then practiced until it becomes the routine way to play.

I have not heard others talk about concentration and focus in this way though I have described it in other places. Therefore it is a relatively new idea and will be controversial. Any new idea is immediately rejected. If you think about concentration and focus in this way it can help to improve your game. It did help me.
 
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pooltchr said:
I agree having good routines are the first step. But I would also add that attempting to shoot the same shot 200 times is almost always going to result in a loss of focus.

When we work with our students, we always make sure they understand how important it is to limit the time they spend doing any one drill. Many of our drills, I have students repeat a shot no more than 10 to 15 times. Too much repetition can result in your practicing bad habits.

Steve
Click to expand...

absolutely steve....too long on the water this time lol, I was directing my thinking to straight pool for whatever reason not realizing he was talking about 200 1ft straight in shots....

thats not a good way to pratice, its like swinging a bat at nothing 200 times.....that kind of pratice is so monotonous your going to get burned more than you get built.

If you want to do something with that number strokes then I suggest just playing straight pool for starters as most of your shots arn't much farther than a couple of feet....so just playing that game will cover the OP's idea of so many routine shots.

You will also learn pattern play, cue ball control....and also learn to deal better with the "routine-ness" of particular shots/all shots.
 
JoeW said:
A few thoughts that might help. I am not trying to be semantic here as there is a real distinction that you may find helpful.

When we focus on a shot we are adjusting our eyes to bring something into sharp relief relative to the background. It may be a real spot on the object ball or it may be an imaginary spot that we create to help with aiming.

To focus our eyes when playing pool requires concentration. Concentration is the ability to eliminate irrelevant information. The two words are similar in meaning but are not the same thing in my thinking. Concentration is a broader term and refers to sights, sounds, intruding thoughts and all other information.

In this context when the player wants to focus they must first improve their concentration. For lack of a better way to put it, there is a pre-focus routine that needs to be learned and practiced to improve one’s focus.

While in the standing position, begin to eliminate all distractions that impede your concentration. You concentrate on eliminating distractions such as sounds, thoughts, etc, this will help you improve the construction of your focus as you bend to the shot. It is a two step process, eliminate and then construct. It helps to know what one is doing through the use of words which later become mental routines.

I use the pre-focus routine imagery to present the idea that focus is a multi-stage process that needs to be constructed by the player and then practiced until it becomes the routine way to play.

I have not heard others talk about concentration and focus in this way though I have described it in other places. Therefore it is a relatively new idea and will be controversial. Any new idea is immediately rejected. If you think about concentration and focus in this way it can help to improve your game. It did help me.
Click to expand...

Most people that talk about focus and concentration could not be MORE wrong in their ideas of what these 2 words mean!

Focus means to bring forth that which is conscious based on the immediate information at hand. For example, you may need to consciously focus on the point of aim on a particularly difficult cut, or maybe you will need to focus on the speed of the cue ball after contact to obtain the line position on your next shot. These are elements you just CONSCIOUSLY became aware of and that is why they require your immediate attention (focus).

Concentration brings forth unconscious controls that we have PREVIOUSLY developed. Therefore learning to concentrate requires developing UNCONSCIOUS processes from shot routine to follow-through that function smoothly without conscious effort. You CANNOT focus on unconscious processes!

Here is the key...the more processes of your shotmaking that you can attribute to automatic (unconscious), the more you will be able to "focus" on whatever the present shot requires! This is where practice and drills make the difference between good players and the BEST players!
 
cfrandy said:
Here is the key...the more processes of your shotmaking that you can attribute to automatic (unconscious), the more you will be able to "focus" on whatever the present shot requires! This is where practice and drills make the difference between good players and the BEST players!
Click to expand...


This is, in my opinion, one of the most important aspects of improvement.

As we say in pool school, you become what you practice to become.

Steve
 
Thanks JoeW and cfrandy. Even though there was some debate there, it has given me some idea how to proceed from here. Yea, I was talking about 200 of the exact same easy shot, and frankly, I think this is kind of helping me, although I am only doing about 50 or so at a time and I have been working incrementaly with this to make the shots different each time. I think I have found an incremental way to work on this weakness. Now to get more of this pushed to a subconcious level. I'm still having to think, straight warm ups, aim, aim again when needed, then draw back, pause and fire. This is getting pretty close to unconcious, but when I go unconcious, I feel myself revert back to pre-pause stroke and sometimes lift my eyes cue to object during stroke, so then it is back to more concious thought.

Improvement maybe coming. I'm trying straight pool again, but I find that game a challenge which pulls me away from ingraining the stroke into my unconciousness!
 
nksmfamjp said:
Thanks JoeW and cfrandy. Even though there was some debate there, it has given me some idea how to proceed from here. Yea, I was talking about 200 of the exact same easy shot, and frankly, I think this is kind of helping me, although I am only doing about 50 or so at a time and I have been working incrementaly with this to make the shots different each time. I think I have found an incremental way to work on this weakness. Now to get more of this pushed to a subconcious level. I'm still having to think, straight warm ups, aim, aim again when needed, then draw back, pause and fire. This is getting pretty close to unconcious, but when I go unconcious, I feel myself revert back to pre-pause stroke and sometimes lift my eyes cue to object during stroke, so then it is back to more concious thought.

Improvement maybe coming. I'm trying straight pool again, but I find that game a challenge which pulls me away from ingraining the stroke into my unconciousness!
Click to expand...

Try practicing shooting with your eyes closed....go through your preshot routine.

When you get to your set position b/f the final backstroke and delivery close your eyes, draw back and deliver the shot.

Benefits:

1) Helps to focus your mind on the exact mental picture of what you are aiming to and at

2)builds trust in your stroke mechanics, and promotes a natural ingraining of them

3)Promotes the COMPLETE STROKE, as the grip hand WANTS to go to its finish spot on the chest. Can and will cure the BUNT factor

It may sound like a load of horse manure but its a very effective, very strong, results kind of practice technique.

happy shooting,
-Grey Ghost-
 
@nksmfamjp

how shown up by Steve (hi man^^)- training a shot the way you do could be contra-productive. From my experience it s not easy to creat yourself a productive training- it would really help, if you would have the chance to meet a good instructor (qualified)- he can analyze you and also can show you, how you could build a way of training which is succesful. If you visit a poolschool or just meet with a good instructor you ll learn what s really important- and this is also how you can design your training that it s gettin productive and understand *why* you have to train several things.

And for sure the *pre-shot-routines* are by far one of the most important. The rest is based on technical abilites (stroke, stance etc). And this is something that have to be checked live! (in best case per video-tape- a cam does never lie!).

lg from germany,

ingo
 
JoeW said:
While in the standing position, begin to eliminate all distractions that impede your concentration. You concentrate on eliminating distractions such as sounds, thoughts, etc, this will help you improve the construction of your focus as you bend to the shot. It is a two step process, eliminate and then construct. It helps to know what one is doing through the use of words which later become mental routines.
Click to expand...

Eliminating distractions as a first and discrete step is great way to approach this.

Trying to focus, and then addressing distractions as they become evident leaves a lot of opportunities to fail. Often, one doesn't know they are distracted until it's too late.
 
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