Wanting to speed up my game, what to focus on?

[Oikawa]

(Everything mentioned in this post is about 9-ball or 10-ball)

Alright so, I have played for 3-4 years and am a relatively slow player, around 600-650 fargo, have already sped up my game somewhat just by gaining more experience and confidence, but I still feel like speeding up a bit would benefit both me and my opponents.

When I'm practicing, or feeling great, the speed is alright (around 15 seconds per shot), but in competitions under pressure I typically take around 21-22 seconds per shot on average. My issue is that I don't know what part of my game to speed up. I've tried numerous things, but everything feels like it's already as fast as it can be without breaking apart in competition. I know anything can be practiced to be faster though, so I made this thread so ask for opinions about which part of my shot routine might be the least effort to speed up without compromising the level of play.

So, to get some extra information, I analyzed a 10-ball run-out I did in competition (9ft diamond, 4 1/2' pro cut pockets) with no very tough shots, and fairly routine patterns, so it's faster than the average run-out for me), and wrote down the exact time it took me for each part of the shot routine. The stats are:

Average shot selection time (from the moment the CB stops from the previous shot, to the moment I start my PSR by standing behind the shot line and chalking. Includes walking around the table, shot selection, reading the table etc.): 7 seconds. Varied from 3 to 14 seconds, depending on how much the situation needs to be analyzed.

Average pre-shot routine+step down time (Time starts when I start my PSR by chalking, then I visualize the entire shot, aim and step down into the shot, time ends when I'm down on the shot and settled, no longer moving down): 7 seconds. Varied from 4 to 12 seconds, depending on how difficult/familiar the required aim was, the 12 seconds was on an uncomfortable and touchy sidespin shot.

Average time spent down before hitting the CB (Time starts when I am down on the shot, includes warm-up strokes/microadjustments, time ends when the cue hits the CB): 6 seconds. Varied from 5 to 8 seconds, being very similar in time, almost all shots taking 6-7, with only slight variation depending on the difficulty of the shot.

So, the average total time per shot for this run-out was 20 seconds, which could definitely be faster for a semi-routine run-out.

If (for typical semi-routine and routine shots) the shot selection (assessing the table, selecting the exact spin+path+leave of the CB) takes 7 seconds, PSR+step down (visualization, aiming, stepping down) takes 7 seconds and time spent down (two warm-up strokes, microadjustments, shooting the shot) takes 6 seconds, which seems the most out of place? Where should I look into?

 

[bbb]

I am not an instructor
but one thing you could try that might just get a second or two off all of your steps would be in practice. See how fast you can run an open rack
shooting any ball into any pocket so basically you are machine gun Kelly.
My thought is like training to increase your average mile when running distance
You can do interval training where for periods of time you run faster, getting your body conditioned to move quicker
I am curious what the true Instructors say whether this is a good or bad idea

 

[boogieman]

I'm not an instructor. I'd say 20 seconds average is just fine. It's not slow play at all. You wouldn't get bit by a shot clock.

I understand wanting to speed up, but why do you think this is slow? What's your goal? It could just be adrenaline, hormones or other chemicals making time seem different. Like how in a fight or car crash time seems to slow down. Again, I'm not an instructor but I'd think maybe breathing exercises can help anyone. Check out Playing to Win by @BC21. He addresses breathing to help calm the chemicals and such. Breathing in through your nose and slowly breathing out through your mouth.

Basically if you're flooded with whatever your body produces to get peak performance you have to embrace the feeling, sometimes time slows down, sometimes it can feel sped up, just all sorts of things. In other sports you can kind of burn off the feeling through physical activity so it doesn't seem so out of sorts. In pool it's less physical so it feels odd to have the feeling.

I know on the occasions I run out I lose track of time. It just feels like I've been shooting for a long time and then a friend usually says "That was a break and run." I lose all track of time and am just "lost" in playing each shot, feeling the spin/stroke/hit applied to the CB. It feels pretty, but it feels like it's been 10 minutes on a 9B rack, when in reality it's only been around 3-5 minutes.

In reality you could shave a bit off your shot selection time, but that just comes with time and practice. I wouldn't rush it because you need that info and I feel it's not a place to take a shortcut. Not analyzing the table directly leads to performance loss. On a dead easy "cosmo" layout you can probably get by with not walking around, but there's not much benefit in my non instructor opinion.

I'm curious to hear the real instructor insight.

 

[pvc lou]

(Everything mentioned in this post is about 9-ball or 10-ball)

Alright so, I have played for 3-4 years and am a relatively slow player, around 600-650 fargo, have already sped up my game somewhat just by gaining more experience and confidence, but I still feel like speeding up a bit would benefit both me and my opponents.

When I'm practicing, or feeling great, the speed is alright (around 15 seconds per shot), but in competitions under pressure I typically take around 21-22 seconds per shot on average. My issue is that I don't know what part of my game to speed up. I've tried numerous things, but everything feels like it's already as fast as it can be without breaking apart in competition. I know anything can be practiced to be faster though, so I made this thread so ask for opinions about which part of my shot routine might be the least effort to speed up without compromising the level of play.

So, to get some extra information, I analyzed a 10-ball run-out I did in competition (9ft diamond, 4 1/2' pro cut pockets) with no very tough shots, and fairly routine patterns, so it's faster than the average run-out for me), and wrote down the exact time it took me for each part of the shot routine. The stats are:

Average shot selection time (from the moment the CB stops from the previous shot, to the moment I start my PSR by standing behind the shot line and chalking. Includes walking around the table, shot selection, reading the table etc.): 7 seconds. Varied from 3 to 14 seconds, depending on how much the situation needs to be analyzed.

Average pre-shot routine+step down time (Time starts when I start my PSR by chalking, then I visualize the entire shot, aim and step down into the shot, time ends when I'm down on the shot and settled, no longer moving down): 7 seconds. Varied from 4 to 12 seconds, depending on how difficult/familiar the required aim was, the 12 seconds was on an uncomfortable and touchy sidespin shot.

Average time spent down before hitting the CB (Time starts when I am down on the shot, includes warm-up strokes/microadjustments, time ends when the cue hits the CB): 6 seconds. Varied from 5 to 8 seconds, being very similar in time, almost all shots taking 6-7, with only slight variation depending on the difficulty of the shot.

So, the average total time per shot for this run-out was 20 seconds, which could definitely be faster for a semi-routine run-out.

If (for typical semi-routine and routine shots) the shot selection (assessing the table, selecting the exact spin+path+leave of the CB) takes 7 seconds, PSR+step down (visualization, aiming, stepping down) takes 7 seconds and time spent down (two warm-up strokes, microadjustments, shooting the shot) takes 6 seconds, which seems the most out of place? Where should I look into?

If the way you are at the table resembles this post, I’d say you’re over analyzing. (It takes one to know one…I have the same temperament.)

I suggest you pay more attention to your feel and instinct when you practice. It will eventually and naturally carry over into your play during competition. As you improve, you will learn to recognize when you really need to take a step back to analyze, and the rest of the time you can trust your feel.

Btw, you will be able to conserve a lot of energy this way.

 

[BilliardsAbout]

I appreciate your personal care and analysis. For players who are too slow, doing everything from chalking to thinking to walking to shooting about 10% faster than normal can help them find the zone (subsconcious, optimal shot making).

I'm saying practice a bit faster to find flow, then take the new flow to competition. Happy to look at a video here or with you in consultation (no cost).

 

[Oikawa]

I am not an instructor
but one thing you could try that might just get a second or two off all of your steps would be in practice. See how fast you can run an open rack
shooting any ball into any pocket so basically you are machine gun Kelly.
My thought is like training to increase your average mile when running distance
You can do interval training where for periods of time you run faster, getting your body conditioned to move quicker
I am curious what the true Instructors say whether this is a good or bad idea

I often do this type of open-rack shooting with a faster PSR tempo near the start of my practice routines, but it doesn't really translate over to real games. There's no penalty for failing, there's no intricate positional play to consider, and you get to stay in that fast rhythm with no pauses, so it is very difficult to transition that PSR rhythm to real game.

 

[bbb]

Throw out four balls and force yourself to think how you would run them all out and do it as fast as you can
If you get out of line, stop and think your way to a solution as fast as you can
Personally, again, I am not an instructor
But I think people have internal clocks and their personal rhythms and it’s hard to change mother nature
Again, using the interval training analysis, if you force yourself to play faster, it will become more routine for you
I think your general pace has to change more so than chopping a second off here and a second off there
From time to time you will need to stop and take a little longer
As you see the pros ask for an extension when they’re shooting with a time clock
Or commonly in one pocket when you are in a very tough situation
Again, just my opinion, and I am not an instructor

 

[Oikawa]

I'm not an instructor. I'd say 20 seconds average is just fine. It's not slow play at all. You wouldn't get bit by a shot clock.

The way I see my speed is that, the easiest shots take too long on average. Taking more time on tricky shots is fine, but spending a minimum of 15 seconds on even the easiest of shots (ignoring absolute no-brainers e.g. 9-ball hanging in the pocket with CB next to it) adds up in the long run. I often sense and hear frustration from my opponents part due to this, taking "too much" time for "obvious" and easy patterns, e.g. the last three/four balls in 9-ball with no tricky positional shots. Of course this frustration could just be a sign of bad losers trying to get into my head, but enough people have said about it that there probably is some truth to it.

As for why do I take 15 seconds even in seemingly easy positions; I find that it increases my odds of success. The amount of times I've seen some lower-rated players butcher easy runouts due to assuming they don't need to be precise or focus is very big. If I verify seemingly automatic positions, I might run out 99% instead of 90% of the time.

I understand wanting to speed up, but why do you think this is slow? What's your goal?

On top of what I mentioned above about others finding it annoying, I also think that my confidence/flow/precision is better in the long run at a slightly faster pace. It is also physically more draining to walk more or spend more time down on the shot, in the long run. I just don't know where to speed it up, I already try to do everything as intuitively and as fast as I know how (without compromising the level of play) but it still ends up taking 15ish seconds even for the easier shots. I can't just ignore my deliberate PSR and go down instantly and free-wheel the shots in, if I do that, I risk missing easy shots, picking the wrong shots or playing horrible position.

It could just be adrenaline, hormones or other chemicals making time seem different. Like how in a fight or car crash time seems to slow down. Again, I'm not an instructor but I'd think maybe breathing exercises can help anyone. Check out Playing to Win by @BC21. He addresses breathing to help calm the chemicals and such. Breathing in through your nose and slowly breathing out through your mouth.

Basically if you're flooded with whatever your body produces to get peak performance you have to embrace the feeling, sometimes time slows down, sometimes it can feel sped up, just all sorts of things. In other sports you can kind of burn off the feeling through physical activity so it doesn't seem so out of sorts. In pool it's less physical so it feels odd to have the feeling.

I know on the occasions I run out I lose track of time. It just feels like I've been shooting for a long time and then a friend usually says "That was a break and run." I lose all track of time and am just "lost" in playing each shot, feeling the spin/stroke/hit applied to the CB. It feels pretty, but it feels like it's been 10 minutes on a 9B rack, when in reality it's only been around 3-5 minutes.

In reality you could shave a bit off your shot selection time, but that just comes with time and practice. I wouldn't rush it because you need that info and I feel it's not a place to take a shortcut. Not analyzing the table directly leads to performance loss. On a dead easy "cosmo" layout you can probably get by with not walking around, but there's not much benefit in my non instructor opinion.

As for shot selection, I already think my process in games is very intuitive. I look at the table, let my creative brain come up with ideas, then intuitively feel which of those ideas is the best, then visualize and execute it. I am extremely deliberate in practice in analyzing why certain ideas work or are better than others, but leave this out in games, unless the situation requires it (e.g very intricate positional routes, combos/caroms or escaping hard safeties, a very small % of shots only)

It just still takes some time even if I do it intuitively, my intuition doesn't just spit out the ideal answer in 1 second, because the game is complex. Even with 4 balls left on the table, it can be a matter of a few inches whether the next shot is easy or hard, in not always so obvious ways. As you said, this all speeds up over time, and I trust it will for me too, as it already has somewhat over the years. I used to be even slower.

 

[Oikawa]

I appreciate your personal care and analysis. For players who are too slow, doing everything from chalking to thinking to walking to shooting about 10% faster than normal can help them find the zone (subsconcious, optimal shot making).

This is the goal. I just don't know how to get there, since no matter how fast I play in practice, it feels like my speed in competitions naturally ends up being as fast as I can make it without playing worse.

I'm saying practice a bit faster to find flow, then take the new flow to competition. Happy to look at a video here or with you in consultation (no cost).

Will think about it, thanks.

 

[Zerksies]

At a 600-650 their should no way in hell you should be spending 7 seconds on shot selection.

 

[Oikawa]

At a 600-650 their should no way in hell you should be spending 7 seconds on shot selection.

This is what I suspect as well. I just don't know how to speed it up without compromising the level of play, if, for example, I try to just go with the instinct in 3-4 seconds max, I simply pick weaker shots/patterns, and end up with suboptimal percentages.

 

[Zerksies]

This is what I suspect as well. I just don't know how to speed it up without compromising the level of play, if, for example, I try to just go with the instinct in 3-4 seconds max, I simply pick weaker shots/patterns, and end up with suboptimal percentages.

You need to be watching pool and a ton of it. This should almost be instinctive. You should be able to throw out three to four balls on the table and just be able to run the balls in order without a though

 

[Oikawa]

You need to be watching pool and a ton of it. This should almost be instinctive. You should be able to throw out three to four balls on the table and just be able to run the balls in order without a though

I do get available options intuitively very fast, but the issue is selecting the best one among them. Often the best general idea is clear in a second, but selecting the nuances to maximize the percentages of running out takes that extra 5 seconds. Sure, I could just not care about those nuances, but it bites back by lowering my level of play. But yeah, I guess this all speeds up over time. I agree that watching pros play helps.

It feels something like this: When I look at the table, my intuition spits out multiple reasonable options for CB paths. Then I spend some seconds feeling out those options, and pick whichever feels the best. So it's not that I overanalyze the options consciously, but that my intuition doesn't just give me one option, but rather multiple ones, and then I have to feel out which one I should keep. Just picking the first one, or one at random, leads to poor selections.

Also, I do try to be consciously aware of when any of these nuances are so miniscule in scale that you can simply pick any of the ideas and it doesn't matter, e.g. if there's 4 pocket hangers that are 100% to be potted from anywhere. It's just that almost always that is not the case, and even on seemingly easy layouts something can go wrong, so the nuanced shot selection that takes some seconds does increase my odds, even if only by a little.

 

[FranCrimi]

....As for why do I take 15 seconds even in seemingly easy positions; I find that it increases my odds of success. The amount of times I've seen some lower-rated players butcher easy runouts due to assuming they don't need to be precise or focus is very big. If I verify seemingly automatic positions, I might run out 99% instead of 90% of the time.

This is the key. This is a fear-based rationalization, and more than anything, it's a personality trait. You can change your thought process about this, but it will take some work. I have experimented with many changes in my game over the years, and what I've learned is that you must commit to the change, utterly and completely, without reverting back before you can decide if it works for you.

You have not done this yet. Your brief experiments in practice are not nearly enough. You are still afraid to let go of your process to truly try to speed up your play. Forget about why other players are missing. This is about you, not them. Unless you become immersed in playing faster without breaking it down into little bits of time, and accepting that there will be consequences early on as you experiment with this new style, you can never progress to a satisfactory end result.

As you practice speeding up your entire process including your pre shot routine, of course you will make mistakes. But you must work through the little failures as you train your subconscious mind to think a little differently at the table.

Be willing to take the small steps backwards to move giant steps forward. If you do move forward with this, I think you will find a new flow to your game that will give you more success than what you have now.