Warm up before league

[pulzcul]

At my age [undisclosed]I find a warmup a MUST!! I also cool down quickly between matches! Stay young, old sucks!

 

[Andrew Manning]

I warmup at home with shots that get me into stroke. If I shoot too much, I am not pumped up enough to excite myself into league play. So, I stop the minute I get into stroke and wait to use that at league. I don't leave my game on the practice table, so to speak.

Does anyone here have a TEAM WARM-UP DRILL that all members of your team do? I've often thought of doing something similar to what, for example, basketball teams do: layups, shooting drills, free throw drills, etc. This sometimes intimidates the opponents.

In pool it would be table-knowledge shots, I suppose, with some stops, draws, follows, etc. to get into stroke. Each player would repeat the same warmup exercises. I could imagine the opponents watching this sensing that they're gonna get an azz whooping. Has anyone here done that as a team?

Jeff Livingston

There's a captain in my APA division that will sometimes warm up his players before important (playoff) matches this way. He'll get each player on the table one by one and set up shots for them to shoot until he feels they're warmed up. He also gives pointers and makes adjustments as he's doing it, to help them find their stroke faster.

I think it works in this guy's case because he's the best player in the division by a pretty wide margin, and when he talks about pool everybody listens, which can't be said of anyone else who plays there. So he's already kind of an informal instructor to his team members, and gives them miniature pool lessons after the matches are over sometimes. If your team members didn't already look to you as an instructor, it might not be very effective to have them do an organized warm-up, since each of them might get in stroke better in their own way.

-Andrew

 

[chefjeff]

There's a captain in my APA division that will sometimes warm up his players before important (playoff) matches this way. He'll get each player on the table one by one and set up shots for them to shoot until he feels they're warmed up. He also gives pointers and makes adjustments as he's doing it, to help them find their stroke faster.

I think it works in this guy's case because he's the best player in the division by a pretty wide margin, and when he talks about pool everybody listens, which can't be said of anyone else who plays there. So he's already kind of an informal instructor to his team members, and gives them miniature pool lessons after the matches are over sometimes. If your team members didn't already look to you as an instructor, it might not be very effective to have them do an organized warm-up, since each of them might get in stroke better in their own way.

-Andrew

Thanks for the answer, Andrew. That's the first time I've heard of someone actually doing this. I can see how in this case it works.

Getting pool players to do anything in unison is like herding cats, I supppose. My teammates won't take advice, take a lesson, or take any sheet from anyone, so having us do warm-ups would be like taking a swing at their egos. Ow, make it stop!

Who needs warmups if you have a hot ego?

Jeff Livingston

 

[tjlmbklr]

Our league starts at 7:00 pm. I usually don't warm up right before league starts, or before I play, but occasionally (rarely) I will play a rack with someone, or shoot about 5 - 10 shots.

What I prefer to do, if I get the chance (sometimes my job gets in the way of my pool playing ), is to go out to the pool hall and practice for an hour or so, about 2 hours before league starts. I always try to quit at least an hour before league starts (and I almost never play the first match anyway), so that I get a mental break before having to play.

Sounds exactly like me. The diehards get there at least an hour early not to mention when they stay way late and play money games.