Warm up time??

bagofpaper

bagofpaper

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hey there boys and girls..

Just had a quick question for you all.. do you ever find yourself needing to play for quite a long time before getting into stroke and playing well? It typically takes me at least 2 hours to start to feel right.. yesterday was a bit of a killer considering it took me literally 5 hours to start stoking the cue well and running out.

Curious to hear your story.
 
Warm-up: About an hour
In stroke: 3 hours

After that I need an hour break. Usually I leave and grab some food. I'm trying to build my stamina so I can play longer and harder. I think it's my biggest weakness.
 
I can honestly say no!

I can walk into most local tournaments pull out the cue and just go to town. In fact most times I have better results than if I get there an hour early to practice.

However I find that in league if I practice for 30min - 1hour my mental game is a lot better. Not my physical game, but my mental sharpness!

I had a friend tell me that at one of these Fast Eddie's matches on a Sunday that Corey Duel came in to play Jeremy Jones and JJ asked him if he wanted to warm up. Corey racked the balls and said, "nope I am good!" Then he pounced on JJ with a sweep!

I would have had to warm up, and I still wouldn't have beaten JJ! LOL
 
I find that my warm up is more about mental preparedness and confidence. There's no new stroke technique I'm going to learn an hour or two before the match, so I just focus on using the tools I have to the best of my ability. I prepare my concentration and confidence, and check the table speed and roll.

With all that being said, I do believe it's important to loosen up the joints, muscles, and eyes. I find that around 15 minutes is sufficient for me.
 
I used to take forever to warm up too, but when I started playing mainly 14.1 I HAD to learn to play well being cold. When I have to get up and run balls cold I generally play slower and more deliberate, and as the balls add up I start playing faster.

On the same subject, if you have no time to warm up or want to get into stroke quicker....close your eyes and do a little visualization of yourself playing in dead stroke.....may sound a bit new age hippyish, but it helps.

Gerry
 
Bagofpaper,

It could be either physical or mental. Is it taking you hours to straighten your stroke and control speed, or is it a matter of getting into the right frame of mind?

If it's physical, see a BCA instructor. If it's mental, try reading Pleasures of Small Motions.
 
usually i'm good in an hour, sometimes it takes longer but after 2 hours if it aint there it aint there-and i go home.
 
I usually get to the PH about 90 minutes before our league games start & generally get 30 minutes to an hour to warm up on my own. The last few weeks I've started with a couple of racks of 8 ball then a couple of rotation. After that loosens my arm a little I'll practice long shots, cut shots & banks. Once I'm reasonably happy with things I tend to start the "silly" stuff, extreme draw & follow shots & a few swerve shots. After some of that I finish my 1st beer & I'm good to go.

I think I've won 18 of my last 20 racks so it seems to be working!!:)
 
It depends on my mood really... but I usually never warm up more than 1/2 hour-45 minutes... alot of the time I just walk in a play. If I do warm up, I always stop playing 15 minutes or so before my match and take time to relax. I also rarely shoot in between matches... .. but maybe this is a bad thing? Should I take more time to warm up.. I don't know.. I'm so inconsistant in my tournaments that I can't tell. :mad:
 
I normally take about 45 minutes. I typically like to play none ball by my self. At first I just try to finish the rack, then as i start to loosen up I start playing for perfect position. I normally finish with the fun shots, curves and jumps, 2 and 3 rail banks, just to get in the other teams heads a little:D
 
thanks for coming...

bagofpaper said:
Hey there boys and girls..

Just had a quick question for you all.. do you ever find yourself needing to play for quite a long time before getting into stroke and playing well? It typically takes me at least 2 hours to start to feel right.. yesterday was a bit of a killer considering it took me literally 5 hours to start stoking the cue well and running out.

Curious to hear your story.
Click to expand...

I can't believe it would take anyone more than about 5-10 minutes to warm up. If it takes 2 or more hours to "warm up"... how do you know you're ready? Seems like by the time you are "warmed up", your wallet is empty. :confused:
 
bagofpaper said:
Hey there boys and girls..

Just had a quick question for you all.. do you ever find yourself needing to play for quite a long time before getting into stroke and playing well? It typically takes me at least 2 hours to start to feel right.. yesterday was a bit of a killer considering it took me literally 5 hours to start stoking the cue well and running out.

Curious to hear your story.
Click to expand...

My answer: ZERO! When I come into play, I screw my cue together and play full speed from the first shot! That comes from a solid pre-shot routine, and having invested the time to ingrain the process until it is an 'unconscious' habit. That...and teaching full time keeps me in stroke all the time! :D

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge
 
In all honesty I've played many times without having chance to warm up & it hasn't hurt me. There are 2 reasons I get there so early. First, the table time is free. Secondly (& most importantly) I just love pool! I'm happy as hell when I'm putting my cues together & getting ready to hit some balls!:)
 
In all honesty I've played many times without having chance to warm up & it hasn't hurt me. There are 2 reasons I get there so early. First, the table time is free. Secondly (& most importantly) I just love pool! I'm happy as hell when I'm putting my cues together & getting ready to hit some balls!:)
 
One the day of league, I don't pickup my stick until it's time to play, otherthan maybe hitting the cue ball around to check the speed of the table.
 
Scott Lee said:
My answer: ZERO! When I come into play, I screw my cue together and play full speed from the first shot! That comes from a solid pre-shot routine, and having invested the time to ingrain the process until it is an 'unconscious' habit. That...and teaching full time keeps me in stroke all the time! :D

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge
Click to expand...

I think there's really something to this. I used to be one of those people who took at least an hour to get going, and maybe two hours to hit top-gear, but over the last couple of years I have become much more... I guess "aware" is the right word, of what my body is doing. I have not had any formal instruction, so I can only speculate as to why, but I think it happened when I decided to strive for a higher level of consistency in my setup. I can certainly see where having a consistent pre-shot routine could lead to big improvements in this area (as well as others).

It seems that my setup has become somewhat automatic, and even when it's not automatic I can easily identify what is not quite right (or at least not as right as it normally is :)). It's been a major change for me, as I recently won a tournament without having hit a single ball before the start. Granted, this was not the US Open, but I assure you I couldn't have won any tournament from a stone-cold start three years ago, and I play less now (only about 4-6 hours a week) than I did then.

Sure, playing every day will also help, but, if you're like me, those days ended after college. :(

Good rolls,
Aaron
 
Usually about 20-45 minutes...

warm-up does it for me. And for me it's mostly mental prep time. I tend to be "amped up" before league or tournament play and the warm up tends to take the edge off of the nerves. Also helps to have warmed up and loosened up the muscles.

MM
 
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