Whats the deal with warming up?

B

Bellhemen

Registered
If I don't get at least 10 minutes by myself shooting I may as well put on a blindfold and continue playing or put my sticks away and go home. Is this normal?

I went out with a buddy last night playing some 8 ball. There was no warming up, we just started playing. He'd shoot for a minute or two before he missed then I'd shoot a few balls. I was missing stuff bad. After more than an hour I finally setup 4 long straight in shots. I missed the first 3 and made the last. I could tell my buddy didn't want to sit there and watch me shoot for 5 minutes so we racked em again and I decided to try and have a good time shooting bad. Apparently I was doing something wrong, but I didn't really have time to get 'dialed in'.

As my game improves would the warm up time be shorter or eventually not even needed?
 
It depends on how you practice. If you practice correctly, you should be able to jump on a table and fairly quickly get in stroke. If I have limited warm up time, I try to use it to test the equipment. How fast is the table? How do the rails play? While doing this, I am dialing in my stroke. As long as I can have 3 or 4 minutes on a table, I can be ready to go.

Take a look at your practice methods. We practice to make the good things become natural habits, so they will show up automatically when we play.

Steve
 
There can be many things that cause a player to be inconsistent until they're 'warmed up'. The problems can be physical or mental.

Developing a well defined shooting process will eliminate most the problems. Effective speed and spin control removes the guesswork.

As Pooltchr noted, how and what you practice is also key. Learn it and practice it until it becomes automatic, but remember...

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." - Vince Lombardi​
 
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Mark hit this right on the head. We warm up our Body & Mind. Some of us need more of one than the other....SPF=randyg
 
pooltchr said:
It depends on how you practice. If you practice correctly, you should be able to jump on a table and fairly quickly get in stroke.

I've heard the term 'practice correctly' thrown around alot, but I'm not sure I fully understand it. For a perfect practice session, what should I be doing?

I always start with long straight in stop shots. Then I do cut shots with 1 rail position, then 2 rail position, then 3 rail position. I shoot each of these shots 10 to 25 times depending on how well I'm doing. I may throw in one or two other things that have given me trouble or something new. After this I usually start shooting straight pool. I've got a pretty consistent preshot routine and fundamentals are getting better. Anything here I should change?
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You are practicing shots. Perfect practice is about practicing the things that YOU do on every shot. We have students practice how they move, how they get into position, how to control the speed of their stroke. These are things you have to do on every shot, whether it's straight in, cut shot, rail shot, or whatever.

Perhaps the most powerful drill we have students is to simply shoot a ball into a pocket. And while it sounds very simple, it is HOW you stroke the ball that you are practicing.

Train your body to do what you want it to do. After all, it is ultimately the only thing you really have any control over.

Steve
 
Bellhemen said:
I've heard the term 'practice correctly' thrown around alot, but I'm not sure I fully understand it. For a perfect practice session, what should I be doing?

I always start with long straight in stop shots. Then I do cut shots with 1 rail position, then 2 rail position, then 3 rail position. I shoot each of these shots 10 to 25 times depending on how well I'm doing. I may throw in one or two other things that have given me trouble or something new. After this I usually start shooting straight pool. I've got a pretty consistent preshot routine and fundamentals are getting better. Anything here I should change?
Click to expand...

You list a lot of shots that you practice, but it's not clear what you're trying to improve or correct by shooting them. Simply shooting them until you can make each one 100% of the time isn't the most effective way to practice.

The stop shot is a good example. What three things are required to make a stop shot? How do you control them? Are you practicing your control of them, or just trying to stop the cue ball?

Beware that if you practice and make the same mistake repeatedly, you're going to be very good at making that mistake. When practicing, it's important to not practice mistakes.
 
Thanks, that's helpful. I know about the Angle, Spin, Speed, and Set, Pause, Finish. Makes sense that this might cut down on warming up. I'll change up my practice some. I'll do the single ball shot, long stop shot, single ball shot, 1 rail position, single ball shot, 2 rail position, single ball shot, 3 rail position etc. I think this should hammer the SPF method into me.

If I can get this to be as natural breathing, the warming up phase should just be mentally then right? Or will it always take a few shots to see the angles?
 
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