When did you start running racks regularly?

Autist

Autist

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Greetings!


Do you remember the time in your life when you REALLY got into playing pool and wanted to get better at this marvellous game?

How often did you practice? Hours per week? And when did you start running racks in 9 ball semi-regularly? Approximately after how many hours of practicing/playing pool seriously did you start running out like every 3rd-5th rack?

I've been playing pool for a couple of years, but started to take it seriously about 6 months ago. My game made a pretty big leap when I started playing with my friend. His playing ability can be described like this: Give him a makeable shot on the 1-ball after the break with no really dirty clusters and he runs out about 75% of the time.

So, after playing for 6 months, about 10-15 hours a week, I feel like I am stuck. I will manage a run out or two during a 2-4 hour session, but that just isn't enough.

I played 20 racks of ghost ball a couple of weeks ago(CBIH after break), and made 5 runouts. My best score yet. Average balls made per inning/rack was ~5.1

I feel like I am in a place where my game just isn't going anywhere anymore. Because of that I have stopped enjoying playing as much as I did before.

Am I just expecting too much out of myself?

I am sure most of you have been in this situation, what did you do to motivate yourselves?

Sorry for the whining tone of my post and thanks for reading!


Cheers.
 
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Honestly??? Stop playing for a couple of months. I took off for almost 5 months of playing due to my new born son. I went to Turning Stone with about 15 hours of practice in those 5 months. Played amazing pool and did better than the year before at that event. Sometimes when you start being too analytical it will make your game stay the same or even worse.... bring your game down a notch or two...

My advice.... Stop playing for awhile and get real hungry to play again. You'll be refreshed and ready to except new info or concepts. Just my 2 cents but good luck to you.....
 
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The easiest way in general, knowing nothing about a player's game: If you are not already playing on 9' tables, move up in size 1 foot from the tables you are playing on. Play exclusively on the larger table for 50-100 hours (4-8 weeks) and you will be about as good on it as you are on the current size tables. Then go back to the tables you have been shooting on. After a session or two...:thumbup:
 
Yeah, forgot to mention. Playing on a 9 footer brunswick metro.

Only option to play on a bigger table is a 12ft snooker table :p
 
Autist said:
Greetings!


Do you remember the time in your life when you REALLY got into playing pool and wanted to get better at this marvellous game?

How often did you practice? Hours per week? And when did you start running racks in 9 ball semi-regularly? Approximately after how many hours of practicing/playing pool seriously did you start running out like every 3rd-5th rack?

I've been playing pool for a couple of years, but started to take it seriously about 6 months ago. My game made a pretty big leap when I started playing with my friend. His playing ability can be described like this: Give him a makeable shot on the 1-ball after the break with no really dirty clusters and he runs out about 75% of the time.

So, after playing for 6 months, about 10-15 hours a week, I feel like I am stuck. I will manage a run out or two during a 2-4 hour session, but that just isn't enough.

I played 20 racks of ghost ball a couple of weeks ago(CBIH after break), and made 5 runouts. My best score yet. Average balls made per inning/rack was ~5.1

I feel like I am in a place where my game just isn't going anywhere anymore. Because of that I have stopped enjoying playing as much as I did before.

Am I just expecting too much out of myself?

I am sure most of you have been in this situation, what did you do to motivate yourselves?

Sorry for the whining tone of my post and thanks for reading!


Cheers.
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I have been playing for 20 hours+ (sometimes even 30) per week for about a year and my game is going up every month. Previously I was just banging balls with friends after school. The thing is, you must have PATIENCE. You must not tell yourself "I have to reach this level of play in 6 months, 2 years etc. or I am quitting". If you keep practicing you will not find your good game, your good game will find you. You just have to wait.

You must also practice drills relentlessly and with great discipline. You have to play sets with better players. And the single most important thing to a new player is to work on your fundamentals. Only a certified instructor can help you with this. Go visit one in your area as soon as you can.

When you are practicing, you are making a long time investment so do not expect to see results right away. If you are playing bad even though you are practicing, this is nothing to worry about. You are a new player and it is like expecting from a seed to become a flower in a day.

As far as motivation, the only motivation for me is the game itself and the high level of play I want to reach sometime in my life. If you are into this for the money or the fame or the women, then you are in the wrong place. Most pool players I know who played pool to earn money out of it, are now playing poker 24/7. Whatever, I just love balls (billiard balls sheesh! :p )
 
Ran out like water from day one!

Autist said:
Greetings!


Do you remember the time in your life when you REALLY got into playing pool and wanted to get better at this marvellous game?

How often did you practice? Hours per week? And when did you start running racks in 9 ball semi-regularly? Approximately after how many hours of practicing/playing pool seriously did you start running out like every 3rd-5th rack?

I've been playing pool for a couple of years, but started to take it seriously about 6 months ago. My game made a pretty big leap when I started playing with my friend. His playing ability can be described like this: Give him a makeable shot on the 1-ball after the break with no really dirty clusters and he runs out about 75% of the time.

So, after playing for 6 months, about 10-15 hours a week, I feel like I am stuck. I will manage a run out or two during a 2-4 hour session, but that just isn't enough.

I played 20 racks of ghost ball a couple of weeks ago(CBIH after break), and made 5 runouts. My best score yet. Average balls made per inning/rack was ~5.1

I feel like I am in a place where my game just isn't going anywhere anymore. Because of that I have stopped enjoying playing as much as I did before.

Am I just expecting too much out of myself?

I am sure most of you have been in this situation, what did you do to motivate yourselves?

Sorry for the whining tone of my post and thanks for reading!


Cheers.
Click to expand...

I ran out like water from the day I started playing nine ball. Could have been something to do with the years I put in playing eightball first!:thumbup:

When we are trying to improve our performance it rarely happens as smooth consistent progress. We will have periods of rapid progress, slower progress, maybe even short periods of modest decline. However our perception of how we are doing is often inaccurate.

Do some searches on this forum or decide on a fair test of your skills. Maybe play the ghost to fifteen or twenty three times. While you can do this as often as you want to, make a chart and only record the results twice a month on a set date, maybe the first and fifteenth or as close to those days as you get to play.

It is very possible that you will find where you thought you had plateaued you are still making substantial progress, just not as fast as other times. Hanging the chart on the wall gives you incentive to work and it provides positive reinforcement. I have found that measuring and recording progress is a huge part of a successful effort. I either recreated graphs or created them where I could overlap them on the wall and view months of effort. Seeing the progress over the months made things much easier when it seemed I was making little progress at the present time.

One more thing, determine realistic goals, write them on your charts, and tell other people about them. Go over them mentally just before starting every practice session. While it is great and useful to set long term goals, be sure and set some short term goals that you expect to achieve in 30 days or less too. Make them concrete goals that you can document not vague goals. Shots you want to learn, better control of the cue ball(performing definite actions, one diamond draw or follow, one, two, or three rail shape, etc.) whatever it may be.

Don't forget to have fun sometimes, nobody enjoys just endless grinding and drills.

Good luck in your efforts!
Hu
 
Autist said:
Greetings!


Do you remember the time in your life when you REALLY got into playing pool and wanted to get better at this marvellous game?
I was 18 and picked up a cue for the first time.

How often did you practice? Hours per week? And when did you start running racks in 9 ball semi-regularly? Approximately after how many hours of practicing/playing pool seriously did you start running out like every 3rd-5th rack?
I practiced probably 40 hours/week for the first year. I broke and ran out my first 9ball rack about 6 months after I started playing. I've been playing seriously for 6 years and I won't BnR one out of five racks yet...hopefully one day.

I've been playing pool for a couple of years, but started to take it seriously about 6 months ago. My game made a pretty big leap when I started playing with my friend. His playing ability can be described like this: Give him a makeable shot on the 1-ball after the break with no really dirty clusters and he runs out about 75% of the time.
Your friend sounds like a champion. What's his name?

So, after playing for 6 months, about 10-15 hours a week, I feel like I am stuck. I will manage a run out or two during a 2-4 hour session, but that just isn't enough.
If you can BnR one rack per hour after just 6 months playing 15 hours a week, then you sound like a champion...hope to see you on TAR in a couple of years. Your friend is an amazing teacher.

I played 20 racks of ghost ball a couple of weeks ago(CBIH after break), and made 5 runouts. My best score yet. Average balls made per inning/rack was ~5.1
Playing the 9ball ghost 20 racks takes at least an hour (it would take me 2 hours and I'm not a slow player) and you won 5 racks. Compare that with your average of 1 or 2 BnR's per hour. Sounds like you need to work on your break.


I feel like I am in a place where my game just isn't going anywhere anymore. Because of that I have stopped enjoying playing as much as I did before.
This doesn't coincide with the rest of your post. You seem to be improving at an extremely rapid pace.

Am I just expecting too much out of myself?
We all expect too much out of ourselves.

I am sure most of you have been in this situation, what did you do to motivate yourselves?
Honestly, I've never been there. I've been improving little by little since I started playing and I still love the game as much, if not more than the day I started. There have been times when life gets in the way and I don't play as often as I'd like (hmm, 24/7) but I've never gotten bored.

Sorry for the whining tone of my post and thanks for reading!


Cheers.
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The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.
 
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Autist said:
Yeah, forgot to mention. Playing on a 9 footer brunswick metro.

Only option to play on a bigger table is a 12ft snooker table :p
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10ft pool tables and 10ft snooker tables exist. Then the 12ft snooker tables. I think Russian pyramid tables go all the way up to 20ft.
 
Autist said:
Greetings!


Do you remember the time in your life when you REALLY got into playing pool and wanted to get better at this marvellous game?

How often did you practice? Hours per week? And when did you start running racks in 9 ball semi-regularly? Approximately after how many hours of practicing/playing pool seriously did you start running out like every 3rd-5th rack?

I've been playing pool for a couple of years, but started to take it seriously about 6 months ago. My game made a pretty big leap when I started playing with my friend. His playing ability can be described like this: Give him a makeable shot on the 1-ball after the break with no really dirty clusters and he runs out about 75% of the time.

So, after playing for 6 months, about 10-15 hours a week, I feel like I am stuck. I will manage a run out or two during a 2-4 hour session, but that just isn't enough.

I played 20 racks of ghost ball a couple of weeks ago(CBIH after break), and made 5 runouts. My best score yet. Average balls made per inning/rack was ~5.1

I feel like I am in a place where my game just isn't going anywhere anymore. Because of that I have stopped enjoying playing as much as I did before.

Am I just expecting too much out of myself?

I am sure most of you have been in this situation, what did you do to motivate yourselves?

Sorry for the whining tone of my post and thanks for reading!


Cheers.
Click to expand...


It's not the amount of time you practice...it's how you practice. I try to stop or take a break once my concentration fades. After you lose your concentration....you are just wasting your time. I think Nick Varner said that.
 
Drew said:
Your friend sounds like a champion. What's his name?

He is only 17 years old and currently ranks #2 in Estonian snooker field. Estonian Championships coming up in 5 days in 8, 9 and 14.1. Pretty sure he will take at least one of those down. He competes with juniors this year. Name is Martin Maasik.



If you can BnR one rack per hour after just 6 months playing 15 hours a week, then you sound like a champion...hope to see you on TAR in a couple of years. Your friend is an amazing teacher.

It's 1-2 runouts per session, our session usually lasts for 2-3 hours. Also, I mentioned that I have played for a couple of years, but that was just banging balls around while having a beer with friends 1-2 times a week. The real learning has taken place during the last 6 months.
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As a matter of fact, I am going to play in a couple of hours time with Martin again. I wanted to take a break for a couple of weeks at least, but since Martin has his championships coming this friday, he needs someone to practice with.

I think I am going to film our session today, if anyone here is interested in commenting afterwards it would be nice.


Thanks for all the replies so far.

Peace
 
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Autist said:
As a matter of fact, I am going to play in a couple of hours time with Martin again. I wanted to take a break for a couple of weeks at least, but since Martin has his championships coming this friday, he needs someone to practice with.

I think I am going to film our session today, if anyone here is interested in commenting afterwards it would be nice.


Thanks for all the replies so far.

Peace
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I'd love to see it.
 
My suggestion would be to try a change of scenery. Different people, different place. Seems like anytime I broke out of a slump of anything it was always around a different crowd , one that didn't know me or know my habits (good or bad) . Always made me feel like a new player and typically I left with that feeling and were able to move forward.

May sound weird but it works for me.
 
you have to have the courage to critic you and your game honestly! you have to also have the courage and willingness to find out the answers and do something about it and keep an open mind. If not your looking at what will be your game for the rest of your life :)
 
I have nothing to offer in advice. I do like the thread and will follow it. I pratice about 10 hrs a week and I am no where near where I think I should be, S/L 6 APA after 10 years at 55 years of age I got a late start. I very rarely run a rack in 8 or 9 ball. I did play in 15 Rack last year it is a game against yourself of 10 ball handicaped. You break and remove so many balls (your handicap) then with ball in hand try to run out. That helped my game a lot by showing how important and specific you must take each shot to stay in line. check it out www.15rack.com
Thanks for the good thread!
 
I'l start by saying, don't despair, you are on the right track and moving allong very fast according to how much time you have put in. Above a gentleman posted that he had been at it for 10 years and not there yet. Which is the reality for most peopple who can't do this 8 hours a day and also have distractions like a job, family etc...

Not knowing you and your game it's dificult to give good advice so take the following with a grain of salt.

1- Another post above stated that it is "how" you practice. All your practice session will not be as intense, somedays you will just be bagning balls, that's ok, be as dilligent as you can to keep track of where and why you fail the runout, or miss a particular shot and work on that a lot, then work some more on it - repeat. It's the best way to eliminate weaknesses. That is hard to do and a lot of players are not wired for this, they prefer to work on what they are good at - is that you?

2- play a lot of tournamnents - playing under stress accentuates the weakness in your game and it is what we could call the TRUTH. Once you are able to recognize your true ability and admit your real speed to yourself, you are on your way - now you have to work much harder then before to improve.

3- Play for (some money) as regularly as you can - mental weaknesses are as bad as technical weaknesses and perhapse the most dificult to overcome. the best way to work through that is: One if you have to pay $ everytime you make a silly mistake, it won't take you long to course correct. Two it's another form of putting yourself under the heat a true test of your actual skills.

4- The best players in the world still practice, you have to know that it is a never ending journey and that is what is wonderful about this game, SVB played Bustamante this weekend and on the first day they palyed 49 games and I think he had only one break and run - that is for a world class player with one of the best break in the world so don't despair.

5- Try as best you can to find a professional coach that can evaluate your fundamentals to see if and where they break down, sometimes something silly is shortning your runout power.

6- then continue your journey to hit one million balls. this game is hard even for those who make it look easy, just watch the 2011 mosconi cup on youtube if you are not convinced.

Good luck.
 
Regular break and runs are more a product of what equipment you play on rather than how strong you play. Of course very strong players will break and run regularly on even very difficult equipment, but for even just "good" players, their percentage can vary significantly depending on the equipment.

For example, when I play at my home pool hall in Japan, you can expect me to break and run about 15-20% of the time. At my pool hall, we have extremely fast and consistent cloth, big pockets, pristine balls, and the magic rack (when Thorsten came here, he was running well above 50% of his breaks).

When I come back home and play at Hard Times table 1, I might run a few racks in a whole night of play, probably less than 5%. Hard Times has 4 inch pockets (that play tougher than many other 4 inch pockets), balls that are dirty and don't rack well, and medium slow cloth.

I guess what I am trying to say is, don't base your skill on how many racks you can run compared to others because it is very equipment specific, unless you are Shane Van Boening. Base it on how few errors you make and how well you can keep control of the table, runouts being only one skill in the plethora of skills needed to play good pool.

btw, I started running out a lot after I came to Japan. I used to think that I was unlucky when an opponent broke and ran on me because they are so rare at Hard Times, when I came to Japan, break and runs became a necessity to win. If you don't break and run a rack or two in every set you play (standard for amateur tournaments is a race to 5), you wont go far in tournaments here.
 
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It seems as if it took forever to run my first rack. Then the next one didn't take as long. Now after running my 100th rack they seem to be more frequent, but not as frequent as I would like. :thumbup:



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alright i've finally read all of your first post. i just replied to your title before.

first off this sounds sick but it's the way it's gotta be.....NOW THAT YOU'VE STOPPED ENJOYING PLAYING AS MUCH YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY TO PLAYING BETTER.

the truth is to be able to play well and run out under pressure or just for fun you have to concentrate so much that you don't enjoy playing anymore.

second is that we all expect too much of ourselves.

you made a big leap in still when you started to take things seriously. but that's like fat people exercising. the first few pounds fly off and the rest takes time and hard work

you made your big leap fixing all the major problems you had. it's going to take years for you to fine tune everything to the point that you'll be able to run out the way you want.

it's hard work time kid!!!!!!! the easy gains are over from here on out you gotta focus and fight tooth and nail to improve.
 
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