This is an excerpt from my book, Lessons in 9 Ball...
Training Cycles - Part I
I base Practice on what I call The 6 Day Cycle, which is ultimately part of a 21 day cycle. This is based on a system that consists of practice in three (3) 6 day cycles, that is made up of :
6 days of practice in succession
1 day that consists of rest, evaluation and goal orientation
This is done for 3 weeks in succession, then we rest for 5-7 days depending on your tournament or competition schedule. I recommend that you find somebody to evaluate and record shots that you miss during competition. This way, situations that you are having trouble with can be evaluated and registered . Then work them into a target area during practice sessions.
Practice sessions should be different every day. I recommend that you DO NOT do the same routine every single day. Strengthen your game the same way that you would plant a seed to grow a tree. You would place the seeds in a pot, fertilize the soil, provide nourishment through sunlight and water, etc. Before too long, a small sprout appears through the soil. The sprout is weak and still requires special care. Over time, the sprout becomes a plant, and the plant eventually becomes a tree. After a while the tree will produce fruit.
Every pool player goes through this same process with their game. Many players want fruit far too soon. They start adorning their game (tree) with plastic fruit or they expect a different fruit from the tree. You cannot get bananas from an orange tree. You will grow what you plant. If you plant a bad attitude fertilized with laziness, you will get sour fruit. This is why setting clear, concise, realistic goals is very important in your development.
The 21 day cycle is based upon the principle of peaking your performance at the right time. This system has been proven to work with tennis players, golfers, bowlers, and pool players. Tiger Woods bases his training on a variation of this program. Tiger strengthens each area of his game individually and evenly. Balance is very important. Tiger slowly progresses and gages his performance to peak at the major tournaments. This is why he is so tough and so strong at tournaments such as The Masters, The PGA Championship, The US Open, and The British Open.
Even if Tiger does not win, he is never out of the hunt, and he always finishes at or near the top of the leader board. Tiger puts a lot of research into preparing and evaluating his strengths and weaknesses to see how he can attack each hole according to pin placement, and course obstacles such as bunkers, trees, water and the rough. He then prepares and sets goals for each hole, painstakingly working with his caddy to prepare club selection and an attack plan while leaving room for variables such as distance, wind, rain, and speed of the greens.
The 21 day cycle should be planned and worked upon 30 days in advance from the next big tournament. I recommend 5 days of planning your cycle prior to starting. If your next big tournament is July 4-6, we should count back 21 days from July 4, + 5 -7 days for preparation. That would mean that we would start our cycle on (or around) June 8. We will then break our schedule down to an initial week of planning (June 8-14), and three (3) 6 day cycles. (6 days practice + 1 day rest/evaluation).
Our planning should look something like this:
Planning & Evaluation Phase - June 8-14
Cycle 1 - June 16-22 Start Phase
Cycle 2 - June 24-29 Strength Phase
Cycle 3 - July 1-7 Peak Phase
Rest Period (or Planning & Evaluation) July 8 -14
Preparation and Planning
Our Planning & Preparation week will concentrate on things we need to work on and combine that with proper drills and methods to chart our progress. We should work on something new every day. DO NOT set time limits on practice sessions. We leave the table only when our work is done and when each of our goals has been accomplished. If you place time restrictions or limits, your results will be limited. Time limits have a tendency to make us rush or struggle to meet the time requirement instead of our goals.
