Ideas Needed for Practise

[IceCold]

Hi all ,

I am hoping for some suggestions on how my practising partner and I could bring up our focus/concentration levels in the frames we play, but to also feel some pressure and take them a little more seriously. We are open to routines/challenges etc. too. We would prefer not to play for money against each other as it doesn't bring the right sort of emotions to carry around the table, though it would provide that element of pressure.

We currently don't have the luxury of playing frequently (atm roughly once a fortnight, sometimes twice) we also can't really afford much solo practise.

It just seems we reach our peak towards the end of the session, and we are both fairly capable players (70+ breakers on a good day).

Anyways, any suggestions would be much appreciated, so thank you in advance 😋

[Cue crafty]

Have a look on Shockerz website, go to the information library on the top bar and under practice routines there's a load of ideas to try.

https://www.snookercrazy.com/

[Marfling]

One of my old practice partners and I sometimes used to play for weird forfeits. The first one I remember was the loser had to do that ice bucket challenge thing that went viral.

Loser paying for the table light is a classic one and takes the edge off actually playing for money somehow.

The best one we did was the loser had to ref 2 games in the league (if possible) so the game they would normally have to ref and then the one the winner should have reffed.

[Starsky]

What I would do if I you want to improve with somebody else is to mix up practice routines with some games after .
Compete against each other in the routines making sure what you are practicing is relevant to areas you want to improve. Having somebody to bounce off and compete against is an excellent motivator .
I would recommend the Cuestars academy . For £5 there are loads of routines with the option of completing different levels . It’s an excellent resource .

https://www.cuestarsacademy.co.uk/

[IceCold]

I've had a look at the snooker crazy videos before, I think its awesome someone out there is publishing very useful information for us!!! 🤗 I even used some of his tips recently completely refurbing my cheap ebay cue, and imho, so long as the playability of the wood is decent you can make even a club cue top notch... minus the aesthetics 😅

Regarding the routines, they are pretty basic but well worth it even at a professional level, some I've not even seen before, though they are orientated around solo play. Not quite what I'm after

Marfling, I do like the punishment challenge idea 😂🤣 would be a great laugh.
'Loser paying for the table light is a classic one' Used to do this when I was younger, though at the time the tables at a workersmens club were only £2p/h, currently we are paying between £10-£20p/h 😕 bit of a hard pill to swallow when it usually runs up to £60-70 a night

Might try out rewarding break targets for example and punishing loses / underachieving with a funny challenge. 😜

[mikee]

Sometimes it’s good to play with a snooker partner and have a few games with out using the scoreboard ,takes the pressure of winning and losing off ,and you can experiment with shots .You often get bigger breaks too .

[ludwellwill]

Another vote for cuestars academy......

loads of of practice challenges at 3 or 4 grades of ability

you can submit your best score for each challenge and they get published on a league table if you want to get competitive with it

[MrRottweiler]

Make a note of every session and breaks so you can start a leader board to compete against each other and then have an awards ceremony every 3, 6, 12 months. Most frames won, highest break etc and the award can be a trophy the loser has to buy and get engraved which isn't that expensive. Or just a beer, burger and chips. Or you have to host a curry/spag bol/chilli night at your home. You sound well matched so the challenge is to sweep the board.

I used to see some players at my club quick to re-rack if the game got bogged down with colours going safe so they could do more match break building practice instead of long safety games but you can't do that in a cash game which is how I usually played. Playing for money certainly increases the pressure in a match but it can hinder two practice partners from both getting the most of out the session. In my old club there were two ex pros and 147 breakers that both practiced together after school every day and got free tables by brushing them and never played for money. I'm not sure what their routine was but I suspect they would both play to help each other improve rather than try to demolish them every time like you would when there is a wager involved.

[andycam]

Taking it in turns doing the ‘T’ layout or line up to see who gets the highest break is quite good. I do this, and whoever gets the highest break wins the £5 bet. It’s fun, but with a bit of pressure.