practice by yourself

[147wolf]

Hi bit new to forum, so hi to everyone on here...

just a quick question about practice by yourself, can you over do it i prefer most times to practice on my own. In practice i can make good breaks i have even had 147s on line ups i know it dont mean much as its not match play.

this is where my problem lyes i can buzz in practice but get in a match and my game goes way below par i struggle to make 20-30 some times

could this be because you can get stale and no hunger for the game if you practice long hours by yourself, and adds pressure to your game.

so just want to ask.... how long would you reccomend per day practicing by yourself ??

[nrage]

Hi bit new to forum, so hi to everyone on here...

just a quick question about practice by yourself, can you over do it i prefer most times to practice on my own. In practice i can make good breaks i have even had 147s on line ups i know it dont mean much as its not match play.

this is where my problem lyes i can buzz in practice but get in a match and my game goes way below par i struggle to make 20-30 some times

could this be because you can get stale and no hunger for the game if you practice long hours by yourself, and adds pressure to your game.

so just want to ask.... how long would you reccomend per day practicing by yourself ??

Making a 147 on line up proves you can play 36 shots in a row, without any major mistakes. This is a very good thing, and means a lot.

So, the Q is, why can't you do that in a match? The answer may be mental, i.e. not being confident in the match, not believing in yourself, not able to 'get in the zone' or 'buzz'. In which case you have to find something to think, listen to, say to yourself, or do to get your mind into the right state. Try this, find a piece of music which really gets your blood pumping, and listen to that just before the match. While listening, visualize yourself playing snooker, potting balls, and winning .. actually think about winning the match like it's a certainty, have no doubt that you will do it.

Alternately there may be a partial technical problem i.e. in that 147 line up you started with an easy shot, and if you played position well you only had easy shots. In a match you opponent will leave you the hardest shot they can.. so is your trouble getting in that first time with sufficient control to make your next shot easy? In which case break off, and practice making the first red with the goal of getting on the black, pink, or blue. Put the red back up in a slightly different spot and go again. Once you've made the shot a good number of times, try and run the balls from there.

As long as you're not getting bored in practice, loosing concentration, and teaching yourself 'bad' habits then you should practice as much as you can. At the same time be sure to change it up as much as possible, to keep giving yourself a challenge. Practice as many aspects of the game as you can think of potting, safety, go into/out of baulk from the blue, splitting the pack off the blue and black and so on.

[firefrets]

First of all, like any sport, your practise session should have a constructive agenda, as opposed to simply 'knocking balls around'.

I've never been a big fan of the line up, as it gives a false perspective of the game.

Snooker involves using cushions, and avoiding / colliding with other balls, and indeed pockets.

Depending on your skill level, your practise needs will be different, but it should always start with the basics, regardless of level, as without ensuring the basic elements of your game are correct, the rest of your game will come crashing down.

Basics such as your stance, distance from the white, grip, follow through, keeping still etc should be contstantly practised, and constantly revised.

Shots that people don't practise enough are stun run throughs, and stopping the white ball dead.

No shot should be 'rolled' in where possible, as the knap of the table will catch you out, so practise playing every shot dominantly, in that you 'punch' balls in.

Every shot has varying levels of degrees, and it should be important to practice each variant, and in particular the command over the white ball. I guess this is called 'developing touch'.

When you feel the urge to clear the table, do so by spreading the reds out, and be sure to try and include challenges within the spread, such as 'one along the rail' etc.

There are lots of things to learn in snooker, and finding them all out yourself takes years of study. Most good players enjoy showing other people their skills. Ask one to take you under his wing for an hour.

Just don't spend 3 hours aimlessly potting balls.

[sully]

Hi bit new to forum, so hi to everyone on here...

just a quick question about practice by yourself, can you over do it i prefer most times to practice on my own. In practice i can make good breaks i have even had 147s on line ups i know it dont mean much as its not match play.

this is where my problem lyes i can buzz in practice but get in a match and my game goes way below par i struggle to make 20-30 some times

could this be because you can get stale and no hunger for the game if you practice long hours by yourself, and adds pressure to your game.

so just want to ask.... how long would you reccomend per day practicing by yourself ??

Interesting reading this, I have the exact same problem - can knock in 50 and 60 breaks doing the line up fairly easily (banged in my highest ever of 98 recently) but really struggle to get breaks over 30 when playing an opponent, makes me wonder if firefrets has a point about the value of prctising the lineup?

[jrc750]

Doing the line up is good to get your arm going and getting your confidence up, but doesn't really represent the real shots you come across in a match. Better off keeping a bunch of reds together and 6 or 7 loose reds scattered about and see how you get on.

[147wolf]

Interesting reading this, I have the exact same problem - can knock in 50 and 60 breaks doing the line up fairly easily (banged in my highest ever of 98 recently) but really struggle to get breaks over 30 when playing an opponent, makes me wonder if firefrets has a point about the value of prctising the lineup?

its not just line ups though mate i can play practice sessions against people and have centurys... but match play goes right down

i have had decent matches its not all the time but its the diffrence between my game from practice to match

i once had a break over christmas last year where i only picked my cue up a few times over 2 weeks and came back had a 143 in practice and match play improved

hence the reason why i ask about overpracticing by myself

[cazmac1]

How did you make the 143. did you just split the reds or the line up

[147wolf]

How did you make the 143. did you just split the reds or the line up

no cazmac1 playing in a practice frame against another player in my team at the time before a match

[cazmac1]

no cazmac1 playing in a practice frame against another player in my team at the time before a match

So you can play then. This might help you, when I was playing my best snooker I always started the first frame really well and as the match progress I got worse and the harder I tried the worse my game got. So I knew that I had to be doing something wrong in my set up and that what I thought was helping me was having the opposite effect. I eventually found out what I was doing wrong. I learned my snooker from the Joe Davis book and he used to say you should play with a straight arm, what I found, was that I was over doing this and the more I missed the more I pushed my bridge arm out this was causing me to raise the butt of the cue without realising. Once I sorted this out I was able to take my practice game into a match. I think if your game falls to pieces during a match and you’re sure it's not pressure then it has to be something technical that you’re introducing in to your game. It’s up to you to try and find out what this is. Have a good think about how you play in practice and then in a match and see if your over egging a certain aspect of your stance. Hope this helps and good luck.
PS
try asking a friend if he can notice anything different in your stance

[147wolf]

thanks for comments and advice

[Blanchon147]

What i find best is if you play in practice like you would play in a match.

[cueman]

I don't think there is a player on the planet who plays as well in matches as they do in practice, even the top professionals.

I think getting the right amount of solo practice together with practicing against an opponent is what you need. I think just doing only solo practice is detrimental to your game, unfortunately I have that problem during the week as there just aren't any good enough players to play against and many don't like fishing the balls out of the pockets. Come the weekend I have a few players to play against but it takes me a few frames to get used to playing someone and adapting to that, simply because I have no pressure on me when I practice alone.

So if you can get the balance right of individual practice as well as playing an opponent then you should find you can get your game near enough where you want it to be, unless of course you have a big mental block of playing an opponent and treating the game a bit too seriously. I find that if you just play as though it means nothing it can help but getting that mindset is hard to do, comes with practice though.

[147wolf]

I don't think there is a player on the planet who plays as well in matches as they do in practice, even the top professionals.

I think getting the right amount of solo practice together with practicing against an opponent is what you need. I think just doing only solo practice is detrimental to your game, unfortunately I have that problem during the week as there just aren't any good enough players to play against and many don't like fishing the balls out of the pockets. Come the weekend I have a few players to play against but it takes me a few frames to get used to playing someone and adapting to that, simply because I have no pressure on me when I practice alone.

So if you can get the balance right of individual practice as well as playing an opponent then you should find you can get your game near enough where you want it to be, unless of course you have a big mental block of playing an opponent and treating the game a bit too seriously. I find that if you just play as though it means nothing it can help but getting that mindset is hard to do, comes with practice though.

agree cueman mayby not playing an opponent is making game to easy in practice and not realistic come matches... just easier for me to do solo practice has i have table at home, difficult sometimes to get people to play

i need to break the fact that i thought i be better off doing solo practice, cuz it aint working for me need to find a balance...

how many hours solo do you do when you practice by yourself... i find i can play alot and find it hard to leave the game alone, its like i need to practice or i wont be anygood, but its not working

i might try putting a time limit on solo practice see if it helps, but when the table is there its hard to resist not playing i enjoy practising it enjoyable and good way of winding down and relaxing

[jrc750]

... just easier for me to do solo practice has i have table at home, difficult sometimes to get people to play.....

Tell us where you live and you will get offers

[147wolf]

Tell us where you live and you will get offers

my tables only an old riley table and cloth needs replacing aswell... i doubt at the moment anyone.. apart from me cuz it cost me nothing would want a serious game on it