How to spend practice time

[Theguywithaplan]

I'll be getting free lights at my local club so I've been thinking about some good practice routines, as I'll be able to practice up to ten hours pretty much every single day.
I've spent the last year dilly dallying around playing around 3 times a week but for really long sessions each time, so the quality was not great. I was getting worse and worse, rather than improving and I realised that quality is FAR more important than quantity. So I took a few months off and decided to give it another shot, but this time I'm determined that I'm going to do everything right, so if I fail again I'll have no regrets.
So anyway, back to the point. I want to set up several routines where I can track my improvements over time, and not just pot balls randomly round the table with no purpose. I've only thought about it for about five minutes but here is what I've come up with so far:
10 line ups, counting and recording the total points
100 long blues
Clear the colours 20 times in as few attempts as possible
Pot 100 successive blacks off the spot
10 life safety
Various line ups and spread outs, will move on only when a century is achieved.

Would like some other suggestions please on some good, meaningful routines . I'll be trying to get some good players to play against but I'll probably be practicing by myself the majority if the time. Thanks guys

[hotpot]

I really like the fergal obriens routines .

Whatever you do it has to be enjoyable otherwise you become sloppy and bored . One of my favs is blacks off the spot and five reds from pink to black spot and four by the side in between so you can only pot the bottomred each time .

Very good but hard as you need precise position on every shot .

[tommygunner1309]

The point is, where are you weak? Practising shots you are good at won't help the part of the game you are poor at. Remember 'Practice makes permanent' rather than perfect. Don't practice for too long in one go. Practice the shots you don't like. I agree with hotpot, that Fergal O'Brien has some really good routines. Have you got a great set up and delivery. If you haven't you will just be practising bad habits. Can you hit Qball dead centre every time. I have players come to me who are so concerned with spin shots, they have no idea how to hit the qball dead centre, hence they are putting on unwanted side and cannot understand why they are missing fairly straight forward shots. Others have too tight a grip on the butt and cannot deliver the cue parallel. Quality practice is important. Regular short stints of quality practice. Keep a diary logging your breaks, poor performance and other thoughts you have for your next practice. And it is very important to prepare your practice routines before you get to the table. Be objective and set yourself goals to achieve.

[Theguywithaplan]

I really like the fergal obriens routines .

Whatever you do it has to be enjoyable otherwise you become sloppy and bored . One of my favs is blacks off the spot and five reds from pink to black spot and four by the side in between so you can only pot the bottomred each time .

Very good but hard as you need precise position on every shot .

Yeah, that's a good one I should practice it more often tbh

The point is, where are you weak? Practising shots you are good at won't help the part of the game you are poor at. Remember 'Practice makes permanent' rather than perfect. Don't practice for too long in one go. Practice the shots you don't like. I agree with hotpot, that Fergal O'Brien has some really good routines. Have you got a great set up and delivery. If you haven't you will just be practising bad habits. Can you hit Qball dead centre every time. I have players come to me who are so concerned with spin shots, they have no idea how to hit the qball dead centre, hence they are putting on unwanted side and cannot understand why they are missing fairly straight forward shots. Others have too tight a grip on the butt and cannot deliver the cue parallel. Quality practice is important. Regular short stints of quality practice. Keep a diary logging your breaks, poor performance and other thoughts you have for your next practice. And it is very important to prepare your practice routines before you get to the table. Be objective and set yourself goals to achieve.

There's some very good points there, I do have a bad habit of only practicing my strong suits, and I also agree that having goals is one of the most important things. I'd say my weak points are concentration (even when cueing nicely and in the balls I'll miss far too many easy balls) and discipline, ie just getting down and playing the easiest safety rather than taking a moment to look and plan the most difficult position to leave the white for a return. Technically is where I'd say I'm strongest, I have a good solid straight cue action with ample cue power and a decent set up, so I feel I have a good consistent base to work from.

[magicman]

Scientists have proven that concentration can be expanded by playing chess, doing cryptic crosswords etc. Exercising and disciplining the mind is as important as the body.

Here are a few table exercises:

Pot all the colours 3 times without using a cushion, each time going from black to yellow without hitting a cush! Ray Reardon takes the credit for this one.

Line the reds up in an X with the pink in the middle. Harder than line-ups, and this one is knicked from Ronnie.

Place six reds on or near all six cushions, ball in hand to start, clear the table.


I have to echo tommygunner1309 who's advice is spot on.

[magicman]

Scientists have proven that concentration can be expanded by playing chess, doing cryptic crosswords etc. Exercising and disciplining the mind is as important as the body.

Here are a few table exercises:

Pot all the colours 3 times without using a cushion, each time going from black to yellow without hitting a cush! Ray Reardon takes the credit for this one.

Line the reds up in an X with the pink in the middle. Harder than line-ups, and this one is knicked from Ronnie.

Place six reds on or near all six cushions, ball in hand to start, clear the table.


I have to echo tommygunner1309 who's advice is spot on.

[nrage]

Step #1 is to go and see a coach. If you're really serious then see them once a week for the first 4 weeks, with at least 3-4 days of solo practice in between, each for as many hours as you can manage without losing focus. This should hopefully give you a solid base to build from. Without a (good) coach you will learn the wrong things and it will make it 10 times harder to undo later on.

If you cannot find, or cannot afford a coach then search this forum for descriptions/advice on the ideal setup, and practice that. Whatever your skill level, test your cueing with straight blues to the middle and long blues to the end. The goal is to be able to play these with top spin and have the white follow the blue into the pocket 10/10 times. Try it, it's a lot harder than you might think.

Being able to pot, and see angles will come naturally, once you can cue straight. 99/100 missed pots are due to unintentional side spin, caused by bad cueing. Get your cueing straight and consistent and you'll improve in leaps and bounds.

[Theguywithaplan]

Step #1 is to go and see a coach. If you're really serious then see them once a week for the first 4 weeks, with at least 3-4 days of solo practice in between, each for as many hours as you can manage without losing focus. This should hopefully give you a solid base to build from. Without a (good) coach you will learn the wrong things and it will make it 10 times harder to undo later on.

If you cannot find, or cannot afford a coach then search this forum for descriptions/advice on the ideal setup, and practice that. Whatever your skill level, test your cueing with straight blues to the middle and long blues to the end. The goal is to be able to play these with top spin and have the white follow the blue into the pocket 10/10 times. Try it, it's a lot harder than you might think.

Being able to pot, and see angles will come naturally, once you can cue straight. 99/100 missed pots are due to unintentional side spin, caused by bad cueing. Get your cueing straight and consistent and you'll improve in leaps and bounds.

My technique is sound, I ocasionally see my coach who I have been with since the first time I picked up a cue. I once played 100 long blues about 6months ago and got 89, I used to be a good player but I kind of ruined it with lots of unmotivated solo practice, something I don't want to have happen again. So I was more looking for advise on how to spend time practicing constructively when you're playing for up to 8-10 hours a day alone rather than technical advise from a coach. But thanks for the reply, I appreciate it

[DandyA]

Whatever your skill level, test your cueing with straight blues to the middle and long blues to the end. The goal is to be able to play these with top spin and have the white follow the blue into the pocket 10/10 times. Try it, it's a lot harder than you might think.

I seem to remember Steve Davis in his excellent coaching video "Champions' Way" talking about the long blue and saying if you could get 10 out of 10, you're a better player than he is - and he was talking about just potting the blue, let alone following in with the white ...

Maybe I remember wrongly but it seems to me, with due respect to you nrage, that you're setting an overly ambitious target ...

I've only tried it once in between frames whilst my opponent was in the loo and I got 4 out of 5 - just potting, not trying to follow in - and I was delighted with that ... on another day, I'd probably get none LOL ...

[nrage]

My technique is sound, I ocasionally see my coach who I have been with since the first time I picked up a cue. I once played 100 long blues about 6months ago and got 89, I used to be a good player but I kind of ruined it with lots of unmotivated solo practice, something I don't want to have happen again. So I was more looking for advise on how to spend time practicing constructively when you're playing for up to 8-10 hours a day alone rather than technical advise from a coach. But thanks for the reply, I appreciate it

Regardless of skill level I'd include long blues in a practice routine. I find, personally, that if I'm not cueing well, a session of long blues will relax my mind and action until it comes right again. Plus, it boosts confidence which is a good way to start any session. I would not do 100 of them every time tho, as that would quickly become tiresome.

Assuming you are making regular breaks in match play, try to identify the areas of your game where you break down. It is usually a missed pot due to a difficult pot, caused by bad white ball control. So, anything where you practice good white ball control is useful, for example this game can be a fun change to 'standard' practice:
http://www.youtube.com/user/forcefol.../0/w8lRrLVBUVs

Aside from that, I'm a firm believer in practicing specific pieces of technique - to give you a clear 'goal' to focus on, and a way to measure progress. If you can turn it into a 'game' i.e. see how many you can do out of 10, and then try and beat it a couple of times it keeps it fun, and also applies a bit of pressure, which is what you have to deal with in a match situation.

For example, place a red on the green spot, and from the yellow side of the table place the white 1ft back and just off straight, pot the red to the green pocket and screw back down the table. Play a few to find your maximum screw distance, then set targets along that range by placing colours along the rail. Now, pick a colour/target and attempt to screw back in line with it. This practice focuses on screw and cue ball control with screw. If you're left handed, set up using the yellow spot instead.

Another good one for cue ball control, and practicing top, stun, screw etc is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/forcefol.../0/h4gvd1swf1o

[nrage]

I seem to remember Steve Davis in his excellent coaching video "Champions' Way" talking about the long blue and saying if you could get 10 out of 10, you're a better player than he is - and he was talking about just potting the blue, let alone following in with the white ...

Maybe I remember wrongly but it seems to me, with due respect to you nrage, that you're setting an overly ambitious target ...

Yes and no. I was being brief, the full explanation is... 10/10 will always be 'the' "ideal" that everyone is aiming for, but based on your skill level you'll create your own "short term" goals as you go. i.e. I am currently happy if I pot 5+/10 and follow with the white 2+ times. In my next session I will aim to beat that target, and so on until I (one day many years from now) reach the stage where I can pot 9 or 10 out of 10 and follow with the white perhaps half the time, which is perhaps a realistic "long term" goal for me to have, at the same time I will always have the "ideal" of 10/10 following with the white in mind.

I've only tried it once in between frames whilst my opponent was in the loo and I got 4 out of 5 - just potting, not trying to follow in - and I was delighted with that ... on another day, I'd probably get none LOL ...

On some days I get 4/5 and then miss 4 of the next 5 .. due to the pressure of realising I might beat my "high score". This pressure is another reason why setting short term targets and attempting to beat them is so useful.

[kheops]

hi
the "long blue" thing is surely something i'd have to try, but please explain what's behind :
let say that for the first try i put the blue on its spot, and the cue ball on the wellow spot, i try a long pot, success i put the blue on its spot again, but where do i put the cue ball ?
apologies for my spelling

[nrage]

hi
the "long blue" thing is surely something i'd have to try, but please explain what's behind :
let say that for the first try i put the blue on its spot, and the cue ball on the wellow spot, i try a long pot, success i put the blue on its spot again, but where do i put the cue ball ?
apologies for my spelling

Put a red on the blue spot. Put the white on the baulk line so that you have a straight shot to the corner (this is not the yellow spot). Pot it, repeat 10 times using the same red and white positions.

[Terry Davidson]

I'm working from my memory too and I haven't bothered to dig out the Steve Davis coaching DVD but I'm pretty sure Steve said if you could pot both blue and cueball 10 times in a row then your cue action would be better than his.

However, take this with a grain of salt as after watching that video I decided to try with all 21 object balls and I did this every day for about a month (wore a line in my table) and I did achieve the 10 times in a row a few times but on one occasion I did 17 in a row, missed one and then the remaining 3 (this is potting both balls to the same pocket).

But I can guarantee you my cue action is NOT better than Steve's (but maybe on that day, who knows?)

Terry

[cain29]

Fergal O'brien's are pretty good imo. Pretty challenging, for me at least.

http://fergalobrien.ie/practice.html