How much should i practise?

[Malachi-b]

Hello everyone, well ive recently gone full time with snooker with some help from my club also so i am able to practice as many hours in the day as i want on a rileys aristocrat table im currently practising 4 hours a day generally doing different routines.


Im just wondering but for any players out there who want to get far in the game how many hours would be sufficient to practise is it more the better? or is there a limit on how many hours you should practise so you dont mentally wear yourself out? and if you yourself are a full time player how many hours do you practise?


thanks

Malachi.

[thelongbomber]

I'm not playing as much as you but I have played on/off for more than 10 years. Here is what I can tell you:

1. There are only about 100 shots in snooker (combinations of rail/straight/angles/rest/overball/etc) so in theory, it's possible to practice all of them eventually. Write down all the shots and then spend some time with your weakest areas.

2. Some routines like lineups, running colors, often use several different shots in a single routine. I'm not a big fan of that (especially if you are in the under 100 break club). I say work on a single shot and spend some quality time analyzing/understanding it. The lineups/running colors/etc definitely have their place but so does working on individual shots. Take for example a 3/4 on the green ball (or yellow if you are right handed). It's a common shot you see often to get back "into the reds" but there are about 10 different ways to play it (and get different cue ball positions just about anywhere on the table). Work on that shot a few dozen times in a row, and play close attention to where you strike the cue ball and the pace.

3. Getting worn out is an indication your practice strategy isn't well planned. If you are putting in 5 days a week, consider planning out the week and setting a goal for each day (like making 9/10 long blues or working on running a 50 break)

4. Use a video camera to analyze your stance/cue action. Terry does this and recommends it and I have started as well.

5. Set a bigger end goal for the next few months. Ultimately, practice is supposed to make your better overall so you should have an improvement goal you are trying to achieve (like running more 50+ breaks or winning more matches or whatever). Write your stats down in a log book so you can keep track and measure progress.

6. Match play is going to involve every shot in the book, so practice the hard shots too.

So anyways, to answer your question, you CAN practice too much if it's unstructured and not helping your game. Just throwing a bunch of balls on the table and potting all of them can do more harm than good because it's not focused. That's an easy trap to fall into in snooker practice. I don't do this (at least not with my snooker) but you need to have daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, and a quarterly goal to aim for.

Humans are like missiles: we work better when programmed with a target.

Hope that helps!

[Chu]

Helpful post mate!

[ch147]

Good summary and something we all aspire too....to be able to practice in a structured way which then yields real results in terms of matches. I think you are absolutely right in what you say about only so much practice will help before it could harm. As a golfer and a snooker player, both are the same in that there are many ways to practice on your own (course, driving range, snooker table) but you need to set short and medium term goals which achieve the ultimate purpose of winning MATCHES..against GOOD opponents. Reading a number of the autobiographies of players (Davis, Hendry, Dott, O'Sullivan, Spencer) the common theme is that they practiced a lot on their own yes, but they also spent a lot of hours travelling round the country playing the best of their age as much as they could.

But in terms of solo practice, if my job and finances allowed, I would do it in 2-3 hour stints, with a half hour break, to aim for around 4 or 6 hours a day 4-5 days a week....but I would make sure I played some good players every week too.

Good luck with your chosen career Malachi-B !

[DeanH]

"how much should I practise?" a coach once said to me that a good rule-of-thumb for how much practising time when starting out is you should be around minimum 2/3 practise to 1/3 match.