Practice Routines Question

[ferret]

I am meeting with a ex-professional snooker player at the end of this week to write a practice routines book which will be one of three to be released over the next 12 months on www.SnookerCoach.ws

This first product will be for average to intermediate players and pretty much we have everything for this first product already but what would you want in a practice routines product? most are just full of the same old stuff that you can download off of the internet so we are trying to make ours a little different, although the first in the series will be a PDF product the next two will be based on video and a app.

[ADR147]

if you are coming up my way mate give me a shout i will entertain you!

[Terry Davidson]

ferret:

This has probably been done to death. There are literally dozens of websites and books out there which outline many varied practice routines. A good example would be Nic's site and books where he outlines somewhere around 100 pages of different practice routines and drills. PJ Nolan's site is another prime example.

For the sake of having something different though why not try this: Place a single red midway between the pink and black spots without the pink and black being there. Now spot blue, brown, green and yellow and the practice routine is to hit the red and try and cannon each one of the baulk colours without hitting the blue and you must use at least 2 cushions. This is one of Nic's lesser known routines and it teaches first how to cannon the baulk colours and then the student learns how to miss them and get to the baulk cushion.

Not one of Nic's routines but place black in the middle of the top cushion (frozen) and the cueball in the middle of the baulk cushion (frozen) and try and get the black and cueball on the side cushions so you leave a difficult safety for your opponent. Then repeat this with the balls frozen in the middle of the side cushions and play a safety shot.

Terry

[j6uk]

Looking forwards to seeing that ferret.

[bolton-cueman]

for me, it would be good to see videos of how to 'do' the routines

[sixofclubs]

for me, it would be good to see videos of how to 'do' the routines

Totally agree.

Where books fall down is diagrams with information overload. I have Nic Barrow's book which is great but it's in black and white with lines and dots all over the place! It takes a lot of patience to work out what some of the routines entail!

The Hendry app works well because there are videos.

We all need help in this ADD era!!

[Byrom]

If I was doing a book the main things I would have is this

Aims and Objectives

Aims= Why a particular routine would help and perhaps what pro's use it - People are always interested in what pro players do especially in snooker - Many always want the same type or spec cues as a pro for example and pay for it too, in the same regard more people would buy your book if it highlighted practice routines used by various pro's. This would make it different from any other book available. This would be a major selling and marketing point and would not be too hard for you to do given your contacts in the game.

Objectives = To improve certain parts of weakness in your game and perhaps highlight specific scoring targets for weak intermediate good and v good plays to obtain therefore widening the market you are aiming for and giving the book a purpose for players to target their improvement towards which is the whole point of a book of this nature.

Diagrams. Very important to show how to set up the routines in a clear way.

Demonstration. A video showing how it is done by a pro linked to the particular routine would also be good if it could be done.

I would also make it downloadable on phones and sell it on I tunes and other sites like the Hendy app as this is far more useful than buying a PDF and printing it out as everyone takes their phones to the club so it is more convenient.


Hope this helps and good luck

[ferret]

So instead of a pdf something like this would be better then - https://dl-web.dropbox.com/spa/v1s0n...ble/table.html

[Byrom]

well both would be good, when a book comes out these days they do it in various formats for people - I think that is better than a PDF yes and many would rather see a demonstration of it

I was thinking more of a picture of the practice diagram linked to a proper video demonstration by a pro but accessibility is the main thing whatever you could get into a app for a phone would widen your market considerably.

Educational books should be done this way for a reason. We don't all learn the same way.
Some do learn just from books and writing or illustration but I think using a kinaesthetic approach would appeal more to a wider audience as the vast majority of learners gain motivation through doing it themselves after replicating a demonstration.

[ferret]

We are going to be doing lots of things with video for the second product but the first is just a test really to see what people want and in what format they prefer it, I will publish it to Amazon, iBooks and have it as a PDF product through the website as for apps I can do it as a app also but that just depends on how much time I have, its no good me spending say 50 hours designing a app to sell only a handful of copies.

Ideas we have for later products will be filming from above the table, from the players perspective and form down on the table all of which I will be filming on Friday to put out as a test to see what people think so watch this space for that.

[Byrom]

Well all waterfalls start with little raindrops - with your professional contacts in the game and ICT skills I am sure you could produce something more professional and different than has been done before.
You have a great forum to market your ideas and if you did it properly I am sure you would have a lot of sales. China is a big market as is Europe, so by using more visual demonstration video's and interactive diagrams and cutting down on the dialogue you make it more appealing to all cultures.

I might be wrong but I noted that you are doing separate things for different levels of players - better I think to group it all together then you do not limit your market in each section. Poor players still want to know what the good players are doing and monitor the standards they need to reach to qualify themselves as intermediate or good and it actually does the good players a lot of good to go back to basics on occasion too but if they are good they would not really be tempted to buy a basics book.

It is not all about the money from this product either as you know it may do well or it may not but until someone actually does it properly we will never know - We are often judged by the standards of our work. So something like this done well may inevitably lead to opportunities to develop similar things for other companies and people.

I hope you are successful and I hope these ideas help you develop yours if not at the first attempt - maybe further down the line and I do like your ideas of filming directly above the table and when google glass comes out this could be spliced with all sorts of crazy stuff behind the ball too.

I am sure if you contacted some coaches and players they would be happy to give their input into the meat of the subject and this is what your audience would want to read too - so good luck with it and I will look forward to seeing how you get on.