This is just for Les Edwards

[lesedwards]

me too! that's life. we all have good and bad days, what ever level
les fella, stay with 15 reds till you clear it. don't get all willy nilly on me

Okay I will stick with plan..

[itsnoteasy]

I can spend hours down at my table but nothing seems to be productive. I am my biggest enemy. Tonight I spent 2 hours practicing a little bit of nothing. Started with throwing 15 reds on the table and just got my stroke going and made a lot of good pots then I moved into running the colours and after 10 tries I never got to the blue. Packed that in and started working on 15 red line up after 10 attempts 6 reds was my best moved onto the T routine and could not make more then a couple colours. In every routine I seem to just miss easy pots. I seem to do this as soon as I put myself under pressure. Everything goes jerky and all over the place.

Les why are you under pressure when practicing?, you just can't get twitchy when practicing, this is the time to get that sorted. It doesn't matter if you miss as long as you go through your shot routine, and cueing drill on every shot, and if it goes wrong analyse why and try not to do it next shot, that is the only way to improve, if you can't relax and let your arm go when playing yourself what chance when you have an opponent. I don't think winning and losing matters at our level, it's learning the game that counts, winning will come the more of the game you do correctly, so that's what you practice, doing things correctly, if your getting Jabby just stop and tell yourself next shot I will push right through and make sure you do it, or if you have taken your eyes off the ball, again ,next shot I will stay locked on, it will then eventually become ingrained and you will have good habits in your cueing and not bad ones. That fifteen red line up is a great thing to do, just do it all the time ,correcting yourself as you play, if you play two hours a day you will have it done within a week(fingers crossed).

[lesedwards]

Les why are you under pressure when practicing?, you just can't get twitchy when practicing, this is the time to get that sorted. It doesn't matter if you miss as long as you go through your shot routine, and cueing drill on every shot, and if it goes wrong analyse why and try not to do it next shot, that is the only way to improve, if you can't relax and let your arm go when playing yourself what chance when you have an opponent. I don't think winning and losing matters at our level, it's learning the game that counts, winning will come the more of the game you do correctly, so that's what you practice, doing things correctly, if your getting Jabby just stop and tell yourself next shot I will push right through and make sure you do it, or if you have taken your eyes off the ball, again ,next shot I will stay locked on, it will then eventually become ingrained and you will have good habits in your cueing and not bad ones. That fifteen red line up is a great thing to do, just do it all the time ,correcting yourself as you play, if you play two hours a day you will have it done within a week(fingers crossed).

Started back on my red line up this afternoon, spent a couple hours and then another hour tonight. My best clearance so far is 13 which I did a few times. One thing I worked hard on today was my stun shot. When I watch Ronnie and the boys the cue ball moves from point a to point B the easiest way possible. I have a bad habit of rolling the cue ball there for using a lot of cushions to play position. For example I could be level with the black and I should stun up for a red but I would roll it through off the cushion for a red. I will be back at it tomorrow.

[j6uk]

Okay I will stick with plan..

you started become a drag a while ago and i hope you can now turn that on its head. lets do the 15reds, get that out of the way and be positive about how we go about it. i see your signature quote has a double negative in 'snooker prison' and 'out of order', when it could say 'snooker paradise' and 'welcoming and accepting'
no time to waist, lets take the high road to improvement.

[thelongbomber]

Les why are you under pressure when practicing?, you just can't get twitchy when practicing, this is the time to get that sorted. It doesn't matter if you miss as long as you go through your shot routine, and cueing drill on every shot, and if it goes wrong analyse why and try not to do it next shot, that is the only way to improve, if you can't relax and let your arm go when playing yourself what chance when you have an opponent. I don't think winning and losing matters at our level, it's learning the game that counts, winning will come the more of the game you do correctly, so that's what you practice, doing things correctly, if your getting Jabby just stop and tell yourself next shot I will push right through and make sure you do it, or if you have taken your eyes off the ball, again ,next shot I will stay locked on, it will then eventually become ingrained and you will have good habits in your cueing and not bad ones. That fifteen red line up is a great thing to do, just do it all the time ,correcting yourself as you play, if you play two hours a day you will have it done within a week(fingers crossed).

Very good advice. It's important to focus and learn in practice. That's what it's there for. You start to see things like weakness in your stun shot, as you have pointed out. Also agree with j6uk that your mindset matters as much as your game. Start looking at your table as your paradise instead of your jail. Switch from negative/lack mindset to an abundance mindset.

[alabadi]

I moved onto the T routine and could not make more then a couple colours. .

The T routine is an advance routine and in my own personal opinion should not be done by players who are not consistent 50+ break players.

I think you should start on routines for your level, which are a little challenging but are achievable at least 4-5 times out of 10. then you stick at them until you can do them 10/10

that's when you move to a the next level and repeat the same again, its not just you les but all of us do it, we want to run before we can walk. however I have learnt now from experience its demoralising and counter productive when we can't pot 4-5 balls in a row on any routine, this should be the trigger that its too difficult.

I was at my local club the other day and this lad who has been going there for the last 4 years. he's another who wants to run before he can walk. he was doing the basic line up and he wasn't getting far 6-7 balls and would miss, he spent half an hour on that and then I saw him setting up the T routine. I thought to myself he's setting up a more difficult routine what's the point. and as I predicted 3-4 shots in it breaks down, he spent half an hour and then moved on to another and another and so on.

his practice was not structured had no point to it, and this is the reason he is really hasn't improved a lot over the last few years, obviously he is better but for the amount of time he spends at the academy he's not progressing as he should, because he has no structure to his routines, no outcomes.

it's like if you were training to be a sprinter, would a coach put you in a championship final sprint race after a few months, knowing your times were nowhere near good enough.
no , they would give you certain routines to build your strength, stamina and speed bit by bit until you improve and were good enough to compete.

As Terry mentions it took him 7 years 8 hours a day until he showed genuine progress and good form and this is how I look at it now. I felt I have no time to wait that long and wanted to improve as fast as possible, but now I have realised there is no quick fix its a long process and practice needs to structured with clear objectives and goals. each objective needs to be reasonable and achievable within a certain time frame and one should not move on to the next level until the first one is achieved.

I can now go into the club and sped 2 hours just playing 3/4 blues into the middle bag and sending the cueball to the bottom cushion to come back for the pink as one would do when clearing the colours. some weeks this is all I do, I practice the colours separately. so I would just practice potting the yellow from all different angles and spend 2-3 hours on that alone until I am confident enough to pot it 80% at least. and then I would do the green and so on.

I have found now in games when the colours are on their spots I have more success in potting them than missing.

well that's enough rabbiting on from me.

Les my only advice would be keep it simple, enjoy it, and always accept you will have more bad days than good.

[lesedwards]

Very good advice. It's important to focus and learn in practice. That's what it's there for. You start to see things like weakness in your stun shot, as you have pointed out. Also agree with j6uk that your mindset matters as much as your game. Start looking at your table as your paradise instead of your jail. Switch from negative/lack mindset to an abundance mindset.

Okay I have changed my signature.... I am listening to you guys. I read the section on the kid practicing and jumping from one routine to the next, sounds just like me if I cannot make a few balls in one line up how am I going to make more in the next routine but you just keep changing and never really accomplish anything. My plan is to stick to the Red Routine until I can make 90% of the time. I do have my billiard tech coming Tuesday to widen out the sides a bit as they are so tough. Not sure if anyone seen the shot that Ronnie hit to the side where it went right around and back out that is the kind of misses I get shot after shot.

[itsnoteasy]

The T routine is an advance routine and in my own personal opinion should not be done by players who are not consistent 50+ break players.

I think you should start on routines for your level, which are a little challenging but are achievable at least 4-5 times out of 10. then you stick at them until you can do them 10/10

that's when you move to a the next level and repeat the same again, its not just you les but all of us do it, we want to run before we can walk. however I have learnt now from experience its demoralising and counter productive when we can't pot 4-5 balls in a row on any routine, this should be the trigger that its too difficult.

I was at my local club the other day and this lad who has been going there for the last 4 years. he's another who wants to run before he can walk. he was doing the basic line up and he wasn't getting far 6-7 balls and would miss, he spent half an hour on that and then I saw him setting up the T routine. I thought to myself he's setting up a more difficult routine what's the point. and as I predicted 3-4 shots in it breaks down, he spent half an hour and then moved on to another and another and so on.

his practice was not structured had no point to it, and this is the reason he is really hasn't improved a lot over the last few years, obviously he is better but for the amount of time he spends at the academy he's not progressing as he should, because he has no structure to his routines, no outcomes.

it's like if you were training to be a sprinter, would a coach put you in a championship final sprint race after a few months, knowing your times were nowhere near good enough.
no , they would give you certain routines to build your strength, stamina and speed bit by bit until you improve and were good enough to compete.

As Terry mentions it took him 7 years 8 hours a day until he showed genuine progress and good form and this is how I look at it now. I felt I have no time to wait that long and wanted to improve as fast as possible, but now I have realised there is no quick fix its a long process and practice needs to structured with clear objectives and goals. each objective needs to be reasonable and achievable within a certain time frame and one should not move on to the next level until the first one is achieved.

I can now go into the club and sped 2 hours just playing 3/4 blues into the middle bag and sending the cueball to the bottom cushion to come back for the pink as one would do when clearing the colours. some weeks this is all I do, I practice the colours separately. so I would just practice potting the yellow from all different angles and spend 2-3 hours on that alone until I am confident enough to pot it 80% at least. and then I would do the green and so on.

I have found now in games when the colours are on their spots I have more success in potting them than missing.

well that's enough rabbiting on from me.

Les my only advice would be keep it simple, enjoy it, and always accept you will have more bad days than good.

What a great post, very well written and thought out.

[alabadi]

What a great post, very well written and thought out.

Thanks , I do have my moments ...lol

[itsnoteasy]

I see lads at our club have the full line up set out, pot a red then miss the black, can be at it for hours and around 18 of the balls never get touched lol, I don't know why they don't just do two reds and a black, that way it's seconds to set it up and you just add a red every time you clear up.

[lesedwards]

I see lads at our club have the full line up set out, pot a red then miss the black, can be at it for hours and around 18 of the balls never get touched lol, I don't know why they don't just do two reds and a black, that way it's seconds to set it up and you just add a red every time you clear up.

Yes I agree, but even better do what I have been told just stick to 15 red line up. Or maybe in their case just 5 reds. I hope to be back on my table shortly. More 15 red practice. I will be sure to let you everyone know when I run all the reds for the first time...

[kheops]

thanks alabadi for having some moments, i find them great, as well

[lesedwards]

Okay guys I practiced for an hour this afternoon and ran all 15 reds. Back at it tonight.

[thelongbomber]

Good tutorial. Some jewels of info here:

[itsnoteasy]

Okay guys I practiced for an hour this afternoon and ran all 15 reds. Back at it tonight.

Well done Les keep at it.