Practice routines

[Djamil]

dear Potters,
it's my first thread and hope to get many replies.Let me say thanx to Robert 602 who has been a great help.And thanx for the people who will reply.
i play the game since 8 years and my max break in a match is 88 only.
i play in the national level (amateurs only in mauritius).I'm in the top 10.
however to improve my game ,i want to know different practice routines that i can do.
i don't have the chance to play a lot now,i work as a private banker in a bank here.but still when i get the chance to practice,i want to do it the right way.
your help will bw most appreciated.
kind regards,
Djamil

[bongo]

and my max break in a match is 88 only.
i play in the national level (amateurs only in mauritius).I'm in the top 10.

That is two great achievements, I have sent a private message to you to help you.

[paksnooker]

To practice backspin you can do as in the following picture:

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/8824/backspinws8.jpg

same for topsin.

To practice potting straight shots, you line up all the balls between the two middle pockets, and one at a time, you start at one side line the ball up straight into one of the corner pockets, stun it in, then move the white ball to make the next ball straight, when you get to the blue spot, you start potting in the other pocket on the same side.
To practice normal angled potting and positional play, you do the same but this time you cant move the white to where you want, so you have to top, back spin it and everything you can to line up the next ball as much as possible, it helps to chalk your cue after every shot when you do positionals.

Hope i helped, first post aswell!

Paksnooker

[honleung80]

This a good way to practice potting as well as positioning Paksnooker.

To practice break building, place the balls in the following way.

Put 3 reds directly under the black.
Put 4 reds between the pink a blue.
With the remaining 8 balls, place them in a V shape under the pink making sure the pink is still pottable in the cornerrs. Placng these 8 balls is hard to explain. The V is under the pink like when setting up the reds. There are obviousely 4 on each side and the key is to make sure the top 2 reds closest to the pink are pottable.

I find this line up much better than just colours and reds lined up between brown and black because it mimicks what you will need to do in most breaks. The V under the pink mimicks the clustered pack and you will find you will need to move from one side of the table to the other to pott them all. The 3 reds under the black are typical of the trickier reds that clears up the manoouvering space under the black.

Sounds a weird set up but it really does work. If you can pott all the balls in this line up without missing or even better without disturbing any of the other balls, you will find your break building in match play will be far more consisteant.

You can start anywhere but i like to start by long potting one of the 4 reds between the blue and pink. You will find you really don't want to miss this one as if you do, you will most likely have to reposition all the balls!

To practice backspin you can do as in the following picture:

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/8824/backspinws8.jpg

same for topsin.

To practice potting straight shots, you line up all the balls between the two middle pockets, and one at a time, you start at one side line the ball up straight into one of the corner pockets, stun it in, then move the white ball to make the next ball straight, when you get to the blue spot, you start potting in the other pocket on the same side.
To practice normal angled potting and positional play, you do the same but this time you cant move the white to where you want, so you have to top, back spin it and everything you can to line up the next ball as much as possible, it helps to chalk your cue after every shot when you do positionals.

Hope i helped, first post aswell!

Paksnooker

[paksnooker]

I get what you are explaining,but how would i do it with 10 reds because thats all i have. I'll have 3 reds instead of 8.

[cocked hat]

practice routine

Hi Djamil,
Sounds to me that you're already pretty good at moving the cue ball around if you are at the 88 stage.I think you will want to concentrate on the 'fine tuning' shots,breaking the pack.top table cannons etc.
A quick one to set up is:
Black on its spot,cue ball nine inches away and parallel to the top rail.Place four or five reds about where the bottom row of pyramid reds would be but two or three inches apart.
The idea is,working from one side,pot the black and cannon the first red full ball.Return the black and white and then cannon the second red.This is very hard to do for all the reds and use a variety of stun-run,soft screw,screw shots.
When you've done the one side put the white on the other side and repeat.You can make this even more difficult by aiming for half ball instead of full ball cannons.
Good luck.

[paksnooker]

Probably a bit newbish but what is a cannon?

[honleung80]

A cannon is when after potting the object ball, you get the white to go into (cannon) another ball so as to open up a pack of balls or to maintain position of the white. The 2 most common situations of this would be when potting the blue and cannoning into the pink so as to open up the reds or potting the black and cannoning into the bottom of the pack of reds so as to open up the reds.

With the line up if you only have 10 reds, i'd place 2 under the black and use the rmaining 8 for the V under the black.

Probably a bit newbish but what is a cannon?

[Djamil]

thanx a lot mate
u guessed right.i need some fine tunings to make it best.
thanx for help,
happy potting ,
djamil

[poolqjunkie]

Have you tried to pot reds with only black in order, 3 or 4 reds under the black, the rest lined up all the way past the pink spot (no other colors on the spot but black)?
I have been doing this exercise for a couple weeks now, and it is really helping me with my control of the ball off the cushion and my stun shots.
With the line up, sometimes, I get into the bad habit of expecting to have my red somewhere out there, without really thinking much about my position. But when I have to hit them in order, it really get me thinking, like in a real game. I also need to learn more shots to get my position in some situations.
I also do the regular line up in order too. And I then do the line up with only the pink, and only the blue, also in order.
Another thing I like to do, is to pot 10 blue off the spot from baulk with follow, then 10 with screw, and 10 with center ball, into each of the two black pockets.
Then I will also try to follow my cue ball in the pocket 10 each. When I am finished, I feel like I can make anything.

[bongo]

There a so many practice routines to do, I have got a book with 155 practice routines in it! I could think of about 50 more as well, all are great to improve our games!

So much to practice...!

[dannyd0g]

I like to have all the colours on their spots with all the reds scattered about the table in open play.

It's not quite as easy as it may seem as many reds block each other and positional play needs to be fairly controlled.

I have seen quite an improvement in my game doing this - making 30s failry regularly now and got my first 50 plus last week.

[quintahunter]

There a so many practice routines to do, I have got a book with 155 practice routines in it! I could think of about 50 more as well, all are great to improve our games!

So much to practice...!

Could you share some of them? I am starting training tomorrow...:snooker:

[LavaChild]

Could you share some of them? I am starting training tomorrow...:snooker:

Judging from Bongo's previous posts I'd imagine it'll be a The Snooker Gym product - Perfect Practice Routines.

If you do decide to do it, do yourself a favour and buy it from this link: Link. Only £4.90 for the download eBook.

[quintahunter]

Judging from Bongo's previous posts I'd imagine it'll be a The Snooker Gym product - Perfect Practice Routines.

If you do decide to do it, do yourself a favour and buy it from this link: Link. Only £4.90 for the download eBook.

Already done it, it looks nice.