Quality practice

[tammajock]

Are there any methods of how to bring on your game, ive heard of quality practice? does this mean line-up of the snooker balls by yourself or do you play better players more regular? im an average player and can make regular breaks of 30s and 40s yet cant make the breakthrough of doing regular high breaks. Is this just my level or are there better practices that can bring on my game?
cheers in advance

[hotpot]

There are so many aspect to snooker and i think you have to work on all areas to develop them .

After the get the basics right and you cue pretty straight and have a solid stance , keep still on the shot ets , i think its important to practice potting and getting used to the potting angles , and i find the best way of practicing this is scattering the balls around the table and practice potting , obviously you start with short to mid range and then move on to long shots .

Once you can pot faily good and consistent then , i would practice touch shots in and around the black pink , and really get the feel of the white , like putty in your hand .

Then once you feel confident and competent there are routines to sharpen your game even further .

[black&blue]

My game did not improve that much by just playing against good players. However, I got really good at counting, theirs high breaks not mine . I also got my exercise by spotting balls for them. Only after I started practicing on my own did I see big improvements.

Try the practice routines from:

• Nic Barrow http://www.thesnookergym.com/
• Fergal O'Brien http://fergalobrien.ie/practice.html
• Jimmy White's book - Snooker Masterclass (bought from www.amazon.co.uk)

Try different routines so it does not get boring.

[Terry Davidson]

Quality practice means you must set targets for yourself and you must put your full concentration into practice, just as much as you would on every shot in a match.

Targets can be time related, such as how many straight blues you can pot in 10 minutes, or they can be number related such as how many straight blues can you pot in 25 attempts.

The one I use is set 7 balls across the blue spot about 3in or so apart and see how many attempts it takes to pot all 7 (cueball in hand for each shot and on the baulk line - medium pace, stun the cueball). The number can be increased and I believe John Parrot used to do 12 and Steve Davis used to do all 21 object balls. This exercise is excellent and as you learn to cue straight and consistent you should see the total number go down. I started with 15 balls across the blue spot and managed a 20 once (they get tougher as the object balls get closer to the middle pockets.)

With the 7 I've done that a few times in 7, but on average about 9 or 10. If I was at a pro skill level I would expect to be able to do the 15 in 15 attempts but sadly I've never been able to do that.

When you do the line-up concentrate on every shot and set a limit of 10 or 15 attempts or else 2 or 3 total clearances and then move on to something else. The practice routine links given here provide some excellent guidance.

I believe in the Patsy Fagan one there's a drill where you put up 6 reds in a zig-zag pattern between pink and black such that only one red pots at a time and the pink is not potable in either middle or corners. So you have to play red-black sequence only and try and make a 75 clearance. This exercise is VERY difficult and also VERY frustrating unless you are a very good position player. Nic Barrow has the same one with 10 reds and I found that one to be just crazy. I am able to accomplish the 6-red one at about a 20% average but so far I'm zero for about 50 attempts with the 10 reds.

What I'm getting at here, is don't try an exercise you can't master after awhile as it will lead to frustration. That's why I don't use the 15 balls across the blue spot nor the 10-red zig zag pattern any more. I will try them both again once I feel my cueing is good enough.

Terry

[black&blue]

I forgot to mention that I agree with Hotpot. Get the basics right first, before moving on to the practice routines. It will get really frustrating doing the lineup if you cannot cue straight.

I start every practice session by checking my stroke and stance. I place the cue ball on the brown spot and hitting it straight to the blue, pink, black spots and back.

[black&blue]

[QUOTE=Terry Davidson;509198]When you do the line-up concentrate on every shot and set a limit of 10 or 15 attempts or else 2 or 3 total clearances and then move on to something else.




Very good point, Terry.
Sometimes I use up all my practice time and energy doing the line-up, trying to beat my highest break. It's better to set a limit on attempts and then move on to a new practice routine.