Can I practice too much?

[fred.england]

what the hell, could be worth it

Can you imagine it?? A slightly rotund, baldy, slightly wrinkly 42 year old running round the club in nothing more than a loin cloth!!!! I'm sure everyone would be scarred for life looking at the pictures! I may get the wife to do it instead.

[shredder]

fred:

I would also agree with some of the others in that you should be getting good solo practice and don't do long sessions. As I still play competitively my practice is about 1hr solo, then take a break for a coffee and ciggy and then another hour and so on although if I make a ton or a high break I reward myself with an early break for coffee and ciggy (no danger of smoking too much though).

A respectable balance would be at least 50% solo and 50% with your mates but NEVER just bang the balls around and try for everyting. If your mates will stand it then play 'match tough' against them and try and simulate match conditions as much as you can. So work solo on your technique and then practice with a mate using match play and try and forget all about technique.

Terry

Terry, what do you mean forget about technique in "match play"? Why would you forget about technique?

[Terry Davidson]

shredder:

I guess I should have said 'forget about THINKING about technique during match play' to make it perfectly clear to everyone.

Hopefully the technique is ingrained and would not require any thought since in a match the player should ONLY be thinking about safety, potting and position and not 'stay still, head down, loose grip, front pause, slow backswing, rear pause, accelerate slowly, drive the grip hand to the chest and stay down and still at the end of the delivery'.

That's just too much to think about and leads to confusion and lack of confidence eventually. However, it is OK to have just ONE swing thought and for each player that would be concentrated on whatever he feels is his worst flaw, like 'head still' or 'drive through' or 'keep grip loose'.

Terry

[itsnoteasy]

Good luck Fred, everything has been said about the practice, relax and trust your game.

[Byrom]

You are in the final so f it rum n coke and smile at the world try your best but most of all enjoy it. It is a massive achievement for you to get in the final buddy so anything else is a bonus.

No matter what the result you are a winner already and you do us all proud kid

[fred.england]

Kids "inset day" today....teachers booze up more like, but it give me a bit of dad'n'lad time on the snooker table. I'm going to have my relaxed head on today. Just a gentle knock around and maybe a few drills in between frames. Day 2 of my preparation on the way!

[fred.england]

Another great day of practice yesterday. I played on one of the "tougher" tables in the club. I done loads of drills, safety exchanges, plenty of breaks in between and had a few frames with Billy. Hit 4 50's a few 40's and a 71!! Should have been the ton though, 1 red over the middle and colours on the spots. I just took my eye off the red and rattled it, landing perfect on green or yellow!! Ah well, there is always tomorrow. I'm busy now filling my body up with the TON of medication to keep me going!! Oneprazole, Fragmin, Dexamethasone, Adcal, Zomorph, Oramorph, Zopliclone and Ensure plus!!! Haha My god, I'm glad they don't drug test in our yearly comps!! Well, day off the table today, Newcastle v Liverpool to watch and then quality time with the family!

Finally, thanks for the invaluable advice guys, the drills I did yesterday taught me a lot. Plenty of rest (and ciggys) in between as well helped. Back tomorrow on my own for a few hours then every day next week.

My motto: FAIL TO PREPARE, PREPARE TO FAIL!!!

Fred

[mythman69]

Sounds good Fred! One question: how do you practice safety exchanges? Just run the black safe up and down the table or what?

[fred.england]

Sounds good Fred! One question: how do you practice safety exchanges? Just run the black safe up and down the table or what?

I just play play from baulk, off the pack and aim for baulk cushion. Or just have a few reds and try the same thing. It's mainly just judging the pace of the table. All of our match tables are (pace wise) roughly the same as the cloths are a similar age. The final will be on one of them so safety practice really helps. I play maybe 30 different safety shots from differing areas of baulk. I find it helps.

[mythman69]

Sounds like something I should be practicing too. Thanks for the tip!

[fred.england]

Sounds like something I should be practicing too. Thanks for the tip!

No probs mythman. I find it very helpful playing safe against yourself. I don't necessarily pick a spot on baulk to aim for, generally I'm looking for as tight to the cushion as possible.

[mythman69]

No probs mythman. I find it very helpful playing safe against yourself. I don't necessarily pick a spot on baulk to aim for, generally I'm looking for as tight to the cushion as possible.

Generally I'm just trying to hit the object ball.

[fred.england]

Generally I'm just trying to hit the object ball.

Lol. Don't knock yourself mate!!!

[mythman69]

Lol. Don't knock yourself mate!!!

Just joking but my safety play could sure do with some improvement. I was playing the club champion on Sunday and he kept leaving me hard against the baulk cushion and I kept setting him up. Still it did give me lots of practice hitting from the baulk cushion.

[fred.england]

Just joking but my safety play could sure do with some improvement. I was playing the club champion on Sunday and he kept leaving me hard against the baulk cushion and I kept setting him up. Still it did give me lots of practice hitting from the baulk cushion.

I am a naturally attacking player and in a knockabout I go for literally EVERYTHING but come match play I play a mean safety. Lol. I only do about 15/30 mins of this as it can get extremely boring but it's really worth the effort.