Practising by yourself

[Johnnycash]

What are the best methods for practice when you are playing on your own.

Quite often I head to our club just to have a knock by myself and I get fed up quickly.

I used to play quite a bit and have had over 30 centuries, so I am at a fairly decent standard, although having not played for the last five years I am a bit rusty.

I have started practising using the line up technique but this is not really much of a challenge and I don't feel it helps a whole lot with match play.

I'm particulary keen to improve my safety play and my long potting. Any one got any suggestions??

Regards
John

[Wimm]

http://www.thesnookergym.com/practice.html

Lot's of practice material, including special chapters on long potting and safety.

[crispian jones]

Good question johnny, i dont want to steal your thread or start a simular one, so any info on the same question for a pool player would be apriciated !

i did get steven rowlings to travel over 100 miles to my house once, and he helped a lot, but unfortunatly his background was mainly snooker!

[dannyd0g]

I'm particulary keen to improve my safety play and my long potting. Any one got any suggestions??

Regards
John

Apologies if this is stating the abvious, but i find it helps - Set up the specific long shots or general safety scenarios you want to improve. Play them again and again. You wouldnt have to keep setting up the same shot with the safety bout as you can compete against yourself.

Good question johnny, i dont want to steal your thread or start a simular one, so any info on the same question for a pool player would be apriciated !

I sometimes find it good practice playing entire frames cometing against myself. But as i go on, if i find a certain shot difficult or fail to play it as well as i wanted, i just set the same shot up again and again, and retry until i get the intended result....

[DawRef]

I once saw the great John Spencer do a practice routine on TV. He put the colours on their spots and all the reds in a straight line between the Brown and top cushion. He then just placed the cue-ball on the baulk line and hit it towards the top cushion. Wherever it stopped, he then started potting.

It won't improve your safety, but it will help in potting and cue-ball control in break building.

[miscuehamburg]

There are loads of practise-routines in the web. Take a look here:
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ad.php?t=11062

[Mauricio]

Just a simple one...black into the pocket from the spot try and get on it into opposite pocket and do it again visa versa untill you miss...

This is a positional exercise to help you learn position around the black...if you can do 10 in a row then that is good...its harder than it sounds...I also alternate trying to pot a pink playing down for the black then back up for pink then black etc...

I also line five reds spaced out in a horizontal line above the black spot and try and pot the black and cannon the reds in turn...i do a simular routine placing the balls down the sides of the cushion.

I put the balls on the cushion one behind the black one near the right pocket one near the left then I practice stuning the blue from the same angle... trying to hit each ball in turn, just aining plain ball up and down the white...I give myself 3 attempts to cannon each ball.

I practice long blues off the spot into each pocket with three types of shot stun, follow and screw...keeping records...I practice ghost ball cut backs....(my worse shot) I practice potting off cushion...I try to do the line up on each side but I dont use a cushion.

I put three reds on table in any position bettween pink and black and try and clear up with all the coulours...allways trying to play for blue on last red if i can so its easier to get on the yellow.

I line up all balls just off the cusion near black spot corner pocket and try and pot them into middle replacing them with white putting them on pink spot, I do this each side.

I set up and practice a particular shot I may have missed in a match a 100 times. this week it was just a slow roll up snooker attempt behind the yellow..

There are certain routines I have to get my eye in and my rythem and I allways start off either hitting the white up and down trying to make it come back straight or I cue the brown to make sure my alignment is right with the baulk line for a guide, ensuring my arm would be vertical at 90 degrees when i address the cue ball. I practice my own pre shot routine for 2 mins...get behind the white, work out line of shot, walk in.. get down... cue... pot.

I keep a record of everything and work out an average based on a 100 attempts for each thing.

It's a very good practice routine, 1lawyer.

How many times do you practice each routine that you've mentioned in a week and how long time do you spend on it?

I think you do something very important to measure your development keeping records. Do you have a special scheme to register it?

[Billyboy]

I too get bored practicing on my own.

I can last about an hour before being bored on my own

[DavisFan76]

What are the best methods for practice when you are playing on your own.

Quite often I head to our club just to have a knock by myself and I get fed up quickly.

I used to play quite a bit and have had over 30 centuries, so I am at a fairly decent standard, although having not played for the last five years I am a bit rusty.

I have started practising using the line up technique but this is not really much of a challenge and I don't feel it helps a whole lot with match play.

I'm particulary keen to improve my safety play and my long potting. Any one got any suggestions??

Regards
John

How about these:

http://www.snookergames.co.uk/practise4.html#index

[Stunrunthru]

What are the best methods for practice when you are playing on your own.

Quite often I head to our club just to have a knock by myself and I get fed up quickly.

I used to play quite a bit and have had over 30 centuries, so I am at a fairly decent standard, although having not played for the last five years I am a bit rusty.

I have started practising using the line up technique but this is not really much of a challenge and I don't feel it helps a whole lot with match play.

I'm particulary keen to improve my safety play and my long potting. Any one got any suggestions??

Regards
John

John I'd suggest don't play on your own as I think you need someone to kickstart your game.

After the birth of our first child 5 years ago I hardly picked up my cue until he was 3. Before marriage I was also a 100 break player.

I decided a few years ago to start playing again and contacted the coach at my local club. Since then I practice with the juniors at the club nearly every saturday and have started playing on the local league.

Although my long game is not very good any more, I am very close to knocking in the breaks again. I am getting regular 50s and had a 68 on a proffessional standard match table a few weeks ago.

I really fancy knocking in a few tons again this year.

Playing with others will also bring your safety game back into shape,

hope this helps

happy new year

[RocketRoy1983]

John I'd suggest don't play on your own as I think you need someone to kickstart your game.

After the birth of our first child 5 years ago I hardly picked up my cue until he was 3. Before marriage I was also a 100 break player.

I decided a few years ago to start playing again and contacted the coach at my local club. Since then I practice with the juniors at the club nearly every saturday and have started playing on the local league.

Although my long game is not very good any more, I am very close to knocking in the breaks again. I am getting regular 50s and had a 68 on a proffessional standard match table a few weeks ago.

I really fancy knocking in a few tons again this year.

Playing with others will also bring your safety game back into shape,

hope this helps

happy new year

Oh damn! I read when you said "I fancy making some more tons this year" and thought to myself haha not long of 2008 left and was going to make some little joke about how you'd better get a move on then but then I saw you posted after midnight

Hope you make a few this year and indeed everyone else (Myself included!)

[bongo]

http://www.thesnookergym.com/practice.html

Lot's of practice material, including special chapters on long potting and safety.

Thanks for recommending The Snooker Gym!

One of the BIGGEST problems in snooker practice is that people don't know what to practice. Playing a frame against yourself is so BORING compared to some practices! Purposeful Practice is the key. And if you don't have a target it is impossible to achieve anything.

[Johnnycash]

Many thanks for all your responses.

With regard to playing consecutive blacks of it's spot, is the object to pot it alternatively in each corner pocket or just to pocket the black and carry on regardless?

Thanks again
John

[The Statman]

I have started practising using the line up technique but this is not really much of a challenge and I don't feel it helps a whole lot with match play.

But you can make it a bit more interesting.

I always keep the baulk colours in the top corner pockets, just so I don't have to walk around the table to respot the black and walk back to play the next shot from the same side of the table. I then make sure that I never run out of colours in the pocket my side – so I must get position on the other side after every 2 shots.

Or sometimes say that I must use a cushion for position off the red, but mustn't when playing position off the colour. This, of course, affects the positional shot leading up to the next one. Sometimes I might attempt to not use a cushion in the entire thing.

All keeps something to work on while keeping the basic setup simple.