SPM Billiards Magazine Issue 33

Perfect Practice

By Steve Jennings

As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. But that isn’t necessarily true. Practicing the wrong things, or worse, practicing the right things the wrong way, can actually slow your progress. Knowing what to practice and how to practice are critical to your development. Today, I want to offer some ideas to make your practice time more effective.

First and foremost, you should always have a specific goal for your practice session. Throwing some balls out on the table and hitting them is not practice. It’s just playing by yourself. Fun, sometimes, but not all that helpful. It’s best to focus on one specific part of your game and work on that part. Maybe you noticed in your last match that you were struggling with controlling the speed of your shots. Then spend your time working on speed control drills. If stop shots have been a problem, stop shot drills are the order of the day. By isolating the smaller parts of your game and focusing on each part individually, your results will come quicker. Trying to address multiple issues at the same time divides your attention, and the results will be limited. As my friend Randy Goettlicher says, “If you try to chase two rabbits, they both get away.”

Another key to effective practice is to practice in short bursts. Drills, while necessary, can get boring. When we get bored, we lose our focus. And practice without focus does you no good at all. Ten to fifteen minutes of focused practice on a single part of your game is more effective than just going through the motions for two hours. It’s truly a case of “less is more.” Don’t practice until you’re tired of practicing. Always leave the practice table hungry for more.

Practice alone! It’s nearly impossible to practice with a partner. It’s a known fact that when you put two pool players on a pool table, it’s going to develop into a game. It’s in our nature, and when we begin playing a game, our practice session is over. Nobody enjoys a little friendly competition more than I do. But understand that you can’t practice and play at the same time.

Practice is repair time. As you are practicing, evaluate and analyze your results. Learn from your practice time. What am I doing right? What is going wrong, and how can I fix it? Repetition is important but only good habits. If you repeat bad habits, you are only training to do it wrong.

Perfect practice should include three different aspects of your game: Physical to develop muscle memory, Mental to build consistent routines, and Informational to expand your knowledge and self-awareness. By incorporating these ideas into your practice sessions, your time spent practicing will become far more effective.

PRACTICE FOR SELF IMPROVEMENT PLAY FOR SELF FULFILLMENT

Steve Jennings SPF/ACS/PBIA Master Instructor

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