How much Practice?

[Particle Physics]

Evening gents. For a newish player how much practice is advisable. I generally have time for 3, 3 hour sessions in the week. Add in another 3-6 hours of practice frames with a partner at the weekend, and I make that 11-14 hours of snooker a week. Is this enough, too much, or just right? I'm not playing league yet, so there aren't any serious frames yet.

How much do other players practice I wonder?

[The roberts]

All regular practise is good but I would recommend that you stop every session when you feel you are not concentrating any more and just hitting balls for the sake of it. Hows this helps

[denja]

Evening gents. For a newish player how much practice is advisable. I generally have time for 3, 3 hour sessions in the week. Add in another 3-6 hours of practice frames with a partner at the weekend, and I make that 11-14 hours of snooker a week. Is this enough, too much, or just right? I'm not playing league yet, so there aren't any serious frames yet.

How much do other players practice I wonder?

Its not so much how long you practice its "WHAT YOU PRACTICE" one hours constructive practice can be worth more than 5 hours just doing line ups and potting balls with no real aim in mind. Playing over the spots ok real boring but something that should never be overlooked, Potting the black off its spot with the white halfway between the black and pink spot then move white across table so its halfway between the middle of the table and the side cushion and see how many times you can pot the black. do it from both right and left of table. Place blue on its spot and try with a straight pot to screw back the white into the center pocket,then start controlling the screw back so you can bring it back any distance you require,then try run through the same way letting cue ball follow blue into pocket once again start controlling the amount of run through you require, Stun try to replace blue with cue ball and pot the blue. I call this constructive practice, add to this long pots and you have enough practice to last many hours Does it work well I could only make a 20-30 break then I got my head down and got a grip of what many may call the boring stuff I can now make a 60 (On a good day)

[Terry Davidson]

particle:

Getting 11-14 hours per week, as long as it's FOCUSED practice should mean you will improve rapidly (in comparison and if you have some natural ability). But there's a big IF!!! Only if your technique is such that you are delivering the cue consistently straight or at least practicing to get to that point.

Once the cue is being delivered consistently straight improvement comes very quickly however if you are not younger than 25yrs or so just remember, the older you are the longer it takes (in general). Having said that, at 67yrs I've just recently started to deliver the cue fairly consistently straight and this morning I really surprised myself and knocked in a 102 in my first practice frame (I have my own table but live in the country, about 2hrs away from the nearest decent club). Usually it's been taking me awhile to get warmed up and then the centuries were few and far between. Next frame I knocked in a 39 first and then a 48 I think it was.

Then the guys showed up to pave my driveway so I had to stop for the day. The tables down there all set up but it's a little late now

Terry

[denja]

particle:

Getting 11-14 hours per week, as long as it's FOCUSED practice should mean you will improve rapidly (in comparison and if you have some natural ability). But there's a big IF!!! Only if your technique is such that you are delivering the cue consistently straight or at least practicing to get to that point.

Once the cue is being delivered consistently straight improvement comes very quickly however if you are not younger than 25yrs or so just remember, the older you are the longer it takes (in general). Having said that, at 67yrs I've just recently started to deliver the cue fairly consistently straight and this morning I really surprised myself and knocked in a 102 in my first practice frame (I have my own table but live in the country, about 2hrs away from the nearest decent club). Usually it's been taking me awhile to get warmed up and then the centuries were few and far between. Next frame I knocked in a 39 first and then a 48 I think it was.

Then the guys showed up to pave my driveway so I had to stop for the day. The tables down there all set up but it's a little late now

Terry

The saying "You are never too old to learn" rings true.

[denja]

Never too old

particle:

Getting 11-14 hours per week, as long as it's FOCUSED practice should mean you will improve rapidly (in comparison and if you have some natural ability). But there's a big IF!!! Only if your technique is such that you are delivering the cue consistently straight or at least practicing to get to that point.

Once the cue is being delivered consistently straight improvement comes very quickly however if you are not younger than 25yrs or so just remember, the older you are the longer it takes (in general). Having said that, at 67yrs I've just recently started to deliver the cue fairly consistently straight and this morning I really surprised myself and knocked in a 102 in my first practice frame (I have my own table but live in the country, about 2hrs away from the nearest decent club). Usually it's been taking me awhile to get warmed up and then the centuries were few and far between. Next frame I knocked in a 39 first and then a 48 I think it was.

Then the guys showed up to pave my driveway so I had to stop for the day. The tables down there all set up but it's a little late now

Terry

The saying "You are never too old to learn" rings true.

[Particle Physics]

Thanks everyone, for your input. At the moment, I still consider myself within the 'egg', developing my basic game. Yesterday, I spent a lot of time on set-up with long ball shots. I do this because I know that these shots, especially ones with the object balls just off the rails are the real test of set-up and action. I'm still finding things out, and there are many options w.r.t. cue action, grip, stance, bridge, etc, so the permutations are vast. Once I settle on one set-up, I will practice differently. As Terry rightly says, straight delivery is of paramount importance, and the work I'm doing now, is designed to give me a platform to achieve this on every shot in the future. I gave the R foot straight, 'shoelaces' (cue under shoulder, V grip) another go yesterday, with some success, so I'll give it another go today. It still feels strange and slightly uncomfortable but maybe these feelings will disappear with practice and it will eventually feel natural?

I do spend some time on the black, as Denja advised, as this often leads to breaks ending in frames, from acute angles. It can also be a tricky ball, as it's not an easy ball to sight, so practice and getting used to potting the black is important I think. I do a bit of line up, but again, it's not a realistic situation. The 'T' is a bit more realistic, so that's a good one to practice, and long balls of course, because a break has to start somewhere, and often a start is not gifted. I also have trouble with blue balls, going into and out of baulk, so that's something I tried yesterday too. It's another 3 hours on the table today. I will take a mini-break half way, to refocus, eat some chocolate for energy, and have a drink. Playing snooker is quite taxing at times, even if things are rolling smoothly.

Terry, I'm very jealous, I wish the Mrs would let me build that extension. I think with my own table I'd practice a lot more, at more convenient times too. Let's see what happens in the next 12mths. If there is a vast improvement, maybe she will see the light!

[spike007]

particle:



Once the cue is being delivered consistently straight improvement comes very quickly however if you are not younger than 25yrs or so just remember, the older you are the longer it takes (in general).


Terry

Terry,

Whilst i agree that everything starts to go to pot as you get older, out of interest why do you choose 25 as the age?


Spike

[spike007]

particle:



Once the cue is being delivered consistently straight improvement comes very quickly however if you are not younger than 25yrs or so just remember, the older you are the longer it takes (in general).


Terry

Terry,

Whilst i agree that everything starts to go to pot as you get older, out of interest why do you choose 25 as the age?


Spike

[denja]

A guy I worked with retired at the age of 65 years when asked what he would do with his time he said I am going to learn to play the piano something he had always wanted to but never had the time, some of the staff smirked "Bit old to start learning the piano" however 12-18 months latter we all got tickets for a small concert at our local arts center there on the program was our ex works buddy playing a small selection of classical and modern pieces he was brilliant ! his piano teacher gave a little speech about his progress and said she had never know anyone so quick to learn. so there is hope no matter how old.

[Terry Davidson]

spike:

It's just a number I chose. It seems that every really good snooker player (the top pros at least) start playing around the age of 8 or 10 and then turn pro around 18 or so and then keep improving to their mid-20's or so and then after that the long potting starts to go a little bit and I figure this is the hand-eye coordination going.

The real reason I picked 25yrs is in the table tennis world they say you are past it at 25yrs because of the loss of coordination. I watched a world-class table tennis match with a couple of Chinese players and I can understand why seeing them smashing that little ball from 20ft away from the table.

I think in snooker it really starts to show around 35yrs or so. The other thing is kids learn so fast (maybe because their brains are relatively empty compared to an adult or something) but young kids learn everything fast, especially languages and sports skills. Didn't Tiger Woods start when he was 3yrs or something?

Terry

[Particle Physics]

Terry,

Whilst i agree that everything starts to go to pot as you get older, out of interest why do you choose 25 as the age?


Spike

I'm guessing that this is the age of peak physical prowess for all sports. Is it a combination of skill, ability to learn, flexibility, recovery, mental sharpness, concentration levels, strength and hand to eye coordination?

[snookered122]

i played alot of snooker over the years..then few years back i done my back in kept me out of the game for awhile. only just started playing again 2 month ago..dont know if anyone knows what its like to try and get back into it after awhile way from the game not easy..when everything u could do before u couldnt do now..stance ur cueing. couldnt get my chin on the cue like before and my cueing wasnt the same..but i said just because my cueing wasnt like before im going to practise and practise everyday till i get it right again..got there in the end practised over 5hours a day, long potting, the line up, colours of the spots.potting black off the spot, ..knocked in a 85 at local club. hope to get my century's again..so playing a game against ur mate isnt going to do it u have to practise on the basics aswell. they say practise makes perfect.

[Particle Physics]

i played alot of snooker over the years..then few years back i done my back in kept me out of the game for awhile. only just started playing again 2 month ago..dont know if anyone knows what its like to try and get back into it after awhile way from the game not easy..when everything u could do before u couldnt do now..stance ur cueing. couldnt get my chin on the cue like before and my cueing wasnt the same..but i said just because my cueing wasnt like before im going to practise and practise everyday till i get it right again..got there in the end practised over 5hours a day, long potting, the line up, colours of the spots.potting black off the spot, ..knocked in a 85 at local club. hope to get my century's again..so playing a game against ur mate isnt going to do it u have to practise on the basics aswell. they say practise makes perfect.

I agree mate. I'm trying to spend as much time on the practice table by myself but I have a family, so time is big constraint. I'd love to build that extension and drop a snooker table in but the mrs won't have it. If I did, I'd be clocking up the hours you have done recently. Glad to hear that it's helped your game, it gives us all hope. Great example to one and all.

[pottr]

Didn't Tiger Woods start when he was 3yrs or something?

Didn't know he played snooker