Solo practice is more difficult than playing against players.

[throwawayttyl102]

I have never had coaching session and never did solo until I restarted playing after a long break. For me, I play better when playing against players than when doing routines. Maybe because I have to re-spot the color balls after every alternate shot and losing concentration, thinking too much about the technique or some reason of which I am not aware of. Also when the club starts to get louder, I start getting worse.
Any tips on how to improve on this? Especially the solo part.

[Danger Steve]

Get yourself a pair of air pods (or similar), get some tunes going… I usually have music on during solo practice! Makes it seem like less of a chore.

If you’ve never done it before you can feel a bit lost at times, best advice would be to have a bit of a plan of attack so there is some structure to what your doing! This will help focus your mind on what you are doing, rather than feeling your just bashing balls around. I usually start with a line-up or a mini line-up, just to get my arm going and my body moving. Then I’ll maybe attempt the Xmas tree routine, followed by practicing shots I know I’ve been missing recently! What you do after this is up to how your cueing, maybe try some open play break building? Or splitting the pack from the borg colours… I usually finish off practicing my long potting and a little bit of safety play.

There are loads of routines out there to help keep it interesting. You need a balance I think of solo and match practice, too much or little of either can mess my game up, that’s what I’ve noticed anyway!

[mikee]

Another good one is chuck 4 reds on the table anywhere and the colours on their spots and try and clear up ,as this where most games are won and lost .Practicing clearing the colours is always good for positional play ,practice getting the wrong side of balls as well so you have to move the cue ball around ,clearing the colours with out using a cushion is another one I do ,then putting the colours all on the wrong spots and clear them up ,black on yellow spot green on blue spot etc