Top Player Practise Together !!!!

[denja]

During T.V. coverage you often hear the commentator state the certain top players practise together (Hope its not a stupid question ) but what do they practise ? Do they play matches against each other all the time, or do they not bother to keep score and just play to try to improve certain shots, do they have some sort of routines for a joint practise session what would be a good format for a joint practise session for us mere mortals.

[itsnoteasy]

You would think it wouldn't take long to turn competitive , if it started off opening things up and one banged in three centuries, I bet the other would soon tighten up to get some table time, and then you have a match on lol.

[j6uk]

Likely to be 2-3 bo9's with a break for lunch, tea and phone calls..
If your starting out you could do bo5's, and maybe taken turns on the lineup for 40min-1hr, if you have the time.

[ferret]

I have sat in on many a practice session and to be fair it is mostly the same for all, practice for 3-5 hours, person with the least frames on the board gets the tab.

The table is not setup as strict as in a real match just spot the colours and place the reds by hand.

If Matthew Stevens is practicing on his own he will split the pack and try to take the table, if he misses a colour he resets, does that for awhile then 50 long pots, 50 to the middle pocket, 50 cute to the corner and time for lunch.

If there is a shot he is having problems with then that gets put into the mix and practiced like any other shot.

Some players stick to routines when practicing solo like the basic line up and T setup near the black, most routines are around the black spot but I have also seen a few players just practice potting the colours in sequence, I think it was Ryan Day a few years back was doing the colours but he done it where he has to hit atleast one cousin for each ball potted which was interesting.

There are plenty of pro's on here I am sure they will share what they do with us.

[itsnoteasy]

I'd hate to be related to Ryan Day.

[magicman]

When they say they practice together they mean they play each other. Best of 9's, best of 7's, best of 19 - whatever.

[alabadi]

Yeah when I go down to the snooker Academy in Sheffield I often see pros playing each other, best of 11s most of time .

[Csmith]

Yeah when I go down to the snooker Academy in Sheffield I often see pros playing each other, best of 11s most of time .

Stuart Pettman discusses this in his book "as sometimes seen on tv". His musings on practice sessions amongst the professionals were quite interesting. Especially the form they would expect in practice vs. the reality on the match table. He said he would expect one century for every 6 frames played. To put that into perspective, Ronnie and Ding I believe make one century per 11 frames played in competition. To be clear, he wasn't speaking of solo practice frames, it was in reference to practice sessions against another professional. I don't know what a professional would expect in solo practice frames.

He also noted the different approaches to practice matches amongst the players, some played low percentage shots to force openings and make breaks but they would never attempt these shots in competition. Others like Shaun Murphy would approach a practice session much in the same way he would a proper match, playing the right shots and taking his time when necessary. Also of note, he tipped Anthony Hamilton as the best player in practice that he had seen or played with. So that is very interesting, but not completely implausible as he does have the most centuries (at least at one point) of any player to never make the top 16.