How to Practice Pool More Effectively

Are you bored with drills? Or maybe you want to know which drills you should be shooting. Or maybe you just want to learn how to make effective use of your limited practice time. Well, in this video, I'm going to use my 40 years of pool experience to help you organize your pool training. We're going to apply modern sports training methods for maximum effectiveness.

I'll describe my training framework, which is three skill continuums, four practice structures, and four methods of pool training. I'll also touch on preparation, scheduling, and tracking. And hidden within this video is going to be my two most critical tips for effective pool training. So grab your notebook and let's get started.

Let's start at the beginning, and let me play Captain Obvious for a second.

You know, I can remember back in 1980 when I started playing pool, and all I wanted to be able to do was to draw the cue ball back the way I saw Steve Mizorek do it on TV. I set this shot up and played it for days. I would hop the cue ball off the table and miss the one ball and do the stop shot. It took days until I was able to get any kind of consistency. It's something that I can do relatively easy today.

What was I doing? Repetition. At the base level, practice is just repetition. For some of you, that's enough and you don't need to watch the rest of the video. But I know most of you want to know more.

You know, in the old days, an old timer would say, Oh, you want to learn how to play pool? Well, hit 10,000 balls. That's a form of repetition, but it's the poorest way to learn. Very inefficient and very limiting. In order to maximize our training, we need to understand what to practice and why.

Now, it used to be said that practice, that is repetition, would build muscle memory.

Well, modern thinking kind of has gone beyond that because first of all, the muscles don't have memory, the brain does. Second, the idea of muscle memory is kind of rigid. The brain is very adaptable. When we practice, we're building up myelin, which is a kind of insulation around the nerves that activate the muscles that we're practicing, making them stronger and more efficient. But practice builds neural pathways in the brain that controls those nerves.

Those pathways can grow and adapt to changes in our training. Additionally, the brain's ability to focus and concentrate, as well as our attitude and our mental process, are all affected by our training. I'll talk more about that in a future video about learning spectrum. For now, understand that simple repetition isn't enough. We want to train the right things in the right proportions while increasing the difficulty level over time.

And understand that our training affects our physical and our mental processes, whether we're aware of it or not. Okay, who's still with me?

Critical tip number one is going to come up right after this. We're going to talk about continuums. I want to show you three sliding scales. that help us classify skills and how they should be trained. The environmental continuum runs from closed to open.

An open activity means the environment is constantly changing, which determines the timing of your movements. A good example would be basketball. In comparison, the environment for, let's say, archery is unchanging, and the timing of the shot is up to you, the archer. With pool, the environment is fixed before the player shoots, And the timing, except for shot clocks, is up to you, the shooter. So pool is a very closed environmental skill.

The difficulty continuum goes from simple to complex. In this context, difficulty refers to the number of subroutines that make up a movement. Golf, for example, is a complex activity, while running is very simple. You could make the case for pool having just four main subroutines. The pre-shot, shot entry, warm-ups, and cue delivery.

If we consider just the actual cue stick delivery, I still place pool near the simple end of the scale. The precision continuum describes muscle movements extending from gross muscle movements on one end of the scale to precision or fine motor skills on the other end. Playing the piano requires a high level of precision in comparison to, for example, weightlifting, which is a gross motor skill. In this case, pool resides at the extreme end of fine motor skills. There are more skill continuums in sports, but I think these three exemplify the point of my number one critical tip.

As pool is a closed, simple, and fine skill, remember that all of your practice is directed towards the goal of the best cue action possible. Sometimes we can start to think of pool as an open or a complex skill when the balls are rolling, but the movement of the balls is only the effect of the result of our cue action.

We don't control the balls, we only control our minds and our muscles to move the cue stick. When you're practicing in playing, whether you miss the shot or make the shot, the only thing that matters is asking yourself this one question: How well did I move my Q-tip? Real quick, before I get to the meat of this video about practicing, I want to mention practice structures. Each type of practice you undertake may be comprised of one or more of these practice structures: fixed, variable, masked, or distributed. Fixed practice structures are best suited to closed skills like pool.

The most common being drills where a shot or sequence of shots are repeated over and over. Variable structures apply to open skills where the environment is changing. But I think that pool practice involving random distribution of the balls, like after a break shot, I think that counts as a variable practice structure. Masked practice involves long practice sessions without any rest, while distributed practice involves breaks for rest and processing. I'll talk more about masked versus distributed practice structures in my upcoming video about learning spectrums.

But for now, know that your fixed or variable practice sessions can each also be masked or distributed. As I talk about practice methods, think about which practice structure applies most and how the practice structure can be altered to keep your practice routines interesting and challenging. As I describe training methods, remember how practice continuums and structures bring light to the following key points. First, you are never just training a physical skill.

You are always also training your mental capacity to perform that skill consistently. Second, You are training your mental ability to turn your focus or your concentration on and off. A lazy approach will yield lazy results. This is because old neural pathways in the brain that are not used are actually removed. Third, stay positive and practice positive self-talk.

Fourth, breathe. And I'm not just talking about your lungs. Listen to what these professional drummers have to say about the breath of physical motion. So these were revelations to me to start thinking about not just the hit, but the motions between.

But if you're not breathing, it's not alive. You know? So you got to at least put the breath in there, huh?

And finally, always keep your notepad open. Every time something unexpected happens, it could be an opportunity. After all, gains are made by practicing our weaknesses. Okay, on to the meat of this video, practice methods.

My critical tip number two will be somewhere in this section, so pay attention. To extract more value from your practice and improve faster, I suggest a hierarchy of methods, types, routines, and workouts. Think about physical training in the gym. Strength, cardio, and flexibility are all different methods of physical training. Within the strength method, for example, you have barbells, dumbbells, resistance bands, cable machines, et cetera.

These are all types of strength training. For barbells, there are many routines, and each time you run a routine during the day is a workout. Most pool players consider practice and drills to be synonymous, so they divide pool into drills and playing pool. In my opinion, however, drills are just one of four main methods of pool practice. There's drills, random, competition, and mental.

Let's start with drills.

If you're expecting me to tell you what drills you should be shooting, Pay attention because you will find the following 100 times more useful. Drills can be divided into four types: technique, pattern, challenge, and game. Technique drills are for honing your fundamentals. You know, how you stand, how you grip the cue, how you follow through, how you enter the shot, etc. The most famous technique drill is the Mighty X, as invented by instructor Bert Kinnister.

Some people think this drill is about learning how to pocket long, straight-in shots.

That's result-oriented thinking. The Mighty X is a tool for practicing every single aspect of your fundamentals. Why is that? It's because it has no variables. The shot is always perfectly straight, and the best cue ball always stays on that straight line.

So any deviation of either indicates something that needs attention.

It's also about repetition. If you make a shot two or four times in a row, you might start to think that you've mastered it. Sorry, cupcake, but 15 balls, that's an entire rack of balls, is the minimum to even start thinking that you're getting it.

As a fixed practice structure, repetition is the core of technique drills. You can also do a masked structure, for example. How many balls out of 100 can I pocket? Or a distributed structure where you stop and review your technique during the routine. So you'll want a mirror and video camera ready.

Yes, I consider training in front of a mirror without shooting a ball to be a technique drill and a very important one. The second type of drill is pattern drills. Pattern drills are for practicing shot making and cue ball position. The most famous pattern drill is the 15 ball L drill. There are hundreds more.

Pattern drills are often geometric patterns of balls, but can also reflect game type situations where they must be played in numerical order or with specific types of position. Serious players will find the investment into an ICATS type of projector system invaluable for pattern drill training. Pattern drills are also a fixed structure and can be combined with masked or distributed practice. Next are challenge drills.

Challenge drills require you to play the balls where they lie instead of an initial set position, making them a variable practice structure. I love Niels Fein's crossover drill because it challenges your cue ball direction and speed on longer distance shots. Challenge drills are usually massed practice workouts. For example, my open rack challenge routine, where you run a rack while calling the next shot before you shoot, can be played to your chosen goal number of racks, or to just see how many racks out of a certain number you can run. Again, it's so easy to become focused on results.

But remember, those numbers are only an indicator of how well you are executing your fundamentals. As such, challenge drills are superior for training your fortitude. Fortitude is the mental ability to approach every shot calmly and with confident determination. And yes, that can be practiced. The game practice type simulates games that you might play, but don't confuse it with the ghost.

We'll get to that in a minute. So I remember when I was much younger, I would spend hours doing this, and I know that most of you have as well.

You just take the nine balls for nine ball, and you just throw them out on the table like this, and you just kind of make sure that there's a good spread of balls, and every ball has a pocket, and then you take ball in hand, and then you try and run the table. And I would do that for hours on end, just throwing them out. You could rack the balls and break them as well, makes no difference. It's a game simulation, but what it's doing is it's setting up random sets of balls. And then in addition to that, you can practice your break shot plus safeties, kicks, and jumps.

And this is a drill, it's not like playing the ghost and it's not like the random, practice method, which I'm going to talk about next. The value of this type of practice is that you end up with random situations, and you can play the opponent. So you can play a safety and then attempt to kick at the ball or jump and get out of the safety.

And then you might have an instance like, oh, I don't know, maybe the two balls down table, and then you play a position shot on the one, trying to get position on the two ball, and oops, you don't hit it hard enough, you end up here. So what are you gonna do?

What I used to do is I used to say, oh, if it was during a tournament, I would've hit it right, and I'll just do this, and then continue running. Well, you haven't learned anything if you do that. The other thing that might happen is you might have a difficult shot. So you try and cut this difficult shot, and you miss it.

You're like, oh, I would have made that in tournament. And you put that ball in the pocket and continue shooting. Again, you haven't learned anything. But I'll caution you this. What if you shoot that difficult shot and you miss it?

And you say, oh, darn, I missed that shot. So you set it up again.

And you shoot it again. And the second time that you shoot it, You make the shot and you think, yeah, I got that shot. And then you continue on with your run. Again, I'll tell you, you haven't learned anything. If you miss a shot like that, you have to spend time practicing it.

And it's the same thing in this other scenario. You shoot the one ball and you get bad position on the two ball, okay? That's going to happen. during competition, during a tournament. What do you do?

Well, you now have an opportunity to practice the safety. Oh, I'm going to put the cue ball behind the four ball. And so you'll hit it, and oops, you don't get the cue ball behind the four ball, and you sell out. Well, if you're playing both opponents, you walk over, shoot the two ball, and run out. Again, you haven't learned anything.

If this happens, when this happens, set it back up, and figure out how to shoot this shot from this exact angle so that you do get the safety behind the four ball, okay? Now, when you're shooting this type of game simulation practice, you could shoot this once, once or twice, and experiment with it, or get out your notepad and write it down.

And then the next time you're doing a drill session, set aside a half hour to this type of safety. How do I get the cue ball behind this ball? How do I get the cue ball behind it if it's here? How do I get the cue ball behind the four ball if it's here? Is there a different safety?

Maybe I want to thin the two ball and bring the cue ball up table. But this type of practice, the purpose of it is so that you can write down or discover your weaknesses so that you can work on them. And then also to discover shots that you haven't been practicing in your drills. maybe a weird angle on a cut shot comes up and that could inspire you. Oh, I could create a drill that has me shoot that shot multiple times to play position and you can.

your own pattern or challenge drill to deal with that situation. And that's how you improve. So you don't want to take this casually.

I know most players do because it's the most instinctual type of practice that we can think of. Just throw the balls out and try and run them out. And that's fine, depending on your skill level and your goals. I invite you to take this much more seriously. This is an opportunity to identify areas in your game that you're unaware of or that need work.

If a difficult shot comes up that you miss, if you feel like it, you might just say, okay, I had a thin cut shot and I missed it, okay? I'm gonna pause the game simulation and I'm now gonna spend 10 minutes on that shot that I missed. And I'm gonna shoot this shot until I make it consistently every time and play position the different areas of the table from that shot. And then, I'm gonna set the shot up over on this side of the table and do the same thing. 10 or 20 minutes until you own that shot.

Then, spread the balls out. and continue your simulated game practice. I didn't include this in other methods of practice. I include this in the drill method of practice because you'll identify things that you can create drills to practice. So this reinforces the technique, pattern, and challenge drills that we've already gone over.

It's only going to take me a couple of minutes to describe the random method of practice. This is specifically not included in drills because it's not as structured. This is your opportunity to really have fun. What in the heck am I talking about? What do I mean by random?

This practice type is for experimenting and finding your limits. Let's say that in a normal game, you would cut this two ball in and you'd just come one rail over here for position on the two ball, on the one ball, let's say.

Okay, we're not doing that.

We're experimenting with How far will the cue ball travel straight back and forth? Because I don't know. I'm going to experiment and find the limits of the shot and of my capabilities with the shot. So I'll line up to the shot as normal, but then I'm just gonna hit at break speed.

Watch what the cue ball does, experiment and learn. You notice there that the cue ball came back from where the in this direction, then it went kind of straight across the table, and then it came back this way. I wonder why? Maybe you should experiment and find out why. But this is about finding the limits of any individual shot, and it's about finding your limits.

And you can just have fun with it and just go crazy. Okay, can I make this five ball and do a power forward stroke?

Where's the cue ball going to go? Well, how about if I hit it with straight, maybe a little bit of left, or how about with a little bit of right? How about this three ball? Can I draw the three ball inside of the 11 and spin it around to the six? Nope, I can't.

I'm experimenting. So now I found out at that speed, I'm not going to get the cue ball to draw, it's going to deflect before drawing.

Okay, so, and go ahead and put a lot of spin on the shots.

What happens if I shoot this 11 ball with extreme left English? Oh, I missed you. I'm experimenting. I'm finding my limits. This is an opportunity to have fun.

You don't want to do this for hours on end. It's a way to discover things that maybe you'll take to the drill methods when you're working on those, but you really want to take some time at least once a week, if not more, and just find the limits of any shot and the limits of what you're capable of doing. So set up a shot.

Normally, I'd shoot this one in the side. How about if I shoot it in the corner? Where does the cue ball go? Can I use inside English? Just hit it hard.

Use maximum spin. Experiment and have fun. Same shot. What happens if I use left English? Okay.

And then how about this? We know that if we practice a shot like this in our drills, we're going to hit it with a lot of control and a lot of purpose to try and hit it straight down that rail and nice and cleanly. Okay.

In the random section, can I let's see, what happens if I put maximum draw and spin? Okay, that's what happens.

Oh, look, I almost made a double bank. So you can have a lot of fun with this and experiment.

And then that shots back up. Okay, I missed the ball.

So at that, when you're hitting it really hard, maybe I'm getting a different kind of deflection and I need to adjust for that.

Okay, let's try it again then and aim just a little bit farther out.

And then maybe we can make it. I wasn't able to, I didn't draw the ball very well that time. So let's make sure that I'm cueing the the cue ball low and see if I can get maximum draw on it.

So this is your opportunity to let your stroke out, just experiment and have fun.

I have my critical tip number two, and congratulations if you made it this far in this video. I'll try to keep this brief. Let me ask you a question. Why do you want to practice? Well, I want to learn how to play better.

Okay.

Why do you want to learn how to play better? So I can win more often.

Oh, okay. Why do you want to win? Well, isn't that the point of the game? To win the game? I'm going to invite you to think about that question.

Is that the point of the game? To win? There's two opponents in every game, and by definition, one of them will lose every single time. Think about a tournament with 64 players, 64 player tournament. 63 of them will lose.

You ever thought about that? Is winning the goal? It's very cliche to say, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. When you win a tournament, you're gonna feel great. You're gonna get glory, you might win some money, you're gonna go out with your friends and celebrate and have fun, and those are wonderful things.

Don't mistake those for happiness. Those are joy. That's a good thing. But don't think that getting better at pool, winning more matches on your league night, is going to bring you happiness. It's not.

You need to find happiness in the journey. Think about your entire pool career. You're gonna win some tournaments, you're gonna win some matches, you're gonna have your share of victories, whatever that means to you. And those are gonna be great. But the ultimate goal that's gonna bring you happiness is that out of anything you could choose to do in life, you get to play pool.

That's a wonderful thing. And if you apply yourself and practice, you're gonna get better. And that's a wonderful thing. That's where you need to derive your happiness from. Don't make winning any particular event your goal, because you can't control the outcome.

That's result-oriented thinking. You want to be process-oriented thinking. And that is the same for your practice sessions. When we go and practice, we tend to get really serious. Oh, I'm going to practice hard today.

I want to put in a good practice session. And that's all well and good. But you don't want to make your practice sessions stressful because then you're going to take that attitude to the tournament. You can't play your best under stress. You need to play with joy, knowing that you get to play.

Bring that attitude to your practice sessions, and you're going to see improvement come much faster and translate from the practice session to the tournament room much easier. The competition method includes the ghost and Seth. I know many of my viewers know the ghost, but for those who don't, and to be complete, here's a quick explanation. The ghost is the perfect opponent. She never misses and always runs out.

Playing the ghost means you break every rack in a race of nine ball or 10 ball or eight ball, and then you take ball in hand after the break shot. If you run out, you win. If you don't run out, the ghost wins, and that's it. As such, playing the ghost isn't a practice type per se. You can still make noted mistakes to work on later, but as a game simulation, you don't get any mulligans.

Also, there is no safety play, so it's not a perfect game simulation, but it's more a test of your skills and your fortitude. An easier rule set for playing the ghost allows you to attempt to run out even if you don't make a ball on the break or scratch on the break. A pro level rule set does not allow you to take ball in hand. The other competition practice type is to play sets against a live opponent. Now, whether you play on your home table for pride or at the pool hall for a few bucks, the value you derive from friendly sets is in direct proportion to the mindset that you bring with you.

Mental training is one of the four main methods of practice. I'll make a separate video exploring mental training in more detail. But understand that mental training is visualization. That means sitting or lying down comfortably and visualizing yourself playing pool. Well, this is a real science, and it's widely used, for example, by aspiring musicians.

The more you do mental imaging practice, the better you get at it. This is because it actually activates the muscles you use when you play pool. You want to visualize as many of your senses as you can. See what the shot looks, sounds, and feels like. turns out that the dude's ideas aren't so nutty after all.

He's listening for strikes. You need to listen for the sound of the object ball hitting the back of the pocket, the cue ball rolling along the cloth and going exactly where you want. You can visualize yourself playing pool well from an observer's point of view or from your own point of view down on the shot. What's more? A technique called AOMI, that's Action, Observation, and Motor Imagery, is showing positive results.

With AOMI, you watch a pro playing and gently mimic their movements and timing. You can also practice AOMI with your eyes closed while visualizing the pro playing perfectly. I used to look at a drawing of a nine-ball runout, then I would close my eyes and see myself completing the run. Believe it or not, when you first try this, you are going to actually miss shots and mess up position in your mind. But learning to visualize yourself successfully and professionally running out actually improves your mental fortitude when you are playing or practicing pool for real.

Okay, I have to mention scheduling, preparation, and tracking.

Though these could be a full-length video on their own. Your training schedule will include how often you practice as well as what you intend to practice. The loftier your goals, the more detailed your schedule will be. Keep your schedule handy so you can update it whenever you discover something new to work on. During a typical practice period, that's about one week for most people, your schedule should include workouts from all four drill methods plus the other methods.

Beginners will include a much higher percentage of technique drills, while more advanced players will spend more time on pattern and challenge drills. But technique drills remain a requirement to stay on top of your game, even for the top pros. Set the tone of your workout by beginning with some stretching and positive self-talk. You want to signal your subconscious that this workout is important. and you are about to exercise your mind's ability to focus.

I like how Kevin Costner represented this idea in one of his movies. Clear the mechanism. Hello, Mike. Tracking your progress in training has never been easier. Everybody's got a cell phone, which means you've got a camera and a video camera with you at all times.

Get yourself one of these little mini tripods. You can set up all kinds of camera angles to record. My home table here, I have the camera that you're watching me on now. Overhead camera over the center of the table that looks straight down, so you can use that to check your alignment. But I also have a tripod, and I've got one of these little extension arms, so I've got a cell phone holder here.

So I can set up all kinds of camera angles from down low, from the side.

I can go overhead for checking, again, for checking the alignment, things like that. So not only checking your progress, but checking your technique as you perform your drills.

The length that you get into that is going to depend entirely on your skill level and your goals. But I think everyone should have a little log for writing down your performance during your practice sessions. daily basis. This is the one that I'm working on right now. I've got a whole bunch of these that have been filled up.

Next, I recommend pool table layouts.

I made these pads of paper with a drawing of a pool table on it many years ago. When I'm at a pool tournament, I will draw a run up of a player that I thought was interesting or educational at a shot that I want to try later when I get home. Well, then this can get incorporated into my practice session. a section with nothing but drills. I've got them all stored on pads in one location.

But you don't need to have pen and paper to do that anymore. For example, there are a lot of applications like this one by the WPA where you can create your table diagrams on your cell phone. And finally, in addition to table layouts and a log, I recommend that everyone have a pool journal. The journal, rather than a log, is where you can write down anything that you're thinking and feeling about pool. Track your tournament statistics, that's what I've got going on in the back here.

You can write down quotes that you want to remember and write down your feelings about different tournaments, events, players. Write down shots that you want to practice, anything under the sun. This is a private log for you. look at it. It's something that you don't show your instructor or anyone else, but it gives you an opportunity to get everything that's from your brain down on paper and review it later.

You're going to find it really helpful in focusing your progress as you work towards your goals. Remember that every practice routine has different difficulty levels. Your ability to master a more difficult level of a practice routine depends on how well you mastered the easier level of that routine. So don't get ahead of yourself.

It takes a long time to develop your skills to their full potential. If you like this video, you're going to really like my how to practice video, the number one that I made a couple of years ago. I'm going to leave you with a couple of quotes that are my favorites having to do with pool train.