In order to get the most out of our practice time, it’s important to establish a mission. What is your purpose for practicing today? We’ve all observed the player from across the room that’s just firing at balls. He thinks he’s doing the right thing by getting out there and practicing. His practice session may begin with a couple organized drills or stroke shots. Eventually, he’s lost focus or ends up playing against someone. He gives half a warm-up stroke for each shot, tries to bank balls that should be cut, and is very obviously no longer giving 100%.
To get the most out of our practice time, there are some decisions we need to make before we begin. Decide if this going to be a learning session or an achieving session. Do you have an objective for your valuable practice time? Have a plan to work on a specific shot or develop a certain stroke. Or, are you setting out to run 100 balls in straight pool or break and run four consecutive racks of 9-ball?
Whichever course of action we choose, it’s most important to make sure our goals are realistic and attainable. Now that we’ve determined our objective, let’s make our shot decisions accordingly.
If we’re planning an achieving session, our goals are results-based. This means if I’m setting out to get a perfect score of 150 in the game of 6 Pocket, then I determine that before my practice begins. I will choose smart patterns, take less-aggressive shots, and make sure I get on the correct side of each ball. Ideally, I want to recreate a tournament pressure and mindset for myself. My priority is to accomplish this score and exceed my current high score.
On the other hand, if the plan is for a learning session, we may find our goals to be more performance-based. For instance, I’m setting out to develop my power draw stroke. I will set up the same shot and shoot it 50 or 100 times until I achieve my desired outcome and get a feel for the stroke. I’m concentrating less on pocketing the ball and more on developing the muscle memory. My focus is on the execution or performance, not the results.
This is also the perfect opportunity to set up that scenario I was unsure of during league. Perhaps I used low outside instead of high inside. I will set it up and shoot it several different ways. I’ll practice pocketing the ball with alternative spin options. It doesn’t matter what the results are, this is the time for learning.
Establishing a practice mission has helped me maximize the quality of my practice time. While setting out to break my straight pool high run, I would often fall victim to unnecessarily shooting a shot more aggressively simply because it was “more fun” or because I felt I needed to practice that particular shot. Now, I save those shots for my learning sessions. Once I started distinguishing between the two, I increased my focus and high runs, and made better use of my practice time.
What are some of the typical goals you set for a practice session?
I have a hard time setting a goal or purpose for a practice session. I am one of those people you see just shooting balls down.
What is 6 pocket?
Once again, Samm, you cut right through the crap and lay out the important issues with clarity. Love your blog, keep up the good work.
Craig, 6 pocket is a new game wherein you hard break a full rack of 15 balls, spot any made on the break, and try to run all 15 in any order, like straight pool without using the last ball to help break the next rack. Do this 10 times and add up your result, 150 = perfect score.