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Are you fed up with playing pool sometimes? You’ve played enough drills, matches and tournaments? And still you’d like to do more to become a better player?
Not all practice has to be at the pool table. Like basketball pros aren’t running around on the court all day, you don’t have to play pool all day.
Here are a few ideas how you can become a better player off the pool table. A nice side-effect: Some of these things will also help you in other areas of your life.
Meditation
Everybody knows: Concentration and focus are important when it comes to performing on your highest level. If you think about something else while shooting, you’re disctracted and the shot won’t be executed perfectly. With meditation you can teach your brain to focus better on the task at hand – and shut up the inner chatterbox. That’s the voice inside of your head that’s telling you that your opponent is the better player, that you suck, that the table is crap and that you’re actually not motivated anyway. Sounds familiar?
I’ve been using the app Headspace for some weeks now to learn how to meditate. Every day you sit down for 10 minutes and the app guides you through a meditation. After a short while I noticed that I was calmer in general and that it was much easier to get back on track when I lost focus at the pool table.
Meditation is gold when it comes to the mental side of the game. And in my opinion it’s way better than the “You’re the greatest” self talk that people usually think of when talking about “mental practice”.
Physical exercise
Although pool isn’t a sport where physical strength, weight or height are important, the condition of your body does play an important role. In the past, players like Steve Mizerak, Minnesota Fats or Danny Basavich could compete on a worldclass level. Today out-of-shape players are a rare breed in world-class competition. However, we see more super-fit players like Niels Feijen or Thorsten Hohmann. It’s just to hard to compete on a top-level for days – physically and mentally.
World class players? Yes. Sportsmen? Not so much. (from the left:: Danny Basavich, Minnesota Fats, Steve Mizerak)
I recommend trying out Yoga, Crossfit or using a fitness app like the “7 minute workout“.
Watch pool videos
A couple of years ago somebody gave me a pile of DVDs with all the matches from the 2005 World 9-Ball Championships, recorded from TV. At the same time I was in the middle of my pool coach education. Logical result: Every day I watched 2-3 hours of 9-Ball. I literally watched all the matches of the championship, from early round robin matches to the memorable finals, where the 16-year-old Wu Chia Ching ran 5 racks in a row to close the match 17-16.
Not exactly the kind of shot I’d like to shoot at Hill-Hill for the world title…
Since this 9-ball TV marathon I understood 9-ball. I might not be able to compete on a world class level, but I can see it now. I just get it. You’re going to learn so much from watching the pros: angles, position play, rhythm, strategy, behaviour at the table…
And today we’re living in paradise. There’s more high-quality footage on Youtube than you’re ever gonna be able to watch. Different from 10 years ago. So: Go ahead and watch some pro matches from time to time (and of course visit the pro tournaments in your area to see them perform live).
Visualize your shotmaking
In 1996 Dr. Blaslotto conducted a study at the University of Chicago with some interesting results. He put together three groups of basketball players: The first group was supposed to practice free throws. The second group was to visualize practicing free throws. The third group shouldn’t practice at all. After 30 days he would check how the players improved at free throws.
Of course the third group, which didn’t practice at all, got the worst results. They didn’t improve. The group that actually practiced free throws improved by 24%, which wasn’t a big surprise neither. The surprise was: The group that just visualized practicing free throws improved almost as much, by 23%.
What does this mean for you? No more excuses that you don’t have the time to practice. How about skipping that session of Candy Crush at the commute to work tomorrow?
Instead, “practice” some break shots in your mind: Set up the balls, put the cue ball in place, chalk your cue, take your stance, make some practice strokes, relax your wrist, swing back slowly and then smoothly accelerate your cue through the cue ball. The cue ball hits the rack, whack!, ball are flying over the table while the cue ball bounces back a foot and stops at the center of the table.
It’s important to visualize this scene how you would actually see it with your own eyes. You have to be all-in with your senses; especially you’ve got to see, hear and feel what’s happening. The balls on the table and your hand holding the cue. The grinding sound of the chalk preparing your cue tip. The sound the cue creates when hitting the cue ball and of the balls when the cue ball hits the rack. The feeling of the cue in your hand, hitting the cue ball, following through etc.
If you practice this on a regular basis (on top of actual, real practice, of course!), you’ll see improvements. Believe me!
Focus exercises
Here’s another method to get better focus. There are some apps on the market now to practice your capability to focus. An example is NeuroNation for Android. With the “underground” app by Amazon you not only get the app for free, but all the additional content as well. Try it out!
