My Practice Sessions

Several people have asked me either in person or via this blog how I practice, so, I thought I would finally explain (sorry it took so long).

I ALWAYS practice on a 9-foot table. If one isn't open, I wont practice. The exception is: If I am about to play in a big bar table tourney, I instead will practice 8ball on an 8foot table. I do that maybe 4 times a year.

I practice ten ball by myself on a 9foot table.

I TRY very hard to do this at least once a week from 1-3 hours at a time. To be honest, the most I prolly have ever practiced in one week was three and that was rare. Usually it's once a week or if I am lucky, twice a week. I usually go on Sundays or Wed evenings.

I play 10ball to get ready for my 9ball tournaments, but I also conduct this practice routine to help me condition my stroke and pre shot routine.

I randomly place the 2 and 4 balls some-what centered near one end of the table, and the 1, 3 and 5 balls on the other end. This allows me to go back and forth down the table for the first 5 balls. The 6-10 balls I put near the rails and I always randomly freeze 2 of those 5 balls. Sometimes I set it up where one of the frozen balls leads to the next ball that is placed on the other end of the table to where I would have to put extreme English on it to go 3 rails for shape (this is a good shot to practice).

I take ball in hand on the 1 ball and try to run out. I sometimes try and exaggerate my follow-thru and staying down to condition my stroke. I wear an ipod to try and keep peeps from interrupting (but that doesn't always stop the random wanna -be from saying something stupid to me. It also doesn't stop the few "regulars" who have to share some pool story that in reality they are sharing with someone else).

Here are photos I took one day for this blog entry, to show a few racks right before I take ball-in-hand.