Practice, practice and more practice

Practice. How important? Discuss.

Of course practice is fundamental to improvement in any sport or discipline, but I've always wondered, until recently, how important is regular practice.

Well... I've been a very recent convert to regular, serious practice sessions.

I've been playing snooker for fun for a very long time. I've always wanted to be a better player but never really applied myself to addressing the flaws in my game. I suppose like most of the snooker players who'll be reading this I used to mistake playing regularly for practicing reuglarly.

I used to get so frustrated and down hearted that having played 4 times a week for a considerable period of time that i never actually did anything serious (i.e. decent breaks) on the table. Playing a few frames with your mate does not allow you to retake a shot if you play it wrong does it!

So, a few weeks ago I deceided on the commitment to reduce the number of times I played in a week and started to replace the missing matches with practice sessions.

This led me to the question: " OK, What do I pracxtice then?" Stupidly i started off with practicing 'hard' shots, for afterall those are the ones I frequently missed, right?

Wrong! As wrong as a wrong thing could be.

After 2 weeks, 4 practice sessions, 6 hours in all of practice I still wasn't whacking in length of the table blues or taking 9 out of 10 ten reds which were lined up between centre pockets, cueing from the baulk line. I must be crap, eh?

Not really, I was just trying shots that were largely beyond my technical ability.

So I started doing a simple line up. 7 reds lined up between the top cushion and the pink (two below the black, 5 in between black and pink) and went back to basics. Simple run throughs or stuns at pocket weight. At first it wasn't pretty - I was so lacking in confidence I was lucky to string together 4 pots. I was the worst I've EVER felt playing snooker and I was VERY close to flogging my cue and case and buggering off to do something else.

But I stuck with it, always thinking 100% on what I was doing, building my confidence back up. This back to basics and realising my own limitations has paid dividends. By taking things very slowly and modestly I have improved greatly in the 5 weeks or so that I've been practicing,

From a humble 14 or 16 when I first started doing the line up I recently made a 76 on the line up - my highest ever break. All this in just over a month.

So, for me at least, practice, practice and more practice is working. The new found seriousness I put into my practice times IS working. So if you're reading this and, you like me, felt as though you should be playing better and were mistaking playing snooker and practicing snooker take a step back, get down the snooker hall an hour before you're due to play with your mates and do a few simple practice routines. Just a few reds and blacks of the spot will reap you snooker rewards you never EVER will achieve by simply playing.

Woaaahhhh, that was a lot wasn't it, but i hope you find my experience of help

Thanks!