Las Vegas Confidential

Practice
Sucks!
by Charlie Williams
Charlie Williams is one of the world’s
top players and personalities. Charlie
won the BCA Junior Nationals at 14
and is now a 10 year veteran on the pro
scene, sponsored by Predator. Founder
of Dragon Promotions, he produces over
40 international events each year. He
also manages and coaches pool stars Yu
Ram Cha and Shanelle Loraine. Visit
dragonpromotions.com or email questions
to charliedragonwilliams@gmail.com
22
P&BÊA ugustÊ2009
P
racticing sucks. Yup. 98% of players
I know agree with that statement.
Of course there are players who
love to practice, but wait till they get to a higher
level and let’s see if they feel the same. It’s the
dreaded day in and day out routine of having
to go hit balls for hours so that supposedly
it will pay off later on down the line.
But what really stinks is when sometimes you
practice and that doesn’t happen. Great feeling.
Practicing unfortunately is a vital key in improving.
Competition is the other important key, but both
are needed to improve at a fast rate. It’s like having
a hamburger without the bun, or eating the bun
with no burger inside. The combination of having
both is what makes the hamburger complete.
So it goes with practicing and competition.
This month, let’s focus on the importance
of practice, dreaded though it may be.
Most players I know believe that as long as you
head to the
poolroom and
hit balls you
will get better.
Wrong. Players
also say that if
you are playing
with your sparring
partner that will
improve your
game. Wrong
again. In order
to practice more
efficiently, you
have to get much
more specific
in what you
are doing with your time on the table.
First of all, you should spend a significant time
playing alone. The temptation of playing with
others is always huge, but sometimes you have
to deny yourself that pleasure just like you deny
yourself a big fat slice of cheesecake. Can playing
another opponent ever be considered practice?
Yeah, sort of. I would still define that as in the
competition category. Exceptions would be if
you are a 9-Ball player and decided you wanted
to work on your safety play and were sparring
with a very good One Pocket player. I as your
coach would then accept that as practice.
If you are going to have to play someone,
please make sure they play – at a minimum
– the same speed as you, but preferably
always play someone who plays a bit better.
As a teenager I would go play the local pro,
Dave Bollman, who at that time could spot me
the five ball, but I would play him dead even in
cheap sets just to learn. It was a tremendous
benefit to me and gave him some gas money
for his big Cadillac (Thanks, Dave).
But back to the boredom, that unfriendly neighbor
Mr. Practice. Or if you prefer, Mrs. Practice, like one
of my mean elementary school teachers. So Coach
Dragon let you play someone for practice. Consider
that a gift, I was in a good mood. Now it’s time to
get to work on some real practicing, all by yourself.
Unfortunately, most players I see playing alone
do it all wrong. They practice their strengths rather
than their weaknesses. Here’s a self-test: If you go
and practice and it felt really fun, then you probably
didn’t practice the right way. Can you still get
better doing it that way? Sure, a little, like a snail.
Some players tell me they love practicing and
they can play alone for 8-10 hours. When you
are a beginner and
you have tons of
stuff to learn, that’s
easy. But when you
get to advanced
levels, practicing
becomes harder and
competition much
more appealing.
As a beginner, you
can’t beat anyone
so it’s more fun
playing alone versus
playing someone you
never get a chance
to shoot against.
Later on though,
you want to beat on someone because now
you have some ability. You feel the FORCE
young one, but you are not a JEDI yet. It
becomes even more vital to maintain a good
practice routine when you play alone.
What to practice? Well that’s going to depend
on your game level, but try and bust it up
into manageable bites. Spend some time on
long shots, on speed control, on critical shots
(banks, kicks, curve shots, etc.). Spend a bit of
your practice session building up your break
(we talked about this last month) and some
more time working on your defensive game.
At all times, practice as you would compete
– with care to perfecting each shot and its
resulting cue ball position. Practicing may suck,
but it will reward your game in the long run!
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