The Power of Positive Practice
Heard any of these lately?
“I’m getting so old now that by the time I get into stroke I’m too tired to play.”
“I’m so bad that I can’t hit the end rail with the cue ball.”
“They say that ‘Practice Makes Perfect,’ but since nobody’s perfect why practice?”
For this article, I’ve purposely avoided using the expressions “take time,” “taking time,” etc. Instead, I much prefer “invest” time. The former connotes a resource commitment that is impersonal, tedious, thing-related, and not very compelling. I much prefer the term “invest time,” as it better conveys the more personal notions of skill-building and self-improvement.
Investing the time to perform post-shot evaluations during practice helps develop a routine of soliciting positive feedback from each shot, displacing damaging negative thoughts (“I knew that I was going to miss that shot” or “I’m just not a very good player”). These seemingly innocuous epithets are dangerous. On the surface, they can trigger a cavalier attitude and a built-in excuse for failure. Over the long term, positive expectations and the joy of seeing in reality what the mind conceived become more difficult to attain and enjoy.
My good friend and fellow Master Instructor Mark Finkelstein constantly reminds his students that having a positive mental attitude is absolutely critical to consistency and success. There is no substitute. He also says, “See What You’re Seeing.” What a great point. Stand on the shot line, and BEFORE dropping into the stance, take time to ‘see,’ ‘hear,’ and ‘feel’ the shot before it happens. This helps build confidence through positive expectations.
Invest more time in Evaluating the shot at the Finish position, for there is no better or faster way of improving shot execution than opening one’s self to feedback from the shot. Did you execute what you had envisioned? Did the cue ball travel as planned? Did it stop where you wanted? Did you follow-through without dropping the elbow? Is the cue pointing straight down the intended shot line? Again, stay down and invest the time to “See What You’re Seeing” at the Finish position.
And start slowly. For example, practice one shot for twenty minutes with small increases in difficulty (Progressive Practice), take a ten-minute break, practice it another twenty. As Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
My favorite analogy when teaching pool is driving a car. When sitting behind the wheel for the first time there was excitement, followed by sheer terror at all the little things we had to do. OK, now-move-the-seat-seatbelts-adjust-mirrors-don’t-talk-to-me-turn-the-radio-off-blinker- on-check-mirrors-again-brake-pedal-gas-pedal-emergency-brake-gear-shift-where’s-“reverse?”- look-back-take-a-breath ... it seemed a never-ending checklist that felt like a thirty-minute
exercise just to back out of the driveway. Years later, we do this completely automatically – and as we became more experienced drivers, we performed all of these checks without realizing it and reacting to the information received. More importantly, we perform these checks in a specific sequence, spending the appropriate amount of time on each one, making adjustments and re-checks based on the information received and so forth.
What’s important here is that during practice we check the various elements of our pre- and post-shot evaluations in a specific, repeatable sequence, spending whatever amount of time necessary on each element to “see what we’re seeing.” After a few minutes of practice, you’ll find your natural rhythm, where checks are done in the same order for each shot. There is no “correct” rhythm, only your own natural pace.
As with any endeavor, practicing – and playing -- with a positive mental attitude helps make the motions second-nature, the checks automatic, and the performance real.
By: Mark Powell, PBIA Master Instructor.