Personal Best and consistency

During training and practice, we often discuss each player PB and how to be consistent both in training and tournament

 A few weeks prior to the tournament, we gather for training and practice and discuss each player's personal best (PB) break, targets, shots, positions etc. One of these is consistency in reaching each player PB. So we support each other in reaching PBs or as close and as often as possible, in particular when the conditions are right: For example there is an entry marble near the border of the ring and enough marbles are scattered around the ring. These are opportunities not to be missed.

A simple assessment of Yorkshire Meds would establish that out of the six players; we have

• 1x master player (Halim),
• 4x good players (Bob, Karim, Leila, Mourad),
• 1x starter player (Djamel).

The aim is to see how far each player can perform at its skill level and be more consistent in achieving that PB; and eventually move to the next skill level. The other challenge is to be equally performant in the training session and in the main tournament.

For example, in the 2019 training sessions in Leeds, we played a total of 22 games (mainly team event rules) not all players joined all the sessions. Below is a table of the top 5 breaks from each player over these games. So we know what each player is capable to achieve; the focus is to do it more often; and in training as well as in the main centre stage in the tournament

Top 5  breaks  during 2019 training  (# marbles)

Bob

Mourad

Leila

Karim

Halim

12
6
5
4
4

9
9
9
8
7

6
6
5
5
4

7
6
4
4
4

27
10
8
6
5

The team's target is to (collectively) reach 25 marbles in as few turns as possible.