Some people like to say “practice makes perfect,” but I’m with Vince Lombardi, who famously said “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
While scrolling through Facebook groups, I see people asking how they can improve their game. They’ve used all of the tips they’ve been given; throw a flat bag, getting all of the bags on the board, etc. and the only advice people offer up is to practice more. Practice is great, but how do you know if you’re actually improving the parts of your game that need the most work, versus just throwing bags at a board waiting for the magic to happen? That’s where paying attention to statistics comes into play.
The biggest thing is knowing where you are today, not just in general but in terms of specific shots. We all want to shoot that perfect 120 point dekaround, but how’s your airmail? How efficient is your slide shot? How consistently can you lay down a great blocker? The answers to questions like these will not only improve your game over time, but help you make game time decisions right now.
How to Start Using Statistics to Improve Your Cornhole Game
Ironically, one of the easiest ways to introduce statistics to your practice routine is the hardest shot — the airmail. Just throwing 10 airmails and seeing the percentage of makes versus misses can be a huge indicator of where you stand skillswise. I suggest doing this at the very beginning and very end of every practice session, to see how well you fare when you’re fresh but cold, vs. warm but tired.
This same principle can be applied to slide shots, blockers, push shots, etc., but you’ll need to set up very consistent setups and routines to collect useful stats, unlike airmails where they’re in or they’re not. I’ll cover how to collect useful stats for all kinds of shots in future articles. Once you’re doing that, you’ll be able to see your results to add focus and intention to your practices, and understand which areas of your game need more attention.
Using Statistics to Simulate Skills Needed in Cornhole Games
Say you’ve been practicing and are starting to see your percentages increase. What do these percentages mean, though, in terms of actual game play? Let’s refer back to our example with airmails. Trey Ryder once mentioned on an episode of “The Film Room” that professional level players average around 60% of their airmails in game situations. Of course, there are players that are shooting a much higher percentage than that like Jimmy McGuffin, and others struggle with the airmail like the rest of us.
Shooting in your backyard at an open board and successfully airmailing 3 out of four bags every time doesn’t always translate to game situations. Once you start getting your percentages to where you feel that you want to be, start practicing situational shots in order to get a more realistic “game feel”. For example, put an opponent bag on the front edge of the hole, halfway in, and see how well you do making the airmail and leaving that bag where it lies. Then do the same thing with a bag of your own and see how many times you drag it. On any given day you might be hot or cold, but collecting stats over time you should see clear patterns and trend lines that will either give you confidence in a certain shot, or make it clear you need to work on that one.
Collecting Statistics from Actual Cornhole Game Play
A big point of focus should be how these practices are affecting your game! It doesn’t matter if you make every shot at home if you can’t do it on league night or in a tournament. That means you especially want to break down your numbers against opponents to see how you can improve your real game numbers. Try your best to film your matches. Whether it’s at a big time tournament or just a local blind draw. Start looking at how well you’re throwing your slide shots and airmails while playing against a real person. This will showcase how accurate you’re able to be when it matters. Watch that film and track how well you threw those shots and then you can fine tune your practices even further. Film doesn’t lie and is the most honest way to see your numbers. Taking those numbers and applying them to practice routines is a sure way to make sure you feel that you’re always striving for improvement.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you understand the basics of how a data-driven, stats-centric approach can help you assess, understand and improve your game. I look forward to sharing examples and specifics in figure articles, and taking a look at some stats for pros.