Should I start entering tournaments?

[JRobbins]

Hows your safety play? Do you practice safety as well as going for the breaks?

good question. its definitely the part of my game that i need to practice more. Naturally my safety play is good i think, i can just instinctively play a decent safety shot. I think that's mainly down to the way that my brain works and also from watching a lot of snooker when i was younger.
But i am going to start spending more of my time addressing safety play, how much of my 4 hours would you recommend giving to the practice of safety shots?
because i think i'm ok at it, but i realise that it is just as important as break building and will need to be second to none if i want to progress
cheers

[snookerdad]

do you think i'd have a decent chance of perhaps not winning lots of matches, but at least not looking like an idiot in the Regional Tour?
thanks alot

If you can make breaks of more than 40 you will be fine.

The regional tour is split into zones. In each zone there are players of different abilities. Some are just venturing out of the comfort zones of their home clubs; others have genuine promotion prospects.

Tim

[checkSide]

Hmmmmmmm, something doesn't add up here...

You are either not as young as you say you are...

Not as good as you say you are...

Or have been playing a lot longer than 2 months....

Whatever it is, if you really were 15 and making consistent 40+ breaks after 2 months of playing, you wouldn't be worried about entering any tournament whatsoever. You certainly wouldn't be posting on here looking for encouragement.

[JRobbins]

Hmmmmmmm, something doesn't add up here...

You are either not as young as you say you are...

Not as good as you say you are...

Or have been playing a lot longer than 2 months....

Whatever it is, if you really were 15 and making consistent 40+ breaks after 2 months of playing, you wouldn't be worried about entering any tournament whatsoever. You certainly wouldn't be posting on here looking for encouragement.

err, well everything I said previously is correct, did you ever consider I may actually just been naturally decent at snooker?
1) I'm naturally a shy guy and get nervous pretty easily about stuff, which is the main reason I feel as though I need encouragement
2) I know nothing of the junior game and the standards, except for the fact some Belgian kid called Luca Brecel has made 2 147 breaks and is younger than me: starting to see why I was unsure if I was good enough?
3) I'd prefer it if you didn't try and tell ME how I should or shouldn't feel, I felt curious and worried about what I should do, so I asked people with
more experience than me for advice. surely that is the point of an online community such as this, no?

sorry that you don't seem to want to believe me, but I promise you I've told the truth throughout all of my posts.

[northerner]

Well the worst thing that can happen if you enter is that you lose. In fact you will almost certainly lose. So once you've got that out of the way, all you need to do is get used to reproducing your practice standard against the other players you'll come up against. You can't do more than that. Sometimes it'll be enough, sometimes it won't, but you'll become a better player by doing it.

[missneworleans]

I started to take part in competitions in 2 month though my best break was 30...

[checkSide]

err, well everything I said previously is correct, did you ever consider I may actually just been naturally decent at snooker?
1) I'm naturally a shy guy and get nervous pretty easily about stuff, which is the main reason I feel as though I need encouragement
2) I know nothing of the junior game and the standards, except for the fact some Belgian kid called Luca Brecel has made 2 147 breaks and is younger than me: starting to see why I was unsure if I was good enough?
3) I'd prefer it if you didn't try and tell ME how I should or shouldn't feel, I felt curious and worried about what I should do, so I asked people with
more experience than me for advice. surely that is the point of an online community such as this, no?

sorry that you don't seem to want to believe me, but I promise you I've told the truth throughout all of my posts.

If you really are already capable of making frame winning breaks, you should not be worried about playing anybody.
You only need one chance to make one of your consistent 40+ breaks and you would take the frame off anyone, even Ronnie O'Sullivan.

[JRobbins]

If you are already capable of making a frame winning break, you should not be worried about playing anybody.

i guess so, i think i just need that 'push' to get me out there, once i am 'there' i think i'll be fine. cheers

[goku]

you clearly have the talent if your putting in 40+ breaks with a high of 64 after only playing for 2.5 months....well done, i'd be proud of myself if i could achieve this.
now you say this is a hobbie and would like it to be a competitive one at that, so i'm sure at some point you'll have the desire to better yourself especially in match play when your facing players who are able to make century breaks. with that in mind i think you sould keep in mind what adr posted earlier. it may not be practicle for you to play 4 hours a day, i'm sure you have plenty of studing to get through, but when you do start college you'll have more time to practice if you wish to do so. in the mean time good luck an hope you do well.

[Terry Davidson]

In all my years of playing and coaching snooker I have never seen or heard of a player who makes consistent 40+ breaks after 2-1/2 months and playing or practicing only 4 hours a week.

Luca Brecel probably puts in 6 hours a day and has been doing so for at least 4 years, maybe more. He has his own table in his house.

Ronnie O'Sullivan made his first century at 10 years old but he had already been playing every day for 2 years.

You are the most naturally gifted player I have ever heard about and believe me I've seen a lot of young talented players both in the UK and in Canada. With the talent you say you have you should be talking to club owners about getting more practice time because if everything you've said is true then you have the natural ability to become a powerhouse in snooker.

Also, in your posts your English is excellent, much better than any other 15 year old native Englishman I've ever seen too. Most of them these days use the short form from texting on their cellphones and their punctuation normally sucks too.

I would encourage you to at least try and see how good you can be by practicing more and playing in every competition you come across, including the English Amateur, any European ones going and any pro-ams you can find.

Terry

[checkSide]

In all my years of playing and coaching snooker I have never seen or heard of a player who makes consistent 40+ breaks after 2-1/2 months and playing or practicing only 4 hours a week.

Luca Brecel probably puts in 6 hours a day and has been doing so for at least 4 years, maybe more. He has his own table in his house.

Ronnie O'Sullivan made his first century at 10 years old but he had already been playing every day for 2 years.

You are the most naturally gifted player I have ever heard about and believe me I've seen a lot of young talented players both in the UK and in Canada. With the talent you say you have you should be talking to club owners about getting more practice time because if everything you've said is true then you have the natural ability to become a powerhouse in snooker.......

Also, in your posts your English is excellent, much better than any other 15 year old native Englishman I've ever seen too. Most of them these days use the short form from texting on their cellphones and their punctuation normally sucks too....

Like I said, something doesn't add up....

[goku]

Like I said, something doesn't add up....

hmmmmm think you maybe rite checkside, just went through the thread again and something is abit fishy!!!! hope i'm wrong as i dont like to judge people but something is not adding up!!! will have to wait an see, only time will tell i suppose.

[JRobbins]

listen up everybody. everything i've said about myself is correct and true, i havent lied in any way whatsoever throughout my posts. i dont think i'm 'good' at snooker, i dont know if i am or not. all i have told everybody is the facts, whether people think that makes me good or not is their opinion and not my words.
i was really starting to enjoy being part of this forum but doubt and negativity from some of you is starting to confuse me and make me slightly upset. what started as a thread asking a relatively simple question has ending up feeling like an interrogation as to whether i'm even who i say i am. i'm sorry that you all feel this way about me.
and in relation to how good my english is, english happens to be my best and favourite subject. dont you think if i was faking my age i'd stop writing like this and use slang/numbers etc in my posts to go along with the teenage stereotype?

[goku]

jrobbins,
earlier i stated for the time you have spent on the baize and what you have been able to achieve, you should be proud of yourself no negativity stated. also stated you had talent no negativity stated - just speaking my mind and me speaking my mind should not alter the way you play or what you decide to participate in. as for interrogating no body has. as for getting upset - dont be, none of these posts are put up here to upset you and i'm sure every1 can back me on that, let your cue do the talking and i wish you luck for your future on the baize

[cueman]

If you want competitive match play then go along to Willie Thornes club in Leicester where they hold handicaps regularly, I think twice a month on a Sunday.

Also there is also a tournament held at the Ballroom snooker club in Wylde Green, a lot of top class players enter this, £20 entry the likes of Steve James and Mitchell Mann enter quite often as well as a number of very good players from Birmingham who will certainly give you a good test of where you stand.