Sighting, eyesight, and cueing methods ?

[PatBlock]

....it also doesn't help being 64 years of age....

Does anyone still need you, does anyone still feed you?

[Richard pincott]

Hi mate.
That’s a great thorough answer.
Ok. So it appears that you have been cueing straight but slightly offline. Did you try to cue through the white then lower the cue to see where it was?
Before you altered your stance were you ( from baulk ) missing shots into the left black pocket thin and right black pocket thick?
It looks like you might have sorted it by moving your foot which is fine if it works for you. Especially if you are tall or your upper body is not resting on the table.
Personally, I am a firm believer that the stance has very little or nothing to do with the line of aim and that any cueing error comes from above the table and can be rectified there. For me any minor adjustments would be to small to alter on the floor or rely on to be the same or trusted every time. Walking into the shot and or bending down to the shot should be completely natural for good players. It’s something the eyes and brain train your legs to do over time.
You are right though that if your hand is not on the potting line with your tip ( plain ball shots ) for the 1-2 inches the tip has contact with the cue ball in theory you will miss assuming you are striking the white on the centre line. That’s why I mentioned checking the cue after you have played the shot to see where it was on the baulk line.
I am older than you and the game becomes harder every week. I use glasses which unfortunately make the balls look slightly oval. I am in the process of trying to get a pair made to stop this.
I still enjoy playing though.
When I watch players of lower standard play it’s easy to see the things that we can all do wrongly.
Just the movement of the head, bridge, body, and cue which lots of them do constantly is a reminder of some of the many other things that can make you miss.
Thanks for the reply
Good luck

[vmax]

Hi mate.
That’s a great thorough answer.
Ok. So it appears that you have been cueing straight but slightly offline. Did you try to cue through the white then lower the cue to see where it was?
Before you altered your stance were you ( from baulk ) missing shots into the left black pocket thin and right black pocket thick?
It looks like you might have sorted it by moving your foot which is fine if it works for you. Especially if you are tall or your upper body is not resting on the table.

I'm six foot two and straight balls on the blue spot from the baulkline (when missed) were always missed to the left, playing the cue ball up and down the spots from the brown spot always resulted in the cue ball coming back 1/2 a ball to the right of my tip.
When in close I could make some pretty good breaks, but my long game was a lottery as was my safety and putting my right foot heel on the line rather than the instep puts this right so it's a matter of about three inches to rectify that 1/4 to 1/2 inch strike from left to right.
Obviously I can't pot them all, like you say there are other reasons for missing balls and I'm not immune to any of them, but instead of missing by a foot to the left I now jaw them right or left, when I can remember right foot rather than just get down.

[Richard pincott]

I'm six foot two and straight balls on the blue spot from the baulkline (when missed) were always missed to the left, playing the cue ball up and down the spots from the brown spot always resulted in the cue ball coming back 1/2 a ball to the right of my tip.
When in close I could make some pretty good breaks, but my long game was a lottery as was my safety and putting my right foot heel on the line rather than the instep puts this right so it's a matter of about three inches to rectify that 1/4 to 1/2 inch strike from left to right.
Obviously I can't pot them all, like you say there are other reasons for missing balls and I'm not immune to any of them, but instead of missing by a foot to the left I now jaw them right or left, when I can remember right foot rather than just get down.

I have a similar problem to you now but opposite lol.
I think the side of my beer gut is in way 🤣 and is pushing the cue outwards slightly where I have put on weight. In and around the balls I rarely miss because the margin of error is less over short distances obviously. You have worked out a way to move your cue over a 1/4 of an inch. I have to work out a way to get through skin or move the cue 1/4 inch to the left lol. For me moving my stance is not an option. It’s ingrained into my game and is part of the hand eye brain coordination. On longer shots I am just not quite hitting what I am looking at. Without losing weight 😃 the first option I will try is delivering the cue with a slight elbow drop. This might allow my hand to deliver the cue without the unwanted restriction ?
we will see.
good luck with your adjustment mate.

[tomwalker147]

Aim when stood up behind the line of the shot and get down on that line.
My feathers are more reaffirming I'm hitting where I want to on the cueball, as for when striking the cue ball I haven't a clue what I look at nor do I want to think about it, it'll drive me crazy!

[Richard pincott]

Aim when stood up behind the line of the shot and get down on that line.
My feathers are more reaffirming I'm hitting where I want to on the cueball, as for when striking the cue ball I haven't a clue what I look at nor do I want to think about it, it'll drive me crazy!

Yes. Eyes and brain should sort it out before you get down as long as you let them. Being absolutely sure is key.
people look at different things/ places etc. The hardest part is getting the white to the target.That’s usually where it all goes wrong especially if you are not on good form. Take Ronnies 147 in 5 minutes. He obviously wasn’t thinking of anything. His eyes in coordination with the brain were on auto pilot. Us mere mortals make things go wrong lol

[tomwalker147]

Yes. Eyes and brain should sort it out before you get down as long as you let them. Being absolutely sure is key.
people look at different things/ places etc. The hardest part is getting the white to the target.That’s usually where it all goes wrong especially if you are not on good form. Take Ronnies 147 in 5 minutes. He obviously wasn’t thinking of anything. His eyes in coordination with the brain were on auto pilot. Us mere mortals make things go wrong lol

I think when you're flying the only real thought that comes into your head is "where do I want to leave the cue ball", i've had a bug all week, felt really rough and got a call from my one frame thursday night team to say we were short last night, won my frame then had 64 and 86 in two mess about games of doubles afterwards. I felt like crap but so much of snooker at amateur level is how you see things on the day.

[Richard pincott]

I think when you're flying the only real thought that comes into your head is "where do I want to leave the cue ball", i've had a bug all week, felt really rough and got a call from my one frame thursday night team to say we were short last night, won my frame then had 64 and 86 in two mess about games of doubles afterwards. I felt like crap but so much of snooker at amateur level is how you see things on the day.

True.
I had a 5 frames yesterday. Played dreadful. I got to the table ok. Checked white etc. I just couldn’t pick up the spot again so consequently had trouble letting go of the cue. Plus everything else was going wrong like finishing Chinese, flicking balls and going inoff or snookering myself. Plus he had a constant good run lol
Sometimes feeling bad heightens your concentration I reckon. That’s probably why you played ok.

[itsnoteasy]

I think when you're flying the only real thought that comes into your head is "where do I want to leave the cue ball", i've had a bug all week, felt really rough and got a call from my one frame thursday night team to say we were short last night, won my frame then had 64 and 86 in two mess about games of doubles afterwards. I felt like crap but so much of snooker at amateur level is how you see things on the day.

Sometimes if you're not expecting much, it takes the pressure off and you completely relax.

[screwed_back]

So I'm left handed player and right eye dominant and as I've been out of the snooker game for more than half my life and when I did play I never had coaching just had a table my parents got me from very young and then playing on my brothers table and some clubs with my brother/dad/uncle/ just telling me how to line up a shot as they knew, I just returned to playing two weeks ago after a quick 15 year break and although I could line up some shots and get good play my consistency was horrible...

Yesterday however that all changed and everything seemed to click, I was having trouble with my cue action before it felt like my cue was coming across me and just didn't feel smooth each shot felt different. So all I did was is start to cue with the side of my chin/face and this just made cueing and lining up shots literally 100x easier, I was potting so pretty good shots together in the line up and just open practice at times thinking when will I miss? Got too cocky and started playing too fast so it came to bite me but it's definitely something you should try out if you haven't already!

EDIT: By side of face/head turned so my right is the main spectator so to speak of the table and shot and I guess in doing this it's straightened out my stance and action in some way

[Richard pincott]

So I'm left handed player and right eye dominant and as I've been out of the snooker game for more than half my life and when I did play I never had coaching just had a table my parents got me from very young and then playing on my brothers table and some clubs with my brother/dad/uncle/ just telling me how to line up a shot as they knew, I just returned to playing two weeks ago after a quick 15 year break and although I could line up some shots and get good play my consistency was horrible...

Yesterday however that all changed and everything seemed to click, I was having trouble with my cue action before it felt like my cue was coming across me and just didn't feel smooth each shot felt different. So all I did was is start to cue with the side of my chin/face and this just made cueing and lining up shots literally 100x easier, I was potting so pretty good shots together in the line up and just open practice at times thinking when will I miss? Got too cocky and started playing too fast so it came to bite me but it's definitely something you should try out if you haven't already!

EDIT: By side of face/head turned so my right is the main spectator so to speak of the table and shot and I guess in doing this it's straightened out my stance and action in some way

It’s never easy after a long layoff. I struggle after a 2 week holiday. We are all individual cases and if you have found a way to play better then that’s great. I have literally tried everything possible over 50 years of playing to find something to improve just a little bit more. I think we are what we are and our ability is capped at a certain point. All sports are the same. Can you imagine Ronnie or Judd changing their actions to try and improve ?
The secret I believe is to refine what you have without changing the basic coordination between your eyes, brain, and hand. ( your natural cue action)
Regardless of your standard whenever we miss or don’t get position we have done SOMETHING wrong. Improving is knowing what has gone wrong and putting it right. IF YOU CAN 😃