Snooker "Courses"/Coaching In a Book/Online

[LavaChild]

A moment of divine intervention! When I'd read about using chalks before I gathered people meant drawing a little chalk mark on the cloth... Which I never dared do on the clubs tables.

Never did it occur to me to use them either away from the ball or as some kind of co-ordinate system on the cushions!



Thank you

[checkSide]

Yes Lava, make a little chalk mark on the cloth!

It's the best way, the way all coaches use.

It brushes out easily.

[cm59]

i thought people would say i was mad after that post lol yeah its the only real way to make sure you are playin the same shot

oh yeah another good drill is line the reds up down the middle of the table leave the colours and just pot reds see how many you can get in a row just gently rolling through the object ball and playing shot from other side of table this helps with positioning using top you have to judge the pace etc right. Try to always leave the white with plenty of space between it and the cushion to make shot easier

[RGCirencester]

I'm not sure if it is the degree I'm doing (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) but I am completely unable to hold down your stereotypical student lifestyle.

Lava.. Your me!!!!!!!! Final Year BEng Electronic Engineering Iwas doing EEE but i switched because i prefer the embedded systems (microprocessors etc.) to power systems.

You should stay down on the shot until the ball has fallen in the pocket really so if you miss put your cube of chalk where the tip of the cue finished. You can then place the white just behind the chalk and it should be on roughly the same line.

Oh and one thing, I've seen countless people playing "blacks" off the spot over and over again, i've watched them pot the black in the right pocket, walk round the table, replace the black then walk back to the original side of the table to pot it again... It doesn't have to be the black... just a ball... So i i keep 5 reds at either side of the table and put those on the spot if the white finishes in the same side of the table. Saves a bit of walking!!!

[cm59]

yeah i did that a few times at first rg then i thought what the **** am i doin all the balls are the same just different colours so yeah put like 5 in the one side pot it reach down re set another then when uv emptied that pocket walk round and work through the other pocket

[maximumbreak]

Come and visit us at www.maximumbreak.com for a complete range of snooker coaching articles, tutorials and other related material. Look out for the new look website, which is coming soon.

[Nathan147]

Lava you sound exactly like me! I only picked the game up a few months ago, and university is stealing all my table time.

I am very "logically" minded, shall we say, and see where you're coming from in terms of practice. Short of learning the way balls interact with each other, and the mechanics required by the cue action, it really is just practice, and making your body know what to do!

A few tips though; Potting balls really is about getting your cue through straight. Set up some perfectly straight long pots, and imagine pushing your cue "into" the pocket. This should help you get a feel for a straight cue action!

Remember to get down into the shot, and if it doesn't look right, get back up and then go back down.

Keep your head down, don't move any part of your body except your cueing arm, and keep a firm bridge.

These are all things I found to be fundamental to potting balls, which in itself is fundamental to the game!

I recommend this book as well, it explains a lot of the fundamental techniques required for snooker;

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10042078/S...er-Steve-Davis

Good luck! I'm a music student and know how hard it can be to find free time! I have a musical practice schedule as well as a snooker one

Peace

[topcoach]

hi im a professional ebsa coach.i will give you free advice no problem.
topcoach!

[LavaChild]

topcoach,

Thanks for the reply but you're a post or too short of having PM privs... Therefore, cannot get in touch.

If all you need is 10 posts, maybe just reply again and I'll be able to get in touch!

Cheers.

[topcoach]

im in chat room now

[JoeNut]

Thanks for the replies

A week or two ago I purchased The Snooker Gym "Perfect Practise Routines" book.. So I've got plenty of them to go at. The problem is that they obviously require you to be able to get most pots in... At the moment if you give me a single ball on the table and say pot it, then sometimes I'll get it and others I wont. More often not though.

EDIT: The Frank Callan site says: "It is imperative that you now begin to practice the right things in the right way or you will not improve". I suppose this exactly what I'm asking in this thread... What are the "right things" to be practising? And (Though, this one is easier!) what is the "right way"?

You need to make sure you're cueing smoothly and accurately, an easy way to do this is:

Put the white ball on the brown spot, and hit it to follow the spots all the way to the black, and bounce back up, if you're cueing straight, it'll hit the tip of your cue.

It's more than likely that you won't hit the tip of your cue, i struggle to do it most times and sounds like me and you are about as good/bad as each other.

[DandyA]

You need to make sure you're cueing smoothly and accurately, an easy way to do this is:

Put the white ball on the brown spot, and hit it to follow the spots all the way to the black, and bounce back up, if you're cueing straight, it'll hit the tip of your cue.

It's more than likely that you won't hit the tip of your cue, i struggle to do it most times and sounds like me and you are about as good/bad as each other.

either that or it'll roll off over the the knackered blue, pink and black spots on most club tables ... if you want to try this exercise (whiich is good), I'd suggest putting the white 2 inches to the left or right of the brown spot and trying the same thing ...

another good one is put a ball (any ball) on the brown spot and hit it at your preferred weight into top left, then another ball into top right, then more balls into left and right centre ...

that should be easy ... but now do the same either hitting softly or with power ... getting a bit harder isn't it!

but if it's still too easy? well you're not doing badly ... put a ball 12 inches from the ball on the brown spot directly in line with the pocket you're aiming for and hit that in the pocket (using the cue ball on the brown spot) ...

[LavaChild]

Just been for a two hour practise... Tried a few of the methods mentioned here but focussed on just splitting the reds and colours on the spot and just tried to get them in all with as few mistakes as possible (Did not care which ball I went for).

My "best" was clearing them all with 40 misses (So I guess that means 61 strikes of the cueball in total). I did clear some "difficult" pots though which gave me confidence...

Afterwards I tried to simply do long blues etc and found that I seem to always hit the object ball far to fine. I'm planning on working on this ASAP.

The biggest thing I noticed is that I always hear you cuehand should always hit your chest. Mine seems knowhere near it (Almost out at the side)... So I'll need to read a few of the books listed here, and looking at some photos of pros, to work that one out too.

Towards the end I was poor but I put that down to having say 10 balls on the table and telling myself I couldn't go til they were down... In reality I was "ready" to go then and couldn't pot them for the life of me. Next time I will stop before this stage kicks in, as until this stage I did feel an improvement had been made.

[RGCirencester]

I always clear the table before i leave. I never get fed up! I actually played my best snooker on my 7th straight hour at my club yesterday not good but good for me as i raised my highest break from 18 to 19 which i was impressed with because i had to canon 2 reds apart off the blue (which turned out perfect and i was very im pressed with myself)

[cm59]

hi im the same my arm is nowhere near my chest either i seem to be getting worse not better i played on tuesday really well amazed myselof so i know i can do it but the past few days ive been abysmal