BIG SHOUTOUT to Terry Davidson

[tcollick]

Terry, u da man! Thanks for all your articulate and helpful posts and long may it continue

[prateekchopra_10@TSG]

hello everyone
and a big thanks to TERRY whose knowledge of snooker is so good.following his advice from all the posts i have improved drastically from an avg. club player to one of the best in our locality.now i can easily have 30+ breaks and on my day can cross 50+ also.
Once again than you Terry.
__________________
Originally posted at Http://www.thesnookergym.com/forums

[Terry Davidson]

Just a short notice on backswing length. Most coaches (including Nic Barrow) advocate a long backswing (8in or so) on EVERY shot except perhaps the very slow 'putt' shots on reds around the black.

When I had my 1-to-1 with Nic last September (2008) it was one of the !!ELEVEN!! points I was tasked to work on.

I found with that long backswing I was losing control of the cue and my backswing was a little off-line just at the very end when my elbow dropped. (I have always played with a very short backswing, in fact too short, and this led to some upper body movement from the rapid change in direction of the cue).

I also noticed that even Nic was using a backswing of different lengths on different power shots and I braced him with that question 'if a longer backswing is so important, HOW COME YOU DON'T DO IT CONSISTENTLY? I then started watching my DVDs when I got home and some pros, like Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins use the long backswing on virtually every shot, but other very good pros, like Ronnie for instance, use backswings of various lengths but generally on the shorter ones it was still somewhere around 4in.

For myself, although I would like to be able to use the longer (8in or more) backswing consistently I haven't yet gotten to the point where I remain absolutely still throughout the backswing, especially when it's time to drop my elbow, so I tried to keep the backswing proportional to the amount of power I'm going to use and that seemed to do the trick.

The other point I have on this topic is one I read from Terry Griffiths in SnookerScene where he said the feathering lengths should be the same length as the final backswing in order to get a 'feel' for the shot. On checking with my DVDs again and watching both myself and some good players here I discovered virtually EVERYONE (or at least all who feather so exempt Marco Fu) ALWAYS has a longer final backswing that the length of the initial feathers.

So the important point here is (and maybe I should re-phrase the backswing rule) is your backswing should be slow enough so that you can POSITIVEL control it and keep it straight and should only be as long as you can also POSITIVELY control it. So, if you can control a backswing of 10in or so and draw the ferrule right back to the 'V' of your bridge then that length of backswing will work for you AS LONG AS IT'S ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT.

I hope that clarifies the backswing rule for everyone. (Even though I hate to differ with Terry Griffiths on that feathering thing).

Now if someone could just tell me how to naturally develop a rear pause I would be a happy man!!!

Terry

[Forman]

Just a short notice on backswing length. Most coaches (including Nic Barrow) advocate a long backswing (8in or so) on EVERY shot except perhaps the very slow 'putt' shots on reds around the black.

When I had my 1-to-1 with Nic last September (2008) it was one of the !!ELEVEN!! points I was tasked to work on.

I found with that long backswing I was losing control of the cue and my backswing was a little off-line just at the very end when my elbow dropped. (I have always played with a very short backswing, in fact too short, and this led to some upper body movement from the rapid change in direction of the cue).

I also noticed that even Nic was using a backswing of different lengths on different power shots and I braced him with that question 'if a longer backswing is so important, HOW COME YOU DON'T DO IT CONSISTENTLY? I then started watching my DVDs when I got home and some pros, like Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins use the long backswing on virtually every shot, but other very good pros, like Ronnie for instance, use backswings of various lengths but generally on the shorter ones it was still somewhere around 4in.

For myself, although I would like to be able to use the longer (8in or more) backswing consistently I haven't yet gotten to the point where I remain absolutely still throughout the backswing, especially when it's time to drop my elbow, so I tried to keep the backswing proportional to the amount of power I'm going to use and that seemed to do the trick.

The other point I have on this topic is one I read from Terry Griffiths in SnookerScene where he said the feathering lengths should be the same length as the final backswing in order to get a 'feel' for the shot. On checking with my DVDs again and watching both myself and some good players here I discovered virtually EVERYONE (or at least all who feather so exempt Marco Fu) ALWAYS has a longer final backswing that the length of the initial feathers.

So the important point here is (and maybe I should re-phrase the backswing rule) is your backswing should be slow enough so that you can POSITIVEL control it and keep it straight and should only be as long as you can also POSITIVELY control it. So, if you can control a backswing of 10in or so and draw the ferrule right back to the 'V' of your bridge then that length of backswing will work for you AS LONG AS IT'S ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT.

I hope that clarifies the backswing rule for everyone. (Even though I hate to differ with Terry Griffiths on that feathering thing).

Now if someone could just tell me how to naturally develop a rear pause I would be a happy man!!!

Terry

This is a wonderful level of depth and detail on the backswing, i really like how you offer a detailed logical explanation of why you teach certian things the way you do, i seem to be making a habit of copying and pasting your coaching posts into a word file, im getting together quite a good version of "Terrys coaching manual" just from the fourm , (for my own sole use of course).

Thanks again Terry for all the great advice

[Terry Davidson]

forman:

You can publish if you want as I haven't copyrighted any of this, but I do want credit through

Terry

[JayDee]

To be honest Terry how I felt is that whenever I'm doing 8 or so inches for most shots it wasn't going well at all and at about 4inches I was cueing much nicer. I don't do many power shots but I felt I could get quite enough power with 5 inches give or take, whilst retaining better cue action. Whats the benefite for learning how to play alot of shots with a longer backswing ?

[Terry Davidson]

JD:

The only benefit I can think of is a longer backswing prevents a player from 'clutching' the cue (meaning grip hand not coming all the way through to the chest) on those slow to medium power shots.

However, given my own experience and what I'm hearing from other players and students hitting the chest consistently can be learning in other and easier ways and the downside of a longer backswing is there's a MUCH greater risk of losing control of the cue near the end of that backswing (say anything over 6in or so) when the elbow has to drop to keep the cue level.

I think, (and this is my own personal opinion) trying to develop and longer backswing is hazardous to your backswing straightness and it's much better to have the backswing proportional to the amount of power applied to the shot. However, if we want to be able to screw back like Neil Robertson when we have that 10ft straight-in pot from baulk and we want to screw back to past the blue then that kind of shot will take a long backswing of 10in or so AND I would have to say a very fast cloth not available to the average player.

I believe this long backswing theory came as a lot of the present-day top pros are using it, especially Mark Selby who uses it on all his shots and has rapidly improved in the rankings, going from the 50's somewhere up to #4 within a couple of years. But I think Mark (and Higgins, Murphy, Maguire and even Hendry) LEARNED the game when they were all quite young and developed that long backswing in their early days when they were youngsters and quite short.

To try and re-vamp your backswing and get it longer when you are an adult I believe is a much tougher thing to do and also the benefits of the longer backswing (grip hand hitting chest consistently) can be taught much easier using other methods and metal hints.

However, in saying that for a very young student who is just starting out I believe I would try and teach the longer backswing because I think it would make him much more naturally consistent and also give him the option and being able to hit very high power shots more consistently and accurately.

So for everyone reading this...I think the choice is up to you. If you want the ability to be able to screw back 8ft from a 10ft shot and look like Neil Robertson or even Liang Wenbo and a few others, then try out that long backswing but be sure to keep your backswing ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT THROUGHOUT, ESPECIALLY THE LAST 2 OR 3 INCHES.

Terry

[sneaky_russian]

I want to join everybody and say THANKS A LOT TERRY!
You give PRICELESS advises!
I've made a lot of changes in my game already and I can see how my game improves!
I'm really looking forward to become your student! ))))

[marshoush]

Yeah!

Terry All the way his help made me do my highest break = 18 and with my left hand it was 7 which i feel proud of to :snooker:

[brendan147]

Terry...

You are my "first" coach...thanks a lot sir...you are the best...!!!

[Wayne G]

This is a wonderful level of depth and detail on the backswing, i really like how you offer a detailed logical explanation of why you teach certian things the way you do, i seem to be making a habit of copying and pasting your coaching posts into a word file, im getting together quite a good version of "Terrys coaching manual" just from the fourm , (for my own sole use of course).

Thanks again Terry for all the great advice

Forman,

I didn't realize that you could copy posts into a word file. I learn something new everytime I log on. Thank you.

Wayne G

[brendan147]

Forman,

I didn't realize that you could copy posts into a word file. I learn something new everytime I log on. Thank you.

Wayne G

I did the same thing. Copy/paste what Terry's said in the forum.

[Terry Davidson]

Now, will one of you publish it please? BUT, I want my cut...say 75%

Terry