Screw back-cant do it at all!!

[brendan147]

the best explanation i ever saw was one of those super slow-motion shots of a deep screw (not sure of the player) with (i think) dennis taylor and willie commentating and it actually showed the cue accelerating right through the cueball and beyond, the tip actually brushing the cloth and the follow-through of what looked to be more than 8 inches.

It was amazing...you could see the chalk flying all over the place, the tip of the cue actually bouncing off the cloth and the cueball go airborne about 1/8" off the cloth and then out of the frame.

The secret to very deep screw, the likes which neil robertson or mark allen can achieve with some degree of accuracy is to accelerate through the cueball and keep accelerating right until your grip hand hits your chest after you've dropped your elbow about 3 inches or so to get that 10" or 12" of follow-through with acceleration.

And one more point, and i don'tknow just why this is, but i've found most good left-handed players are much better at long potting as compared to equal right-handed players. Note, that even ronnie, with his wonderful (and unique) cue action cannot equal what neil and mark achieve. Also note that liang wenbo does this too and he's another lefty.

Terry

thank you so much for your explainations.

[vmax4steve]

I can screw a ball back quite well by flattening my bridge hand so that the palm of my hand is flat against the cloth, making the cue as level with the bed of the table as possible. Drop the thumb down so that only a very small vee is made and the cue is only a fingers width above the bed of the table.
Kirk Stevens used to drop his thumb to make the vee at the second joint of the index finger rather than at the knuckle in order to get the cue as low as possible. Different players do it differently, but the onus is on getting the cue as low as possible, and keeping it there throughout the shot.

[Dragonsye]

Amateure analysis!:-D

I may be wrong, but I think I've figured out the trick of the 'long-pot deep screw' shot as I'd like to call it!:-D I analyzed both of Allen's shots (at world's 07 and 09, in shot of the championship) and noticed that he does not accelerate from the beginning- rather he seems to have a steady slow pace till the cue tip meets the cue ball, and he accelerates FROM that point till the end of the 8-10" follow through! So again, it seems to me that what should happen is to start accelerating FROM THE POINT that the TIP CONTACTS with the cue ball, rather than from the beginning of the stroke! I was wondering if the best way to achieve this would be to use the wrist just as the tip touches the cue ball, and continue with the same steady acceleration till the end of the follow through. Jack Karnehm describes the wrist movemet as being similar to when you backspin a hoola-hoop, so that it stops and returns to you. So the trick seems to be to accelerate only AFTER the tip makes contact with the cue ball, be it just a fraction of a second later. Any comments?

Also, I haven't tried it out yet, but I think a soft tip may be detrimental to the backspin imparted on the cue call, because the absorption of momentum by the tip makes it next to impossible to put enough backspin on the cue ball to go a hit an object ball a full table length away, and still have enough spin to stop dead for a second, and come back atleast half of the distance (as in Allen's shot against John Higgins last year).

Just my opinion!:-D

[snookerfan91]

And one more point, and I don'tknow just why this is, but I've found most good left-handed players are much better at long potting as compared to equal right-handed players. Note, that even Ronnie, with his wonderful (and unique) cue action cannot equal what Neil and Mark achieve. Also note that Liang Wenbo does this too and he's another lefty.

Terry

I wish I could agree.. I'm left handed

[Dragonsye]

You missed the 'good' part in Terry's post mate!

[checkSide]

I may be wrong, but I think I've figured out the trick of the 'long-pot deep screw' shot as I'd like to call it!:-D I analyzed both of Allen's shots (at world's 07 and 09, in shot of the championship) and noticed that he does not accelerate from the beginning- rather he seems to have a steady slow pace till the cue tip meets the cue ball, and he accelerates FROM that point till the end of the 8-10" follow through! So again, it seems to me that what should happen is to start accelerating FROM THE POINT that the TIP CONTACTS with the cue ball, rather than from the beginning of the stroke! I was wondering if the best way to achieve this would be to use the wrist just as the tip touches the cue ball, and continue with the same steady acceleration till the end of the follow through. Jack Karnehm describes the wrist movemet as being similar to when you backspin a hoola-hoop, so that it stops and returns to you. So the trick seems to be to accelerate only AFTER the tip makes contact with the cue ball, be it just a fraction of a second later. Any comments?

Also, I haven't tried it out yet, but I think a soft tip may be detrimental to the backspin imparted on the cue call, because the absorption of momentum by the tip makes it next to impossible to put enough backspin on the cue ball to go a hit an object ball a full table length away, and still have enough spin to stop dead for a second, and come back atleast half of the distance (as in Allen's shot against John Higgins last year).

Just my opinion!:-D

I agree with some of this post.

This is as close to defining your timing as it gets. I have also studied a lot of pro's strokes in slow motion. The key is to only accelerate quickly during a very small part of your stroke. The rest of the stroke should be a controlled "medium" paced action. The timing of when to accelerate within the stroke must be determined by the individual player.

If you can master the exact time of when to accelerate during the actual stroke, you will become much more accurate due to the cue only moving fast when it is very close to the cueball, and you impart much more spin.

IMO

[snookerfan91]

Doesn't every shot have to do with timing though?

[RGCirencester]

You can thump a short range stun shot however you want, it'll still stop
You should have good timing on every shot, but it becomes more essential on spin shots.

[Dragonsye]

You can thump a short range stun shot however you want, it'll still stop
You should have good timing on every shot, but it becomes more essential on spin shots.

TOTALLY agree! The more spin you want, the more essential the timing is. Since we ended up discussing a shot with possibly the most spin involved, getting the absolute perfect timing is essential. It is more so because of the fundamental clash between the direction of the momentum of the ball, and the spin we are trying to impart- this is so because we have to put enough backspin on the cue ball to overcome the forward momentum AND still have enough to move the ball a substantial distance in the OPPOSITE direction of the momentum. Any other shot will not need THIS much spin, and therefore the timing will not need to be THIS accurate.

IMO!

[snookerfan91]

Just keep practicing... try getting another folk to help you when at the table, or go to a coach otherwise you ain't going to progress.

[Dragonsye]

Agreed!! Discussion is just a pointer. You may find that your experience is totally different to what we think. BUT you may get there by taking all this into account when playing!! Hope this helps!!

[brendan147]

Example

For those who are still struggling to do screw back, perhaps this video can give you some idea to do the right technique. Cheers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhYuL...eature=related

[snookerfan91]

Great post above.

[brendan147]

Thank you. Hope you like it.

[lkomarci]

From my personal experience, anybody having problems screwing back should video themselves just like Terry mentioned in his post. I'm not too good with the screwbacks, but decent I'd like to believe.

At first I had exactly the same problem as the OP here. I THOUGHT I was doing everything right but I couldn't get almost any response from the cueball eventhough I would be aiming at the extreme bottom of the cueball (like Jimmy White). So after videoing myself, I've noticed the following: I'm aiming at the very bottom of the cueball and while I'm feathering it all looks correct, allbeit as I'm delivering the cue I'm dropping my right elbow (shoulder even) causing the cue's upwards motion. So basically, I'm hitting the CENTER of the cueball! So what do I do, I practice the cueing action at home next to a mirror, and when I'm at the snooker club I do 50 shots, cueball off the brown spot aiming at the black spot and working the cue action while videoing myself. I recommend it, it's going to save you a lot of precious time. PREEECIOUSSSSSS