Tips to keeping still?

[C-J]

The way I see it, keeping still is one of the hardest yet maybe the most influential factor of your "technique", movement on any shot is likely to make anyone miss at any level...
But even if you know all this and more, going about reducing it is a painful process but I can't quite crack it. Sorry this is more a blog post than a question post, but it helps me think of things

Terry mentions these in his 7step procedure

* playing shots slower than even normal,
* staying down after you pot extra longer
* slowwww draw back of cue and pause,
* !

I just know when my back of my head/shoulder start to move it's something I hate and I know its making my cueing awful sometimes.. any more ideas?

it could also be that you are not lined up to the middle of white.You may feel that something is not completely right when feathering but at your final delivery you will have an urge to adjust wich will cause body movement.

[dpdubai]

Quite right ... sorry I didn't word that last post very carefully. I meant to imply that the 95% includes the getting down on the shot, although I wouldn't include the feathers etc...
Frank Callan does infact count the waggles, pausing and backswing as the 95%, according to his site (I've not read his book either). Nobody is suggesting that these figures are mathematically accurate, of coursde, there is no way of measuring them.
Personally though, I would say (infact meant to say) that seeing the shot before getting down and the get-down on the shot constitute the most important part of the shot.
At club level, it seems to me that most players miss when they haven't got this bit right-certainly when a player is 'in' amongst the reds.
At greater distances between the cueball and object ball, of course technique and straight cueing is of the utmost importance and there are many useful threads on this site about this.
I do wonder if there is a situation where if you haven't dropped into the shot nicely, it's impossible to cue straight.
Sorry for the long post, just trying to clear up my opinions.

Sorry for being arguementative, I'm not doing it for the sake of it I promise

But you've got to include feathering and pausing as part of the 95% mate, surely its preparation for the shot and not the shot itself?

Without doubt sighting is at fault in the amatuer game, but in my experience I see more players missing easy shots through a dodgy cue action, I can say this with confidence because I was one of them before I started coaching sessions.

If you cue through the ball a high percentage of the time and miss a pot through sighting its up to you to adjust that aim for the next time. ie too thick or too thin.

If you dont cue straight even over short range and miss a pot its in the lap of the gods wether you can adjust that next time to compensate for your poor aim and unintenional throw off.

Even if you pot it but havent got your cue action down its your donald duck with the positional side of things, sometimes you'll make it sometimes you wont thats why one week we play great and the next week struggle to make 16.

This is what I've absorbed in snooker so far, I dont claim to be any expert just putting my two pence worth in to the thread to keep it lively. Look forward to reading anyone elses opinion.

[cantpotforshíte]

dpdubai:
I know you're not being argumentative, and thanks for your comments - I appreciate your input.
I'm not an expert either, but I just feel that the psychological element is often overlooked when snooker is being coached (well, if not overlooked, then not given the full attention it merits).
I'm beginning to wish that I hadn't called it 'the 95%' and that I hadn't made reference in a previous post to Frank Callan, as, upon revisiting his site I now see that I don't subscribe entirely to his method. It was just something that had stuck in my head from a couple of years ago, I should have been more careful in my research
When I say 'seeing the shot' I don't neccessarily mean sighting - I mean to mentally visualise the shot. I still think that this is a more rudimentary principle than straight cueing - perhaps this is a better way of putting it - you need to visualise the shot [I]then[I] cue straight.
After all, unless you are faced with a dead straight pot, then your cue mustn't actually point at back-of-ball, and you then need to do a bit of subconcious aiming to get lined up.
I've heard people say that snooker is 60% psychology and 40% technique, but I wonder if it's not more than 60% psychology (lets not go down the percentage road again!).
I hope I've made my thoughts a bit clearer - when you try to put these kind of thoughts into words, you realise how good Terry is!
At this point I should apologise to the original poster for going off topic.

[Terry Davidson]

In response to this discussion:

Cueing straight is the holy grail of snooker technique and the key elements that go into this are the following...you MUST select your line of aim when you are standing behind the shot (where you always have the best perspective of the aiming line since you're at height above the shot) and no matter how you stand, you MUST drop your head (eyes or nose) STRAIGHT DOWN on that line of aim with no sideways movement of the head.

Then, it helps if the eyes, right elbow and right foot (for right-handers) are exactly on that line of aim (I use the bottom of the arch of the right foot for myself) of course along with a solid bridge where the 'V' is in the middle of the cueball and also on that line of aim.

I have Callan's book but I haven't checked the exact reference however the 95% figure is the amount of your brain or thought working on POSITIONAL aspects and the remaining 5% is concentrating on the pot, since at this stage (feathering and delivery) the line of aim will be correct and as long as you don't make adjustments and you've chosen the line of aim correctly then the pot will be AUTOMATIC, and where and how hard you hit the cueball for position is what you should be concentrating on.

Also, it's VERY important to stay down on the shot (not just the long shots as someone here says I said originally) and by this I mean on ALL shots where you can stay down until the object ball drops or hits the jaws. Extending this time (like Shaun Murphy) can't do you any harm either and will encourage you to stay still throughout the shot with no 'anticipitory movement'.

Minor movements on the shot are the most common problem with not cueing straight. These can be caused by breathing while feathering, making 'micro adjustments' while feathering, too fast and a not straight backswing, too short a final backswing for the power required which encourages the shoulder to get involved to get the power, no rear pause and therefore too quick a change in direction of the cue causing shoulder/head movement, too tight a grip causing tension in the upper arm and shoulder, perceived mis-alignment on the aiming point of the cue plus probably some more that I've missed here.

Most importantly, let your brain do the work and do not second guess it. Invariably the very first alignment and aiming point you select is the correct one but far too many players (including pros) will make those 'micro adjustments' while down on the shot and feathering. This is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Do not move any part of your body once your bridge hand is on the table and if you feel something's wrong and you have to adjust STAND BACK UP AND REPEAT THE SHOT APPROACH.

Most important point...well, there's 2 actually...DROP THE HEAD STRAIGHT DOWN and DO NOT MAKE MICRO ADJUSTMENTS ONCE DOWN ON THE SHOT.

Terry

[dpdubai]

Good post Terry, I must say sorry to JayDee for seemingly pulling his thread off topic but I think Terry's post backs up some of what I said and I'm sure he'll agree that if your unsure of your technique you should seek out a coach or even do some online analysis with Wayne, Nick or TSF's very own Terry Davidson.

And just incase your wondering I'm not on commision, just a self taught player who got bored of making 40 1 week and 4 the next. Now I have consistency in my game and its down to proper coaching.

Staying still on the shot could just be part of a bigger problem as Terry already said, I found it very hard to self teach.

Some guys do it and get on great, personally I felt as if I was only going to go so far so fast so went for the coaching option.

I wish you well with whatever your working on.

[dpdubai]

[QUOTE=1lawyer;461066]I notice a lot of young player all want to be ROS and run around jumping up off the shot [QUOTE]

See thats the thing that strikes me with Ronnie, everyone wants to be flash and fast like him, fair enough he is pretty fast round the table but one thing had me laughing when they were talking to fans during the masters. One guy said ROS is my favourite because he's so good to watch and takes on everything goes for all the pots others refuse or something along those lines.

Now to me with the exception of one or two shot selection differences ronnie o'sullivan in the balls looks more like a steve davis on fast forward than a jimmy white or hurricane higgins. He's so perfect he NEVER looses the white so never has to take on anything crazy.

His cue action is so grooved and perfect he can do it quickly and effortlessly but when you watch him he's textbook technique and position all the way just super FAST!!

[jb134]

Advice from Terry in this regard has really helped me to stay a lot more stable on the shot. In my experience a light grip is paramount.

[Roenie]

Minor movements on the shot are the most common problem with not cueing straight. These can be caused by breathing while feathering, ...

Terry, thanks for that great post. Would you mind elaborating on the breathing, please?

I've been searching the forums for information on what others say about when (not) to breathe. The information I found (only 2 threads) wasn't very convincing (some contradicting posts) and did not specifically mention feathering, front pause, drawback, rear pause, and delivery of the cue. You're going to have to breathe at some point in that process, right? Otherwise (unless you're quite quick) your muscles/you run low on oxygen by the time you deliver the cue, causing movement on the shot.

Regards,
Roenie

[JayDee]

it could also be that you are not lined up to the middle of white.You may feel that something is not completely right when feathering but at your final delivery you will have an urge to adjust wich will cause body movement.

I like this one the most.. I had a bit of training and the coach said I had decent cueing, stance was okay and a good bridge. But sometimes I was on the wrong line, he'd say and I'd get up and get down correctly, continued on... but in practice I'm sure around 70%+ I'd stay down and play anyway, so frustrating. I know I'm doing it half the time (doubly frustrating) then the other half I simply forget. I think this is when I'd most likely "twitch" with my shoulder trying to get into the line somewhat...
Learning to time the ball was the other, I could have the slow drawback and pause, but still be a bit punchy. Gotta accelerate through though!

[snookerfan91]

Advice from Terry in this regard has really helped me to stay a lot more stable on the shot. In my experience a light grip is paramount.

Same, it surely worked for me tonight!