What causes inconsistency?

[Terry Davidson]

vmax:

I don't quite agree with your theory because of this point. If a player is moving slightly during his backswing or delivery, but especially upper body movement during the delivery since his eyes are focused on the object ball he will not have the cue in his peripheral vision and therefore not be aware of that micro-movement through the normal method of visual feedback.

He might be aware of it through sensing it but that is not as good a feedback loop as vision.

That micro-movement will take the cue tip slightly off the chosen spot on the cueball the player has decided to hit (his line of aim at the address position).

When a player who has minor movement in his cue action somewhere gets his timing and rhythm absolutely correct and gets the cue back to the correct address position just before he hits the cueball then he pots everything.

If his timing and rhythm are out by just a fraction of a second then the cue does not return precisely to the correct address position and he plays like crap and can't pot any long ball especially.

What I'm saying is why have the movement at all, when it's so easy to control and so difficult to compensate for? Eliminate it and there's no compensation required and you will be a much better player.

Terry

[Nic Barrow]

The question is: 'What causes CONSISTENCY'?

Why i play so well on one day, cue straight every shot, and a few days later, keep on cueing across the cue ball.

I tried so so many ways to find out reasons, really cannot find any real evidence what causes my good form on one day and bad on another

Snooker is a very complex, but very simple, game.

So, it is about reducing the number of variables in your technique, pre shot routine, post shot routine, mental approach and percentage strategy.

Past this, it is about knowing how all these components fit together - and keeping this fit consistent too (not that any of us would be tempted to chop and change our games in search of the elusive 'perfect game'!)

Past that, it is about being able to:
DIAGNOSE what you are doing differently to previously.
PRESCRIBE what you need to do to correct that.
EXECUTE that prescription.
Then observe the results and see if they are as predicted!
You sometimes need to also realise that you CANNOT diagnose what you should be doing better. This is ok and you need to be able to live with that from time to time.
"When I was plyaing bad, I never made the mistake of getting dragged into changing mechanics - I would always just stick to my approach and play my way through it." Ray Reardon (6 times world champion for those of you who don't know!)
The times in my life when I bit the butt of my cue in frustration were when I had a misplaced expectation that I didnt need to apply any of the three steps above to play 'well'!

All this leads to the following fact:
Players of a lower average standard have bigger variations in their standard from day to day.
Players of a higher average standard have smaller variations in their standard of play - but still have variations nonetheless. Even the top 4 players!
It is IMPOSSIBLE not to be inconsistent - it is how you deal with it that counts.

If your highest break (in a competitive frame - not the line up) is less than 75 then it is a mistake to look at consistency in my opinion.
Far better to look at the second and third lines of this post, then keep coming back down to the bottom until you don't need to anymore!

[FOXMULDER]

Why i play so well on one day, cue straight every shot, and a few days later, keep on cueing across the cue ball.

I tried so so many ways to find out reasons, really cannot find any real evidence what causes my good form on one day and bad on another

Some people - like Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry - can function like machines; unfortunately the rest of us function like human beings, and inconsistency is simply natural.

Do what I do: if you're cueing well, play all day; if you're cueing poorly, put the cue away and do something else.