Long blue practice routine

[cantpotforshíte]

I normally pot about 2 out of three of these ... maybe 1 out of 2 on a bad day. The only time that I practice them is when my playing partner goes for a quick toilet break or to get the drinks in.
The other day however, I was playing with my girlfriend who had a bit of stomach bother and had to go for a poo.
Grateful for the extra time I applied myself to the long blue practice shot and achieved 9 out of 9.
I didn't even miss the tenth, I just ran out of time as she returned. I can't say exactly what I did right to achieve such an improvement - I wasn't consciously attempting to do anything right technically, I just seemed to be focusing on the back-of-ball point effortlessly, and it all slotted together.

[cally]

Bit too much information about the missus there bud...:snooker:

[cantpotforshíte]

Sorry about that
I'll cut down on the background stuff in future

[dpdubai]

When Im waiting for my opponent to come back from the toilet i do the long blue aswell.

The other 1 I like is clearing colours to blue then play blue to black and black till you miss or havent got the angle to hold anymore. If thats the case back for blue then back down to black again to repeat as many on the black. I find it helps with taking a mid table red then blue or baulk colour or whatever and your quite tidy round the table as you work down for the red then black at bottom end and your in the scoring zone as they say.

[noel]

IThe other day however, I was playing with my girlfriend who had a bit of stomach bother and had to go for a poo.
Grateful for the extra time I applied myself to the long blue practice shot and achieved 9 out of 9.
I didn't even miss the tenth, I just ran out of time as she returned. I can't say exactly what I did right to achieve such an improvement - I wasn't consciously attempting to do anything right technically, I just seemed to be focusing on the back-of-ball point effortlessly, and it all slotted together.

Kneel. [ taps each shoulder with the ceremonial TW cue ]
Rise up and stand.

"Henceforward you shall be known as "canpotforshíte"!


=o)

Noel

[cox orange pippin]

Well, I'm just getting back to playing a bit of snooker and today I had a one hour session. After playing american pool for years, I got bored with it and have been studying snooker, as I really enjoyed it when I played it in the past. In my recent studies, I realized that my stance was way off. My natural stance is hips way open to the right (I'm right handed), almost a sideways stance. Also, my right knee is bent, which is not how the textbooks teach the stance.

So, I straightened up the stance, made the right leg straight and the result was a very uncomfortable feeling! I think I had too much weight on the back (right) leg, as I couldn't even get down on my shot properly. I felt like I needed to do some stretching or something, as my hamstring was very tight. Even with weight forward, it still feels very awkward. What is the weight distribution on each leg in a proper stance?

Nevertheless, I did the long blue routine and noticed that I was consistently pushing the blue to the left (i.e., cue ball was hitting too far to the right on the blue). I thought my cueing action must be at fault, so as a test I put the cue on the brown spot and played straight up the table into the top rail and let the cueball come back. When I tried this I put it over the blue/pink/black spots and back to my cue tip (or within an inch of it) time after time. Odd, I thought. This cue action seemed fine. I even tried the steve davis exercise of playing over the spots with side and it was spot on as well.

So, being confident that my cue action was fine, I went back to the long blue routine...same thing: blue going left. I checked the grip and the way I was taught (no doubt, incorrect) was a very loose grip, basically with the thumb and forefinger and maybe a little middle finger. The texts all seem to show a full grip (not tight, but all fingers in the action). I suppose that could be part of the problem, but I am still unsure why the cue on the spots routine was perfect and repeatable, but potting the blue was repeatably to the left.

[damienlch]

i wouldn't worry about the right leg not being dead straight. a coupla pro snooker players stand with their right leg bent too, for e.g. peter ebdon, mark king etc... it didn't prevent them from being prolific potters...

the long blue routine will always be a test on one's technique, perhaps u are using more power when going for the blue than running the white over the spots, hence applying unwanted side and thus missing the pot.

i tend to rush on my shots and i find that it helps if i remember to (1) slow down on my final backswing before hitting the cue ball (2) ensure i hv a relaxed grip (not loose though) and (3) stay down on my shots... not sure if that'll be helpful to u... cheers...

[cantpotforshíte]

Kneel. [ taps each shoulder with the ceremonial TW cue ]
Rise up and stand.

"Henceforward you shall be known as "canpotforshíte"!


=o)

Noel

Thanks for brightening up my Sunday morning Noel
'Canpotforshíte' : I like the sound of it ... very ... capaple sounding.
I'll have to get in touch with the publishers of my new snooker coaching book: 'The cantpotforshíte method' and get them to rename it.