On the verge of quitting

[cazmac1]

The last 8 months I've had a terrible time with my game. I've got so fed up with the inconsistency in my game and missing simple shots that I'm on the verge of giving the game up for good. For me the best thing about snooker is potting balls and making breaks.
As I'm not getting any younger and it is generally accepted as fact that your game deteriorates with age I've been thinking what’s the point. So before quitting I decided to give it one last chance so this week I've been down club practicing every night working on different things. Now it's strange because I know what the fault is with my game but have not been able to correct it. So tonight I think I finally discovered where I've been going wrong. I've booked coaching lessons with dell hill and am now really looking forward to going through the problem with him.
So what’s the reason for this post?
I would just like to share the problem with you with the view of getting feed back and hopefully some advice and too see if anyone else has had the same fault?
The fault I have is when cuing up and down the spots the white nearly always comes back up the table slightly to the right of the spots but never never to the left and when I do the long blue practice (potting in left hand pocket) I will always miss the pot to the Left of the pocket. So what I'm doing is cuing across the line of aim. So this is what I think is causing the problem. On the approach to the shot I step in and put my right leg down and then lock it, before putting the left leg down. This has the effect of rotating my hips and upper body causing the butt of the cue to move over to the left, hence cuing across the line of the shot. Now this is what I've done to correct it...

On lining up the shot I stand square on to the line of the shot.
Then when I step into the shot I avoid over exaggerating leading with the right leg and locking it when walking into the shot. Instead I walk into the shot place the right leg down, move the left leg out to the left almost parallel to the right leg, but only slightly forward. This has had the effect of stopping my hips from rotating and keeping the cue on the line of aim. I've also found that the right leg naturally locks when getting down on the shot this way.

If any one has had any experience with this I would like to have your take on this.
PS
This is the last throw of the dice.

[Terry Davidson]

Good that you think you have it correct as that will give you more confidence.

However, there must be something else happening as if you get down and feather and then stop your cue in the address position (called 'front pause') just before you start your final backswing you should see that the line of aim of the cue is correct. You do not check the line of aim when you're feathering as your eyes should only flick between the object ball and cueball and NOT the cue.

But at the front pause you DO CHECK the cue and the line of aim. If you feel it is correct and you're still missing that blue to the right then there is something else going on and I'm sure Del will be able to sort that out for you.

Just try this simple exercise a few times and let me know the results. Long blue off the spot with cueball on baulk line and straight into left top pocket.

Play the shot normally but DO NOT FEATHER at all. So drop straight down into the shot with your new foot set-up, place the cue in the address position and check the line of aim of the cue, the spot on the cueball you want to hit and WITH NO FEATHERING AT ALL start your final backswing and delivery.

I can't take credit for this since it is a Frank Adamson exercise taught to Nic Barrow (and likely a host of other pros and ex-pros) and it will tell you right away if you're selecting the correct line of aim and also delivering the cue straight.

If with the above you pot the blue but then when you revert to feathering and you're still on the right of the pocket then you are moving your upper body during the feathering (which is a very common problem and believe it or not Ronnie does it!) If you can get a video camera, line it up head-on over the top pocket and pick a reference object behind your head and record a few normal shots with feathering. That will tell you right away if the head (and thus the right shoulder) is moving and in your case if you are right-handed then it will drop a little bit as you deliver the cue most likely. If you are left-handed it will rise a bit.

Just a few millimeters of head movement either way will cause you to miss a long pot every time and also even easy shots when using power.

Hope this helps, but Del will be able to sort you out I'm certain

Terry

[cazmac1]

Thanks Terry, thanks for the advice I will try next time I'm down the club.
I'm off on holiday for a week on monday and then off to see dell when I get back. So I I'll keep you updated.

[Acrowot]

I have also found that when I shoot the white up and down the centre spots I always put a little right on the cue ball. So now, I think maybe am not hitting the white in the centre, so am aiming what seems to me to be slightly to the left side of the white and can send the white up and down the spots quite straight most of the time.

As for potting long blues into the end pockets, I line the white up and aim the white at the centre of the pocket and not at the blue and it seems to work for me.
:snooker:

[mick 142]

The last 8 months I've had a terrible time with my game. I've got so fed up with the inconsistency in my game and missing simple shots that I'm on the verge of giving the game up for good. For me the best thing about snooker is potting balls and making breaks.
As I'm not getting any younger and it is generally accepted as fact that your game deteriorates with age I've been thinking what’s the point. So before quitting I decided to give it one last chance so this week I've been down club practicing every night working on different things. Now it's strange because I know what the fault is with my game but have not been able to correct it. So tonight I think I finally discovered where I've been going wrong. I've booked coaching lessons with dell hill and am now really looking forward to going through the problem with him.
So what’s the reason for this post?
I would just like to share the problem with you with the view of getting feed back and hopefully some advice and too see if anyone else has had the same fault?
The fault I have is when cuing up and down the spots the white nearly always comes back up the table slightly to the right of the spots but never never to the left and when I do the long blue practice (potting in left hand pocket) I will always miss the pot to the right of the pocket. So what I'm doing is cuing across the line of aim. So this is what I think is causing the problem. On the approach to the shot I step in and put my right leg down and then lock it, before putting the left leg down. This has the effect of rotating my hips and upper body causing the butt of the cue to move over to the left, hence cuing across the line of the shot. Now this is what I've done to correct it...

On lining up the shot I stand square on to the line of the shot.
Then when I step into the shot I avoid over exaggerating leading with the right leg and locking it when walking into the shot. Instead I walk into the shot place the right leg down, move the left leg out to the left almost parallel to the right leg, but only slightly forward. This has had the effect of stopping my hips from rotating and keeping the cue on the line of aim. I've also found that the right leg naturally locks when getting down on the shot this way.

If any one has had any experience with this I would like to have your take on this.
PS
This is the last throw of the dice.

Dont quit its just snooker monday i had 147 in the line up ,last night you would think i was a different player rubbish it just happens what i find helps me is when i play rubbish i put my cue away for a few days till i feel like a game give it a go end of the day its only a game .

[Terry Davidson]

acrowat:

Be careful as it sounds like you are compensating for one fault by adding another, and that road leads to disaster. Make sure your vision is OK and also experiment a bit with turning your head a bit right or left to get the preferred eye a bit more over the cue as this might be slewing your vision a bit and causing you to line up a hair to the right when addressing the cueball

Terry

[Erwan_BZH]

Strangely enough Cazmac, I happen to experience the very same thing. I feel sh*te at the moment, playing like a noob, missing dead straight or easy pots. Last week, my game was just all over the place. I was missing pockets by a mile...which leads to an incredible frustration. Because the worst part of this story is that I know which shot play, how to play it, where to replace the cue ball. I can 'see' the game fairly well but the inability to convert that is hardly bearable. More than once, you wanna smash your cue somewhere after having missed the 100th shot of the day.

Fact is, I'm so addicted that I need my snooker fix and can't leave the game

Like you Cazmac, it seems I have the same technical problem. When striking the cue ball down the table, along the dots, it comes back a bit on the right side. And I can't figure out what's wrong. Being an ultra perfectionist when playing snooker, it went straight into my head for a while now, trying to look for the mistake and how to correct it. I realigned my eyes (cueing under the right eye, which is the dominant) but the results are so-so. I think it's grip which causes the problem but tough to figure out.
Maybe the stance, as Cazmac mentions. I use a boxer stance. Being a right-handed player, my right leg is locked down and the left, slightly in front. I try to pattern on Maguire or Higgins. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here. Still searching an answer, like you...

Please let us know what Del will find on your technique And good luck! Keep the faith!

[cazmac1]

Thanks Erwan for the support. I will definitly leave feed back On how the coaching go's. I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to find out whats going on by myself. If Dell can sort the problem out I'm sure that my potting will improve 100%. I will try and video the session if Dell will allow it.
:snooker::snooker:

HI Terry, I thing you might be right when you said there our other things at work. I've decieded to reserve judement until I've seen dell, I think it's best to see him with an open mind.

[Erwan_BZH]

Video will be really nice! Unfortunately, I can't have access to such coaching lesson so, quite frustrating. Good luck!

[jb134]

Go to englishbilliards.org and learn the shots in billiards, having a new outlet fir your cueing is completely theraputic, a change is as good as a rest.

I was an ok snooker player but am finished now and at the end the missing and fault finding and analysis was driving me mad, the game was literally ruining my day.

Anyway you become obsessed with finding a flawless technique to the point where you can pot 14 long blues and missing the fifteenth is the end of the world.

Anyway, I found and find that when playing billiards, because I am playing an unfamiliar shot and concentrating only on the shot that my nutural cue action (the ok one) comes out, because am not thinking of it.

I can then play passable snooker and for me therein lies the moral, so many of us fall for the belief we can play "perfect" snooker if we work hard enough and practice the right things.

If you work hard enough and practice the right things you can get as good as your ability and your other gifts from god, eg eyesight etc can allow you to get, which for most of us is a long way short of even top amateur status.

Try fooling your cue arm with billiards and don't let yourself be driven away from a game you love.

[mick 142]

Strangely enough Cazmac, I happen to experience the very same thing. I feel sh*te at the moment, playing like a noob, missing dead straight or easy pots. Last week, my game was just all over the place. I was missing pockets by a mile...which leads to an incredible frustration. Because the worst part of this story is that I know which shot play, how to play it, where to replace the cue ball. I can 'see' the game fairly well but the inability to convert that is hardly bearable. More than once, you wanna smash your cue somewhere after having missed the 100th shot of the day.

Fact is, I'm so addicted that I need my snooker fix and can't leave the game

Like you Cazmac, it seems I have the same technical problem. When striking the cue ball down the table, along the dots, it comes back a bit on the right side. And I can't figure out what's wrong. Being an ultra perfectionist when playing snooker, it went straight into my head for a while now, trying to look for the mistake and how to correct it. I realigned my eyes (cueing under the right eye, which is the dominant) but the results are so-so. I think it's grip which causes the problem but tough to figure out.
Maybe the stance, as Cazmac mentions. I use a boxer stance. Being a right-handed player, my right leg is locked down and the left, slightly in front. I try to pattern on Maguire or Higgins. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here. Still searching an answer, like you...

Please let us know what Del will find on your technique And good luck! Keep the faith!

hi you could be turning your wrist in wards on striking the ball just a tiny bit and putting the slightest bit of side on not easy to see but try using a 360 cue for a wile and have some one stand to the side of you the 360 will pick it up and you will see if you are striking the ball in the center .

[ace man]

I went to a pro-am tournament twice. There I finally found players who didn't twist the wrist or put much unwanted side. And they were smooth, no tension and no adrenaline at all...totally relaxed making look everything easy...loads of cue power with very little effort. Yes, only the pros and high end amateurs played like that.
I think that most of us lower level players are setting unrealistic targets for ourselves technique wise.

[Manu147]

Hi all,
Having used a camcorder to video myself, i detected a noticeable flaw, whilst having selected my line ot aim from the standing position and walked into shot i still notice whilst feathering that my right elbow( im right handed) always moves to the right ( when viewed from behind), and when cueing over the spots when i do fail on this i tend always to be slightly imparting left hand side, would the reason for this being that from the point of finding the line of aim and the stage of addresing the cueball , that somewhere in between i come off the correct line, resulting in feelin off line when in the address position, i do play with a pronounced bent bridge arm( something shown as a kid) i know that this feelin of beeing offline has introduced a twisting in of my wrist hand to compensate on delivery of cue at times, could this be a result of moving into shot and over bending bridgearm which is pulling me offline? any ideas would be welcomed?

[mick 142]

Hi all,
Having used a camcorder to video myself, i detected a noticeable flaw, whilst having selected my line ot aim from the standing position and walked into shot i still notice whilst feathering that my right elbow( im right handed) always moves to the right ( when viewed from behind), and when cueing over the spots when i do fail on this i tend always to be slightly imparting left hand side, would the reason for this being that from the point of finding the line of aim and the stage of addresing the cueball , that somewhere in between i come off the correct line, resulting in feelin off line when in the address position, i do play with a pronounced bent bridge arm( something shown as a kid) i know that this feelin of beeing offline has introduced a twisting in of my wrist hand to compensate on delivery of cue at times, could this be a result of moving into shot and over bending bridgearm which is pulling me offline? any ideas would be welcomed?

HI how tall are you and how long is your cue the reason i ask is that most tall players bend there bridge arm unless you have a long cue . you may be arking your arm on the back swing this could put unwanted side on when you deliver the cue .

[Manu147]

Hi Mick,
Iam 5ft 10, using a 57 inch cue, but my arm has probably more bend than most players i know, and on alot of power type shots my cue will come off the bridge to end up pointing to the left, sometimes i get the feeling that having walked into the shot and bent the bridge arm that my balance might be too forward or that im too hunched up (sometimes i get tension around the neck and shoulders), and in fact i have problems viewing the object ball in long distance shots at times, have a feelin of wanting to lift my head slightly to view shot better, just curious if anybody else has this problem, i do play the game to amateur international standard but know these are drawbacks .