Improving potting consistency

[checkSide]

I dont know if I get you properly. The balls are the same size man so it is the same margin of error. (also you can aim for different parts of the pocket (money part of pocket etc)

The line of the shot - and learning the potting angle as long bomber says is very important I feel (although he does it different than me by looking at the cloth which is an interesting technique)

All I am saying in respose to checkside is that I can send the white where I need to and so can you and almost everyone else on this forum. Therefore what most of us stuggle with is shot selection and judging the potting angle when hitting another ball.

Of course I am not discounting technique and this is one of the main aspects of consistency that can only improve with practice too but if you learn the potting angles you can adapt your technique, so I believe that learning the potting angles and remembering them is for me one of the most important parts of improving your snooker.

Hey Oscar.

What Abhi means is, if you are hitting the cue ball straight into the pocket, you have a margin of error of around half a ball on most tables. i.e. normally the pocket is around one and half balls wide. This is very large margin of error.

However if you are potting a ball. The difference between potting into the two extremes of the pocket, is probably in the region of millimetre. i.e. The margin of error is significantly smaller when potting.

Imagine placing the cue ball on the baulk line, and shooting it into one of the black pockets. Most of us on the forum could easily hit this shot 10 out of 10.

However how many players can pot a long straight red from baulk 10 out of 10??
Not many is the answer.

The reason for this is the accuracy needed to pot is far greater than simply sending the cue ball into the pocket. It is probably the difference between a millimetre (to pot) and 2-3 cm (to pot cue ball)

If hitting the cue ball into the pocket was a true reflection of straight cueing, none of us would miss a long straight pot.

Try this as test.
Place the cue ball 2 inches off the baulk cushion. Now try and pot the cue ball in the black pocket. Not too hard right??

Now replace the white near the baulk cushion, and set up a dead straight red level with the pink. Can you pot it?? If not something is going wrong. Is is not your judgement of the angle, because a straight pot needs no judgement....

[linglomsri]

Striking the cueball to any points(u choose) on the table is easy(without object ball) but striking the cueball to the point that u imagine on the cueball is very hard that's an ugly fact.

Easy example if you write a dot at the cushion i think almost everyone in this forums can pot it but when it becomes a dot that u have to aim at the object ball why can't....

P.S i read a lot and all professionals and coaches said at finish of your stroke you must look at the object ball but I think it's not right as I'm using Ghost ball technique and looking at the object ball can cause me miss the pot eg. when u look at object ball at the cut shot u always miss the pot by thick. I think the right way is to look at the ghost ball but it's quite hard to do.

please advise
sorry for my bad english

[Terry Davidson]

Seems we have this same discussion over and over. First of all I have to agree with checkside when he says most people, after a little experience, can pick out the correct line of aim WITH THEIR BRAINS. Then the problem is delivering the cue along that line of aim.

I have seen over and over again when coaching a good player, some of them ex-pros and Canadian champions and also seeing the video in the Terry Griffiths library on all the top pros.

A player will insist he is delivering the cue straight and then when you slap a video onto the back of the butt of the cue you will see NO ONE delivers that cue straight all of the time.

It is my coaching philosophy that 99.9% of shots (barring kicks) are missed because the player hasn't delivered the cue straight down the line of aim. I've watched a video of a top 4 pro who cosistently delivers the cue crooked (his butt moves into his body a bit before the strike of the cueball) and he is complaining because his long potting sucks. When shown what he was doing (not by me by the way) and then correcting that his long potting improved in an instant.

Delivering the cue straight is the secret of this game of ours. Getting the technique to do that consistently is the hardest part of snooker.

But thankfully, there are coaches around who can help every player if they LISTEN. Some students will watch a video of themselves and will still not believe the butt of the cue moving sideways just by 1/4" will cost them long pots, especially to partially closed pockets with a small margin of error.

My advice to everyone on here who wants to improve and can't afford coaching is to rent a digital video camera and a tripod. Get something white to place right on the end of the butt of the cue (those little glued circles for 3-ring binders are perfect, any stationary shop). Then place the camera at the same level as the cue and about 15" behind the address position. Good lighting helps here.

Then just pot 10 long blues in a row and then watch the video concentrating on that white spot at the end of the butt. If it goes sideway AT ALL during ANY PART of the backswing or delivery then you are not delivering the cue straight. There isn't one player in a hundred who can do this perfectly and consistently, but that's what we are all trying to do

Terry

[thelongbomber]

Seems we have this same discussion over and over. First of all I have to agree with checkside when he says most people, after a little experience, can pick out the correct line of aim WITH THEIR BRAINS. Then the problem is delivering the cue along that line of aim.

I have seen over and over again when coaching a good player, some of them ex-pros and Canadian champions and also seeing the video in the Terry Griffiths library on all the top pros.

A player will insist he is delivering the cue straight and then when you slap a video onto the back of the butt of the cue you will see NO ONE delivers that cue straight all of the time.

It is my coaching philosophy that 99.9% of shots (barring kicks) are missed because the player hasn't delivered the cue straight down the line of aim. I've watched a video of a top 4 pro who cosistently delivers the cue crooked (his butt moves into his body a bit before the strike of the cueball) and he is complaining because his long potting sucks. When shown what he was doing (not by me by the way) and then correcting that his long potting improved in an instant.

Delivering the cue straight is the secret of this game of ours. Getting the technique to do that consistently is the hardest part of snooker.

But thankfully, there are coaches around who can help every player if they LISTEN. Some students will watch a video of themselves and will still not believe the butt of the cue moving sideways just by 1/4" will cost them long pots, especially to partially closed pockets with a small margin of error.

My advice to everyone on here who wants to improve and can't afford coaching is to rent a digital video camera and a tripod. Get something white to place right on the end of the butt of the cue (those little glued circles for 3-ring binders are perfect, any stationary shop). Then place the camera at the same level as the cue and about 15" behind the address position. Good lighting helps here.

Then just pot 10 long blues in a row and then watch the video concentrating on that white spot at the end of the butt. If it goes sideway AT ALL during ANY PART of the backswing or delivery then you are not delivering the cue straight. There isn't one player in a hundred who can do this perfectly and consistently, but that's what we are all trying to do

Terry

Absolutely agree with you Terry. As one of the local legends says (Tommy Lee, you may have heard of him), this game is a "physical game". If you can master the game mechanics - cueing, standing, sighting - then the rest of the game becomes much easier to attain - breakbuilding, finesse, flair, positional play, a snooker brain, courage under pressure, etc.

I'm sure some of the top players tinker and refine their cue action and body mechanics constantly - Hendry being a prime example. Lately it looks like Hendry is doing something new with his stance and approach (almost a head and side shuffle!).

Regarding, playing by feel, yes that's also a crucial part of the game but anyone that relies on feel alone, doesn't understand the intricacies of cue action. I played by feel for many years and never broke 50. Now that I'm refining my cue action and really understanding crucial elements of body mechanics, I have seen multiple 50+ breaks and nearly a century in practice.

[T.C.]

I found using the contact point the object ball makes on the CLOTH as my guide for aiming.

Can u explain this further or upload a diagram or video?
Wouldnt the contact point the object ball makes on the cloth be directly underneath the object ball????? I dont get it.

[thelongbomber]

Can u explain this further or upload a diagram or video?
Wouldnt the contact point the object ball makes on the cloth be directly underneath the object ball????? I dont get it.

Correct! Just imagine this shot: 3/4 blue into any pocket.

My first question is, "how do you visualize and see this shot before you get down?". Surely you must be looking at SOMETHING right? All modern coaching on the subject of cue action says look at the object ball as you walk into the shot so that your feet, arm, and body are lined up correctly. Makes sense: the arm is connected to the elbow which is connected to the shoulder and so forth.

OK, so question 2, "IF you do look at the object ball when walking in to your shot and making your final shot execution, WHAT exactly are you looking at?". Some might try to visualize a ghost ball behind the object ball directly in line with the pocket and aim at that. Some say they look at the object ball itself and pick a point on the round sphere (like a light reflection). Others have even been known to choose a point on the cushion directly behind the line of the shot as a guide. I don't use this last method unless it's special circumstances (a long shot I'm unable to visualize or if I'm trying to make a very fine cut from distance).

Through tinkering and experimentation, I found that looking at the table cloth, directly behind the object ball, underneath it, and in line with the pocket was a great starting point when walking into shots. It has helped me immensely with cuts, blind cuts, long off-straight pots, shots along the cushion, and potting the black and pink and much more. Overall, it's a visualization aid I stumbled onto that I'm happily keeping - it has drastically improved my potting. Now, shots that were hard are easy to see and make.

IMPORTANT: The aiming point I describe above IS NOT where you aim your cue. Doing so would undercut nearly all shots you shoot. WHY? Because the cue ball is around 2.5 inches wide and so it's the LEADING EDGE of the cue ball that makes contact with the point I talk about. I combine this point I see with a ghost ball and/or the leading edge of the cue ball because that's what makes contact with the object ball.

All in all, I'm convinced it works for me and am sticking with it. Bottom line: potting has drastically improved and I don't miss blind cuts on the black much anymore (and no, I don't stand higher up on my shot either like Neil Maxman says on Youtube).

[thelongbomber]

I will put up a video explaining in further detail. Promise!

[tom snow]

thanx long bro .. ur tips is good for me ............. and post ur videos .fast coz .my inter collage games comming up .. so i want win that games.. and ..ur it affect on my eyes ... strange on eye and so long bro i improving my game...... i have one question is more .. that sometimes in game i cannot
concentration . on my game so ,,, any good tip on it

[thelongbomber]

eh????????????

What? Eh is a Canadian term eh?

[thelongbomber]

thanx long bro .. ur tips is good for me ............. and post ur videos .fast coz .my inter collage games comming up .. so i want win that games.. and ..ur it affect on my eyes ... strange on eye and so long bro i improving my game...... i have one question is more .. that sometimes in game i cannot
concentration . on my game so ,,, any good tip on it

If you like, PM your Skype/MSN and I can explain further. I will put a video at some point but not sure how best to explain the concept. I'm thinking I should use some video analysis software at some point to explain further.

[tom snow]

thanx long bro ..i use yahoo bro.. my yahoo id tom.snow99@yahoo.com u can pm there i am online now .... or u give me ur id i can add u

[tom snow]

tom.snow99@hotmail.com this is my hotmail id bro u can there aslo ............

[alabadi]

I found using the contact point the object ball makes on the CLOTH as my guide for aiming. It's FAR easier and it's the only point on the entire table I look at while approaching and getting down for the shot.

I don't understand, the point the OB makes with the cloth is the same point no matter where you look from, how will this give you the angle. It the centre of the ball.
On thin cuts you need to aim for the outside edge, but if you look at the point on the cloth the it's sits on this will not be the outside edge.

Can you explain more, I might be missing something here

[thelongbomber]

I don't understand, the point the OB makes with the cloth is the same point no matter where you look from, how will this give you the angle. It the centre of the ball.
On thin cuts you need to aim for the outside edge, but if you look at the point on the cloth the it's sits on this will not be the outside edge.

Can you explain more, I might be missing something here

When you first stand behind your shot, use the point on the cloth directly underneath the object ball and inline with the pocket (or intended direction) as a visual aid. Stare at that point for a moment, and you will "see" or "feel" the angle. It will jump out at you. See an imaginary line from the object ball to the pocket (or wherever you wish to send it). Now, as you approach, lineup, address, feather, and prepare to strike, that visual aid provides a reference point.

Hope that helps

[alabadi]

Thanks long for that, just so I am very clear the spot u are looking at

1) is it on your side of the OB, i.e nearest to the cue ball which is inline with the pocket and opposite the direction I would want the OB to travel.

2)how far is the spot away from the ball is it under the edge of the ball or very tight almost where the ball touches the cloth

Cheers

How would this differ from looking at a spot on the ball itself. My problem is when I walk round to check the point on the OB I can see it clearly however as soon as I go back and stand behind the cue ball I easily lose the point.