Break Building: Trusting your Instinct?

[thelongbomber]

There are few greater satisfactions in this game than making a century and every serious player that gets into this game, aspires to make at least one. Reaching a century break is no small feat. You need to have some ability to cue, pot balls, and have positional skill to reach a century - it doesn't happen by accident alone (well maybe one shot might eh Mr Thorburne? )

Knowing all this, I still haven't made one - after more than 10 years of playing the game. I took a long break of 4 years from playing prior to 2010 but never gave up watching, learning, and wanting to make one.

This year, I went back to the club, got some tips from a friend/mentor/coach that has seen my game develop from day one. With his help, my game has improved quite significantly and I'm definitely playing my best snooker now. High breaks of 78, 73, 84 in practice, several 50+ in match play. Personal high break in match play 72. :snooker:

When I first learned to play I would "throw" balls in and often hit them way too hard - but I was a potter and could pot anything. I had a personal high break of 72 in match play several years back. This year one of the significant changes I made was truly getting a better understanding of centre ball striking, stun shots, and far better positional play. This has been primarily due to better cueing, slowing down my cue action, better follow through. Slowing the cue action down has helped me gain positional awareness and control. I'm quite convinced from my recent experiences that truly understanding cue action and cue mechanics helps you reach century break capability.

Anyways, getting to the point, becoming much more aware of centre ball striking has done something strange to my game: I'm now playing and approaching shots more mechanically and not playing by "feel", whatever that means. I find potting consistency has stayed level, but breaks don't have an element of "sixth sense" or playing naturally. I'm playing centre ball because it helps pot balls but at some point, I'm wanting to play with side, throw balls in, and play "freely" because it seems to be the barrier I keep hitting.

Question: When break building, are you supposed to play position in a systematic and mechanical way or is there some unexplained force, energy, or "je ne say kwa" that can't be taught? Is break building meant to be 9 parts cueing, mechanics, and logic, and 1 part playing by feel? What's the balance? Are you a cueing mechanic and systematic like a robot or are you meant to reach a point where you don't even see the crowd, feel the cue, and all you see are the pockets getting larger? I know how that feels, getting into the zone from time to time, but is that the point where centuries are made? Someone with actual experience could wiegh in?

Look forward to your thoughts and thanks so much for reading! :snooker:

[Wimm]

The most important thing, I feel, is shot selection. Sometimes playing a little more difficult shot can be rewarding. Another element is positional play, straight on a black for example can be a nightmare....

But for me the most important factor is: FOCUS. Even when the balls are spread nicely, a break needs to be made!

[Stick]

Interesting post and something which I also have thought about recently.

Used to joke (brag?) to my friends that you don't need position when you can pot like I do. Yet I have nerver broken the 50 break barrier so my approach is somewhat flawed

To get to your question, I have been putting a lot of effort into practising breakbuilding on the table at home and am now hitting the high-forties.

Yet it seems to me that it is not all mechanical. When I play in a relaxed way and with somewhat more "flair" my pots and position seems to be a little better.

[hotpot]

I used to look for big breaks when i felt i was really cueing well to the point that i was putting pressure on myself to make them . Now i just concentrate on cueing straight , striking the cue ball sweet , and concentrating on the pot and precise position required .

I usually find that breaks come out of the blue , they cant be planned , and when your in the zone your just focussed on the the task in front of you .

[Terry Davidson]

Longbomber:

Reaching that first century plateau is indeed very difficult to achieve. I've recently re-gained that plateau after a long lay-off of 10 years and also advanced age (65), two things that were the largest factors playing into my getting back there.

You asked for some experience and from my coaching perspective here is what I discovered on this most recent trip around.

After going to Nic Barrow in 2008 and finding out I had AT LEAST 12 different 'problem areas' in my technique, I started going to work on those one-by-one. The worst problem was head movement on both the backswing and delivery and I had to get ride of the root cause of this real problem. Getting these resolved has been a 2-1/2-year trip of discovery.

Once I 'sort of' got to the point where I could rely on being able to deliver the cue straight I started to notice my breaks in practice were increasing and this in turn started me thinking at least 2 shots ahead, i.e. - planning where I wanted the cueball on my next colour to get on the next red.

Once I started doing this consistently and also delivering the cue straight consistently I found one day I ran a century without even thinking about it. A little later I had a 143 and a 108 back-to-back (these are all fairly recent) and yesterday a 102 and missed a long straight in yellow with deep screw for the 129(damn it!).

I believe the secret to century break building is exactly that...you MUST think at least 2 shots ahead and you MUST deliver the cue straight. The second is also very important since you will always be changing your game plan as positional play is not an exact science (unless you're Ronnie of course!) because every once in awhile you'll miss position slightly and end up (as an example - straight in on the black with no position available) so if available you can fairly easily pot the pink in the middle or else take on the more difficult black with deep screw and side, or (heaven forbid) a long blue.

As someone said, you have to have the faith to be able to take on those semi-difficult shots to keep the break going.

Terry

[Rane]

Interesting reading. When I played regularly, I often missed balls of the spot, when I was close to my highbreak. Do any of you have recommendations for avoiding to think about breaking the highbreak, as it cost a lot of focus on the game.

[thelongbomber]

Interesting responses all varied but seems like its focused on awareness, planning, and good cueing. No direct responses to the meat of my question: do you play by feel or not. I understand snooker is a physical game and that planning, and logic can be used but surely your true natural ability has to shine through as well?

Would love to spend some time with Nick or Terry if my budget/time permits some time this year. I'm heading out to Dubai in a few weeks but it might be worth taking a stop over at Nic's on the way home to sort out my game.

Is there anyone in Dubai qualified as a coach?

[thelongbomber]

Longbomber:

Reaching that first century plateau is indeed very difficult to achieve. I've recently re-gained that plateau after a long lay-off of 10 years and also advanced age (65), two things that were the largest factors playing into my getting back there.

You asked for some experience and from my coaching perspective here is what I discovered on this most recent trip around.

After going to Nic Barrow in 2008 and finding out I had AT LEAST 12 different 'problem areas' in my technique, I started going to work on those one-by-one. The worst problem was head movement on both the backswing and delivery and I had to get ride of the root cause of this real problem. Getting these resolved has been a 2-1/2-year trip of discovery.

Once I 'sort of' got to the point where I could rely on being able to deliver the cue straight I started to notice my breaks in practice were increasing and this in turn started me thinking at least 2 shots ahead, i.e. - planning where I wanted the cueball on my next colour to get on the next red.

Once I started doing this consistently and also delivering the cue straight consistently I found one day I ran a century without even thinking about it. A little later I had a 143 and a 108 back-to-back (these are all fairly recent) and yesterday a 102 and missed a long straight in yellow with deep screw for the 129(damn it!).

I believe the secret to century break building is exactly that...you MUST think at least 2 shots ahead and you MUST deliver the cue straight. The second is also very important since you will always be changing your game plan as positional play is not an exact science (unless you're Ronnie of course!) because every once in awhile you'll miss position slightly and end up (as an example - straight in on the black with no position available) so if available you can fairly easily pot the pink in the middle or else take on the more difficult black with deep screw and side, or (heaven forbid) a long blue.

As someone said, you have to have the faith to be able to take on those semi-difficult shots to keep the break going.

Terry

Terry, do you remember your first century? I assume it happened prior to your layoff? What crucial elements came together to make it happen?

[hotpot]

Interesting responses all varied but seems like its focused on awareness, planning, and good cueing. No direct responses to the meat of my question: do you play by feel or not. I understand snooker is a physical game and that planning, and logic can be used but surely your true natural ability has to shine through as well?

Would love to spend some time with Nick or Terry if my budget/time permits some time this year. I'm heading out to Dubai in a few weeks but it might be worth taking a stop over at Nic's on the way home to sort out my game.

Is there anyone in Dubai qualified as a coach?

In answer mucka , my personnal feeling is that when you play by feel your touch is most precise and most pinpoint .

When your playing well you can feel it you dont have to go searching or worrying if all the pieces of the jigsaw are in place , you just know .

You feel really good , no worries , no agitatation , no distraction ets , its just you and the balls .

All thats in your mind is pot , then you draw a line in your mind where the cue ball is going to finish in order for you to take the next shot .

My only question is does feeling good bring on confidence , or when you feel confident , do you feel good . Myself , it does,nt matter what frame of mind i,m in , i only feel confident after i feel good and thats usually after a few good shots .

[cgcollection]

i understanding you confusion there, and i believe everyone has to go through this period of time to climb the mountain, besides those potting techniques, postional plays, changing the way you planed since the position is not good enough, you need faith, confidence, and the form, when you in that mood, you have the feel, you can cue smoothly, you don't need a coach, only yourself understand what you are thinking when you pot the balls, make a break and find out what is the problem, and solve it on you own. take century break as a goal, you will achieve it by consistent practice and match play.

[poolqjunkie]

You just somehow starting making balls after balls and the break just kind of materialized out of the blue. I remember I was practicing and was just potting balls after balls without thinking much and the next thing I knew I was on the yellow, that was when I started to feel the pressure because I knew I have potted all the reds. It just came from no where. It was my first time making that many balls. I still remember I had to pot a very tough long red at soem point, but I made it, and then the rest was kind of just routine.
Do you do it by feel? I would say you must be in kind of a "zone" so your unconscious mind sort of takes over; but it is also the result of lots of practise and hardwork so everything becomes automatic when you are in the "zone".
I am not a very good player by any means. I know when i am playing very well, I do not cue like I normally do when I am practicing with a great deal of focus paid on my basis and such. I shoot much faster when I am playing very well.
My best moment was making 13 blacks in a game with a practice partner. I had no idea what I was doing until I noticed that there were only 2 reds left on the table. I was still in position but I started to think I may be able to make 2 more blacks...then I missed my next red, which was quite routine.
I think may be if I had just followed my instinct I could have at least made one more black...
It is very hard though, when the pressure is on, to try and just play by feel.
I guess that is why we all admire ROS so much.

[thelongbomber]

You just somehow starting making balls after balls and the break just kind of materialized out of the blue. I remember I was practicing and was just potting balls after balls without thinking much and the next thing I knew I was on the yellow, that was when I started to feel the pressure because I knew I have potted all the reds. It just came from no where. It was my first time making that many balls. I still remember I had to pot a very tough long red at soem point, but I made it, and then the rest was kind of just routine.
Do you do it by feel? I would say you must be in kind of a "zone" so your unconscious mind sort of takes over; but it is also the result of lots of practise and hardwork so everything becomes automatic when you are in the "zone".
I am not a very good player by any means. I know when i am playing very well, I do not cue like I normally do when I am practicing with a great deal of focus paid on my basis and such. I shoot much faster when I am playing very well.
My best moment was making 13 blacks in a game with a practice partner. I had no idea what I was doing until I noticed that there were only 2 reds left on the table. I was still in position but I started to think I may be able to make 2 more blacks...then I missed my next red, which was quite routine.
I think may be if I had just followed my instinct I could have at least made one more black...
It is very hard though, when the pressure is on, to try and just play by feel.
I guess that is why we all admire ROS so much.

Wow, that's great!

[thelongbomber]

Well tonight I played follow with 2 m8's. My elkmaster tip was just kicking in to it's perfect feel and I felt relaxed, and in a good mood. Was practicing before m8's arrived and I decided to bring back some of my old "natural" potting ability and playing by feel just out of curiosity.

Amazingly, I was able to play the precise stun shots, and was playing my own game, screwing back off black, playing pinks, getting right side of the black. Everything just came together!!!! It all wasn't centre ball striking either and I did play touches of side here or there to hold the cue ball in certain angles or what have you. There were about 6 reds around the black and pink and I cleared them all except one that was on the cushion! What a delight!!!! I wasn't tracking my break total but found out after failing to get position on a red in balk that I hit 46! I assume it was 4 blacks and 2 pinks.

Anyways, just to add to my initial questions, I think letting your natural ability and instinct take hold IS beneficial but you also need to understand and grasp key elements of cue mechanics, ball striking, plain ball angles, and so forth. Practice centre ball striking in practice conditions and that skill and intelligence will show up in match play, I'm sure of it!

[Terry Davidson]

Some coaches agree with this and some disagree, but the so called 'secret' of good snooker is this...when you get to the point with your technique where you absolutely trust it to deliver the cue straight then when you are in the balls the pot itself becomes more or less automatic and you devote your entire concentration on positional play.

The guesstimate on percentages is 5% on the actual pot and 95% on positional play. (Now I've seen on here some people will disagree with this but it is true, professionals concentrate more on positional play rather than on the pot itself).

For junior players what helps this along is playing on tables with generous pockets so that potting becomes more automatic in a quicker timeframe. Once positional play gets to the point where it is earning large breaks it just dowsn't matter anymore whether the pockets are generous or not because every shot (or most of them) will be pretty simple.

Terry

[jonplayer]

Some interesting points guys. From my experience when I was making century breaks like Terry says the pot is usually very simple so you can focus alot on your position for the next ball (not too much though because you will miss the pot). It is about feel too, but every player has a different approach to potting balls. I think thier two types of player at our level - Natural and technical. The natural guys can make breaks cueing badly with thier eyes closed, the technical ones have solid technique to fall back on so the answer to your question is a tough one. I have made big breaks playing in both ways, neither is better or right it's just personal. Everything though comes from practice!