Cueing through the ball right to left- Help!

[JayCho]

Hi, im a new member on the forum and it has been pointed out that come through the ball right to left, I have been told its because my shoulder forces itself out and I need to focus on keeping it still.

Could there be any other reasons as to why I am cueing this way?

Any comments would be appreciated

[snookerdad]

I'm afraid there could be many reasons for this.

I suggest you see a coach.

What part of the country do you live in?

Tim

[cally]

Heres 1 theory for ya...

Maybe your lining up the shot incorrectly and getting down to the shot a bit 'squiff' then whilst trying to get the cue through straight you pull your shoulder out to compensate for the 'squiffness' without realising, if that makes sense...

I dunno,like already said it could be a number of things..

I'm sure terry will be along with a good few pointers soon enough...:snooker:

He always gives a good bit of advice does our terry...:snooker:

[Jlaix]

Hi, im a new member on the forum and it has been pointed out that come through the ball right to left, I have been told its because my shoulder forces itself out and I need to focus on keeping it still.

Could there be any other reasons as to why I am cueing this way?

Any comments would be appreciated

I've had this problem, and it comes back again when I'm under pressure. What I found worked best was practicing cueing into a bottle.

Another is to cue along the baulk line, using the shadow of your cue as a guide to check the cue is going straight. Cue along this line assuring you follow the line, finishing by pushing your cue into your chest. Try to remember the area on your chest you hit, so you can hit this same spot each time you stroke the ball during normal play.

Another practice is to simply cue at an imaginery white, and put 3 or 4 balls on each side of your cue and follow through. If you follow through straight the balls should not move. If you cue to the right however, they will. It is important then to 'iron' out the fault by repeating the aforementioned step of remembering where on your chest allows you to follow through and cue straight.

[checkSide]

You could also try adjusting your stance by pushing your left foot further forward. (Assuming you're a right hander.)

[j0hnny]

seems like the above post would be correct. i believe if you are right handed then by moving your left foot forward slightly you will be standing more 'side on'. This would help because if youre standing too 'square on' then your cueing hand is trying to get around your hip as it follows through!
But please dont get too eager to stand side on, as you will then be pulling other things out of alignment including your sighting (possibly causing a stiff neck)!
I only want to really say that getting too technical can be just as harmful as not trying anything, I spent many years doing so and learnt not to.

still able to make big breaks and had a century recently but only thanks to not getting technical anymore, as it distracts you from the real concentration of the shot and your timing in your cueing!
good luck.

[nrage]

Hi, im a new member on the forum and it has been pointed out that come through the ball right to left, I have been told its because my shoulder forces itself out and I need to focus on keeping it still.

Could there be any other reasons as to why I am cueing this way?

Any comments would be appreciated

The best way to diagnose what might be causing this is to look at _everything_ about your stance, grip, etc from the ground up. Double check everything is where it "should" be.

If you happen to have an un-orthodox setup, this may cause the problem, in which case you have to decide whether to try and learn an orthodox setup, or if that is not comfortable figure out what to do to compensate.

So, start with the placement of your feet, then the placement of bridge hand and grip on the cue, the bend in the arm, the resulting position of the shoulder, the elbow, etc. This web site has some good pointers on the basics:
http://www.fcsnooker.co.uk/basics/in...tro_basics.htm

If you can't figure it out yourself, then record a video of your cue action from directly in front and 90 degrees to the side (with the cue visible) - striking the white, and post it here. If you're lucky Terry will take a look at it and if there is something there, he will likely spot it.

[nrage]

You could also try adjusting your stance by pushing your left foot further forward. (Assuming you're a right hander.)

Or pushing the left further to the left, and bending it more. This moves the hip out of the way.. it's possible you are cueing around your hip, which would move the tip from right to left.

[JayCho]

Thanks for the help guys, I will probably post a video up sometime soon.
I played yesterday and worked on my cueing and I used the same stance/grip etc but shifted everything to the left a bit to enable me to have the cue straight at address which I wasn't doing before.
This seemed to make my cueing a bit more consistent, but then I played my league matche and played awful as I was trying to put what I'd been practising into play a bit soon as it wasn't 'normal' yet lol and lost very heavily!

[JayCho]

I'm afraid there could be many reasons for this.

I suggest you see a coach.

What part of the country do you live in?

Tim

I had my first lesson on Thursday with a coach, I was told to concentrate on my follow through a bit more which will enable me to generate more cue power without my shoulder falling out of its socket! lol
Im from Birmingham,west mids

[hudd]

Have you discovered which eye is your dominant one, as this eye should be over the cue.

"If the eye, which is doing the sighting, is not directly over the cue, you will have a strong tendency to hit across the ball." Frank Callan - Snooker Clinic

[Terry Davidson]

jaycho:

As Gavin has alreaddy said, there are multiple reasons for cueing 'across the cueball' however hopefully your coach (if he was a good one) was able to help you out.

As a matter of fact I just had a student yesterday with this problem. He is an amazing student as he worked as a chef in a Chinese restaurant and over the years developed a bone spur on his right elbow which prevented him from following through to his chest. Surgery and physio didn't cure the problem and he is such an ardent fan of snooker he decided to switch to playing left-handed!

To get back to the point, he just couldn't drive the cue straight along the baulk line at all, even in slow motion and was always going to the right across the cueball.

To correct this I had him thrust out his bridge arm (now the right) to get the left shoulder up behind his head and locked into place and freeing the elbow to work nice and smoothly but although this made it better he was still cueing a bit to the right on the follow-through.

It took some time and a lot of analysis but I finally noticed he was not cocking his wrist outward (as per Steve Davis) and this was encouraging his wrist to turn a bit on the shot. Once we got the grip sorted out by getting him to bring the cue a little bit more towards his fingertips and cocking the wrist until there were a few wrinkles visible at the forearm/wrist joint the problem went away and he was able to deliver the cue consistently straight and not only started making those long blue shots but also screwing back, something he was not able to do previously (either right or left handed).

If you try this, when you straighten out the left (bridge) arm only force it out as much as you can WITHOUT DISCOMFORT, but take it to the edge of comfort. You should have less than a 10-degree bend at the left elbow.

When cocking the wrist ensure you cock it enough to bring the butt of the cue DIRECTLY UNDER the long straight bone of the grip arm forearm. Grip the cue just like you would a hammer but a lot more relaxed and have the primary 'hold' on the cue with ONLY your forefinger (the thumb plays no part except to hold the cue in the bed of the 4 fingers, but the back three fingers are relaxed and just only touching the cue. Initiate the backswing and delivery with the forefinger ONLY and one more important (VERY IMPORTANT POINT).

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GRIP THE CUE TIGHTER BEFORE THE BACK OF THE GRIP HAND THUMB HITS THE CHEST. It is the back of the thumb hitting the chest which squeezes the cue into the forefinger and remaining fingers and tightens the grip. As this happens when you hit your chest it will be well after you've struck the cueball and any sideways motion of the butt in your hand will not effect the straight striking of the cueball.

You will also find you will be a lot more consistent and get more spin on the cueball so be careful when playing deep screw shots this way as you will for sure over-screw the cueball. (Happy Days are here!)

Terry

[JayCho]

Have you discovered which eye is your dominant one, as this eye should be over the cue.

"If the eye, which is doing the sighting, is not directly over the cue, you will have a strong tendency to hit across the ball." Frank Callan - Snooker Clinic

My left eye is very dominant, my cue is normally on the very left of my chin/bottom of my left cheek which may exaggerate the problem a bit more if im not cueing stright as the cue may bounce off the
cheek?

or is that possibly a wild theory i have made up in the last 2 minutes??

[Terry Davidson]

Try and get the cue aligned more to the centre of your chin and off the cheek since when you straighten out the left arm your cheek should be tight up against your left shoulder. It sounds as if your alignment might be out a bit because of this having the cue way to the left of your chin.

With the correct alignment a person who is left eye preferred but right handed (like myself) should turn the head slightly to the right while keeping the cue very near to the centre of the chin. This will bring the left eye more towards over the cue but it will not mess with having a correct alignment.

I turn my head maybe 20degree or so to the right and this gets my left eye more into the aiming line of the cue.

I notice most professional players will have their heads turned slightly one way or the other to bring the preferred eye more into the line of aim, even Neil Robertson does it a little. The only pro I know who didn't do this (that I remember) was John Virgo, but Joe Davis also did it but remember he was almost totally blind in his right eye and had to do this.

Terry

[JayCho]

Thanks for both posts Terry, :snooker:

Theres a lot to read so I'll have to print it out and work on it this evening.

I also have a singles match this evening,is it a good idea to try and implement these changes for my match tonight or is it a better idea to practise on it for a while before I play many matches?