Wrist Movement/Cueing Straight

[CeeJay147]

I went snooker yesterday to do some routines, just general practice by myself. I noticed that when I do long shots or some power shots, my wrist moves inwards slightly on the delivery . I used to pot a high percentage of long shots but only just noticed this probelem. I broke my wrist; Christmas time last year, so I was forced to having a few months break from snooker - Could this possibly be the cause for this wrist movement? I've noticed this movement causes me to put unintentional right-hand side on the cueball when playing long shots at high power This never used to happen and it just seems like I'll never be able to pot long shots consistently again, it's driving me insane. So I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how I can prevent this movement, any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks. :snooker:

[nrage]

I wonder if the movement is caused by too much tension on the shot, putting that extra effort in. Try really relaxing the hand, and not squeezing on the shot until the hand hits the chest.

Or, alternatively it could be shoulder movement, again from putting that extra effort in. Get a mate to watch your shoulder on a high power shot, get him/her to use a reference point beyond your shoulder and see if the shoulder remains lined up with it all throughout the shot.

Also try accelerating at a more gradual rate, the movement could be caused by that first sharp forward movement.

Post some videos up on youtube and link em here and we can take a look.

[Terry Davidson]

CeeJay:

Most players who turn their wrist during the delivery are starting out with no wrist cock in the wrist, which will keep it stable throughout the delivery.

Place your cue on the table and pick it up just like a hammer and you were going to hit someone over the head with it. Keep the grip the same and hold the cue out vertically with your grip arm straight and look at the wrist joint. It should have about a 45degree angle between the back of the hand and the straight forearm and there should be 3-4 wrinkles in the loose flesh at the back (outside) of the wrist.

Now, when you are standing behind the shot form JUST THIS SAME GRIP when the cue is across your lower hips and DO NOT CHANGE IT as you place your hand on the table and get into your address position (except of course to loosen the strength of the grip).

When in the address position (in solo practice) change the pressue in your hand so you are actually only gripping the cue with the upper inside of the forefinger and thumb with the back 3 fingers just making contact with the cue. On the backswing maintain this grip and allow the cue to push the back 3 fingers out of the way.

Be sure to initiate all movement of the cue with the forefinger ONLY, especially the delivery but keep the wrist cocked and you will find the butt will remain on a straight line a you shouldn't pull it into your body, which is what you are doing now

Terry

[stephenm2682]

Terry, obviously the 3-4 wrinkles depends on age, cause i only get 2 anymore and my wrist will snap.

how do you mean the upper inside of thumb and forefinger, i tend to use my fingertips as it feels like i'm overgripping the cue sometimes, would this be good practice or bad habit?

[Terry Davidson]

stephen:

BAD MOVE, using the fingertips only as that will give you a gap between the butt of the cue and the web between forefinger and thumb.

Every coach I've ever come across teaches 'no gap' between the butt and web.

By top of forefinger, I mean the part closest to the palm. The butt of the cue should be snug up against the web between forefinger and thumb but not TOO tight a grip. Keep the grip firm but relaxed (if that makes any sense at all).

Ensure the wrist is cocked to the extent that the butt of the cue is directly under th elong straight forearm bone when in the address position. Whether it's 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 wrinkles doesn't matter but there should be around a 45degree angle between the back of the palm and the forearm.

Terry

[exolon]

I have the same problem, among many other problems with my form - will have to try cocking my wrist slightly as Terry suggests. Sometimes, I can feel my back hand jerking in toward my body as I execute the shot, usually putting unwanted left-hand side (I'm a leftie, mostly) and a little stun on the ball or worse, jumping the ball slightly off to the right until the side kicks in.
To minimise this wrist-snatching, I try to focus on keeping my finger knuckles pointing to the floor and folding my forearm up, rather than punching at the ball from my shoulder (I know I've done that when my elbow ends up down at the same height as my wrist after the shot!).
However, almost every time I introduce much power into a shot, I make the same mistake - pull my wrist inwards and throw my whole arm at it.

Recently I found a couple of other big problems in my action which I'm slowly fixing:
1. My back foot wasn't on the line of the shot - it was straddling the shot so that my torso was in the way of my back hand. This made it hard to get my elbow on the line of the shot, so it was hanging out away from my body which led to an even less straight cue action. Getting my left foot on the line and properly bending my right knee to rotate my torso out of the line of shot seems to be helping - my left arm has a slightly more pendulum-like smooth action now.
2. My cue action was too jerky anyway. Until my cue action is good, if ever, I try to roll balls in just over pocket weight, like Mark Williams does, only not quite as good
3. I was only looking at the relative angle of the cue ball and object ball when standing behind the shot - not while getting down into it (for fear that it would lead me to mess up my approach).
4. I was holding the cue too far back - I'm not tall enough to need all that cue, so my back hand was extended too far during delivery!
5. Maybe my backswing is too long. Yesterday I experimented with only about 3 inches of backswing instead of the usual ~5, watching carefully to see that the tip was centred both when close to the cueball AND at the end of backswing. Much better. Still bad, but less than usual

One of these days I might break my all-time high break of 27.

[Terry Davidson]

exolon:

It sounds to me as if you've started out with some very bad habits which will impede your ability to learn.

My strong recommendation would be for you to go see a coach for a couple of sessions and have him teach you the very basics, like stance, set-up, grip, backswing and delivery.

If a new player can get these right he will learn very quickly to deliver the cue consistently straight and will improve rapidly.

Give yourself a Christmas present and spend a few quid on a couple of lessons. Either that or get the Joe Davis book and work from it one point at a time although you can ignore the stance section as most players stand square now and remember Joe was blind in his right eye and ran the cue under his left eye.

Terry

[exolon]

exolon:

It sounds to me as if you've started out with some very bad habits which will impede your ability to learn.

My strong recommendation would be for you to go see a coach for a couple of sessions and have him teach you the very basics, like stance, set-up, grip, backswing and delivery.

Hi Terry,

You're probably right. The sad thing is, I've been playing and practicing snooker regularly for over 5 years and haven't solved these problems on my own, despite a great deal of effort and (probably counterproductive) thought. Perhaps introspection is a poor way to improve one's cue action in snooker and a little bit of coaching will indeed be better than lots of solo practice and constantly modifying your game, at least the way I've been doing it

Here's hoping!

[stephenm2682]

was just thinking about the grip, is it good practice to have the finger knuckles pointing to the floor?? whereas if you bend the wrist 45° that faces them away?

[cazmac1]

I think for me the biggest improvement in my cuing/potting happened when I changed my grip. My grip is very much how terry describes.
I too was putting right hand side on the shot which caused me to miss.
Sort the grip out and the rest will drop into place

[Terry Davidson]

stephenm:

The main knuckles of the hand should be parallel with the butt of the cue or nearly so. If you try my exercise about picking the cue up like a hammer and holding it out vertically with your grip arm straight you will have the knuckles right beside the butt of the cue and somewhere around a 45-degree angles between the forearm and the back of the hand.

Also, the 'grip' should be more of a 'hold' using only the forefinger and thumb and it should be just enough to control the cue. A really good tip on getting the correct grip strength comes from Steve Davis and I use it to teach my students.

Hold the cue across your lower hips as you would when aiming a shot and form your grip normally. Now with your other (bridge) hand try and move the cue back and forth in your grip hand without letting the grip hand move at all. If the cue moves easily back and forth then that is the correct pressure for the grip

Terry