Screw Back

[April madness]

You may need to elaborate on that, for Mitsy

And for me too.

[Cessy143]

And for me too.

April, why do you want to know what it's like to make love to a beautiful woman

[April madness]

April, why do you want to know what it's like to make love to a beautiful woman

Cos I want to improve my screw back shot, easy

[Lighters]

I don't ever recall ever getting that 'excited' when taking a scew shot.

Dread to think how you feel if you make the pot as well.

[MrRottweiler]

The secret with a well played screw shot is mostly timing. Keep the cue level and low and strike smoothly pushing the cue 'through' the cue ball. Always pause for a moment before striking to achieve fluency.

[dannyd0g]

During one of Ronnie's matches at the Masters, Dennis Taylor commented on the large backswing Ronnie was using on one of his deep screw shots.

In my latest practice session i experimented with this bigger backswing on the final stroke and it does indeed make a huge difference. It generates tons more zip on the white doing this.

However, as yet i only have limited success with this, as have been jumping the white as often as getting a good stroke. Must need a lot more practice, skill and technique to be able to do this well..

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this ?

[Cue_147]

Yes a larger than normally back swing will help genarate more spin but the thing that helps more is timing.

If you are jumping the white, your are either striking to low on the white ball or your cue is dipping at the last minute (dropping your shoulder).

[dannyd0g]

Yes a larger than normally back swing will help genarate more spin but the thing that helps more is timing.

If you are jumping the white, your are either striking to low on the white ball or your cue is dipping at the last minute (dropping your shoulder).

Thanks for the tips. The elusive "timing" thing again eh.

I will bear your suggestions in mind next time i get to a table.

[canuck]

Yeah, I have tried all tips to improve my screwshot and I think the "timing" of the shot holds the secret. The "timing" refers to acceleration of the cue, which means you don't have to hit the cueball hard or fast, just that the motion must be accelerating. Because all other shots you typically play by pushing through at roughly constant speed, the screw must be played differently. The problem for most people (myself included) is that they slam the cueball hard and fast and get next to no acceleration on the cue action. even if you hit the cueball really hard and really fast but have no acceleration the result will be a stun shot rather than a screw. But who am I to talk about this? The screw shot is my most dreaded shot of them all worse even than cushion pots.

[Welshsteve]

One shot I saw Ding do very early on against Ronnie was phenominal. He was striking from near or just behind the baulk line with the red about two foot from the pocket. A straight shot into the bottom left (Ding's view, bottom right on TV). He potted the red in to centre of the pocket and screwed back about a foot past the baulk line. Fantastic timing on the shot. He didn't hit it hard. Would love to be able to generate that sort of spin.

[Stunrunthru]

Another tip when playing any screw shot - particularly a deep screw shot is to hit through the white and don't stab at it.

Once you have hit through the white try to leave the cue where it is until the white begins to come back.

[trevs1]

Yeah, I have tried all tips to improve my screwshot and I think the "timing" of the shot holds the secret. The "timing" refers to acceleration of the cue, which means you don't have to hit the cueball hard or fast, just that the motion must be accelerating. Because all other shots you typically play by pushing through at roughly constant speed, the screw must be played differently. The problem for most people (myself included) is that they slam the cueball hard and fast and get next to no acceleration on the cue action. even if you hit the cueball really hard and really fast but have no acceleration the result will be a stun shot rather than a screw. But who am I to talk about this? The screw shot is my most dreaded shot of them all worse even than cushion pots.

I'd agree with some of the post above, especially about the accelerating bit.

Actually, most shots will, or should, be played with the cue accelerating to some degree, but the difference with deep screw is that it's perhaps more noticeable.

The way I'd personally try to explain the 'timing' issue in particular is like this:

Imagine that at the end of your cue is a is a very small sweeping brush, and, as you cue up to the white ball, what you're trying to achieve is to sweep dust off the bed of the cloth with this tiny little brush. Now we all (or many of us) know what the best action of using a sweeping brush is don't we???

It starts off slowish, then picks up speed as it moves forward. It's this increase in speed that allows the bristles on the brush to gather and push the dust away in the direction of the sweeping motion.

Well, this motion is what you're attempting to re-create in a deep screw shot, with the cue slightly paused on the backswing, then starting to travel forward slowly, but, moving...quicker....quicker...quicker, until at the point of impact where it's travelling at its quickest. At the point of impact, as other have mentioned, you'll need to keep the head still, maintain low striking, allow the cue/tip to travel adequately through the point at which the white ball stood, remember to pot the ball and to gauge how much of this spin you're creating........

EASY INNIT?

[dannyd0g]

The way I'd personally try to explain the 'timing' issue in particular is like this:

Imagine that at the end of your cue is a is a very small sweeping brush, and, as you cue up to the white ball, what you're trying to achieve is to sweep dust off the bed of the cloth with this tiny little brush. Now we all (or many of us) know what the best action of using a sweeping brush is don't we???

It starts off slowish, then picks up speed as it moves forward. It's this increase in speed that allows the bristles on the brush to gather and push the dust away in the direction of the sweeping motion.

EASY INNIT?

Thankyou for that explanation/interpretation. That makes it easier to grasp the idea. For me it always been one of those issues where I didnt fully get it. I had thought it was just 'hitting the ball well' which was also very hard to define and explain, but it seems timing is a quite different thing after all.

So now there is another thing to experiment with in practicing screw shots. Bigger backswing, head still, hit the ball well, follow through smoothly as though sweeping. Hmmm it'll take a while before all that comes naturally.

But I'll keep going, hoping one day to be arcing that cue ball like Jimmy White

[Welshsteve]

One thing I'm always trying to explain to my team mates is that to get screw back you don't jab at the ball. I've told them that if they jab at the ball, they're going to stun it.

There's a guy in my team who has a lovely smooth cue action, and always plays through the ball nicely, but is just unable to play anything but plain ball, and sometimes top. Whenever he needs screw back, his cue action loses i's smoothness.

I'm not brillant, far far from it, but I do wish he would watch how I strike the ball (and a few others in my team), as I think he'll become a much better player for it.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've successfully shown him how to break off correctly to get the cue ball past the blue on the left hand side (as you're looking at it).

But I'll keep going, hoping one day to be arcing that cue ball like Jimmy White

Arcing is great fun. I do it in practice all the time. I spend time trying the half ball black to go into the pack. I'm trying to mimick Ronnie's way of screwing into them and back out. It's a very difficult shot to perfect.

[xenon]

The best tip anyone ever gave me for this was to grip the butt of the cue more loosely. I was tending to grip too tight and thus raising the tip on impact. I completely agree with the other tips (especially imagining the cue ball being further away) and they all worked for me. My problem was that I got so good at it it became a habit; I was screwing back all the time when there were better options. This probably won't happen to you - I'm just stupid.