Potting Suddenly Improved

[armstm]

This is what i have done to do this. Please let me know your feedback so i know if i am on the right track.

I am a big believer that I sight the shot the best from standing up.

STEP 1) I point the cue on the line of aim, with me still standing up.

STEP 2) I then lift the cue upwards (still pointing in the direction of the pot)

STEP 3) depends what side of the table i am. say i am potting the yellow into the yellow pocket, then i step forward with my right foot exactly on the line of the shot. If i am potting the brown into the green pocket, i step SLIGHTLY to the left of the aim with my right foot.


STEP 4) bring left hand from hip height smoothly up to meet cue. This is a key step as i found before this hand came last in the process and i think was moving the cue around. It should rise up to meet the cue coming down (ie they meet BEFORE THE CUE IS AT TABLE HEIGHT)

STEP 5) take a reasonable step forward with my left leg (more so than "feels comfortable")

if i do this consistently i seem to be online more with my pots. The key progress forward i found is the left hand meeting up with the cue coming down...

in my old cue action, the cue was at the table height and my left hand would then kind of slide onto it. I think this induced wiggles in the aim (which because i was now down on the shot i couldn't see this change had happened)


it feels excessively mechanical to do this (i feel like a robot) but i am potting balls i kind of don't care! i am hoping that if i do this regularly then maybe it will become more reliable.

please let me know your thoughts.

[cantpotforshíte]

I'm glad it's working for you mate. I've always thought that the get-down-on-the-shot bit is the second most important part of any snooker shot, second only to 'seeing' the entire shot before you get down. If you're lined up, and you KNOW you are lined up, then it seems like it's impossible to miss.
It's a lot to think about now, but if you keep doing it for a few weeks, it'll become second nature, and hopefully you won't have to think about it.
Personally I've simplified my get-down-on-the-shot instructions to 'Get down on the shot as if you were going to cue the ball with your eyes shut.' It's a bit more all-encompassing, as where the cue ball lies often interferes with your classic stance.
One other caveat - it might be that thinking about this has stopped you from thinking any other negative thoughts, and that could be the reason that it's working. These 'dummies' or 'swing thoughts' are well known to golfers (apparently) and are often the reason why, when a snooker player changes something, it seems to work , if only temporarily.
But stick with it and see!

[davidwu]

I tried many things, but still cueing with right side, it is driving me mad.
I still do not know clearly how much weight should each leg carry. I have seen players stand differently.
some lean onto their left legs, some lean onto the right leg.
maybe u guys can help me?

[nrage]

See this reply I just posted:
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...610#post568610

I too was concentrating on stance, elbow, etc and thinking they were causing my problems. But it turns out it's all in my wrist and shoulder and I simply wasn't bringing the cue through as straight as I thought. At 'normal' speeds I could not physically see the problem I had to have a frame by frame play back, so a video was the road to salvation.

Before you tinker with stance etc any more, try filming yourself as described and let me know what you see. The first step to improving is figuring out what is really wrong with what you're already doing. I think focusing on stance, or any one aspect is the wrong way to go about it, I think you need to get a basically straight cue action first. Granted, stance is one thing you can change to help get a straight cue action, but it's probably only 2-5% of the equation. Grip is far more important, and far harder to detect problems with - without slow motion frame by frame.

[davidwu]

See this reply I just posted:
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...610#post568610

I too was concentrating on stance, elbow, etc and thinking they were causing my problems. But it turns out it's all in my wrist and shoulder and I simply wasn't bringing the cue through as straight as I thought. At 'normal' speeds I could not physically see the problem I had to have a frame by frame play back, so a video was the road to salvation.

Before you tinker with stance etc any more, try filming yourself as described and let me know what you see. The first step to improving is figuring out what is really wrong with what you're already doing. I think focusing on stance, or any one aspect is the wrong way to go about it, I think you need to get a basically straight cue action first. Granted, stance is one thing you can change to help get a straight cue action, but it's probably only 2-5% of the equation. Grip is far more important, and far harder to detect problems with - without slow motion frame by frame.

Thanks for the advice. Actually I went to a coach for this problem, he told me that my stance is perfect and my cueing is straight. My problem according to him was the cueing rythem and lack of smoothness in delivery. Later when I watch the DVD of myself I saw my elbow was not at the back of head but on the side. And reason for this was he foucsed on mu cueing as he thought my stance was right, which was at start, then it went wrong because I wasnt doing the correct steps for the stance. Hence I missed a lot of balls.

Anther problem is that when I follown all the steps correctly I play relatively well but if I do the same in pool, I miss a lot of easy pots. Which caused me to believe that there must be something wrong. Therefore I ended up in a cycle.

[nrage]

Thanks for the advice. Actually I went to a coach for this problem, he told me that my stance is perfect and my cueing is straight. My problem according to him was the cueing rythem and lack of smoothness in delivery. Later when I watch the DVD of myself I saw my elbow was not at the back of head but on the side. And reason for this was he foucsed on mu cueing as he thought my stance was right, which was at start, then it went wrong because I wasnt doing the correct steps for the stance. Hence I missed a lot of balls.

Anther problem is that when I follown all the steps correctly I play relatively well but if I do the same in pool, I miss a lot of easy pots. Which caused me to believe that there must be something wrong. Therefore I ended up in a cycle.

Yeah, I got stuck in a cycle as well.

It seems to me that the only reasons to be adding unwanted side are:
- you're cueing straight, and down the line of the shot, but you're slightly left or right of center ball.
- you're cueing straight, but you're going across the line of the shot.
- you're not cueing straight.

It's probably paritially a consistency thing too, sometimes you do it all right, sometimes you do one of the 3 things above. A video will help you figure out which of the 3 things it is. If you can see the pocket, cue, white, object and target in a straight line down the center of the video, then you're lined up ok. If the cue is angled to one side or the other you're cueing across the white. If the cue is straight but to one side you're not lined up on center ball. Once you're sure you're lined up ok, then watch the stroke in slow motion, or frame by frame, you'll either see the cue come through straight, or not.

[jarcher]

Follow through

I too have also come to notice something which dramatically helps to keep your follow through straight... start it slowly!!!

I watch so many people getting down on the shot, cue up nicely, nice front pause, nice rear pause, then accelerate from 0 to 100mph in an instant... then miss. I have also noticed the exact same people doing everything else the exact same, though accelerating a lot slower, starting off very slow, almost as if they are just letting their arm relax to a vertical position from their full backswing... only this time, they follow right through... and pot

I have tried this myself and have noticed a massive improvement, not only on my potting, but also on my cue power. The big area I noticed was my improvement on long potting success.

The issue I see when people are starting their follow through too quick is that they are inadvertently tensing, which in turn can cause the wrist to turn, which never happens when feathering the white as they are not putting power into the feathering.

Give it a go and see what happens... you may also find that following through to your chest becomes more natural.