'Timing'? How To Generate Screw & Spin Power Like The Pros?

[Terry Davidson]

pool:

nrage has it right...start with a simple shot like brown into green or yellow pocket. Grip (I prefer the term 'hold') the cue very loose, lower the bridge until your tip is one tip width off the cloth, backswing length should be dependent on the amount of power you want and I would recommend starting with low power.

Keeping the bridge low and only move the elbow and not the whole body or upper body DRIVE through the cueball and don't stop the cue until your hand hits your chest.

As you master the simple brown to where you can EASILY screw back to the side cushion on a slow club table then increase the difficulty a bit by upping the power and also moving the cueball a bit further from the brown. Once you have that mastered then switch to the pink ball with the cueball roughly 18" behind it and off straight so a power screw will have the cueball ending up in baulk either in or near the green or yellow pocket.

But the best advice is already here...KEEP IT SMOOTH AND DRIVE THE GRIP HAND TO THE CHEST (this is for all shots, not just deep screw)

Terry

[Straight strike]

You may begin with short distance by putting the object ball one foot or two from the cue ball. Cue through the cue ball with different speeds to see what happens. Remember to play the stroke in a nice and easy manner.

[Straight strike]

Oh, our head coach is here! How are you getting on Terry?

[philthoms]

It may be worth mentioning that the pros play on superfast cloths which are easier to play normal deep screw shots on and therefore less effort is needed. The longer deep screw shots come with much practice and confidence.

[nrage]

It gives me an impression that you should have played a stun shot instead of a screw shot as you may have wished so the cue ball did not travel backwards. If a screw shot is properly played, the cue ball will go back regardless how slow the table is, the difference will be the length of distance it travels.

? .. who was this a reply to?

[cantpotforshíte]

I started looking at the cue ball rather than the object ball about three weeks ago, for a completely different reason.
However, since I've been doing this, and assuming that I do everything else right, I've got a lot more cue power than I had before.
I'm not suggesting that everyone should look at the white when striking, but it does go to show that people are not hitting the white where they think they are when they look at the object ball.
If you watch your mates, you'll see that people seem to subconsciously 'chicken out' at the last minute and hit the cue ball higher than intended, as a previous poster mentioned.

[Pool_Is_More_Fun]

My cue is pretty horizontal, but whenever I strike it reasonably low, I seem to chip it. Can't seem to make the follow through work at all I can get some but hardly any and never when hitting it softly. I don't have a snooker club unfortunately, I use my brothers 3/4 table at home

[Straight strike]

Find some online teaching clips on youtube like "snooker pro tips".

[stjimmy18-1991]

One thing to take note is how far your tip is away from the cue ball in the address position. If your tip is an inch away during the address position, you're losing an inch of follow through when you strike!! All of this needs to be in tune with your grip hand, so that when you are in the address position, your back arm is pointing down in a direct horizontal line, and your bridge hand is a hands distance from the cue ball, and of course your tip as close to the cue ball as possible. get these right, and you'll get alot more juice on the white.

[Terry Davidson]

straight:

I'm good although my internet connection still sucks a bit and it looks like I will have to wait another 2-3 months until the new G4 service comes into my area. Had a hell of a time trying to watch the snooker but saw enough to know Judd Trump scares the *you know what* out of me!

pool:

With thanks to Nic Barrow, he has an exercise in a seminar titled 'how to screw like a pro' (get your minds out of the gutter!) on his website which should help you. However I just thought about what's really wrong with your attempts to screw and the answer is 'YOU'RE NOT HITTING THE BOTTOM OF THE CUEBALL!' because even with no follow-through you should be screwing back some distance. For screw the tip of you cue should be just one tip width off the cloth.

Also, I suspect you are getting the tip low in the address position by raising the butt of the cue and then when you deliver the cue your upper arm returns to its normal position and your tip is up around centre-ball. THE ONLY WAY YOU SHOULD MOVE THE TIP HEIGHT ON THE CUEBALL IS BY RAISING AND LOWERING YOUR bridge, NOT BY RAISING OR LOWERING THE BUTT.

Now for the exercise from Nic...hold the cue with the very tips of your thumb and forefinger (don't cheat now, the finger/thumb CANNOT be bent at all, just the very tip is holding the cue) and set the brown on spot into the green pocket with the cueball about a foot behind it but not quite straight in (so you can leave the cue extended after the delivery).

Now, with care and caution lower you bridge hand so your tip is at the bottom of the cueball (one tip width from the cloth) and use a very slow backswing and then deliver the cue and you should be able to screw back at least 2ft even on a club table. Make sure the back 3 fingers of the hand are curled up into the palm and not touching the cue at all.

This exercise should prove to you that you can hit the bottom of the cueball by lowering the bridge and not raising the butt of the cue and also that the cue should do the work with you in control of it,

Terry

[Rii]

I used to have this problem of chipping the ball, but now I can screw back pretty well without hitting hard at all.

I'm not an expert on technique at all, so I won't try to give advice on it! But my belief is that if I focus on what I want the cue to do my body will align itself to that purpose.

So with regards to screwing back without hitting hard, what I focus on is picturing my cue action as a pendulum, with the point where you strike the white ball as the lowest point on the pendulum. Have this picture in your mind: http://wiki-images.enotes.com/4/4f/SimplePendulum01.JPG

In other words, I pull the cue back a certain length (depending on how much power you want) and then focus on following through the white ball the same length, and at the opposite angle at which it approached the white ball.

If I don't want to screw back a lot I "shorten" the pendulum i.e I shorten the cue length from bridge to cue ball, and if I want to screw back more, I make sure I have a relatively "long" pendulum, so I pull back and follow through a greater distance.

With the pendulum example in mind it made me understand why people recommend you keep the cue near horizontal, because if you have the it elevated too high then, following the pendulum action, you will tend to scoop the shot.

Check out this video of Ronnie's deep screw shot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Ajb6zMM_A starting at around 0:15 seconds. He pulls the cue back at a certain angle, and then as he follows through it goes in the opposite angle, like the pendulum action I described. (if you use keepvid.com and download the video, you can use your video player to step frame by frame and see it in slow mo)

Anyway, that the way I learnt how to do screwbacks. Hope it helps someone!

[farlex11]

Hi Mate,
First of all you must keep in mind that trump and robertson are playing on extremely fast tables which really helps making the screw shot seem insane.
2nd thing : the cue and tip used play a very important role especially in screw shots and side.the shaft should be very hard and a low deflection one to generate extreme power. the tip should be medium soft and consistent. pig skin multi layer tips such as moori, kamui and everest are the best.
Now to generate extreme screw you should be so relaxed and your grip should be as loose as possible.
the secret is by following through using your shoulder and droping your elow to generate maximum contact between the cue ball and the tip while tightening your grip after exact contact.
it is difficult to explain ,bbut your subconcious can get used to it within an hour

[Slasher]

The only factors that matter are cue speed and contact point, tip hardness may play a very very minor part.
The cue ball is not smart enough to know how or what hit it

[Inoffthered]

The only factors that matter are cue speed and contact point, tip hardness may play a very very minor part.
The cue ball is not smart enough to know how or what hit it

Haha. Seen your vids Slasher. The way you put fizz on the white you're the screwback king fo sho!

Awesome set up in your house btw.

[Slasher]

Thank you for the kind words
My best advice on this is to make sure you are actually hitting as low as you think. What often happens is you think "power" and squeeze the cue too tight and this causes you to lift the tip toward the end of the stroke. anyone can generate this spin if they get the cue speed and correct contact point, it's not as hard as you think.