Back to basics - accuracy with side

[Rain426]

I have always, always struggled to stay accurate whilst trying to play a shot with side on it. I know what I do, I line up the shot, and then move the tip to put side on, hence the cue is not going through straight.

I just can't seem to make myself visualise the shot correctly when side is required. And tips for getting down on the shot, putting side on, and still cueing straight?

Might seem like a simple thing, but I have avoided playing shots with side for years, even when practising regularly!

Thanks all!

[hotpot]

What you have to remember when using side is that the white throws and pulls depending where you hit it and over what distance .

supposing you have a straight black into the top right pocket and the white just behind it . If you play a screw off the cush with left hand side the white will go to the right and you will probaly miss the black to the left .

To compensate for this you will need to hit the black a bit to the left aiming slightly to the right of the pocket .

How much you need to compensate depend on your cut , tip , the balls etc .

I would concentrate on center ball striking for now until you start playing somewhere near to you used to .

Confused myself then lol .

[Bigmeek]

Rain426 I'll be interested in the replies you get. A couple of weeks ago I was playing around trying to pot fairly easy balls with side and I came to the conclusion that I didn't really know how to judge the angle properly to take account of the fact that the cue ball will deviate a little cos of the side. I can manage the pot but I know for a fact the object ball is not going in the centre of the pocket. Not a problem when playing with "buckets" but I'll get caught out big time with tight pockets.

PS Thanks Hotpot. We posted at the same time.

[iancafc]

first i would say just make sure you consistant in hitting the middle of the ball then work on side

[sunny3909]

When you take professional advice you realize there is so much technicality in this game.
So easy to get confused but over a period of time you start realizing its positive effects.
Just need to mould in these techniques into your game over a period of time.

[vmax4steve]

I have always, always struggled to stay accurate whilst trying to play a shot with side on it. I know what I do, I line up the shot, and then move the tip to put side on, hence the cue is not going through straight.

I just can't seem to make myself visualise the shot correctly when side is required. And tips for getting down on the shot, putting side on, and still cueing straight?

Might seem like a simple thing, but I have avoided playing shots with side for years, even when practising regularly!

Thanks all!

Just remember that for an angle shot you have to play the pot thicker than you normally would when using either check or running side, so a good start would be to aim for the near jaw. Stand behind the pot focussing on the part of the object ball you need the white to hit in order for the object ball to hit the near jaw, place feet in position with eyes still on the object ball, then switch eyes to the part of the white the tip of the cue has to strike, either right or left of centre, and get down and address this part of the white straight away. Never address the centre of the white and then put side on.
Practise this religiously making a mental note of how much you miss the shots by and how much more thicker or less thicker you need to aim the object ball in order to pot it. Trial and error will show you that playing with side is indeed a black art, but so worthwhile when it comes off.
I would advocate only using side in matches when the object ball is close to a pocket until you get used to it.

[Rain426]

Thanks for all the tips guys, I will start off by making sure I can hit the ball centre first, then once I have got that down, I will have a look at using side!

I like your sig vmax

[hotpot]

When you do use side remember that played with top it will push the white in the opposite direction , ie right hand side , the white will push to the left . When using bottom the whit will start off the same but will come back to the opposite direction , so right hand side over a distance , the white will push to the left and the pull to the right .

The further the distance between balls the more it will pull back .

[billbobs]

Some very good tips I'm going to try these as well lol

[HemiRR]

When you do use side remember that played with top it will push the white in the opposite direction , ie right hand side , the white will push to the left . When using bottom the whit will start off the same but will come back to the opposite direction , so right hand side over a distance , the white will push to the left and the pull to the right .

The further the distance between balls the more it will pull back .

Yes, with the nap, the cue ball will tend to be pushed off line and then tend to come back depending on speed distance, amount of spin, condition of the nap; but against the nap you may also encounter the 'siding against the nap' affect. The cue ball will swerve as normal but as speed decreases the cue ball will start to curve back the other way (this is a very speed dependant effect - the slower speed and higher spin, the greater the effect)

[HemiRR]

When you do use side remember that played with top it will push the white in the opposite direction , ie right hand side , the white will push to the left . When using bottom the whit will start off the same but will come back to the opposite direction , so right hand side over a distance , the white will push to the left and the pull to the right .

The further the distance between balls the more it will pull back .

Yes, with the nap, the cue ball will tend to be pushed off line and then tend to come back depending on speed distance, amount of spin, condition of the nap; but against the nap you may also encounter the 'siding against the nap' affect. The cue ball will swerve as normal but as speed decreases the cue ball will start to curve back the other way (this is a very speed dependant effect - the slower the speed and the higher spin, the greater the effect)

[HemiRR]

Two things that I do to help my potting when using side: 1. I line up the shot with my cue basically parallel to where it would be if I was making a centre ball pot and I make sure I follow through - poking or jabbing at the cue ball will never allow consistent side and potting results (in practise you may even try exagerating your follow through) 2. The amount of cue deflection has a great impact on how much throw you will get so you need consistent cue reaction when spinning the cue ball. I always hold my cue with the grain running exactly the same way on every shot - so I get the same cue deflection for each type of shot i.e. top, bottom, left & right side (I play with an ash cue so this is easy to see - centre grain same side up on every shot)

[Rain426]

Thanks for all the feedback! I had a game with my brother last night, he thrashed me 5-1. But I did have an experiment a couple of times with side, and successfully managed to pot a couple of balls using it, so that's an improvement.

I did make a note of when I was not addressing the side of the ball straight away, so got up off the shot and realigned myself first. The tip vmax gave was very useful to me, in looking where I wanted to strike the cue ball before getting down on the shot.

I definitely need to keep practising though!

[Terry Davidson]

It's not a good thing to be playing with side over any distance at all unless you really need it. Most good players will use side on the break shot but then siding is confined to very easy pots where the object ball is close to the pocket.

The only other two cases where a pro will use side over distance is if he's playing a shot to nothing or a safety and he needs either check or running side to steer the cueball around other balls to avoid a kiss and leaving something on for his opponent. The other case is when the player can't quite see the object ball and has to swerve the cueball and 'throw' the object ball into a pocket.

My advice would be to avoid the use of side whenever just centre-ball striking will do and especially where there is some distance between the two balls as hitting the object ball in that case is more than likely around 50% guesswork even for a pro

Terry

[vmax4steve]

Thanks for all the feedback! I had a game with my brother last night, he thrashed me 5-1. But I did have an experiment a couple of times with side, and successfully managed to pot a couple of balls using it, so that's an improvement.

I did make a note of when I was not addressing the side of the ball straight away, so got up off the shot and realigned myself first. The tip vmax gave was very useful to me, in looking where I wanted to strike the cue ball before getting down on the shot.

I definitely need to keep practising though!

Good for you m8, keep practising.

Terry

I wish you would stop telling players not to use side. It used to be an integral part of the game when the cloths had a heavy nap on them and just because the pros no longer have to play on cloths like this, unfortunately the rest of us do, as local snooker and political clubs just cannot afford to have tables re-clothed every few months. To be able to play around the black and pink spots using side on a slow table with a heavy cloth is practically mandatory, and players of the past like Alex Higgins, John Spencer and Ray Reardon did so to a very high degree which is why they were the best of their era.
Of course we mere mortals cannot aspire to their heights, but we can at least try, and when you find yourself out of position and can play a shot with running side to get on the next ball, then you have an advantage over someone who cannot.