Power is nothing without control

[Mitsuko]

These are probably my biggest weakness. I get a shot where I need the white at the other end of the table, so I hit the ball hard and I regularly miss

At first I thought it was just concentration, but I try to concentrate and still miss

Any tips of how to hit with power but keep the control?

[Semih_Sayginer]

make sure youre generating power from your cue and cueing arm and NOT trying to get your body behind the shot, as youre more likely to move on the shot, however small a move, and this will make your strike less accurate.

[RaNeN]

Play the shots not with a lot of power. 1st concentrate on the pot.Potting is more important than position. Once you miss a pot , your opponent is at the table and not you. Incase you play a power shot and miss but manage to get the desired position , you opposition now has a chance of making a break.

Are you trying to screw back? or Follow?

[Semih_Sayginer]

Play the shots not with a lot of power. 1st concentrate on the pot.Potting is more important than position.

i dont 100% agree with that ranen. it is sometimes the case, but....

quite often if you pot but fail to get position you are faced with a more tricky pot or a more difficult safety than what you could have played if youd refused the initial pot which you failed to get position from and played safe from there

[RaNeN]

Well Semih ,
You are correct too. But it is not always that you get into a tricky position after a pot. You have atleast got a saftey shot. Maybe even a long pot.

What I am actually trying to say is. Incase you are not confident of getting position , just pot!!!

What one can try to do when you are still learning positional play , I would say just go for the pot! With experience you will be confident of playing the pot and getting position as well.

Cheers!

[hegeland]

I tend to agree with Ranen here. For a newbie, pot the ball is always no one prority. Then when you get better, you can start missing thin rather than thick and such, but as long as you're not very good, you usually and up missing the even the easiest shot because you thought too much about where the cue ball was gonna end up.

[MrRottweiler]

Potting is the most important aspect between the trade off between potting and position because without the pot the position is irrelevant. The harder you hit the more you move and the more likely it is you will miss the pot. I have a habit of hitting the balls too hard and have done for years which although doesn't help my break building it does mean I succeed with a lot of long pots using pace.

The power is generated with the cue arm and most importantly your 'flicking' wrist action. Straight cueing is also crucial when using a lot of pace as it gives you a wider margin for error. Get someone to watch your action when attempting long pots as they can easily point out if your head moves or you're doing something else that will effect your potting. Make sure its a good friend or they might make up something and give you a complex!

In his younger years Steve Davis used to get his father to hold a book right above his head so if he moved on a shot he would instantly know about it. He would practice like this for hours to minimise movement and it certainly paid off for him.

[Semih_Sayginer]

Well Semih ,
You are correct too.

indeed ranen, you seemed to have grasped that i wasnt saying you were wrong, but that i differed in opinion due to how often IMHO the scenario(s) i posted occurs

so, both points very valid IMHO

[MrRottweiler]

Regardless of ability the focus is always getting the pot because what is the point in achieving perfect position for the next pot if the break comes to an end because of a miss. At least if you pot the ball and run out of position you can play a good safety. The reason we see uncharacteristic misses by top players is because the player was concentrating more on the position than the most important thing. The pot!

Ironic really.

[The Statman]

...Get someone to watch your action when attempting long pots as they can easily point out if your head moves or you're doing something else that will effect your potting. ...

We had a guy at our club who used to watch the bottom of your T-shirt as you played your shot – he said if it lifted to reveal more flesh, or more of your trousers than was visible before, during the course of your actual stroke, then you were moving too much on the shot.

We thought he just liked looking at other people's bottoms!

[Mitsuko]

Thanks for the advise

[RaNeN]

Hope these things will improve your game Mitsy! Good luck!

Cheers!!!!!

[missneworleans]

I'm too late,all have sayed all the things

[Welshsteve]

As has already been said, you don't need to put your body behind a shot and hit it as hard as you can to generate power. Generating power should be done through a good cue action. Keep your head and body still and push through the white with the cue. You'll be amazed at the amount of screw back or top you can get just by making sure you follow through straight with the cue.