Setup of Cueing arm

[JimJam]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone could offer some advice. My performance on the snooker table has been very inconsistent recently, on good days I can make regular 40-50+ breaks in practice, and other days I struggle to put 3 pots together. The main thing that I notice when I am playing well as opposed to when I'm not is that my cueing shoulder feels correctly positioned in relation to my body and it makes my cueing very straight and accurate. I do my best to note down the 'feeling' at the times when I'm playing well in an attempt to bottle up what the trick is, but I can't quite put it into words and I am lost to get it back next time I play.

Does anyone have any advice on how to position or brace the shoulder/torso/elbow correctly for snooker.

Cheers

[Terry Davidson]

jimjam:

As you said the shoulder should be 'braced' but of course the question is how? The answer is the shoulder should be braced in towards the back as much as is comfortably possible and this will depend on your own individual physique. The elbow should be directly over the cue butt or close to that when in the address position, although there are some slight differences amongst the top pros, for instance Mark W is out about 6" while Higgins is in towards his back around 1" or so.

Getting the shoulder braced in one position, hopefully behind the head and the elbow aligned over the cue butt makes it much easier to deliver the cue straight. I would suggest you get a mirror and set it up on the baulkline and cue into it and set it up so you can see from the bed of the table to the top of your head and elbow. The primary goal is to line everything up so the head covers as much of the right shoulder as possible and the elbow is over the cue but you must be COMFORTABLE and it must feel natural, so any minor adjustments should be done with your comfort in mind.

Once you get everything lined up in the mirror, try cueing with a long and very slow backswing, a rear pause if you use one, and then a long delivery. This should be done while watching the cue so you can determine if the backswing is perfectly straight and the delivery is also straight and the cue covers the baulkline at all times during the backswing and delivery.

Terry

[JimJam]

Cheers for the advice Terry, please can you elaborate on what specifically you mean by moving the shoulder in towards the back, this could be percieved in a number of ways.

Thanks

[Terry Davidson]

I don't know how I can be any clearer. If you set up a mirror head-n and cue into it you should not be able to see the shoulder past the head, so the shoulder is braced in a locked position behind the head. For most people it's slightly into the back and up

Terry