Wild eyes!

[Strickimicki]

Hi all,

It's me again winging and whining about how crap I'm playing. I suppose I am just crap at the game, but with highlights!

Anyway, on to the point.

Today I was playing (or trying to play) snooker and found again I wasn't seeing Sh*t. It's just the normal get down behind the shot, look at the point on the object ball needed to be hit and go through the motions and pot the damn thing. BUT, what if you are doing this as usual and you can not see where you should be hitting the bloody thing when down on the shot????

Well I've been cueing just slightly to the right of middle since my coaching two days with Nick Barrow as we found that this was perfect for me. Well obviously I stick to this whatever happens. Well today after being close to tears with frustration (again) I put the cue bang center and bobs your donkey, I started potting balls and seeing where the damn things were going.

Question!

Does anybody else out there have days where the cue needs to be in a different place on their chin to pot balls, or is it just me?

On good days, I can pot blues from the balk line like nothing! But miss easy pots 10 inches from the pocket on other days. I have potted 21 from 22 balls from the blue spot with the white following through into the same bag (from D line) but sometimes I can't do it once to save my life.

So I'm as sick as a parrot, p*ssed off and fed up of being Pi*sed off! I want to enjoy my game and get regular 50 breaks and not vary from 1 to 80 all the f---ing time.

When I'm seeing the ball, I'm a danger for most players over here in Germany, but when I'm not, I'm a danger to myself!

Any comments?

Bri.

[Terry Davidson]

If Nic had you lining up to the right of centre on the cueball then it must mean you have some kind of extra action in your delivery and probably deliver left-to-right and it must be something you do consistently (or at least did when you saw Nic).

Now if you find you're more accurate when addressing the centre of the cueball then perhaps you aren't so consistent with this glitch as Nic and you thought. I'm very surprised Nic did not work with you to get rid of that extra moving part.

Another reason might be that you've changed something else which balances the original glitch out and now have 2 extra movements you have to coordinate but it appears you are coordinating them OK at the time.

I would say the most likely reason that I've found for this is the player has not learned to keep the grip loose and relaxed until after the time of strike on the cueball and the closing and tensioning of the grip is taking the butt of the cue off-line a tad and this translates to and even smaller movement the opposite way with the tip (using the 'V' of the bridge as a fulcrum).

Try gripping the cue with the fingertips only or some other grip where you just can't tighten the hold on the cue. I find a fingertip grip using the thumb and first two fingers with the back two fingers curled up and off the cue works best. Now try a long blue by addressing the centre of the cueball and see what happens. If you pot the blue OK then the original problem must have been in the grip and this should be sorted as no player can consistently control any extra movements he has in his backswing and delivery

Terry

[Strickimicki]

Hi Terry,

again you are here trying to coach over the internet! Me and my problems, it may be the death of us! :-))

Anyway, it's not the central cueing.

It's a problem I think Robertson once had, I'm looking at my cue when I think I should just have my eyes on the object ball. I know this maybe be difficult to imagine unless you've experienced it yourself, but I seem to be getting down on the shot perfectly. I then at the very point of getting settled shift my eyes from the object ball to the cue ball and where my tip is pointing at. I think this is throwing just a tidge offline and causing these problems.

It's just, how to get rid of it! I was wondering if you or anybody else for that matter have heard of how Robertson got over it. I did read somewhere that he had this problem in his youth and his trainer back then had him doing some kind of exercises to overcome the I'll say ailment.

When this has happened, all I can say is I have to much cue in my line of sight. but my body postition still feels good. I'm just not seeing the object ball like I do when I'm playing well. I managed to over come it partly this afternoon, and the balls were easy pickings.

A very strange game this,

Bry.

[Strickimicki]

Surprisingly, a lot of players look at the cueball when they deliver the cue, insisting that if they don't move at all then the aiming line of the cue should remain where it was during feathering.

There is a very good player here in the Toronto area who insists that is the way to go and also I've heard Peter Ebdon does that too, but can't confirm that until I check some video out.

There are about 3 or 4 eye rhythm techniques the various pros use, any one of which is fine but none of them include looking at the cueball at time of striking it. They are:
1. When feathering, eyes go between OB and CB, at front pause eyes are on cueball and move to the object ball at the start of the backswing.
2. Same as above but eyes go to OB at rear pause.
3. Just before striking the cueball, eyes flick to CB for one last check and then go to OB at strike. (I have a very hard time showing this one and can't pot a ball with it).
4. The one I have to use is after feathering at front pause eyes to OB and stay there until end of delivery. (I think this might be due to age as my eyes seem to require more time these days to focus on the OB so my front pause is a little longer than most)

I believe the most common among the top pros is the eyes move to the OB just before or during the rear pause.

The reason I use my method is I don't really have a rear pause, or at least a very short one at 100 milliseconds or so since the cue has to stop to change direction. A slow, slow backswing will help those without a good rear pause however I do not recommend keeping the eyes on the CB at delivery of the cue.

Terry

I just found this Terry as it's been discussed before. I just want to say that I am looking at the object ball when actually taking the shot!

[CoachGavin]

I can feel that this is all stressing you out so not gonna wind you up. Just to say that perhaps try and forget about what the problem actually is and just concentrate on what you need to do to pot the ball. If cue is on the correct line and you push it through straight then thats it! I suggest just borrowing a video camera and looking at whether your cue is online when you are in the address position. It does not matter really how you get to that point as long as your cue is on the line of aim and you can do it consistently. Check yourself on a camera and take it from there. Good luck mate!

[Strickimicki]

Hi Gav,

you can't stress me out mate. I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to getting wound up and having to laugh at myself! It just so damn annoying when I see how I can play (Potting, positioning, moving balls from cushions, splitting the pack the works) to see me preforming like an idiot who has never held a cue in his hands before and a blind idiot at that!

Maybe I should just concentrate on looking at the object ball until I feel settled on the shot, then look at where my cue is addressing the cue ball. I don't know, I just don't know how to get over this maybe mental flaw!

LOL, or maybe not!

Bri.

[vish]

Hayee Bri; try this eye exercise[-] stick an yellow tennis ball to a length of thin rubber string and hang it to the ceiling so that the ball is at eye level when you are seated on a chair some twenty feet away[-] swing the ball so that the oscillations bring the tennis ball to about two feet from your eyes and keep your eye on the ball for as long as the oscillations get shorter than say four feet from you eyes [-] I have found this exercise gives a good feeling when you are at the table in holding on to the OB like a leech with your eyes[-] Good Hunting to you ; cheerio[-] Vish

[CoachGavin]

You sound like me LOL. Well give the camera idea a go cos i did it and i saw straight away when in my getting into the shot I was not cueing centre of the white and at which point is was all going wrong! I think looking at the object ball as you come into the shot is good and perhaps leave it as late as possible until you move your gaze to the cue ball. The cue ball will be in your peripheral vision anyway. I wish you all the best.

[Sidd]

Hello Strikimicki, your problem did not seem alien to me given that I am also my own worst enemy. I would play for days like a pro having everydoby at the club afraid to play me on and then there would be days when I would miss out on literally the easiest of things and hence people would start to give me ideas to improve- the same people that would never play me on in big games like best of 17s and 27s and all that... I have been able to identify my reasons and those are- as Terry point them out for me- my technique wasn't sound and perfect at all and hence I was not able to progress from my point of concern. Similarly, what you are facing is what I have been and kind of am facing and I have figured out that there is a lot more to snooker than we perhaps think. In order to improve your condition and trust me I can sympathyse cuz I am a victim of almost the same disease so I know what you are going through mate- I have almost broken my cue three times I then started researching and found a cure to my problem... the cure or the reasons for playing like an ace in some days and beign an idiot in others could be one or more of the following:

1. Do not eat/stuff yourself while going to play. Over eating disturbs concentration.
2. Always play in breaks like play a few frames and then take a walk or leave a couple of frames to someone else and relax. Going out getting some fresh air and coming back to resume play in 20 minutes could be a good idea.
3. Do you mostly play with singular oponent. That bores one out. Alwaystry to play against a variety of players.
4. o you go to play after work or after some activity? that can dull you out. If possible the best way is to relax take a nice warm shower, shave if you do, put on some good decent clothes of your choice wear perfume if you like it and then go to the game. You will notice the difference trust me

The bottom line is to keep your head cool and mind and body relax and easy. And yes one thing that is most most important here is to never ever do what I normally do. i.e. never ever get frustrated in your mind if you cant play well cuz then that gets on your nerves and you start blaming yourself more and end up not being able to play. Trust me mate I used to be like that but since I have changed my mental approach I have started playing better and beign more consistent. My war is not over yet its rather a challenge but I am fighting happy snookering. Hope that helped!!!