dominant eye and cueing problems

[toupihiggins]

Hi!

Another week had passed and I have come to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXXqCSaZ5uU

Not much improvement at standing still on the shot although it is better then last week. The good thing is that now, most of the times i aim and shot in the same point on the cue ball. I'm still having problems with me technique but I feel better already with this little improvements.

Any feedback from you would be very useful.

Thanks!

[Terry Davidson]

toupi:

Just a little better, but when I say 'no head movement' I MEAN ABSOLUTELY NO HEAD AND UPPER BODY MOVEMENT and you still have some and you will not cue accurately unless one of two things happen. The first and best is to stop the movement.

The second and more dangerous path is to have the perfect coordination (since you're young you may have) to get the cue back to the EXACT address position as you strike it during the delivery. I say this is the most dangerous way to go because no one can ensure perfect coordination on any given day but there have been some VERY good players (Alex Higgins comes to mind) who have been able to coordinate that strike when they were younger but lost it as they age a bit (Marco Fu is another example of a cue action which requires perfect coordination).

The other point is I noticed your elbow is not dropping straight down as you strike and this is helping to induce that head movement. Get in front of a mirror and cue into it at various speed and see if you can get your elbow to drop STRAIGHT DOWN and also keep the head and shoulders PERFECTLY STILL. Do these two things and I think you will improve rapidly as otherwise your cue action is pretty good.

Terry

[toupihiggins]

Hi Terry

Thanks again for you feedback. I know that i still have to improve and I try to do that every time I go and practice. I'm working hard on standing still on the shot but if there isn't someone by my side to tell when when I move it's very hard for me tot tell. I'm just analyzing the videos when I get home and try better next time.

Thanks for telling me about my elbow. I tough that it may be the problem for my head movement and I'm trying to correct it. Also, I would like to ask you how should I correct those mistakes? Should I take them one by one or should i threat them all in the same time?

Thanks,
Liviu

[Terry Davidson]

Always work on cueing problems one at a time. In your case I would say work on keeping the upper arm and shoulder out of the shot by working in front of a mirror and using ONLY the elbow to deliver the cue until after the cueball has been struck, At that point the elbow starts dropping (which is controlled by the shoulder muscle and shoulder socket) and since the cueball is already away it doesn't harm the delivery although dropping the elbow straight down always helps a player to stay consistent.

I also think using the elbow only until the time of strike should help with the head movement a bit but you will still have to work on that as it's become natural to you and part of your unconcious delivery technique

Terry

[toupihiggins]

Some new stuff from today' practice session:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_io4TMI9QM

[DandyA]

Some new stuff from today' practice session:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_io4TMI9QM

I love the video toupi ... nice art ... compelling music, good cueing and the mystery person playing at the other end of the table who we never see but we know is there ... lovely stuff ... I tend to take a scientific approach to snooks so it really is nice to see someone treating it as art ...

[Terry Davidson]

toupi:

There is still far too much head movement on both the feathering and the delivery, it will take time for you to manage to control this and get it out of your natural technique as it appears to be ingrained in your cue action now.

First of all, I think you have your expectations raised a little high. In order to effect a basic change in technique in order to get rid of an obvious flaw like you have it will take a lot of time and work. This is not something that can be achieved in a few days or even a week or more and must be worked on for a period of at least a month or two and that's if you put in a lot of practice.

To give you something which will help you I recommend the following...get yourself a mirror of sufficient size so you can set it up at the side of the baulk line and when you get down into the address position (using the brown spot as where the cueball would normally be) set up the mirror so you can see the tip of the cue (when extended) all the way up to the top of your right elbow which is the important point for you.

Get down into the address position and now SLOWLY feather, backswing and deliver and watch your head and elbow. In the first instance work on dropping the elbow STRAIGHT DOWN when you deliver and ensure the elbow does not start to drop until after the cue goes through the address position (in other words, if there was a cueball there it would be just after the cueball has been struck). Work on keeping the shoulder muscle (the muscle which drops the elbow) out of the delivery until after your tip passed the brown spot and then work on having the elbow drop straight down on your follow-through.

I know this sounds pretty boring but nothing is ever achieved without a bit of hard graft and you will have to stick with it and do this routine for at least 20 minutes each day you have a practice session as you must teach the muscles when and where in the delivery you want them to play a part. First of all try delivering the cue using JUST the elbow and do not allow the elbow to drop at all and then once you can do that extend the follow-through and allow the elbow to drop but keep it straight down.

After you feel you have that mastered, which should take at least a couple of weeks of daily work or perhaps more then move on to keeping the head and shoulders absolutely still during the feathering, backswing and delivery. You should still by this time be dropping the elbow straight down and this may help with controlling the head movement. Once you get absolute stillness when cueing slow and deliberately start increasing the speed of the DELIVERY ONLY, but not the backswing. So always a nice and very slow backswing and then raise the speed of the delivery until you get it to maximum without any head or shoulder lateral or lifting movement.

When you are at this high power delivery DO NOT grasp the cue tightly at the start of the delivery but keep the grip firm but relaxed (a contradiction in terms I know). You should have positive control of the butt of the cue with the grip without having it overly tight and you should not grip the cue any tighter until after the cueball has been struck and your elbow starts to drop.

This whole thing should take you at least a month to master but I think once you do you will start to see a marked improvement since the rest of your technique is pretty good and in fact it is good enough to run centuries once you control the head movement and the 'flying elbow' which both cause you to cue across the cueball somewhat and drastically reduce your accuracy, especially with long pots.

Post another video once you have these two points mastered and I'll see if there's anything else we should work on

Terry

[toupihiggins]

Hi Terry,

My sincere appreciation for spending you time telling me what to correct. I will follow your advice and do those exercises each time I go and practice. Hopefully I can correct my technique in 1-2 months.

Thanks,
Liviu