Placement of Head over the cue

[Sidd]

Here I am again. Strictly following Terry's coaching tips and trying to keep a similar technique but things have not yet started working for me. I am hoping that with more practice I shall improve...hopefully! But am in pain these days due to the fact that my game isn't really improving. Every day I have to struggle for plain pots, I would get a lovely scording chance near the black and would pot 2 or max 3 blacks and then end up losing a simple red and stay there thinking what could have happened. Was it the grip was it the non-straight cue, was it not standing in the line of aim or was it the stance all together. No answer for me I guess... Nothing concrete comes to my mind. Another thing that might as well be the cause is that I recently got myself a pair of snooker glasses and now seeing through that is rather different and I think I would require a week or so in settling down with this.

Anyway, I was watching Williams because he is tall and lefty like me so I thought I would learn something for me through watching him. I noticed that when he drops down for the shot the direction of his head is different than usual players. Like when normally a player drops down his head is almost 90 degrees to the cue underneath his chin. But I noticed that when Williams drops down his head is just a fraction lower like his nose tends to be more towards the downside towards the cue rather than being straight. Any thoughts on that please... should I tr that and would it improve my sighting abilities ??? If not, why does he play like that when no one else seems to do that?

I think for me the most important thing is the stance as I can see that my straight leg is tilted outside and hence is not exactly under my grip hand. I have been trying to alter that but till this time no success.

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

I think you are becoming obsessed with technique. My recommendation is to pick a set-up which is COMFORTABLE for you and then stick with it, using the same set-up every time.

Also, regarding Mark Williams...do you think you would play better as Sidd with his own style or as a clone of the Mark Williams style. What happens when you notice that Mark Allen has an unusual grip, or Neil Robertson has his cue slightly to the left of his chin or some other left-handed pro has a lsightly different set-up.

My point is, every person has their own individual physique and you must find the set-up which COMFORTABLY fits your own technique and then stick with it. When you want to try something different try it with your eyes closed and try and feel what it's like and if it's comfortable for YOU.

Joe Davis even said in his second book that there were a lot of players who quit playing because they tried to copy his set-up and got themselves all twisted up, not realizing Joe was almost blind in his right eye and had to set up with the cue well over to the left of his chin. Don't try and copy another player's set-up, develop your own which still sticks to the basic principles, is comfortable and allows you to deliver the cue straight and then STICK WITH IT!!!

Also, it seems to me your expectations are a little high and you think there must be what we call a 'silver bullet' with snooker, i.e. - something which if you find it you will all of a sudden magically start to improve. You have said just over the past week you don't seem to be improving, not matter what changes you try.

Seeing improvement at snooker takes MONTHS, not days and I don't care how naturally talented you are or are not. Let me tell you THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET. IMPROVEMENT AT SNOOKER TAKES A LOT OF PRACTICE, A LOT OF DISCIPLINE, A LOT OF NATURAL TALENT AND COORDINATION AND A LOT OF MOTIVATION. You must be prepared to work and it is hard work, and you must be prepared to wait months to see improvement and don't expect it will be on a very nice and smooth 'continuous improvement curve'. You will play well one day and crap the next day and you will not know the reason why you did either.

Consistency is the key. Choose a set-up and technique and stick with them.

Terry

[Sidd]

I guess you are absolutely right coach. I went in last afternoon and played till late evening only to find out struggling in my mind over every shot and without major success. I think I have taken this technique bit wrongly in my head cuz for all the time I have a constant struggle going on in my head over the technique and hence perhaps I am not fully concentrating on anything else like potting maybe or break building etc I am never going to copy anyone coach for sure cuz I know its never helpful and shall surely come up with my own style that is comforting and easy but still not yet developed something concrete. And I was also wrong with the head position thing every player has to focus the ball and whichever position enables one to focus is good for that particular player. SO that is over!

Just one thing now that I noticed in my own game myself yesterday that I think I am not playing with a good follow through. I think that is limiting me and also need to focus on the loose grip till the stricking of the ball cuz I guess that is also the reason why I have a limited follow through on most shots. I think once I improve that only then would I be able to know what else to concentrate on.

Thanks again!!! and yes I sucked at the club last night I played like a looser... The problem is that this game gets on you so much that a person like me cant enjoy anything else in life if the game is not proper ...!!! anyway am not giving up on this!

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

It is vital that you drive the grip hand through to the chest on EVERY shot, no matter what the power.

A simple check to see how much follow-through you have is to place the cueball on the brown spot and an object ball over one of the top corner pockets. Now pot the ball but leave your cue extended at the end of the delivery and drop it straight down onto the cloth and see how far your tip is past the baulkline and then add 1in and that will be your amount of follow-through.

The other way is to get down into the address position and check to see how much distance you have between the front of the grip hand and the point where your grip hand hits the chest. That will also be the amount of follow-through you normally get which you can increase by dropping the elbow which gives another inch or two depending on how much you drop the elbow. Somce players can get an extra 4inches but must severely drop the elbow and I don't recommend that unless you are perfectly coordinated and the elbow drops straight down and not to either side

Terry

[Sidd]

A-han got that coach. Will try that and shall see what I am doing in this regard. By closing all shots on chest you mean every shot right? This gives rise to two questions that I would request you to answer:

1. So this means that on shots nearer to the cushion the grip hand must come forward on the cue to a point that enables you to make the shot and end at teh chest. Is that corect cuz there seems to be no other way. That happens automatically I guess otherwise you cant attempt a shot like that...

2. For instance I am dead straight on the blue and the cue ball is also just a few inches to the blue. Now all I have to do in this situation is to lightly nudge-pot the blue in centre right. However, I have the normal distance of cue tip to bridge of course and since I am near the blue spot so my grip hand is in usual position as well... How would this shot end with my grip hand on the chest???

Last but not the least, please correct me if I am wrong. As for technique all I need to do is to find out something comfortable to me like the stance right and I should not go in to technical detailing etc but just be natural. Another important thing here is that I am left eyed and a lefty as well so I will have to develop a much squarer stance to aid my left eye over the cue. That is ok but all I want to ask is that is it really necessary to have the cue under my left eye, being left eyed, or can I still play perfectly with cue under my chin cuz thats how I have always prefered it... I know you once commented that cue under left eye isnt that important if I am cueing properly. It will ease me up cuz I dont want to have th cue under my left eye and not the chin doesnt seem comfortable to me.

I will further imporve on my follow through after having your response on the above-mentioned areas.

Looking forward.

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

In answer to your questions:

1. Yes
2. You have a big round thingy at the top of your neck called your 'head' and at the top of that head you have something called a 'brain'. So how about using it sometimes? If the 2 balls are close together the natural tendency for every player I've ever seen is to bring the grip hand up on the butt and also shorten the bridge right down however if the balls are less than 4inches apart or so then it's IMPOSSIBLE to drive through to the chest without fouling. (You don't have to take everything I say EXACTLY literally and I would hope you could have figured this out for yourself but I guess not). That would be the only time on any shot where you don't drive the grip hand into the chest.

Last: The cue under the dominant eye came about originally from Joe Davis and he was BLIND (or virtually so) in his right eye and so he had the cue directly underneath his left eye and the cue was at the bottom of his left cheek and not under the chin at all. If you happen to have eyes that are roughly equal or even if one eye is a little bit short-sighted or something (including with glasses or contacts) then you should cue near to the middle of your chin so that your set-up is normal. The cue can be on one side or the other of the chin and that is a matter of personal preference.

For my self, my left eye is 20/10 (slightly far-sighted) and my right eye (after eye surgery x 2) is about 20/50 (near-sighted) and they can't get the right eye correct so everything is blurry. I cue with my cue at centre chin however turn my head slightly to the right to bring the left eye just a little bit closer to over the cue. HOWEVER, this is more for comfort as it eases the strain on the bottome part of my neck and I have no neck pain after a long session of snooker or even after daily practice 7 days per week on my own table.

So get yourself comfortable and QUIT WORRYING ABOUT THESE VERY FINE TECHNIQUE POINTS as they will only screw you up and you will never improve if you are constantly thinking thoughts like 'is my cue under my left eye or centre-chin' or 'is my elbow directly over my cue or is it out to the left one inch?' or 'is the arch of my left foot directly under the cue or is it outside by 2inches or is the grip hand over the toes instead of the arch?' or 'is my grip arm forearm exactly vertical at address?' (OK, so the last one IS important).

Terry

[Sidd]

Thanks again Coach. I will keep that in mind. And yes I was also of the same opinion but wanted to seek your advice just to be sure. Thanks a lot, I shall surely use me brain Yes you are right I have been focusing so much on the technique in bits and hence had my mind constanly worry about all those finer points and because of that I did not have concentration on the game. I will now just focus on the looseness of the grip and a nice follow through after the contact and am sure the rest will come by automatically with practice. I have my pre-shot routine you suggested so I am sure with that as well things should improve.

Thanks and regards Terry.

[Ossie]

LOL ! Great Advice as usual Terry... I think you must have the Patience of a Saint.......
Took your advice regarding central heating in
our snooker club and its turned out great........ The tables are running faster .. No moisture problems.... Thanks Mate....

[Ossie]

Patience...

LOL ! Great Advice as usual Terry... I think you must have the Patience of a Saint.......
Took your advice regarding central heating in
our snooker club and its turned out great........ The tables are running faster .. No moisture problems.... Thanks Mate....

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

There is one VERY important thing I forgot to mention to you as I've been busy answering all your questions regarding technique and not really thinking about it.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing you MUST do is to only work on ONE THING AT A TIME!!!! Never, EVER try to work on more than one thing. So for you I would suggest you start out with everything you normally do in your set-up but concentrate on getting the grip loose and driving through the cueball.

Then you can go on to the other finer points I mentioned but do them one at a time until you have mastered that particular item.

If you do not do that you will end up ruining your game since you will never know whether each one of the items is leading to improvement since you will be doing 2 or 3 (or even more) things differently and will have no way to tell which one is the key factor

Terry

[Sidd]

Sidd:

There is one VERY important thing I forgot to mention to you as I've been busy answering all your questions regarding technique and not really thinking about it.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing you MUST do is to only work on ONE THING AT A TIME!!!! Never, EVER try to work on more than one thing. So for you I would suggest you start out with everything you normally do in your set-up but concentrate on getting the grip loose and driving through the cueball.

Then you can go on to the other finer points I mentioned but do them one at a time until you have mastered that particular item.

If you do not do that you will end up ruining your game since you will never know whether each one of the items is leading to improvement since you will be doing 2 or 3 (or even more) things differently and will have no way to tell which one is the key factor

Terry

Many thanks again Terry. It is very much true indeed and for a person like me I believe its MOST IMPORTANT as you put it. I can still remember the tiem I used to play with my previous cue (I have started again after a pause of 2 years) I would not really concentrate on the technique because I never was guided by anyone like your esteemed self coach. So as a result I was potting and winning even though my break was like 40-50 on a good day. I thought I was doing OK with everything and am just not being consistent and hence after starting again I thought that maybe I have lost my touch due to lack of practice. But then I realised from your coaching and advice and its not that, its the proper set-up and technique that brings consistency and hence started to follow that. I knew all along that it will keep my mind off potting but I never worried because I am always thinking of the results that I will achieve once I have a solid proper set up but yes I wanted to achieve all of that in a single go and that is impossible. Besides, I think I might have a proper stance and thought I am not potting cuz of wrong stance and I might have seen teh line of aim and am placing myself properly but wasnt potting cuz of something else and thought its the allignment... you see! The way I have been doing, I will never know what is causing the trouble and hence ended up ruining everything for me.

An Incidence from last Night

I was playing doubles last night and played 6 frames. I played like an ediot in the first 5. I go to my old club and people there know Sidd is a good player and everyone has been wondering whats wrong with him and so wa I. The feeling kills you of loosing respect as a senior player at your local club if you are facing my situation so my partner was the club owner himself and we were loosing because of me. He would pot 30 and play safe and I would attempt a red and miss an easy colour and give a chance to the opponents who would pot 35 or 40 and take the frame away... So my partner watched my game in the opening of the 6th frame and suddenly came to me and took me to a corner and said hey Sidd why are you squeezing on the butt while delivering and I was surprised and I said no no man that is what I am working on I intend to have a loose grip and he said no sorry Sidd I am watching you closely and know that you are sort of squeezing and tightening the butt just a fraction of a second before the contact. Dont do that as I know you have a marvellous cue action, stance and strategic mind in snooker... That kinda did two things for me 1 it motivated me and 2 I started to concentrate on the loose grip and forgot about everything else during the 6th frame ... now imagine what happened haha... I scored a 44 break in the same frame and a difficult one. Like the reds were near the baulk and the baulk colours were not available including the blue. So I potted a red and went to the bottom for a pink-black and came back to the baulk and again to the bottom cushion. I did that cuz I was suddenly having a loose proper grip as you told me coach and that did the trick for me. Another thing I realised is that if you are having a loose grip at delivery follow through becomes automatic for you Loose grip makes your brain understand the follow through because otherwise you end up with a bad shot

I am begining to think now coach that maybe my stance is corect and placement of head is all fine and I am also delivering the cue in a straight line and the allignment towards the line of aim is also ok since I now am developing a sound pre-shot routine on every shot as per your tips. So for me (YOU RIGHTLY POINTED OUT SIR) its just the loose grip and follow through Lets see...!!!

This is also what Terry Griffiths once said in one of his coaching videos released in the 80's... He said while explaining the grip and I qoute "for all the players of 60 break standard- 70% of their problems are Grip related" now it seems, after realising the tips given out by you Terry, that that Terry said this directly to me

[Mellow Yellow]

sidd i look forward to yours posts every day :-)

[Sidd]

Hey Mellow Yellow many thanks for the kind words. I honestly appreciate that; thanks mate! I should write more often then provided that I dont bother Terry much with my silly owlish questions haha but he is a sport as he remains calm even on occassions I would rather brak a cue or two upon such nonsense questions

OK, another update from last night...! I went there to play and knew I have a solid stance and cue action and just concentrate on my pre-shot routine on every shot and the loose grip advice.... guess what I played 8 grames won all of them but its not winning that gives me the pleasure really its the way I would win like I would approach the table and make a break of 38 and then on the next visit another 30 and put the total to 68 or somethimes 75 and the frame would be over..! I need to hug Terry really (I have nothing to hide in the closet but this is the pure Pakistani expression of joy yes people a male can hug another male without being gay come on ... you know that... its been like that for ages LOL

Keeping a loose grip asks you automatically to have a fine follow through otherwise loose grip shot wont work so both my prblems are solved now and I can pot consistently. ITs not just the long three quarter and straight pots I have to work on. I can see that on longer pots I am not cueing straight. Any advice on that would be appreciated...! So the people gathered around the table and I heard em saying 'thats our Sidd' and 'way ta go' and hahah the best one was this: 'yeah! Sidd's memory is back again'

Last but not the least, now I can practice more and more, as much time I have, and learn and progress for sure!!!

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

Save up your money and then take your wife on a trip to England to visit your relatives. Then while she visits and shops and sightsees you can go to the SouthWest Snooker Academy in Gloucester and get some practice and coaching on first-rate professional grade Star tables and also get coaching as there is a resident coach. If you happen to save a LOT of money you could also book a lesson from Terry Griffiths if he's available.

Or you could visit Nic Barrow in Milton Keynes and get some coaching and practice.

I try and save up my money to visit Gloucester each year and am planning for sometime in March of 2012 if I happen to qualify for the Canadians before that in our ranking tournament series (right now I'm #5 with 10 players qualifiying). When I was in Gloucester last April I also gave coaching to about 12 students through the 13 days I was there although this time I hope to get in more practice and less coaching. But practicing at the Academy is a different experience altogether to playing on normal club tables and it's well worth the trip if you can afford it

Terry

[Sidd]

Thanks Terry, this seems interesting and adventureous. I shall try to do that if possible, why not. Lets see about that. I am sure if I can manage, it will the best thing for me yep. And best of luck for the ranking tournament. I am very positive and sure that you would win .. you would surely be in top three this time

I have started playing better now and am back to enjoying my game again. However, I still have issues with consistency. The same old same old problem. But I am glad that I have figured out what was causing the major problem for me and now that I have a pre-shot routine and loose grip plus follow through; everything is different. I can feel the shot and guess what although my potting is still shaky yet my placing or positioning has greatly improved within no time. Since I have the experience so my strategic thinking on choosing the shot is also good and that helps me in positioning better. However, I do not play the same level of game every frame (forget about every day) so that is where I am struggling now. But I am happy to at least be back to my standard and that too with a proper technique now I hope I can be more consistent over time and hence progress towards being a beter player. I am still waiting for my chance to get my first ever 80 plus break or something like century...!!! I had a chance a couple of days back poted 4 blacks got 40 and then missed an easy red hehe but well am not giving up now after being that close.

Stay in touch coach!