Unintentionally taking the eyes off the potting angle: a concentration thing?

[Sidd]

I was playing very bad one particular day. Couldn't pot a single red and on occassions that I did, taking a colour was not in my hands. This is of course frustrating and one wonders why such a thing is happening and so did I but had no clue. I have been practicing very hard on my technique including the stance, grip, bridge, cue action and delivery etc and so I had known that it could not be technique, as I had explored everything and was determined that it could not be that!

We were playing doubles 'winner to stay' at my club and hence after getting terribly defeated in every game I had to wait for my turn after two frames. This was rather more frustrating. However, what I did was that I went to an empty table and set up a line for myself and started practicing, since I had to wait at least 30-40 minutes before my next game. I had lost around 3-4 frames like that by that time. So during the practice I just realised that I am, for some wierd unknown reason, not exactly looking at the potting angle/spot on the object ball at the time of strike. And hence missing continously. So I concentrated on looking at teh potting spot on the object ball at the time of delivery and sort of started possting in pratice routine comfortably. This gave me confidence and then came my turn. I took my first early visit to the table and made a 34 break followed by a 26 and ended up winning quite easily...

This clarified to me that perhaps there is nothing at this stage to worry about my technique cuz if technique was faulty then these breaks were not possible. So this problem where one is not able to look at the object ball even though one has it in mind.... isthat a concentration thing? I guess it is... how to over come .. any ideas...???

[cantpotforshíte]

It doesn't matter where the eyes are looking as long as they aren't stopping you from moving your cue in a straight line, Sidd.

Most pros don't focus on the back of ball, or potting spot as you call it. They focus on nothing during delivery - upon delivery, the eye very quickly goes from looking at the cue to the cue ball as they actually strike it, and then follows on to the path of the cue ball, and hence to the object ball. But all this happens in a split second, and it takes the eye longer than that to focus.

The trick to making snooker easy is to do all your lining up and aiming before the shot, and as you get down on the shot. Then you check you are lined up, then move the cue in a straight line as you think about position. Don't try to pot the ball when you are down on the shot, it makes the game much more difficult.

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

You have the answer yourself and also from cantpot. Do your aiming when standing behind the shot and then ensure your head drops straight down when getting into the address position (you keep your eyes on the object ball when getting down). Once you're in the address prosition your eyes go back and forth between the balls as you feather and then there are about 4 different eye rhythm techniques different players use.

Some, as cantpot has said, keep their eyes on the spot on the cueball they want to hit as they backswing, pause and start to deliver the cue and then their eyes switch back to the object ball but not a specific spot on the object ball.

Some, (like me with my older eyes) will move the eyes to the object ball during the front pause just before the final backswing and keep them there until after the delivery. The draw-back with this eye rhythm is it is not conducive to having a rear pause.

Most pros and very good players with a natural rear pause will move their eyes to the object ball somewhere near or at the rear pause, mostly during the rear pause and this is what gives them a nice natural and not too long rear pause.

Eye rhythm is very difficult to change, especially if a player has been playing for awhile and has developed his own natural and comfortable eye rhythm

Now, in saying all of that...If you properly select your line of aim and get down straight on that line of aim AND DON'T MOVE THE UPPER BODY while feathering, backswinging and delivering then it doesn't really matter where the eyes are as you should be able to close the eyes at the front pause and still pot the ball (like a trick shot but it's not really a trick). HOWEVER, with hand-eye coordination of course the hand will naturally follow the eye and the most recommended thing to do is to have the eyes focused on the object ball at the time of striking the cueball.

Terry

[Sidd]

Thanks a lot Cantpot and Terry for your suggestions and advice. Well noted and will keep that in mind. Just wanted to ask another thing here: I have ben playing almost daily now however no significant improvement has been seen. Forget about improvement, I am not even potting a single colour. The state of mind that I am in I have forgotten about breaks etc I cant even pot plain ones.

Yesterday I was playing bad again and then for some reason throught my tip isnt in place properly and gave it to the club manager to have a look at it and I started playing with my friends cue ... and stragely everything started to get in place for me, potting came back and so did control etc.

I have had my tip sanded by a gentleman wrongly and now its top has all the feathers of leather coming out and its not in shape and a little out of axis as well.

Please guide if the tip has been playing tricks on me all this time ???

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

If your tip had the 'hairy' bits on it then there's every chance it was a spongy tip normally found with Elk Master and Blue Diamond where you seem to get a lot of them. A good check on a tip if you happen to not chew your fingernails is if you can easily push your thumbnail into the side of the tip then it's definitely spongy and should be replaced.

Another good point on this Sidd...EVERY player should learn how to replace his own tips (I realize a lot of pros have no idea at all) since only you know exactly what shape you want and also you should do this enough so you can recognize a bad tip when you put one on or even better BEFORE you put it on. There are some really good tip installation videos on the web to teach you how to do this, I believe Mike Wooldridge has a good one but do a search on youtube too.

It also helps to get some decent tips like perhaps the Elk Master Plus or switch to a layered tip which normally never go spongy.

Also, to answer your basic question...ABSOLUTELY YES, YES, YES a bad tip can really effect your game negatively without a doubt whatsoever!!!

Terry

[Sidd]

Dear Coach,

Thanks for your continued valuable guidence and support. You might never know how every single reply of your motivates and encourages me. Thanks a lot for your patience and advice. Well now before I get too emotional- I had my tip changed and started to play with my new tip tonight. I did not have enough time for a practice session tonight so just went in and played a few frames. Guess what happened... Won most of them. Its not about winning but yes I indeed played very well. i did not manage to build a break (max 24) but played really nice and smooth. It was the tip...!!!

I totally agree that one should be able to replace his own tip himself. It has more of a confidence factor attached to it for some reason as well. I have seen all the youtube videos and shall keep replacing till I get experienced enough.

Actually when I had that psongy tip last night i gave it to a friend and played with another mate's cue and to my surprise I started potting so I had to think there was something wrong with my tip. Tonight my doubts, as per your advice too, were proved correct. I was even getting long pots and hey guess what ...... for the first time Terry for the first time I got my long striahgt screw back on the blue. really that is an achievement. The cue ball was below the pink spot straight on the blue and I deep screwed smoothly to get a red under the black and that was so awesome... no mis cue no stun effect no pot miss

Tonight it was as if the hard work on technique has all come in to action. My line of aim and stance synced properly and my grip was not slopy and not hard it was just nice and smooth with a lovely backswing and bak pause and rythamic follow through till the grip thumb came ot the chest... i potted a few blacks with screw and placed for the reds after coming back from the cushion and I wasnt playing with force I was just following through... oh it was just like majic.... oh how I have waited for so long for this to happen

i changed my tip on my own on 20th Dec and till yesterday 20th Jan it was the bad tip doing tricks on me and bloody me I was thinking on technique and where to look on the object ball and focus and concentration. But I think all that time these things were not getting wasted but I was learning these things the hard way... and tonight when I had a nice tip all my practice of technique and sighting etc just came along in one piece and I could see everything just in front of my eyes. The club mates were like yeahhhhh thats the sidd we have always known and welcome back to the club etc...!!!

There is one more thing I found out tonight. This form has come to me many a times in the past and has gone away so quickly and I used to doubt my form whenever it came to me. But tonight I am fresh and confident I just know deep down it wont go away and now I will improve considerably as I have now started doing solo as well...!!!

Oh I am just delighted and will go to bed and have a nice sound sleep .... !!!!!!! Happy snookering everybody... Hats off to you COACH TERRY.

[denja]

Hi Coach ,As a guy who knows what he is talking about what would you suggest as a good practice routine taking up a space of approx 2 hours.

[Terry Davidson]

denja:

Every player has different requirements. There are many, many practice routines published both on here and on various sites which are referred to in here in various coaching strings so do a little search in the coaching forum.

I can only tell you what I do. I start by shooting the spots about 10 times, slowly building up the speed from 2 table length to 4.5 to 5 table lengths just to check if I'm cueing straight that day. If not I keep working on it until I do start cueing straight. Then I will try the line-up either 10 times or else when I run two centuries or clearances hopefully. I change the 'rules' of the line-up a bit in that if I miss a pot or position, I re-set the shot until I learn it correctly as I believe positive reinforcement is better than continuously re-spotting the balls in the line-up all the time when you miss a pot or hit another ball.

After that I progress to doing a normal break and try and play myself as safe as I possibly can (I don't have anyone to practice with out here in the country). At this point if you are warmed up you can progress to playing an opponent if there's one around who is at least as good as you or slightly better.

Terry

[denja]

Thanks for your speedy GREAT ! think I will write that routine down and keep it in my case , My one problem is close up angle shots round the black, (not wishing to boast but my long range and medium potting is not bad) but when I get those fiddly little Important shots around the top cushion on the black I miss by a bluebottles dangly bits, other members say how can you pot so well but miss what appear to them easy shots, Am I seeing the angle wrong ? Do I lose my nerve ? Whats wrong any suggestions ?.

[Terry Davidson]

When playing these shots a player should choke up on the cue and have the amount of cue over the bridge a little shorter than normal, say around 7-8" or so. The other thing is some players will select the wrong line of aim initially as they forget they are playing to a partially closed pocket (from the black spot area or nearer the top cushion) and the correct point of aim is the edge of the leather on the side jaw (a lot of players will aim for centre pocket which means the object ball hits the jaw of the top cushion and of course, miss)

Terry

[Sidd]

This is such an important post for me Coach. I never thought it would be the case... Maybe that is why I normally miss a black even after potting three and placing the perfect fourth... Please could you elaborate a litle more for me.

What I got from it is that I should be taking the jaw as correct line of aim and not the centre of the pocket. Does this apply to all the four corner pockets when one is nearer like in the baulk as well as on the black... Now should I consider the over cut jaw (outer jaw) as my line of aim ??? Please help a bit if I am incorrect in understanding.

[denja]

This is such an important post for me Coach. I never thought it would be the case... Maybe that is why I normally miss a black even after potting three and placing the perfect fourth... Please could you elaborate a litle more for me.

What I got from it is that I should be taking the jaw as correct line of aim and not the centre of the pocket. Does this apply to all the four corner pockets when one is nearer like in the baulk as well as on the black... Now should I consider the over cut jaw (outer jaw) as my line of aim ??? Please help a bit if I am incorrect in understanding.

I suffer from the same problem thats why I asked Coach advice, It is so frustrating when you make a long pot worthy of Ronnie or Judd only to miss a black about a foot from the pocket.

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd & denja (& others too)

First of all let's be certain we're talking about the same things or using the same terminology. When I say 'centre-pocket' I'm referring to the centre of the leather or in other words the centre of the fall of the slate when the pocket is looked at dead-in (like the pink or blue off the spot).

However centre-pocket is almost never your correct aiming point. The right way to determine the correct aiming point for the object ball is to select the area on the pocket with the most room for error AS YOU LOOK AT THE POCKET. This would be the centre of the fall of the slate AS YOU SEE IT FROM THE OBJECT BALL.

The easiest way to explain this is with a black off the spot. If you were to aim for centre pocket you would catch the near jaw every time with the edge of the object ball and miss every time. If you look towards the top pocket from over the black spot you will see the centre of the fall of the slate is actually just in front of the edge of the leather on the side cushion on almost every table and with tighter tables it's VERY important to determine that spot on the fall of the slate which has the largest room for error.

After all, we are not machines and we don't pot every ball exactly as we intended (which sometimes screws up our position) and a player must select the spot on the fall of the slate which provides the greatest margin of error in order to improve his chances of potting a ball which he hasn't hit exactly perfectly.

Another example would be potting a red to the middle pocket which is a foot from the side cushion and a foot from the pocket. If you do not aim for the inside of the far jaw (usually again the edge of the leather) you will catch the near jaw every time and miss the pot.

I hope that is a clear explanation for you. Pink to a top pocket would be aimed at the actual centre pocket spot however pink to a middle pocket has to be aimed at the inside of the far jaw and not to the middle of the pocket or the middle of the slate fall even but rather the middle of the fall of the slate AS YOU SEE IT FROM THE PINK SPOT (and not as you would see if from the blue spot).

It's only really common sense but a lot of players do unconciously select the wrong spot on the pocket to aim for.

Terry

[Sidd]

Thanks Terry- the key is- INSIDE OF THE FAR JAW got it good...!!!

Thanks!

[Terry Davidson]

On any pot to a closed pocket that is correct as that will give you the most room for error on the pot

Terry