The Long Straight Pott???????

[147 Club]

many people have problems with this kind of shot and im no different. no matter how much i think im cueing the white straight i still cant knock in the long straight pot normally missing by miles, any tips?????? greatly appreciated!

[hotpot]

I think your problem may be that your not hiiting the white where you intend to and are therefor applying unwanted side . For me this is the hardest thing to do in snooker and i struggle with it myself . You shoild look at the object ball last as you hit the white but you must also be conscious of where you intend to hit the white with the tip .

If you try and get your head as level as possible it reduces head movement when your eyes flick fron cueball to object ball so that you are using your eyes and not your head . i find getting my head at the right level really helps me keep still on the shot plus it makes me more aware of the intented point i,m addressing the cue ball .

[Terry Davidson]

147club:

The most common problems which cause this fault are:
1. Head & shoulder movement during the backswing (the head lifts a couple of millimeters at the end part of the backswing.
2. Head and shoulder movement during the deliver, generally caused by #3 & #4 below.
3. Tightening the grip before the strike and bringing the back 3 fingers onto the cue early, which will cause the wrist to turn a bit in towards the body and take the butt off line and therefore taking the tip off-line a bit.
4. Too rapid acceleration of the cue caused by too short a backswing on power shots and this will get the player putting his stronger shoulder muscle into the shot which also takes the butt of the cue off-line.

Try an experiment when you are on a table by yourself...grip the cue right at the back of the butt with the baby finger or even the last 2 fingers right off the butt and curled into the palm. If your accuracy improves while doing this experiment (actually Matthew Stephens grips his cue this way and so does Mark Allen) then the cause is obviously you are tightening the rear of the grip prematurely which also means you will decelerate through the cueball, causing less power and usually shoulder movement.

Terry

[Sidd]

Excellent advice on checking the grip. I will check-up my grip tightening, just to be sure, through this test tonight...!!!

Thanks a lot!

[LittleMissAlexa]

My suggestion would be to keep cueing long balls until the white stays still on impact with the red if there is no movement on the cueball you have hit it straight

[LittleMissAlexa]

The word your looking for when talking about tightening grip is friction

[LittleMissAlexa]

Another way to get over a tight grip this is going to sound stupid try and grip the cue as loosely as possible and if its too loose just tighten it up slightly a cue action once you know the basics is largely finding what works for you

[blinky88]

I think everyone can knock the white into a pocket from anywhere on the table, that said, placing a ball between the white and the pocket (in theory), should be no different. If you are missing a straight ball, your simply not hitting the white in the centre, this can be the only explanation. When playing a straight ball concentrate on hitting the cue ball in the centre and sighting through the object ball to the pocket, you may just find this strategy will help make straight shots a little easier .... hope this helps.