Missing straight pots and hitting left hand side of the pocket

[Dannyboy]

Hello everyone,

I tend to hit the left hand side of the pocket on straight pots,same result going with and against the nap.

When i line the shots up everything is in line and i still miss, today i tried a tighter grip and a shorter back swing that

helped a bit but 5/10 were still hitting the left hand side of the pocket. Can anyone offer any advice please.

Danny.

[tvietp]

would be hard to determine why you are missing your shots without a proper video but one assumption I would say is that from the time you drop your arm to deliver the stroke its going off line somewhere...My best guess would be the positioning of your elbow and make sure that when you deliver your shot do not drop your elbow

[Dannyboy]

Thanks for your reply,

I think i know what you mean as in a piston action just letting the forearm swing?,

Danny

[tvietp]

That would be correct danny...as the most important thing is to keep your stroke the same...aside from the motion of your forearm everything else should be practically still as the tiniest movements will cause your shot to change paths...I would suggest doing an excercise of shooting the blue in a straight line with a slight run through to make it so that your shot going into the opposite side pocket be straight as well...and keep going back forth between pockets...with a goal of 20 times with top spin and 20 times with bottom spin(obviously bottom spin will keep you shooting into the same pocket =) ) as good targets...try that out and i'd love to hear your progress =)

[Dannyboy]

Thanks for your advice.

and i will work on it and concentrate hard on keeping everything still and staying down on the shot until it is complete

I will let you know how i get on.

Danny

[Dannyboy]

mailto:?body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmedi a%2Fset%2F%3Fset%3Da.2209763689346.134206.14051018 81%26type%3D3%26l%3D4709a17810&subject=Training%20at%20Ken%20Doherty's%20Snooker% 20Academy


Not sure if i have done this right but it should show photos of frames of a complete shot i took last year for you to look at.

Danny

[Dannyboy]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[tvietp]

Sorry Danny can't see anything try posting a video on youtube

[matt926_uk]

you could be hitting slightly left of centre on the cue ball. This will push the cue ball slightly to the right resulting in the object ball missing to the left.
just an idea

[Dannyboy]

I thought that, but test with cue ball up and down the table over the spots came back straight every time,

Danny

[Dannyboy]

I have some videos on youtube if you type my name Daniel O'Driscoll you will see a video of me at the PJ Nolan Academy.

Danny

[cantpotforshíte]

On the final backswing, the butt of your cue is moving a lot to the right. I don't know what's causing it, whether it's your eyes battling against each other, or just a technical issue, but I'm sure that's what's causing you to miss to one side consistently.
To be honest, with a cue action so obviously off line, you must be pretty talented to be potting balls as well as you do!
You could try playing the shot with your eyes closed to see if it is a a sighting problem. Other than that, I think a visit to a coach would sort you out if you mentioned this particular problem.

[Dannyboy]

Thanks for your reply to my post,

Last week i put the white on the green spot and with Blue on its spot took aim then shut my eyes and played the shot with my eyes shut and the Blue went in, and i often do this exercise to get the feeling of total relaxation on the shot. The last advice i had on the problem from a snooker coach was to keep the cue tight against my chest however having tried this method i could only have a very short backswing because on a longer backswing my cue would arc out to the right even more. Thanks for your comment about my potting and i am sure once i can solve my problem i will get better at it.

Danny

[Terry Davidson]

Dannyboy:

Sometimes shooting the spots does not give a correct indication. You could be hitting the cueball slightly to the right with a small touch of left-hand side and bringing the cueball back over brown spot. You also have to ensure you hit the exact centre of the top cushion.

A much better test (which is VERY difficult) is to place cueball just ahead of the brown spot and blue on spot and play to have the blue hit the dead centre of the top cushion. Shoot it as a 'stop' shot leaving the cueball on the blue spot and if the blue comes back and cannons the cueball over the brown spot then your delivery is absolutely perfect.

As I said, this is a VERY difficult exercise so if you cannon the cueball towards the green spot that's still not too bad.

The other point I would like to make is this:

1. Tightening the grip is the wrong way to go. Use a loose grip and don't tighten it until AFTER you strike the cueball.
2. Unless you normally use a very long backswing, you also shouldn't shorten the backswing. The length of the backswing should be either proportional to the power you want or else long all the time for most shots at medium pace and above.
3. Here is something that sounds strange but is true...the backswing makes up 90% of the delivery. By this I mean if the backswing is not perfectly straight and hopefully with the cue remaining on the same plane (which means a loose grip and dropping the elbow at the end of the longer backswings) then you will over-compensate for the off-straight backswing during the dynamic delivery since you might not realize it conciously but your brain will recognize the cue going off the right path and will attempt to compensate.
4. There is nothing wrong with dropping the elbow on delivery but it must drop STRAIGHT DOWN and not fly towareds the outside of the body which is a result of gripping the butt too early and too tight during the delivery. It's the last two fingers of the hand which are usually the guilty party and they shouldn't re-grip the butt until after the cueball has been struck.

Hope this helps a bit

Terry

[safe t boy]

I had a similar issue and luckily I was able to find the cause myself. Im right handed and found I was driving my hand to my chest before the tip made contact with the cueball. The hand hitting the chest caused the tip to offline and kick the cueball off line plus it was causing unintentional side.

The solution was to grip slightly higher up the butt of the cue and bring my bridge hand a 2 or 3 inches closer to the cueball. This made the point of impact happen while the grip hand was vertically in line with the elbow. Suddenly I was potting long straight balls and if i did miss it was only slightly, probably due to head movement or some other thing. But changing the grip position and moving in closer to the cueball made a huge difference. Once I found the solution I practiced with it doing long straight balls until the new technique became habit.

Here is some good info on this:

http://www.pjnolanschampionsacademy....102&Itemid=119