What is the point of a backswing?

[screwball]

Thank you, Terry. Your comments on a long backswing have revolutionized my game. I was always under the impression that a short-ish backswing would be more consistently accurate than a longer one and spent many years attempting to minimize my backswing. I read your comments about using a longer one and thought I would give it a try. I held my cue much like Ebdon does, with the back finger off the but and used quite a long bridge and I was amazed how accurate my potting was and how effortlessly I was able to generate power. My difficult came with balls on the cushion; I just couldn't manage to achieve the same grip and get close to the ball. So I gripped the cue where I used to, about 3-4 inches from the butt but mimicked the long grip by curling my little finger and not using it at all to hold the cue. (The nail of my little finger is against the cue.) And I get exactly the same cue action as with the longer grip. Effortless and amazingly straight.

Once again, thank you, Terry. You have made my snooker game 100% better.

[Terry Davidson]

I'm glad I could help and stick with it for awhile and practice as much as you can. You WILL see improvement

Terry

[Nic Barrow]

the only purpose of the backswing is to get the cue in position for the delivery
if the backswing is too short, you have no distance to gradually and smoothly accelerate the cue to the correct speed at cue ball impact - this will lead to inconsistency and over acceleration of the cue which in turn will lead to tightness in the arm and therefore body movement

if your accuracy increases with a very short backswing then you may well have an issue with your shot set up and grip / cueing which will need to be address if you are to become a complete player who can perform with a healthy length of backswing with control