self-help for under 30 break players ...

[DandyA]

having recently cracked the 30 barrier (with a fabulous 31 and two 30 breaks after many years sub 30), I was wondering if it would be helpful to others at this level to have a thread to ourselves where we can discuss our play and help each other to improve ... a self-help thread ...

anyone interested?

coaches are welcome as long as they restrict their advice to getting from xx to xx+1 (32 is my next objective) ... players with a 50+ break are not welcome ... start your own thread and stop poking fun at us LOL ...

I feel I can describe some of the things that helped me to go from a humble 13 break (pink and black, the last 2 colours) to the heady heights today (as mentioned, 31) ...

but it takes two to tango ... so if you're interested in this self-help thread, please reply

[stiltsky]

Okay as i'm in this elite group

Working out 1/2 ball angles so you know the 1/2 ball angle anywhere on the table has helped me alot in the last few weeks, I feel a corner about to be turned.

I find anything inside 1/2 ball angle towards 3/4 ball I can pot more easily as a result of knowing the 1/2 ball angle.

[steve clarke]

Great idea!

As one who once cracked 20 (never since repeated!) I really welcome this.

One thing that has helped me a lot lately is that I've bought a child's table off Ebay and put it in my garage.

Now I can go out and practice potting without having to go to the snooker hall, and without thinking 'this is costing me £6 an hour' etc etc.

OK I know that it's nowhere near what you get on a full size table but seems to help in potting practice quite a lot.

Cheers.

[Khaos]

I'm starting to knock in 20-30s on a regular basis now and I feel the main thing that has helped me is play at YOUR own natural rythym.
If I get bogged down and start thinking to much I may aswell go home.
Plus - shot selection!! Denying a straight red for a harder one can sometimes be the correct shot.

[Khaos]

I'm starting to knock in 20-30s on a regular basis now and I feel the main thing that has helped me is play at YOUR own natural rythym.
If I get bogged down and start thinking to much I may aswell go home.
Plus - shot selection!! Denying a straight red for a harder one can sometimes be the correct shot.

[steve clarke]

My main problem at the mo is ANGLES.

When I want to hit a straight shot I often hit it at an angle, when I want to angle a shot it goes straight!

[LittleMissAlexa]

technique is pointless if you dont understand the spin i would suggest practice with different spins to get used to it and watch how it spins

[haggishunter]

I must admit I try not to put side on the ball, im still getting my cue action right, just use top and back spin, a good piece of advice I was given is to get you're own play style over a bit of time as khaos said and work on you're cue action etc, knowing how the cue ball reacts is great but not much use if you not putting the cue straight as you're not going to contact it where you want, its such a hard game, work from the basics up and you'll start to see improvements, worry about too much and it'll get frustrating very quickly

[nrage]

technique is pointless if you dont understand the spin i would suggest practice with different spins to get used to it and watch how it spins

IMO, If you're a sub-30 break player (as I am) you should not be using side spin intentionally, except perhaps for the break off shot, and on safety where you need to widen or narrow the angle. I reckon if you're (not you specifically, just ppl in general) a sub-30 break player, using spin on more than 1/10 shots, you may be relying on it too much, like a crutch, and would do well to make better position where it was not required... but that's just my opinion.

I think technique is very important, if you cannot consistently cue straight, you will only ever make a decent break if you get a little bit lucky (cue straight 6 times in a row, for example). That said, you have to avoid becoming obsessed with it to the exclusion of all else. I worked on my technique for ages, and it's generally "ok" now, but I wasn't seeing much improvement overall. It didn't help that I wasn't practicing enough, but that's another story for another day.. in short, practice more often, even if it's just for a short while.

Anyway, a short while back a guy I play with off and on said to me, "your technique is fine, you've just got to stop missing easy pots". So, I stopped focusing so much on the technique and just practiced potting. I started with a long line up of just reds (1 below black thru till 2 above blue) and just potted and potted and potted, and immediately saw an improvement, making a 22 and a 24 the next week.

I found that with a long line of reds, where landing out of position is just about impossible (on the rail or on the line of reds), I could concentrate on the pot itself, and I focused on staying down and watching the balls and giving myself as much feedback as possible. It worked, and my potting (and cueing) became more consistent. More than that, my confidence increased when faced with similar pots in a match. Because the positional requirement was reduced, but not removed entirely (as it is if you just set up a pot manually) it meant I was getting some positional practice, as well as practicing some difficult ones off the rail or from right up close every now and again.

Once I could pot a bit more consistently it made sense to practice other drills, drills which I would have previously tried and after 2-3 pots missed an easy one and had to start again, now I could progress a lot further.

I managed to pot 6 blacks off the spot making position each time (i.e. put the white down to start, pot the black, and play from where it lies each time). I managed some high 20 breaks in a conventional (short) line up (1 red below black, 2 above pink, no blue/other colours). I managed to pot several more balls than I would have in several other positional drills.

All this has allowed me to identify some areas where I need to improve, specifically I have a tendency on hard shots to cue around my chest and strike the left of the white (sending it right and the object left). To compensate I now concentrate on hard pots to keep an even pressure on my chest contact point, and stay as still as possible and 6-7/10 times this now works and I cue well, .. still working on making this unconscious

I would say the biggest thing I need to improve is my positional play, if I could make "good" position on every pot I would have no trouble making a break over 30, because I am now confident that I can pot the "easy" short range ones with some consistency (8-9/10). The trouble with losing position is that it forces me into playing a hard stun or screw, which given my known cueing fault is more likely (4/10) to go wrong. So I've started working on positional drills, where the pot is as easy as possible, like the blacks off the spot I mentioned earlier, and ..

Setting the black up, and 3 reds (evenly spaced) to either side. Placing the white in a 3/4 ball, or straighter pot on a red nearest the black, and perhaps 1 ft or less away. Potting the red with stun or just a touch of roll, so it goes on and off the cushion and lands on the black on a similar angle.. my biggest problem is judging the pace of this shot when the angle gets straighter, or less straight than 3/4 ball.

So, my advice, in short is to spend some time practicing straight cueing (white over the spots, straight pots with top-spin to follow into the pocket) but also to practice potting, and then positional play. Cueing straight, not missing, and making position are the keys to making a break above 30. Higher breaks require more advanced break building, but we're not there yet..

Enough babbling, hope this helps someone else

[stevebyl]

something i was guilty about in the past was getting too excited and thinking too much into the future.

Being able to see the next 2-3 shots is excellent, but alot of the time it hampered my cueing / cueball positioning, so now i try to focus on 1 ball at a time and try not to use as much side/follow/draw, and rely more on the natural angles of the cueball.

i know its pretty negative, but when im not too sure about a pot, il always play the safety and wait for my opponent ( similar skill to me ) to mess up. i constantly would focus too much on the white position and leave the red hanging in the pocket, but whenever he does it, the red/colour would jingle off the jaws and go completly safe, very frustrating!

i always used to take the plunge and try split the pack while going for a pot which would always screw me over, because again, im thinking too much about the white!

[DeanH]

For a long time I have been 30 break man
My main problem is maintaining the cue delivery and NOT applying unintentional side.
I concur that for a sub-50 player, do not attempt side except as mentioned before, break-off and widen angle for safety, etc.
BUT
last Saturday I came to the table, me and my partner were behind, there were several reds left scattered around the table, the black on the side rail, the blue up in the D.
At the end, bobbled the pink in the jaws of the black corner pocket (the white coming round the baulk to stop nicely behind the black) but I had done a 49! I have been grinning like a Cheshire cat ever since - a big milestone for me
We had won the frame and night!
All down to cueing straight, light grip, focusing on the object ball on the delivery, and letting the cue do the work (no forced power).
Lovely!
Just thought I would share with TSF my personal (small though it is compared to others) triumph.
Now onto the 50s! :snooker:

[zach123]

Nice one Dean, keep that in mind when I play next

[checkSide]

IMHO, if you cannot make a break over 30 you have serious deficiencies in your technique.

You should be able to pot your way to 30 with only basic positional skill.

Therefore sub 30 break players should dedicate most of their practice time to delivering the cue, and the cue ball, in a straight line.

Cheers.

[haggishunter]

good work dean, ive heard many people over the years say how you approach the shot before you even touch the table is important, my mates uncle told me, instead of just getting down and playing the shot, stand a but back from the table, look at the shot, then walk/step into it, it felt odd to start with, but once you get the rythem for it, you start to do it without even noticing, youre not going for a stroll 7 feet from the table, just stand slightly further from the table so you can just step into youre stance/shot, it helped me, this i felt helped on the potting balls side and so will eventually help with the break building side of things too, because im so out of practise, its taking me a bit of time getting used to it all again as for about the last ten years ive played like once or twice a year, but in the last month ive been playing about twice a week, and its getting there, ive made a few breaks just above/below 20 in the last couple of weeks so its getting there, got a 24 a couple of weeks ago and i was cheeezin

[DeanH]

good work dean, ive heard many people over the years say how you approach the shot before you even touch the table is important, my mates uncle told me, instead of just getting down and playing the shot, stand a but back from the table, look at the shot, then walk/step into it, it felt odd to start with, but once you get the rythem for it, you start to do it without even noticing, youre not going for a stroll 7 feet from the table, just stand slightly further from the table so you can just step into youre stance/shot, it helped me, this i felt helped on the potting balls side and so will eventually help with the break building side of things too, because im so out of practise, its taking me a bit of time getting used to it all again as for about the last ten years ive played like once or twice a year, but in the last month ive been playing about twice a week, and its getting there, ive made a few breaks just above/below 20 in the last couple of weeks so its getting there, got a 24 a couple of weeks ago and i was cheeezin

Cheers haggishunter, yep of the years I have been practising this rhythm of, good light grip on the butt (no gap at the webbing - took a long time to stop that), spotting the "back of ball" on the object ball, line up behind the cue ball, assess the shot result I am after for the next ball (top, stun, bottom, the power to get this), step into the shot, drop the cue and head on the line getting the feet in place and cue is close to the chest and under my right eye (my preference), address the cue ball checking the tip is close and going to hit the cue ball in the correct spot in the vertical middle of the cue ball, focus on the BOB on the object ball, draw back smoothly, back pause (not too short, not too long), delivery the cue straight and accelerating aiming at the BOB.

phew - draw breath!
nearly as bad as learning to do a hill start in a car
But as you say, it all comes together and you do it unconsiously and you can focus on the pot and position.
I have been doing 20-30s for some time, and often 30+ but I would then have the terrible "yip" at the point of delivery and terrible side would happen. So this break is a great barrier-breaker for me - onwards and upwards!