Advise needed. Video attached.

[Suke]

In the video, what i'm doing is potting a straight pink and screw back (hopefully hit somewhere near the middle pocket).
I have been practising 2-3 hours a day, 3 times a week. But i haven't seen much improvement.

From the side.
http://youtu.be/iuGAcrLFM-I

From the back.
http://youtu.be/6sn4nae6y8c

Please comment.

[Chris Bedford]

Advise needed. Video attached.

Hi I've only seen a bit of the video and I'm not a coach but have had coaching etc. I'm guessing your worried your not screwing back enough. I can see a couple of things one your bridge had is too far away from the white and your not cueing right through the white and not hitting the far bottom of the white. I'm sure others will comment but you don't have a bad cue action.

[poona]

Approaching the shot seems decent and natural.

You feather too mechanically; meaning you're thinking about your feathering too much during the shot. If this has always been your natural address (I apologise) but it looks to me like you have purposefully adapted it for the video and it's not how you always cue.

Your bridge is a tad far (as said by Chris above) but I don't feel it's the fault of your action. 2-3 inches closer will help.

Your cue strike is very snatchy. Feathering is smooth but when you strike, you seem to eager to hit the ball. Hard to explain but you need to relax your back hand on the final strike. It appears to tense up yet when feathering it is fine. Follow through will be better when you add that extra 2-3 inches to your bridge hand.

Lengthen your pause both on final address of cue ball (target) and on pull back prior to strike ((even if it means you're exaggerating this at the beginning)

Stay down on the shot after striking the cue ball (even if it means you're exaggerating this at the beginning)

Finally - I'm no pro (highest break 123) I'm a reasonable player and this is what works for me. However, you may find my dictatorship advice (lol) may not work for you.

Finally finally - good luck and enjoy playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graham

[poona]

Also note from watching second video - that your back hand it moving all over the place. This normally means that the cue is not tight enough to your chest.

Other opinions may differ.

[Theflyernow]

Hi, I'd tend to agree with the other chaps comments. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong, but the bridge could be a little shorter & the feathering does look a bit mechanical & this will affect the 'flow' of the final delivery!!

If you can get that a little more fluent, with a decent pause at the back, you should hopefully get the cue through little smoother........just make sure you drive the cue through & keep your head still until you've finished the shot.

On the video from the back, your hand isn't staying in line all the time, so you could try twisting onto the table a little more, which will get your cue on chest a little more, hopefully keeping it on line better.

Have a look at Del Hill's videos on YT for this, and good luck with it

[Theflyernow]

Hi, I'd tend to agree with the other chaps comments. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong, but the bridge could be a little shorter & the feathering does look a bit mechanical & this will affect the 'flow' of the final delivery!!

If you can get that a little more fluent, with a decent pause at the back, you should hopefully get the cue through little smoother........just make sure you drive the cue through & keep your head still until you've finished the shot.

On the video from the back, your hand isn't staying in line all the time, so you could try twisting onto the table a little more, which will get your cue on chest a little more, hopefully keeping it on line better.

Have a look at Del Hill's videos on YT for this, and good luck with it

[Suke]

Thanks guys.
I will try put my bridge closer and place the cue more in contact to my chest.

Chris is right about i'm worrying not screwing back enough as i'm not consistently screwing back enough...LOL

About feathering, a few people commented my feathering is not natural (it's not just in the video^^), I tried to check if i'm moving the cue straight in each movement so that might caused the mechanical feathering and i'm still working on it.

and again, thanks for the input.

[pottr]

Bridge hand closer, keep your head down til the white stops moving. I think you time the ball well enough but when your head moves your follow through lifts up and doesn't keep a natural plane.

A far more pleasing action than some on here.

[Terry Davidson]

All in all not bad. I agree with all the comments above but will re-iterate some of them:

1. From the rear when you are down on the shot you are moving the body all over the place before and during the feathers. ALL aiming is down when standing behind the shot and then once you get down YOU DO NOT MOVE THE UPPER BODY!
2. Set this pot up as slightly off straight as when you have it straight the tendency is to get up off the shot quickly so the cueball doesn't come back and hit the tip.
3. Drive through the cueball. You have a very 'snatchy' delivery and as was said STAY DOWN ON THE SHOT AND STILL UNTIL THE BALL IS IN THE POCKET OR HITS THE CUSHION.
4. Slow down the feathering and try and do it naturally.
5. Develop a FRONT PAUSE where you concentrate on the line of aim (you should be looking at the spot of the cueball you want to hit) and then either during the backswing or at a rear pause shift the eyes to the cueball.
6. Drive your grip hand through to the chest so it actually hits the chest very solid

Terry

[Chris Bedford]

Advise needed. Video attached.

Yep get the cue low and parallel plenty of chalk hit the bottom very low and this is hard to explain but the timing of the shot is important which is what's happening with you consistency you have to accelerate through the white like a flick of a wrist type action to really get the white to come back. Dont get up off the shot quickly because your naturally be worried about the white hitting the tip on the way back just move your hand a fraction out of the way. To understand what I mean there's a video of Nic Barrow showing this but it's on his website thesnookergym.co.uk. Good luck lets us know how it goes.

[magicman]

Overall you don't look too bad, as Terry said. The timing issue Chris Bedford talks about (and Terry's no 4) is the problem you have in not getting the reaction you require. A methodical cue action is well and good but you'll never get the response out of the cue ball as someone with a 'natural' action. IMO this comes from having 'touch' or 'feel' in the shot. This comes from a looser grip, an appreciation of the sensation of holding a cue. Think about 'feeling' the shot until your rear hand comes all the way through to your chest.

[Suke]

Advise needed. Video attached.

thanks guys, will put it to practice as soon as possible

[alabadi]

Also note from watching second video - that your back hand it moving all over the place. This normally means that the cue is not tight enough to your chest.

Other opinions may differ.

I agree here, i thought that there was too much movement which i noticed from the rear shot, it seems that either you are not settled on the shot or you are adjusting your aim while you are down on the shot.
this is just an observation of mine i am no coach so you would be better off having some coaching to correct any errors in your technique.

good luck..!

[nrage]

Agree with most/all of the previous comments.

Download Kinovea (free software for PC that will analyze video) and load the side-on video. Play it back in slow motion and look at approx 0:56. I believe I can detect your grip hand dropping at the point of impact and this is lifting the cue tip. What this means is that while you're aiming at the bottom of the white, you're actually striking above that and getting less screw back as a result.

To "fix" this, play the shot much softer (pull back 1/2 to 3/4 or adjust your acceleration by 1/2 to 3/4) and concentrate on keeping the elbow fixed in place with no drop at all. Focus on driving the cue into the chest, or right through the white, do not anticipate the contact with the white or the cue ever stopping - that's the frame of mind which will help teach you to cue right through the white as required for a good screw shot.

One other comment.. People often think that shortening the bridge helps, and it does but only if your grip hand isn't shifted by the same amount. If you don't shift the grip hand then what you're actually doing is setting up slightly backward of vertical in the grip arm, which increases the distance between the address position and the chest (final position), which in turn increases the amount of cue which can go through the white ball - which in turn increases the screw back.

So, in fact, you can get even better results by leaving the bridge as it is, and shifting the grip hand back a fraction (one or two finger widths). But, don't mess around with this until you're striking the ball lower/where you aim/intend and with more power/speed.

[PatBlock]

Well, I normally leave these kind of topics to the pros (don't want to incur the wrath of VMAX do I ) but when I saw the second vid, I was so shocked at the amount of elbow movement I just had to add my twopence worth.

I think you should first really concentrate on keeping that elbow absolutely still until contact with the cueball has been made, and even then I think I'm right in saying that it should only drop by a few inches at most (during power shots maybe), if at all. Imagine your elbow/upper arm is being held in position by a vice, and you are only able to move from the elbow joint down, it should be a smooth pendulum-like action, at the moment it's as others have said, all over the place, and if I were you, it's the first think I'd try and fix.

Best of luck.

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