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I thought to myself, you've gloss painted the front and back door at 3am in the morning (to ensure an entire day of drying before closing), so you deserve a few hours of practice alone. Went back to bed, got up around 10ish. Went to the snooker room after lunch to iron out some flaws, which basically consist of being able to pot amazing long balls, then miss one by 6 inches; inconsistency. And it happens on shorter shots too.
Did about 2.5 hours of work and was reasonably pleased. I'd increased the gap between feet, getting down lower, weight forward, square on, foot in line, etc. Get jacket, lock up the snooker room. Hang on, I've forgotten my last set-up. Jacket off, cue back out, balls back on table for a few mins of memorising the good things for next time. Get down, cue ball off the cushion about a foot and half behind the yellow spot and slam the blue in the pocket. Hmmm, that was good. Went to get up, then got back down to check set-up. Hello, bent arm instead of straight arm, bridge closer to the ball, shoulder on jaw leaning into the table a few inches. Look down, left foot has gone half a pace forward off square, R foot still in line, shoulder width gap between feet. Grip doesn't feel as tight, more relaxed. Did it again, and again, and again, on different angles, all long balls. It works better than the my old set-up. Tried some short balls, screwing round the table and back to the black; works. Smashing the pink in the middle; works.
Problem. It works when I'm resting on the rail. Open play when the cue ball is a few feet in from the rail; nightmare, missing balls by miles. Why? Because having the shoulder on chin with bent arm leads to a muscle on the far side of the forearm cramping up, with the right forearm swinging outwards to the right and then coming back in, resulting in striking across the ball. Painful to boot. I then spent another hour trying to rectify this issue, because the long potting had been so promising, I didn't want to go back to a straight bridge arm, with 12-13 inches from bridge to ball. Bent arm was so much more solid. It dawned on me, keep your left shoulder in the same relative position to the chin, but allow it to drop down; don't worry about shoulder to chin contact when you are in the middle of the table. Bingo! I only had about fifteen minutes left for shots with the cue ball in the middle of the table, but I started sinking the object ball for the first time with bent arm in that position, and more consistently than straight arm.
Two months of putting lots of hours in, then in one afternoon; click! What a relief. If Carlsberg did snooker practice, that's what it would feel like. Probably not the most interesting article on TSF today, but I was just so pleased, that I wanted to share the joy with TSF. Thanks to Nrage, Terry, all my friends on here, who've advised me to do, pretty much what I did today. Sorry it's taken so long, and you've had to put up with a very difficult birth but I think this could be the road for me now. I really hope I've sorted my set-up out for good, and can now move on.
Have a good weekend potting everyone,
PP.
Did about 2.5 hours of work and was reasonably pleased. I'd increased the gap between feet, getting down lower, weight forward, square on, foot in line, etc. Get jacket, lock up the snooker room. Hang on, I've forgotten my last set-up. Jacket off, cue back out, balls back on table for a few mins of memorising the good things for next time. Get down, cue ball off the cushion about a foot and half behind the yellow spot and slam the blue in the pocket. Hmmm, that was good. Went to get up, then got back down to check set-up. Hello, bent arm instead of straight arm, bridge closer to the ball, shoulder on jaw leaning into the table a few inches. Look down, left foot has gone half a pace forward off square, R foot still in line, shoulder width gap between feet. Grip doesn't feel as tight, more relaxed. Did it again, and again, and again, on different angles, all long balls. It works better than the my old set-up. Tried some short balls, screwing round the table and back to the black; works. Smashing the pink in the middle; works.
Problem. It works when I'm resting on the rail. Open play when the cue ball is a few feet in from the rail; nightmare, missing balls by miles. Why? Because having the shoulder on chin with bent arm leads to a muscle on the far side of the forearm cramping up, with the right forearm swinging outwards to the right and then coming back in, resulting in striking across the ball. Painful to boot. I then spent another hour trying to rectify this issue, because the long potting had been so promising, I didn't want to go back to a straight bridge arm, with 12-13 inches from bridge to ball. Bent arm was so much more solid. It dawned on me, keep your left shoulder in the same relative position to the chin, but allow it to drop down; don't worry about shoulder to chin contact when you are in the middle of the table. Bingo! I only had about fifteen minutes left for shots with the cue ball in the middle of the table, but I started sinking the object ball for the first time with bent arm in that position, and more consistently than straight arm.
Two months of putting lots of hours in, then in one afternoon; click! What a relief. If Carlsberg did snooker practice, that's what it would feel like. Probably not the most interesting article on TSF today, but I was just so pleased, that I wanted to share the joy with TSF. Thanks to Nrage, Terry, all my friends on here, who've advised me to do, pretty much what I did today. Sorry it's taken so long, and you've had to put up with a very difficult birth but I think this could be the road for me now. I really hope I've sorted my set-up out for good, and can now move on.
Have a good weekend potting everyone,
PP.
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