Looking for a good advice please

[Leo78]

Dear All,

I found recently by one of the Snooker coaches that i tend to hit the white ball with a touch of right hand side and he gave me a simple advice by trying to move the cue to the left little bit even if it feels awkward to me. But it seems not working very well to me at the moment. Note that i am a left hand side player and the cue is under my chin (not under my right eye "the dominant one"). and he advised me not to change the position of the cue to be under my dominant eye since it wont help knowing that i have been playing for years and my age is over 30!

I also have discovered very recent why i am hitting with a bit touch of right hand side. Because when i am aiming correctly and just before the final delivery, then switching my eyes to the object ball, I feel like i am aiming incorrectly "thick/thin angle" and i tend to follow the correct angle while hitting ,, sometimes missing an easy shots! ((((but))) if i close my eyes and hit, the object ball goes straight to the pocket without any problem!

I know my eyes is deceiving me, and unconsciously I tend to hit with a right hand side!


So is there a good technique i should try to over come this issue? and is it mentally or physically you think to resolve it?


P.S., i tried before to just trust my line of aim and push the cue along the line, but sometimes under pressure it does not go very well with me. I also tried to not to pause at the back swing in order not to give any chance for any movement, but good potting and 0% control of the white ball!

[Terry Davidson]

It sounds to me like you have a problem with sighting while down on the shot, in that when you check the line of aim at the front pause position, or address position you are 'seeing' the potting angle wrong and make adjustments.

I would say to first check and see for certain which is your preferred eye. The mistake most often made is players feel they have to run the cue under the preferred eye, but that's not actually true. In reality the best and ideal picture for the best binocular vision and spatial recognition is actually somewhere BETWEEN the eyes and it depend how strong they are in relation to each other. If you were virtually blind in one eye then the cue should be directly under the good eye, but if you can see decently out of both eyes almost the same then the cue should be somewhere around the middle of the eyes or a fraction on either side.

The best way to discover this is to set up a shot and get down into your normal address position and close one eye at a time and see which eye gives you the best aiming line along the cue. Then turn the head very slightly one way and then the other and try it at each position and see if at some point what you see agrees with the original line of aim you selected when standing up over the shot. That will be your ideal head position and sighting position and it will stop you from making aiming adjustments while down on the table, which is VERY bad.

Terry

[Chris Bedford]

Looking for a good advice please

How about practicing running the white up and down the spots?

[Leo78]

Thanks Terry, i will try tomorrow to "tilt" my head to my preffered eye and see the result and let you know.

So, what you are saying, the line of aim before going down should match the line of aim i am seeing/feeling while down at the shot. correct?

Note that i dont adjust myself while i am down at the shot, but unconsciously i am hitting with right hand of side! for example, i am now on the black, i go down correctly, feathering in a straight line, but while pushing the while, my cue tend to go little right! if there is not shot just cueing, you would see my cue goes in a straight line!

It sounds to me like you have a problem with sighting while down on the shot, in that when you check the line of aim at the front pause position, or address position you are 'seeing' the potting angle wrong and make adjustments.

I would say to first check and see for certain which is your preferred eye. The mistake most often made is players feel they have to run the cue under the preferred eye, but that's not actually true. In reality the best and ideal picture for the best binocular vision and spatial recognition is actually somewhere BETWEEN the eyes and it depend how strong they are in relation to each other. If you were virtually blind in one eye then the cue should be directly under the good eye, but if you can see decently out of both eyes almost the same then the cue should be somewhere around the middle of the eyes or a fraction on either side.

The best way to discover this is to set up a shot and get down into your normal address position and close one eye at a time and see which eye gives you the best aiming line along the cue. Then turn the head very slightly one way and then the other and try it at each position and see if at some point what you see agrees with the original line of aim you selected when standing up over the shot. That will be your ideal head position and sighting position and it will stop you from making aiming adjustments while down on the table, which is VERY bad.

Terry

[Leo78]

Always ending up with adding a touch of right hand side!

if i just hit without thinking about getting a straight line, i seem to have a good cue action without any side!

How about practicing running the white up and down the spots?

[Terry Davidson]

It sounds to me your brain isn't liking what it sees when down on the shot and it doesn't match what you selected when standing up (they should match) and therefore your brain is initiating a 'correction'.

It could be a mechanical issue too but I would have to see a video to determine that

Terry