Cueing Help

[nickdarke85]

Just got back from playing with a mate and i think im having some trouble with my cueing. Im lining the pot up fine but its when i make contact with the white is where im having a problem. I dont think im striking the ball where i want to on delivery of the cue.

Obviously practice makes perfect but is there anything i can do to practice at home when not playing?

Cheers,

Nick

[dannyd0g]

one of the first practice routines to try in this instance is to put the white on the brown spot, concentrate on centre ball striking, and play it up the table to go over the blue, pink and black spots.

If the white doesnt come straight back up over the spots to hit the cue tip on the brown spot, it shows you are not striking the white correctly as intended.

[canuck]

Make sure of a few things.

First make sure that you're visualizing the line of sight properly. That is that you're looking down the line of shot.

Two make sure you look at the contact point on the object ball, not the cue ball.

Third, make sure that your grip hand doesn't hit your chest on the follow through, this can easily throw off your cue action.

Fourth, make sure you're hitting the centre of the cueball as any side spin will generally send the cueball on a curve.

Finally try to keep your cue as parallel to the surface of the table as you can make it. If it's at an angle then any unintended side spin will turn your shot into a swerve shot.

Most of my missed long pots are a result of violating number three and four. It may be different for you.

Also if you don't mind being really low on the shot, you can use your chin to guide your cue action the way John Higgins does.

Hope this helps.

[nickdarke85]

I played my mate the day after posting this thread (i think) and i was playing brilliantly. My cueing was fine. Id put it down to just one of those days where i played rubbish. Everyone has these from time to time...

Cheers for the replies...

[Green Baize]

Hi Nick,

Strange though it may sound, if you have not got a table at home and want to practice your straight cueing then try this. Firstly try to lean over table/worksurface of very similar height to that of a full-sized table then get an empty 2litre coke/lemonade bottle and lie it down with the open top facing you. Get down with your cue and practice cueing straight into the open neck of the bottle without touching the sides.Cheap - simple - but effective.

[Wity]

That may be as old as the hills, I've no idea but having read lots of stuff of late on technique stance etc I reckon thats the best tip i've ever likely to come across.

I wish I had spent am hour a day doing thay instead of homework when I was a kid.

Although come to think of it... I wish I had spent 10 minuites a day doing that when I was a kid instead of thinking up excuses for not doing my homework.

[Green Baize]

Cheers Wity.

Repetiton is the key....training your muscles,joints to replicate the same movement time and time again eventually being a smooth piston movement.Mind you this only trains your cue action but is one of the basics for the sound development of your game.