Consistency

[misspentoldage]

Couple of frames last night when I felt I could make anything. Some pots that would have had them up on their feet in The Crucible (well, in my imagination anyway). Then, another frame, and it's back to the same old errors, the same old easy misses. We've all been there. How on earth to find that elusive consistency. Why can't we always be the best that we can be? For me, the challenge seems to be part of it. I tend to up my game if my opponent seems to be getting away from me - but that's a damn silly time to start playing.

[vmax4steve]

In order to be more consistant my advice would be to concentrate on keeping your eyes on the contact point of the object ball at the moment of the strike every single time.

It's the failure to do this that causes head/body movement, snatching and miscues etc which causes those easy misses.

There should be a natural point in your timing where you strike the cue ball when you are focussing on this point, trick is to find it and repeat it every time and not to fall into the trap of looking at the pocket, cue ball or anything other than the contact point on the object ball at the moment of the strike.

The very best players do this 90% of the time while the rest of us fall in and out of it and are therefore inconsistant albeit capable of potting and missing anything and everything.

[Sidd]

Vmax: i can hardly agree more. Well put.

Misspentoldage: Well well now this is a funny game that we play called snooker, which has the ability to make the most simplest things hard to get to and hard things seem so simple nice and easy We have all been in the ZONE- a point in time which you also encountered and mentioned; once in the groove or the zone as they call it, one can pot anything (i loved your crucible comment) and whilst in that stated i have also noted that not only potting and positioning but making and escaping snookers and safety everything becomes immaculate automatically and starts to happen subconsciously for you. However, we are easily out of the zone the very next frame. Vmax has the correct answer- even if I do keep that in mind and keep playing i sometimes would start missing and then at the end i realise that i wasnt looking at the potting spot on the OB but was only staring at the OB haha and that happens due to lack of concentration. Its seems very easy right to look at the potting spot on the OB on every shot but try it and you will notice how hard it is to keep the concentration alive for every single shot...

I believe there is this problem that just creeps in. My case is different I am so much in to thinking about technique that its a different stopry for me. However, normally what happens is that once you start making pots and concentration is high one becomes confident right eh but then the evil things happens- that confidence at times is easily translated in to over confidence and we dont tend to notice and hence we start taking pots for granted and after taking hard pots we believe those easy baby sitters are a piece of cake and that is where the concentration starts to go down.. have you not heard the commentators say once a pro is on 99 and has an easy black that "he needs to hold himself there for this shot" what they mean by that is that he needs to keep his cool and keep his focus and dont take this shot as an easy thing.... thats the biggest thing to master in this game and those who could do that are then better players. the problem is that there are at times too many distractions at club level that one has to have focus through a very difficult manner and even if that is not the case then we keep thinking so many things in mind all the time that we loose that potting spot focus all the time ... !!!

[misspentoldage]

Great post, Vmax. For me the stray thoughts come especially when I'm about to go into unknown territory with a new highest break, and inevitably fail by thinking about that instead of the shot. Could be the reason I haven't exceeded my highest break for years, and years, and years...

[Sidd]

Great post, Vmax. For me the stray thoughts come especially when I'm about to go into unknown territory with a new highest break, and inevitably fail by thinking about that instead of the shot. Could be the reason I haven't exceeded my highest break for years, and years, and years...

Ssame here: whenever i am on the mark and about to get a new high break, the thought and actually excitement of the new level gets in to mind and then I end up missing a baby sitter...

[RocketRoy1983]

When you find the answer - you'll make a lot of money!!

Just enjoy your game, don't put too much pressure on yourself and you'll be fine.

[Sidd]

when you find the answer - you'll make a lot of money!!

Just enjoy your game, don't put too much pressure on yourself and you'll be fine.

well said...

[sberry]

If you play regularly you'll probably be at your best 20% of the time, at your worst 20% of the time and most of the time, 60%, you'll play your normal game.

There's a lot of mind games involved, some people falter with pressure, some people thrive on it, some people falter by putting pressure on themselves wanting/expecting to play better when they should maybe accept that their normal game is what normally happens and they should be happy with that.

Personal circumstances weigh in, what's on your mind, how's the conditions you're playing in, etc.

So many variables and to get the best consistency you need to be able to lock everything else out and just concentrate on the table and the shots, easier said than done.

Probably why the 'robot' players are more consistent than the 'character' players.

[poona]

In order to be more consistant my advice would be to concentrate on keeping your eyes on the contact point of the object ball at the moment of the strike every single time.

It's the failure to do this that causes head/body movement, snatching and miscues etc which causes those easy misses.

There should be a natural point in your timing where you strike the cue ball when you are focussing on this point, trick is to find it and repeat it every time and not to fall into the trap of looking at the pocket, cue ball or anything other than the contact point on the object ball at the moment of the strike.

The very best players do this 90% of the time while the rest of us fall in and out of it and are therefore inconsistant albeit capable of potting and missing anything and everything.

Possibly the best reply I've read on these forums. It's so incredibly easy to not do this and even easier to not notice you're not doing this. After getting back into the game from 4-5 years off I've been inconsistent hit one 74 few 50s and quite a bit of 40's. After slowing my game down and ensuring this occurs every time, yesterday I was on a 96 clearance but snatched the blue due to adrenaline and the usual pre-century nerves/tension as I wasn't really listening to the break call by my practice partner and thought I was on a ton (blue pink and black were on spots so shouldve been bread and butter as id done all the hard work during break which I made with mostly pinks)

Anyway, I can't back this post up enough.

[Terry Davidson]

I believe there may be another small thing happening when players get under pressure in a match or when they're near to beating that 'magic' high break number. Remember, for some reason something goes wrong in their technique and they miss a 'sitter' that they would pot 99 times out of a 100 under non-pressure situations.

What is this thing? Well, I believe it just might be breathing while they are down in the address position. I know this sounds pretty stupid and a lot of players will be shaking their heads at this statement, however when the body is under pressure the natural tendency is to get more oxygen into the lungs and they will be down on the shot and take a deep breath, or even just a normal one, and this will take the cue off line as the chest expands if they happen to have the cue against the chest, which most of us do.

For the players out there that believe there would be no effect of taking a breath while down in the address position, try it. Get into the address position and have the tip up against the cueball and watching the tip very closely take a breath and for a right-handed player you will see the tip rise up and to the left a bit. It will only be 1 or 2 millimeters (or more if you take a deep breath) but that tip moving on the face of the cueball is a certain sign the cue has gone off the line of aim.

It certainly enough to miss a long pot or else even an easy one but to a closed pocket. Try and take a breath just before you get down into the address position and then breathe out as you get down and don't breathe in until the cue has been delivered. You can reverse this of course and take a breathe as you're getting down but you are compacting the diaphragm as you get down.

Terry

[alabadi]

Couple of frames last night when I felt I could make anything. Some pots that would have had them up on their feet in The Crucible (well, in my imagination anyway). Then, another frame, and it's back to the same old errors, the same old easy misses. We've all been there. How on earth to find that elusive consistency. Why can't we always be the best that we can be? For me, the challenge seems to be part of it. I tend to up my game if my opponent seems to be getting away from me - but that's a damn silly time to start playing.

SNAP we all do it, and can't explain why. i myself same as you start playing better when i am behind 20 points or so, i have lost count of how many times i have been 20 odd points behind coming down to colours and won.

if i could just start playing the way i finish i wuld be ok, saying that i have lost games in the same manner so i guess its all about concentration and focus.

alabbadi

[Sidd]

I believe there may be another small thing happening when players get under pressure in a match or when they're near to beating that 'magic' high break number. Remember, for some reason something goes wrong in their technique and they miss a 'sitter' that they would pot 99 times out of a 100 under non-pressure situations.

What is this thing? Well, I believe it just might be breathing while they are down in the address position. I know this sounds pretty stupid and a lot of players will be shaking their heads at this statement, however when the body is under pressure the natural tendency is to get more oxygen into the lungs and they will be down on the shot and take a deep breath, or even just a normal one, and this will take the cue off line as the chest expands if they happen to have the cue against the chest, which most of us do.

For the players out there that believe there would be no effect of taking a breath while down in the address position, try it. Get into the address position and have the tip up against the cueball and watching the tip very closely take a breath and for a right-handed player you will see the tip rise up and to the left a bit. It will only be 1 or 2 millimeters (or more if you take a deep breath) but that tip moving on the face of the cueball is a certain sign the cue has gone off the line of aim.

It certainly enough to miss a long pot or else even an easy one but to a closed pocket. Try and take a breath just before you get down into the address position and then breathe out as you get down and don't breathe in until the cue has been delivered. You can reverse this of course and take a breathe as you're getting down but you are compacting the diaphragm as you get down.

Terry

Very right... I also get that burning of the ears red hot feeling while in a situation like that... I think its the pressure and nothing else right?

[throtts]

I will probably come across a bit over the top but I do take deep breathes at certain stages during my breaks. I feel when your concentrating extremely hard you tend to forget to breathe naturally. When I have a big pot to take on I take a deep breath.

Some Pros will get the ref to clean the cue ball now and again, take a swig of water, wipe there shaft, etc etc.