New ideas... to try or not to try

[Sidd]

Watching some of the new or recent most Nic Barrow coaching video clips over youtube made me think and hence ask this:

1. Although i have recovered much of my bridge arm shoulder tendinitis but not fully. The pain isn't that bad but still it is there.. does not stop me from playing anymore but still the feeling has not vanished completely. What I did was to adopt my stance a little bit and now I sort of lean back a little more (like Ken Doherty if you like) and this leaning back stops me from getting too much forward in the shot and I am attributing the lessening of my pain to this adjustment. Should I give it more time to heal since it has healed a little or there might be more to it.

2. I am 6 feet 1. So when I play and get down to the shot I normally arc or curve my bridge arm and it is not straight at all... Is a striaghter bridge arm more preferred or it doesnt matter ? If i straighten my bridge arm would that also help me getting rid of the shoulder pain? My bridge arm is not just a little curvy but has a pretty much pronounced curve... it that too extreme?

3. i know for sure that i am left-eyed (left master eye) however I play with centre chin and square on stance (had a boxer stance but changed it long ago- the boxer again made me go too forward in the shot). Should I be concerned with the master eye... I know Terry has been advocating not to think too much on that and I havent been thinking but Nic's video made me do so a little.. Guys I need serious advice on this... Master eye thing really is required or not? If not then i shall forget it cuz if it does and I have to change to favour my master eye; its a serious style change and I dont want to adjust things if they are not worth it.... So kindly advise.

4. If I have to change to master eye and mine is left and I am left handed... how best to do it... moving chin to the right is not comfortable for me... moving from boxer to square on i did but not much help ... the only thing to try left with me is to tilt head to the right or move my left cheek further .... to favour left eye for left handed player.... Shall I go in to this?

Looking forward.

[golferson123]

remember you dont do any aiming when you are on the shot,if you are missing when you get down you can use the hubble telescope and you will still miss.do all your sighting when upright trust your alignment get down and play your shot. if you make adjustments when on the shot you cannot be consistant.as for dominant eye, tricky one this every one has one but you need two to gauge distance
so why rely on one.put two balls on the baulk line and use a dot white for cue ball line them up along the line then get down make sure the tip is on the dot, that will tell you were your head should be to see middle ball, you will be suprised.

[chas6868]

Your trying to change to much at the same time I think.

Stance-as long as you feel solid and comfy that should do,you are about the same height as me, I have tried all these stances also
in the end all I do is get the cue down on the line of aim and work your body around it.

Set up straight in shots,loads of them and I mean loads, mark the table with a bit of chalk and hit the same straight shot over and over again using techniques you want to try out, that is the only way you will find out what suits you best.

And yes dont think to much about the master eye, Straight arm? I find it hard to get through the c/ball and also get head movement
But joe davis played like that.

Head tilt? not sure think paul hunter done that?

Master eye I am right eyed, and years ago when I found out I started moving the cue to the right but i also started lining the shot up in stance with more of the right eye, but every now and then I missed to the left of the pocket, I changed back to lining it up from the center or the body in stance,and that seemed to work better? When Iam on the shot the cue is just to the right

As said,you need to try the odd thing out yourself and see how you get on, but dont try change everything at the same time


Dont know if any of this helps IMO only

[chas6868]

Think I will try that two balls on the baulk line, sound like a good tip.

[vmax4steve]

Watching some of the new or recent most Nic Barrow coaching video clips over youtube made me think and hence ask this:

1. Although i have recovered much of my bridge arm shoulder tendinitis but not fully. The pain isn't that bad but still it is there.. does not stop me from playing anymore but still the feeling has not vanished completely. What I did was to adopt my stance a little bit and now I sort of lean back a little more (like Ken Doherty if you like) and this leaning back stops me from getting too much forward in the shot and I am attributing the lessening of my pain to this adjustment. Should I give it more time to heal since it has healed a little or there might be more to it.

2. I am 6 feet 1. So when I play and get down to the shot I normally arc or curve my bridge arm and it is not straight at all... Is a striaghter bridge arm more preferred or it doesnt matter ? If i straighten my bridge arm would that also help me getting rid of the shoulder pain? My bridge arm is not just a little curvy but has a pretty much pronounced curve... it that too extreme?

3. i know for sure that i am left-eyed (left master eye) however I play with centre chin and square on stance (had a boxer stance but changed it long ago- the boxer again made me go too forward in the shot). Should I be concerned with the master eye... I know Terry has been advocating not to think too much on that and I havent been thinking but Nic's video made me do so a little.. Guys I need serious advice on this... Master eye thing really is required or not? If not then i shall forget it cuz if it does and I have to change to favour my master eye; its a serious style change and I dont want to adjust things if they are not worth it.... So kindly advise.

4. If I have to change to master eye and mine is left and I am left handed... how best to do it... moving chin to the right is not comfortable for me... moving from boxer to square on i did but not much help ... the only thing to try left with me is to tilt head to the right or move my left cheek further .... to favour left eye for left handed player.... Shall I go in to this?

Looking forward.

Forget Nic Barrow, he thrives on people like you. You have already proved that you can play well without having to change anything so don't.
There is no one correct way, there is only the way that is correct for you and you have already found it so stop tinkering.

[jonplayer]

Forget Nic Barrow, he thrives on people like you. You have already proved that you can play well without having to change anything so don't.
There is no one correct way, there is only the way that is correct for you and you have already found it so stop tinkering.

Good to see Nick Drake on here. Cheers Steve

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

Bridge arm should be nearly straight and not have a big bend in it as that will put the eyes too close to the cueball and give you a cramped set-up.

Preferred eye, dominant eye? I'm not a bit advocate since I believe no matter what you do if you do it consistently and also stay down on the shot and watch the object ball in order to give the brain the feedback it needs then it should be fine. If you believe the line of aim you selected when standing up is correct but find when you get down and sight along the cue that you are making micro-adjustments (I mean on EVERY shot, not on the occasional shot as we all do it) then try the alignment test or else see if you can get your hands on a SightRight device as I use that here at my facility to check my students.

If you decide to bring the cue more under the left eye then do it by either turning the head slightly or else tilting the head slightly since if you move the chin on the cue that will make basic changes to your set-up and you will have to start all over again to start delivering the cue straight. My recommendation would be to leave things as they are but keep it consistent and you will find you will pot fine (as far as the sighting goes).

What does concern me is your severely bent bridge arm. It means you will have a cramped set-up and your head will be too close to the cueball. There should be either a straight bridge arm (as Joe Davis advocated) or else a very slight bend, maybe 10degrees or so (as Frank Callan advocated).

Sidd...the absolute best thing you could do is to take a video of yourself from front, side and rear showing elbow down to the grip hand in all shots and then post it up on youtube and then post the link on here. This way we can all take a look and make recommendations.

Personally, I think you should settle down to one set-up and technique and then STICK WITH IT. You will NOT improve if you keep changing things all the time as you are not giving your brain a chance to get used to anything. There are pro players with completely awful set-up and technique but they do it consistently and are able to reach the pro skill level. Try it and see what happens

Terry

[rimmer10]

could you pleae elaborate on the 2 ball on baulk line thing. cannot really picture it. maybe a little diagram would help

[CoachGavin]

Forget Nic Barrow, he thrives on people like you. You have already proved that you can play well without having to change anything so don't.
There is no one correct way, there is only the way that is correct for you and you have already found it so stop tinkering.

Yes, everyone is different but I dont think you can say that someone has found there correct way of playing when their highest break is 50 odd (according to sidds profile). My technique has changed a lot since my highest break was 50 or even 100 as I believe you should always be looking to improve yourself. Look at Ronnie O Sullivan. He has constantly tinkered with his technique and many people would say he is better now than as a teenager. I am not saying tinker with everything but you can look at weaknesses in your game and change them to improve.

[golferson123]

could you pleae elaborate on the 2 ball on baulk line thing. cannot really picture it. maybe a little diagram would help

two balls on the baulk line, one object ball one cue ball,(with a dot) put the dot over the line, play to hit the second ball full ball, is the tip on the dot and does one eye dominate? close one eye after another the tip will move. gradually angle your head sideways until the tip stays still.i am not advocating this at all!.as far as i am concerned this is dangerous ground. i agree with most posts to stay well away,its a game wrecker!.the point i am making is what you think is middle ball might not be

[golferson123]

could you pleae elaborate on the 2 ball on baulk line thing. cannot really picture it. maybe a little diagram would help

two balls on the baulk line, one object ball one cue ball,(with a dot) put the dot over the line, play to hit the second ball full ball, is the tip on the dot and does one eye dominate? close one eye after another the tip will move. gradually angle your head sideways until the tip stays still.i am not advocating this at all!.as far as i am concerned this is dangerous ground. i agree with most posts to stay well away,its a game wrecker!.the point i am making is what you think is middle ball might not be

[rimmer10]

cheers mate and thanks for the warning. will try anyway, got nothing to loose

[vmax4steve]

Yes, everyone is different but I dont think you can say that someone has found there correct way of playing when their highest break is 50 odd (according to sidds profile). My technique has changed a lot since my highest break was 50 or even 100 as I believe you should always be looking to improve yourself. Look at Ronnie O Sullivan. He has constantly tinkered with his technique and many people would say he is better now than as a teenager. I am not saying tinker with everything but you can look at weaknesses in your game and change them to improve.

The thing is Gav that Sidd has a high break of 67. If you can make one 67 then you are capable of stringing two together and getting the ton+. Sidd seems to change things every week without a coach ever having a look at him and IMO he doesn't know what, if anything, he does wrong, he's simply guessing that if Nic Barrow says do it this way and he himself doesn't do it that way then he must be wrong and Nic Barrow is always right, which he isn't.
If he gives himself time to get the fundamentals of his own game together more consistantly he can then have an idea of what shots he is having trouble with when falling down on the big break attempts. Until he does this he will always be changing and starting from scratch and having something in his head other than relaxing and playing the game.

The players who should take more notice of Nic Barrow are those who have been playing for years and struggle to make a twenty break, they are the ones with really poor technique who need to maybe start from scratch and learn a new technique by rote.
Players with a 50+ to their names have proved to themselves they can play a bit but are simply erratic and fail to do the basics through lack of concentration or when under pressure. Players like this do themselves no good at all by constantly blaming their own technique and changing grips, stance, feathers, sighting etc every other week.

[Sidd]

Forget Nic Barrow, he thrives on people like you. You have already proved that you can play well without having to change anything so don't.
There is no one correct way, there is only the way that is correct for you and you have already found it so stop tinkering.

Thanks dear... I promise I wont tinker anymore; or at least try my level best not to... its just that whenever i start playing bad for more than three days then I start to think something with my technique is wrong and hence get on to all those things and end up changing them and hence do not have consistency... but your motivation is huge trust me and I feel confident enough already...

Cheers to that mate!

[Sidd]

Think I will try that two balls on the baulk line, sound like a good tip.

Good advice Chas... will consider and try to work that out. I know I am left eyed but I shall continue the same way... I did my 67 and 56 and 54 and a few 40s with the same style so I can reach 80s standard with the same I guess...