Rest work

[misspentoldage]

Strangely, as my work with the cue improves (slightly) it seems that my work with the rest has gone backwards, especially on half ball shots which should be among the easiest. I have a feeling I might have started following through too much on the rest. Any tips on rest work?

[tomw]

Keep your body perfectly still.
Put your feet in a way you are 100% in balance (for me, that is putting my right foot backward instead of my left foot - I'm left handed).
Don't use too much backswing and don't try to do too much with the cue ball. Shoot perfectly straight through the cueball without any side, and don't forget to follow through.

I think that about covers it...

Greetings
Tom

[DeanH]

On Nic Barrow’s SnookerGym DVDs he has a good section on using the rest.
For basics, he starts with no cue ball at all. Placing the rest on the table in front of you, adding the cue to the rest, then getting down to position. If right handed, have the left hand some way down the rest shaft with the shaft touching alongside the inside of the left forearm. The rest shaft should be on the table not lifted into the air. The left-elbow should be gently bent for comfort and control; the rest should then be at a slight angle going across you from left to right. The cue butt end should be just over a hand-span (fingers out spread – thumb tip to little finger tip) away from you face/chin. This will give you a nice clearance to look down the cue, not too close-not too far.
Now the stance, Nic then goes on to show when down on the shot with the rest (no cue ball at this time) try the rest and cue in different angles to your body, sliding the rest and cue to the left and right and you should find a very natural and comfortable position that you can maintain absolutely still on and easy to hold and look down the cue.
To test it, get up and start again several times, getting hold of the rest, placing the cue into the head, getting down into the shot. You should get into the comfortable position almost automatically.
Once you have found your natural comfortable position, you can check you are actually delivering the cue straight, place the cue ball on the blue spot, the from the baulk end try some shots down the pink/black spots, if the cue ball returns in the straight you are delivering nicely
You don’t say how you are missing the pot, are you adding unintentional side or are you not aiming the cue ball at the right point on the object ball? My thoughts are with unintentional side, as you say as your normal cueing has improved you could be adding side which is throwing the cue ball of a tad.
Hope this helps

[vmax4steve]

Take a leaf from Shaun Murphy's book and keep the elbow parallel to the bed of the table. This will keep the cue going through the shot straighter for slightly longer than it does with the elbow below the grip hand. Make sure that when the grip hand is in the address position, the angle formed at the elbow between the lower and upper arm is about 90 degrees, for that is the point when the cue comes through straightest.
Keep eyes focussed on the contact point of the object ball at the moment of the strike, remember to pull the cue back and follow through. The whole stroke shouldn't be more than about twelve inches, six inches back, six inches follow through.

[Terry Davidson]

One big problem area with the rest is players forget to use JUST the forearm/elbow to deliver the cue and will use the upper arm and shoulder which will take the butt off-line. Also, a lot of players will look at the cueball when using the rest because they are far from it and in a different body position.

Using the rest is the same as a normal shot (barring the stance difference) and you should use a loose grip, eyes on object ball at delivery, do not use the shoulder, keep the body still and accelerate THROUGH AND BEYOND the cueball. Some coaches advocate the follow-through should be shorter however if you watch Jimmy White on youtube you will see he follows through normally and he is commonly regarded as one of the best rest players. Mark Selby is also a very good rest player.

Terry

[misspentoldage]

Some great pieces of advice here. Reviewing them, I think I may be a) starting to put my shoulder into the rest shot, which I did not do before; b) trying to do too much with the cue ball with the rest - perhaps need to be less ambitious on position than with the cue on my normal bridging hand. This is quite important to me as I'm a shortarse and need to use the rest quite a lot. My recently-acquired mini-butt helps with some shots without the rest, especially those out of the corner of the table but you do get that extra weight which you have to think about when using the mini-butt.

[ace man]

I would just like to add that many players shoot down on a ball when using rest, while some also look more like they're throwing a dart rather than playing snooker. Some guys also have cue almost in their face during feathering, awful.
Unlike many players I love playing with the rest, never avoid it and have confidence with it. My weakness is the opposite...I have never even attempted using the mini butt in a match! Never! Maximum stretch and a bridge length of over half a metre doesn't appeal to me...going to have to learn that some day...

[vmax4steve]

I would just like to add that many players shoot down on a ball when using rest

I always use the low X of the rest, even when playing topspin.