The Grip: Terry's pearls of wisdom reproduced

[Sidd]

Dear Mates:

I played this game by instinct and without coaching just like any other kid who starts the game for fun and then develops that certain amount of seriousness in the game and then tends to progress. The snooker Grip came naturally to me (however it was less controlled of course) and I made a couple of 50 breaks like that during those years. But I could not repeat that form or capitalise on a major break chance due to missing easy pots. So I came to this forum in search of consistency if not excellence and then found out about how a grip should be. That took me on to experiment with different grip formations and many things of the like and I ruined my natural game in the process (that happens). I got so confused over time that I just could not get in my head the grip formation and the grip pressure even though it was so easy to understand.

Then I went to the snooker gym forum and found out a post in which Terry Davidson had explained the whole phenomena, if you like, with ease of expression. I saved it for me and then practiced with it and my natural grip that used to be with me in my early years just came back to in SECONDS trust me... and this time it came back to me with control and feel... I am so happy after such a long time that I cannot explain. Do not have the words really... So as a tribute to Terry's tireless efforts and time that he spends in helping others like me; I am reproducing that hereunder, as I am sure that will help many others on this forum the way it helped me attaining my form and grip ... its just like old days now (with better control and feel). Thank you Terry- thank you so very much!

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Here are some important facts about the grip in snooker:

1. It is THE most important aspect of the technique as it is how you actually control the cue.
2. It is NOT rocket science and is very simple.

I will see if I can explain it (yet again) so everyone can understand how the grip is formed and what pressure is applied along with what happens to the grip as you backswing and deliver.

So the first step is to take the butt of your cue off (if you have a 3/4-butt) or your mini-butt if you have one and lay it on the bed of the table. Now place your hand on top of it and pick it up and hold it EXACTLY like you would hold a hammer in order to drive a nail. Now straighten your arm straight out in front of you, still gripping it like a hammer and take a long and VERY good look at the configuration of your hand.

You should notice in the first place your thumb is pointed directly away from you (and perhaps curled just a little bit around the forefinger but straighten the thumb out until it is straight and pointed directly away from you). Also note the hammer (or butt) is held by the curled 4 fingers AND THE BACK OF THE HAND (the bottom of the palm in this case) is against the butt too AND THE WRIST JOINT IS TURNED TO THE RIGHT (in a right-handed player) so the back of the hand is facing to the right by some degree.

Experiment with turning the wrist joint more to the right until you have almost a 90degree bend in the wrist joint and then turn the wrist inwards as much as you can towards the left so you have almost a 90degree bend in the wrist the other way. Now as you do this note where the butt is in relation to the long straight bone of the forearm and adjust the wrist angle ('cock' of the wrist joint) until the butt is either directly under that straight forearm bone or even a bit outside (to the right) of the forearm bone.

THIS IS THE CORRECT CONFIGURATION OF THE GRIP FOR SNOOKER.

Now, without changing the grip at all, drop your arm down to the right side of your hip and the thumb should be pointed straight down at the floor and resting against the outside of the forefinger (you should still be able to use the butt like a hammer to drive a nail).

CORRECT GRIP PRESSURE

Now put your cue back together and lay it on the table and grip it where your would for a normal hand-on-the-table shot, pick it up and assume the address position---you should be able to drive a nail with the cue just like a hammer. Now stand back up still holding the cue the exact same way and place it across your upper thighs with the grip in place and the thumb pointed straight down to the floor and the LEFT hand gripping the shaft of the cue somewhere.

Now, relax your right hand WITHOUT CHANGING THE CONFIGURATION OF THE GRIP and try and move the cue THROUGH your grip hand with NO RESISTANCE AT ALL by pushing and pulling the cue using your left hand on the shaft. This is the correct grip pressure every player should use.

So with the grip relaxed like that re-assume the address position and start feathering the cueball BUT DO NOT INCREASE THE GRIP PRESSURE ON THE CUE, the butt should be just laying in the curl of the 4 fingers with the primary hold on the cue being the top inside of the forefinger and thumb. DO NOT SQUEEZE THE FINGERS AT ALL!!!

Now, do a front pause and then very SLOWLY do your final backswing and note how the butt of the cue will sort of push the relaxed back 3 fingers of the hand out of the way and at the end of the backswing the ONLY hold you have on the cue is with the upper part of the thumb and forefinger.

SLOWLY start your delivery and GENTLY close the back three fingers around the butt HOWEVER DO NOT INCREASE THEIR PRESSURE SO THE ARE JUST TOUCHING THE BUTT OF THE CUE and deliver the cue maintaining this nice and relaxed grip until the cue strikes the cueball and meets some resistance from the weight of the cueball and at that time start gripping the butt with the back 3 fingers BUT TRY NOT TO CURL THEM AROUND THE BUTT TOO HARD WITH A LOT OF PRESSURE AS THAT WILL TAKE THE BUTT OF THE CUE OFF-LINE.

Drive the cue through the cueball and don't stop it until the back of your thumb hits the chest which will squeeze the thumb over to the right and give you a tight hold on the butt without moving it to the right or left.

Lastly, There needs to be no tension in your grip or forearm or upper arm or shoulder as you cue and make the strike. Let them all be relaxed. Tightness DECREASES control which is counterintuitive to most player below 50 break standard. Looseness however is more likely to REVEAL any cueing imperfections which you can then address using the methods above. This is why most 50 breakers or under hold too tight - they dont want to be forced to be faced with their cueing errors.

This is a natural human reaction but one we must battle not only in our snooker but in our lives too!

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[throtts]

Yes, many thanks again to Terry. However, In the address position it appears on the TV watching some pro's, ie S Maguire, that they for sure have a relaxed grip but it is not mega loose to the point of slippery in the grip. I been watching closely and at some points the tv camera shows the grip hand. One player which seems to have the above smack bang on is Ali Carter, his back to fingers come off the butt, but I have noticed some that do not release the back fingers.

My grip is with a dropped thumb with the butt resting in the 3 fingers with the last little one not doing much if anything at all, but its not slippery loose and I can feel the butt touching my palm.

After having my table for a year now the most important problem to address in my opinion is movement on the shot, you can have a perfect grip, stance but if you move on the shot then you gonna miss whatever.

There's some great advice on here and great pointers to put you in the correct direction but there is no substitute for practice practice and practice. Reading is good but to become a very good player you have to put alot of hours in on a table.

[ace man]

Sidd, this is way too complicated and unlikely to work for anyone but maybe certain individual. There is no one correct grip configuration or pressure. If there was, all pro players would look exactly the same. What about cue on chin pressure? Cue on chest pressure? Bridge length? Backswing length? Sighting process? Here I'm just giving you some more thoughts to confuse you even more...

You say that 50+ breaks elude you. Well, how many hours a week do you spend practicing alone doing drills? How many hours playing matches? Answer that first and then you will know immediately if your expectations are realistic.

[pottr]

Pick the cue up. Don't hold it so tight that it either:

a) Pulls the plane of the cue up on the backswing for a power shot

Or so loose that it:

b) Slips when you deliver the cue through the white.

That's all there is too it. No need to think too hard about it.

Again, I maintain. If you have to think about this while you are doing it, you are beaten.
If the cue is going through straight, the action is correct which in turn means your grip will be. If you practice cueing straight, your grip will fall into code.

[Terry Davidson]

Since I wrote that article (not sure how old it is) I haven't had any changes in my idea on forming the correct grip, however I think now that each player will have to experiment during solo practice and come up with his own grip...this HAS TO BE a grip which allows him to deliver the cue and accelerating through the cueball WITHOUT HAVING TO TIGHTEN THE GRIP until well AFTER the strike.

The method I described is the easiest way to achieve this for a player who believes he needs to change his grip to achieve the 'drive' through the cueball.

I have experimented a lot with grips, from one finger, 2 fingers, 3 or 4 fingers, back 3 fingers like Alex Higgins, wrist cocked and wrist un-cocked and I have decided what I describe in the article above is absolutely the best way to achieve this. I am now 'holding' the cue in the curl of the first 2 fingers without squeezing the fingers and also the top of the thumb but without squeezing the thumb. When I backswing the second finger and the back 2 fingers get pushed out of the way by the butt of the cue (to learn this bit you have to do a slow-motion backswing) and then during the delivery I keep the back 2 fingers just barely touching the butt until well AFTER the strike.

As I said, the grip is the MOST IMPORTANT part of a player's technique because it along with the wrist joint is controlling the cue and it must work so that a player can deliver the cue CONSISTENTLY STRAIGHT and also ACCELERATE THOUGH the cueball.

In addition, the other 'secret' to snooker is NEVER, EVER allow the upper body (or any part of it) to move AT ALL from the time your hand hits the table until AFTER the completion of the delivery.

Terry

[GeordieDS]

I never gave my grip any thought until a couple of weeks ago when i was having a couple of frames with a coach and he told me i shouldn't have my thumb on top of the cue it should be at the side and since then i'm actually thinking about my grip whilst playing.

This bloke i know from poker came into the club with his 2 sons and i suggested we gave a few frames so his sons could play each other.......he beat me 7-1(i won the last) and i cant recall ever playing so bad.

He came in on saturday and i played him again and he was winning 5-1 and i dont think i could have won another frame i was really that awful.

Before i played that coach i was cueing as well as ever and i don't blame him as he was trying to help but my head is well and truly done in now and i'm probably going to stop playing

[j6uk]

Iv stopped calling the grip, a grip, because its not Its so miss leading..

[Terry Davidson]

j6uk:

I prefer the term 'hold' as grip sort of infers pressure and there should be NO pressure at all. The hold should be stable with no movement of the wrist joint (laterally or sideways) during either the backswing or delivery.

GeordieDS:

The coach was correct and you shouldn't have your thumb on top of the cue. Consider this, with your thumb on top of the cue you have virtually eliminated it from the hold on the cue with the exception it will help keep the cue down on the bridge, but sadly unless you move it during the delivery it will limit your follow-through and you would be unable to drive the grip hand through to the chest.

To get back to my main point...you says you played better with the thumb removed from the hold on the cue by being on top of the cue, so now that you're trying it with the thumb pointed straight down ensure you are not using the thumb AT ALL since you're used to playing that way.

One other thing...something of a critique...if you are considering giving up after just 2 bad sessions then there is something wrong with your mental attitude. In addition, if you expected instant improvement by just moving the thumb to the proper position, then you have a completely wrong idea of how to improve at snooker and just how long it takes.

Even a player like Judd Trump took TEN YEARS to get to the standard where he could turn pro and I'm willing to bet he had more than 2 bad sessions in a row over that 10 years. You should lighten up a bit and give yourself more time since once you're over 30 years old or so improvement at snooker is VERY difficult to achieve and takes tons of practice along with dedication and motivation. You need to align your motivation somewhat.

Terry

[j6uk]

Yes, we could be here all year talking about 'the so called grip' and the points of contact within the hand.. I use the term wrap-around, like holding an egg or a small tap-hammer. The main thing is to hit from the elbow, with inside the thumb and first two fingers as the drive. That's it in a nutshell!!
A lot of top players do 'give a little wrist' on delivery of the cue every now and then but they are always contacting in unison with the elbow, opening the back fingers, then a sap of the wrist and elbow just gives a little more zip when 'delivering the cue at the same pace, almost every time'. So the cue does alllll the work. I must follow this by saying these intricacies are a perfected art

[GeordieDS]

Terry

I know the coach was right as he is a good player who is well respected in the game and good friends with a lot of the top pro's.

I have played the game for 30 years and i'm well aware how much of a mental battle it can be but i'm starting to regularly play very bad with the good sessions a distant memory and there comes a point where enough is enough.

I love the game so it's more likely i will just have a good moan and a short break.

Thanks for the good advice on here because it's appreciated.


Edit: i'm also not saying i played better with my thumb on top of the cue because i don't know how long it had been like that.....i'm pretty sure i never used to have my thumb there and it had just crept in recently as people used to always tell me i had a very loose grip years ago.

The coach by telling me my thumb was on the cue just basically made me think about it and i might have started to play badly anyway such is the complexity of this game.

[j6uk]

Don't worry, just be wise about information, take what works for you and try not to over complicate things. One step back and two forwards. Anyway you know after 30 years experience, that its an easy game really

I have played the game for 30 years and i'm well aware how much of a mental battle it can be but i'm starting to regularly play very bad with the good sessions a distant memory and there comes a point where enough is enough.

[frazz]

So basically you wont be able to time any shot? You need to close your hand at the exact point of contact on the cueball and continue the follow through till you hit your chest, some go further. Also your back 3 fingers should never not ben in contact with the cue, they should relax on backswing but still be in contact

[j6uk]

Tennis, rugby, tiddlywinks, all sports have an element of timing.
Its always good to do a little research and freeze-frame or slow-mo some of the differing styles of play, say the likes of Ding vs Allen's (so called grips) and compare the stroke through the white to shot completion.

[GeordieDS]

Don't worry, just be wise about information, take what works for you and try not to over complicate things. One step back and two forwards. Anyway you know after 30 years experience, that its an easy game really

Yeah very easy!

[GeordieDS]

So basically you wont be able to time any shot? You need to close your hand at the exact point of contact on the cueball and continue the follow through till you hit your chest, some go further. Also your back 3 fingers should never not ben in contact with the cue, they should relax on backswing but still be in contact

Who are you addressing?