Practice routines you can do in the house

[luke-h]

http://www.saluc.com/html/billiard/index.php?idlien=17


its not a bad tool to help

[j6uk]

Sorry but these are simply money making gimmicks and are taking the improving player away from the true studies of the table.

[sealer]

Looks like you are right. I will however be trying the six red dots white as my problem has always been unwanted side and i should get a lot of instant feedback while playing with that one.

[nrage]

Aramith do a training ball which comes with a disc and a practice pocket which is supposed to help you with this.

Have a link of some kind please??

http://www.saluc.com/html/billiard/index.php?idlien=17
its not a bad tool to help

I have the 2nd one on that page, don't bother it's not much help really. Best use I found for it was to practice striking low on the cue ball, with the red dot facing me I would sometimes leave a chalk mark showing how low I managed to strike.

The flip side of the ball has markings to either side of the red dot which are supposed to help you determine if the angle is 3/4, 1/2 or 1/4 ball. But, I couldn't get on with that method of aiming at all - judging if it's 1/2 ball and adjusting thicker/thinner etc by estimation.

For me, aiming is best done by finding the back of ball spot and letting my brain do the work of determining the line the white needs to travel to hit that. Nothing too fancy. That said, my high break is garbage so perhaps I'm doing something wrong too.

[j6uk]

No you won't you'll just be spending money on a gimmick. All the solutions are on the table

Looks like you are right. I will however be trying the six red dots white as my problem has always been unwanted side and i should get a lot of instant feedback while playing with that one.

[sealer]

No you won't you'll just be spending money on a gimmick. All the solutions are on the table

I disagree

Why do you consider it a bad idea?

It should help to check if i am not playing unwanted side as well as support learning using side.

I am talking about the ball that has red dots on it so you can see how it rotates on most of the shots.

[j6uk]

All the guides that anyone will ever, ever need to play this game to a 'very high standard' is all on the existing apparatus and any marks on the white would simply be an added distraction. Enough said enjoy

[nrage]

I disagree

Why do you consider it a bad idea?

It should help to check if i am not playing unwanted side as well as support learning using side.

I am talking about the ball that has red dots on it so you can see how it rotates on most of the shots.

All the guides that anyone will ever, ever need to play this game to a 'very high standard' is all on the existing apparatus and any marks on the white would simply be an added distraction. Enough said enjoy

sealer has reminded me, I had one other use for my marked ball.

I placed it on the brown spot with the markings pointing straight down the table over the spots. Playing this shot with a normal white and you have to rely on watching it travel (to detect any skew/swerve) and come off the cushion to detect side. With the markings it's immediately obvious, and when you strike it well it travels with a perfect red stripe down the ball.

I found that quite useful.

I did the same thing playing blues to the middle pockets and following the white in - it shows immediately when you play across the white, or with side. Very helpful in detecting problems which are much harder to see with a normal white.

So, for those reasons, if you're a beginner, I would actually recommend a ball with markings - a complete turnaround from my previous post, I know.

[Belloz22]

Surely if you play any shot with a white with a red dot in the center, as long as you play a pot with only using the center line of the white - top to bottom, anywhere the white finishes after the pot, that red spot should stay on the center straight line - top to bottom -of the white if you truely have not put any unwanted side on the white ?

[nrage]

Surely if you play any shot with a white with a red dot in the center, as long as you play a pot with only using the center line of the white - top to bottom, anywhere the white finishes after the pot, that red spot should stay on the center straight line - top to bottom -of the white if you truely have not put any unwanted side on the white ?

Yes, for a straight pot with no cushion involvement. For angled pots the effect on the white is less predictable, and the cushion can alter the inclination of the white also. The cloth does not apply friction evenly, so if you play a screw/stun shot - even perfectly, the white will "wobble" and the red dot can move off the center/vertical.

Playing with top, playing a dead straight pot, was the only way I could keep the red dot in the center/vertical. But, perhaps I have a flaw in my cueing.

Here's an idea. Before investing in a new white with markings why not get a small sticker, like those white donut shaped rings you can get for ring binder folders, colour some in and take them to your local club and put one on a normal white. Experiment with it and you'll start to see some of the effects I mention above. Don't forget to take the sticker off afterwards and give the white a good clean tho or you won't be popular.

[j6uk]

The amount of so call snooker players Iv come across over the 30 years of playing who've got all the gadgets lol, they play for years and just keep con/suming the latest gizmos in their quest to do the one thing they dream of, to make a 100 break. They are all still there now, doing the same old things and struggling to make a 30. Still chatting away, knowing everything lol..

You probably won't find this surprising but on the contrary, all the really good amateurs and ex-pro's I know who 'tone for fun' laugh at these things. A lot of these players would call the ones who buy this stuff "mugs", there words not mine

By all means do what you like, if your serious though, get a good coach. It maybe difficult for some to know the good from the bad info on this forum but what is true, you might need to look further than tsf.
I wouldn't usually write this much because most things aren't that difficult to grasp, but I feel this is important. Anyway the best players always come through in the end enjoy

[nrage]

The amount of so call snooker players Iv come across over the 30 years iv been playing who've got all the gadgets lol, they play for year and just keep con/suming the latest gizmos in their quest to do the one thing they dream of, to make a 100 break. They are all still there now, doing the same old things and struggling to make a 30. Still chatting away, knowing everything lol..

You probably won't find this surprising but on the contrary, all the really good amateurs and ex-pro's I know who 'tone for fun' laugh at these things. A lot of these players would call the ones who buy this stuff "mugs", there words not mine

By all means do what you like, if your serious though, get a good coach. It maybe difficult for some to know the good from the bad info on this forum but what is true, you might need to look further than tsf.
I wouldn't usually write this much because most things aren't that difficult to grasp, but I feel this is important. Anyway the best players always come through in the end enjoy

You're right that gadgets don't make you a better player, playing/practice does. The best a gadget can do is speed up the process, or help you find and correct a problem, so I disagree that they're always a complete waste of money.

For example, several pros have recently worked with the SightRight guy, presumably using gadgets, to improve their games. Terry Griffiths uses video recordings and software (gadgets) to help top pros with their game, detecting changes/faults and improving things.

The key here is that no gadget is a "quick fix" or "miracle cure" and any advertised as such are probably useless. They all require you use them correctly and put in the hours of practice. Could you do it without them, certainly. Do they help, yes the good ones do.

[vmax4steve]

sealer has reminded me, I had one other use for my marked ball.

I placed it on the brown spot with the markings pointing straight down the table over the spots. Playing this shot with a normal white and you have to rely on watching it travel (to detect any skew/swerve) and come off the cushion to detect side. With the markings it's immediately obvious, and when you strike it well it travels with a perfect red stripe down the ball.

I found that quite useful.

Wouldn't this teach you to be a cue ball watcher rather look at the contact point on the object ball when playing the shot ?

[nrage]

Wouldn't this teach you to be a cue ball watcher rather look at the contact point on the object ball when playing the shot ?

Only if you changed how you played the shot, and it shouldn't.

I played dead straight short blues to the side pockets with it, using the red spot as a reference for the cue tip and watching the white travel after the shot was played - as you would normally, eyes only, no head/body movement.

So, you play the shot normally, except you have a red spot to help you check the cue tip is dead center on the white, and you have a red stripe (if you strike it well) on the white as it travels to the blue (red) and on to the pocket.

[narl]

Brought billiard balls upto the club today and was practising reds off the spot, think I had near 20 in a row at one point, not the easiest thing to do as said before, very easy to end up having to bring the white around the table again.