My technique videos - Any advice?

[Tatti33]

I've been playing for about 4 years, but never seriously. Not until now. I've now made a practise plan for myself and really start trying to improve my game. I was hoping you guys could give me some technical advice to do just that.

There are especially two things, I would like to get some advice on. My scooping motion with the cue and some shoulder tension issues. My both shoulders (particulary right) tends to get really sore after a while I'm in my cueing position. I can always feel tension there and I can't keep it nice and relaxed.

I've managed to look at couple of points in stance and in brigde hand from the videos, but all help is appreciated!

My channel on YouTube, which includes front, back and side views of my technique:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TarDi336427

[vmax4steve]

Cue action looks good mate, just one point.

From the frontal view it's clear that you do not have perfectly straight alignment of hand, arm and shoulder, The arm is actually tucked in a little bit, like John Higgins. However like Higgins, from the side view your cue arm at the address position is slightly behind the vertical, which is fine as this should prevent you dropping your elbow and playing from the shoulder before striking the cue ball.

From all views however this dropping of the shoulder seems to be an integral part of your action and is happening right on contact and could very well happen before contact which would be fatal as this would bring the shoulder into the shot and take your cue off line.

I would try to stop this dropping of the shoulder into the shot, play only from the elbow and shorten the length of your follow through to half of what it currently is when playing these medium power shots. The length of follow through you are using now is what it should be for maximum power.

Remember though, eyes on the contact point of the object ball when standing behind and sighting the shot, when getting down into the stance and when striking the cue ball.

[nrage]

It all looks fairly good. But, you were probably concentrating hard on doing it right for the camera

Something you can do from here is to set up the camera over the pocket looking back at you, focus in nice and close so it can see you in as much of the frame as possible (it doesn't need to see the pocket because this should be center shot, and you can thumbs up when the ball goes in or frown if it doesn't etc). Then record yourself playing 10-20 long blues. Take this home, get it on a computer and analyse the misses with kinovea (download, it's free) in slow motion. It allows you to draw reference lines etc so you can draw the line of the shot, the line your cue is on at each point in the stroke etc. It will help you detect why a miss was a miss and give you clues as to what you need to work on.

[j6uk]

You look to sitting down on the shot, like your not over the shot with any weight on the bridge hand. If you snapped your brace leg straight, it might just do it..
It would be good to see you potting some balls for 5mins to get a better idea were your at. So get a proper white ball and do a lineup. You might just clear a lineup in that time with your current setup and that would cancel out me saying get over the shot

[Terry Davidson]

tatti:

Everything looks pretty good except for a few minor points:

1. You appear to start dropping the right elbow at the start of the delivery. To correct this keep your grip loose and just practice along the baulkline with no balls delivering the cue WITHOUT dropping the elbow at all throughout the delivery. Do this exercise very slow back and deliver. At the pace you were hitting the ball there was no need to drop the elbow. You will only lose about 1" on your follow-through, probably less.

2. Your grip looked a little tight to me so loosen that up a bit.

3. Your grip hand is too close to your right hip/trousers as you are not moving the hips to the left enough. You can achieve this by bending the left leg just a bit more and allowing the hips to swing to the left and more over the left foot for improved stability.

However, all that said for the most part everything looks good and with practice you should improve. You have the most important aspect sorted out and that is I saw no head movement on any of the shots.

Terry

[svendh]

Try to grip the cue dominated by thumb and first finger, rest of the fingers should be loose but with contract to the cue. Try not to drop your elbow during delivery (look how Robertson or Trump do it). Try to make a final pause before delivery like the pros. Try to bring cue and bridge hand on line of aim as early as possible (see nic Barrow videos on YouTube). Looks good though.

[CoachGavin]

I think you looked fairly good. Whats your current standard and highest break? Try and show us some shots of you potting some long blues or something as that might show up any real problems. As has been said above just be careful that you do not drop your elbow before you strike the cue ball as this will bring the shoulder into play. Ideally the elbow will drop slightly during the follow through. If the elbow is kept up throughout then you will severely restrict your follow through as the butt goes up and the tip drops. I think you are doing well so keep up the good work

[Tatti33]

Hi everyone and thanks for all the tips! And it is so nice to hear that my technique isn't so bad afer all!

I've been working on my technique now almost three weeks with about 10 hours a week. I'veSnooker Gym DVD's and books and I've been doing the Curriculum of Technique thing there plus some other technical exersices in these products.


vmax4steve:

About the grip hand not being totally vertical, I've noticed that before but I'm having so much tension in the right shoulder if I just try to get straight. Although when I was fixing my stance (left leg more forward) and generally tried to get more stable with my stance I noticed that I'm not leaning in to the shot as much as I used to. I think that has also helped a bit to get the grip hand more vertical. Cant's say for sure, because I haven't filmed my technique since all this training.


nrage:

Actually I tried to play the shots as normally as I possibly could and not thinking about the camera. But I will definately consider filming the long blues because after all that's more like a real situation. Same thing for the line-up that j6uk suggested.


j6uk:

I have now improved that "sitting down" effect like I just mentioned before. I feel like more stable at the table. Line-up could be good to film. Although unfortunately I'm not able to clear the table, not even close.


terrydavidson:

1. I have noticed this myself and I'm really trying to improve minimizing my shoulder/elbow dropping on the delivery. Actually I had a couple of hours training with Alan Bell and this was the only thing he mentioned in my technique and we tried to improve that the whole 2 hours, but I find it so hard to keep the elbow/shoulder up. I'm working on it though.

2. Another point that I noticed. And another thing I've been working on that with Nic's routines. I think I have more loose grip now, which helps to keep the cue more straight especially on the backswing and on the delivery.

3. Interesting point Terry! I've actually found out that sometimes I'm cueing, my hand actually touches my right hip. But if I'm trying to lean to the left, I don't find that very comfortable. But when I did the Curriculum routine to my stance I think, it helped a little with this thing too.


svendh:

Like I said before, I've tried to loosen up my grip a bit. And I've also concentrated on the elbow drop too. When I was practising yesterday I was working on getting my cueing action more consistent and the pause before final backswing and delivery was a part of that training.


CoachGavin:

My highest break is 72 in practise and 40-odd in match. But usually when I play matches my highest break is 20-odd.


I'd just like to add one more thing. When I was yesterday practising, I really found the feeling what it's like to NOT to drop the elbow/shoulder and my cueing was instantly much more straighter! In fact I could pot probably 7 long blues from the baulk line in a row! It was so nice to see that my practise is paying off.

[Blackcatano]

That twitching finger is so annoying & unnecessary, don't do it!

[j6uk]

I worked with Alan quite a bit many years ago and really liked his approach, I rate him highly. You can see by his cue-action and knowledge around the table that he's done the work himself plus, all the years working with Jimmy and other top players, he knows what it takes to play at the highest level.

j6uk:

I have now improved that "sitting down" effect like I just mentioned before. I feel like more stable at the table. Line-up could be good to film. Although unfortunately I'm not able to clear the table, not even close.



1. I have noticed this myself and I'm really trying to improve minimizing my shoulder/elbow dropping on the delivery. Actually I had a couple of hours training with Alan Bell and this was the only thing he mentioned in my technique and we tried to improve that the whole 2 hours, but I find it so hard to keep the elbow/shoulder up. I'm working on it though.