Keeping chin on cue.

[Canny Tim]

I am fairly new to snooker/pool. I've read a lot on cue action and stance and am doing my best to add this to my game. What I want to ask is, should I keep my chin rested on the cue during the follow through and is there any other advice you could give on improving cue action? Thanks.

[snookerdad]

Yes. Chin on cue throughout. As for the rest, I'd need to see you in action.

Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)

[vmax4steve]

Chin on cue isn't neccessary, Terry Griffiths and John Spencer come to mind, but feeling the cue in contact with the chin throughout the shot will help you to keep your head still so it's recomended.

Other advice would be play only from the elbow, don't use the shoulder muscle at all, open the fingers on the backswing to keep the cue level, keep a firm but relaxed grip on the cue at all times.

Vary the length of the backswing according to how much power is being used, short backswing for soft shots, long backswing for maximum power and at varying lengths in between the two accordingly.

The cue action ends when the hand is fully closed after the cue ball has been struck, make sure this is after the cue ball has been struck for to close it before will make the cue decelerate just before the strike which will cause the cue to go off line.

Don't try to deliberately stop the cue arm as the hand closes, make sure you allow the momentum of your arm to carry the cue to an unconscious follow through that will naturally vary according to the power used in the shot.
In other words don't force a certain length follow through for every shot, let it happen naturally for the power used, but let it happen with the grip firm but still relaxed at the end of the stroke and you will find yourself striking through the cue ball, which is correct, rather than at the cue ball, which is wrong.

Eyes on contact point of the object ball when standing up behind the shot, and when getting down into the stance and again when striking the cue ball.

[chrissmall147]

Hi cannytim

Yes there should be 4 contact points when you are in the address position. Cue should be contacting bridge hand grip hand chest and chin. The cue on chin is for a bit reassurance for you that the cue is travelling in a straight line and that goes for the chest aswell. If the cue wasnt in contact with chest and chin it would be quite difficult to cue and deliver straight. If you look at all the top pros they all have contact with the chin throughout the shot.

All the best

Chris small

[Canny Tim]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try these tips next time I'm at the table.

[ace man]

I think OP was asking about chin contact during follow through, i.e. after the contact, not only during feathering. All pro players do have their cue on chin during feathering, that's a no brainer. But after the follow through many finish with the cue noticeably below the chin. Mr. Selby certainly falls into this category.
Not advocating anything, just there are more than one style out there...

[CoachGavin]

Selby and Ronnie both drop the cue off their chin during the follow through. This is because they drop their elbow during the follow through and the tip eventually flattens out to be level with the table. To do this the elbow drops quite a lot and the cue butt drops below its original plane thus leaving the chin. If you play from the elbow and keep it stationary like Robertson and Trump you will notice the cue stays on the chin. It all depends on whether you drop the elbow.

[fred.england]

I am a follower of the "4 point contact" as Chris stated above. My coach pointed it out to me only recently as I've only just decided to have a few lessons after being "self taught" for over 30 years. My cue action has improved so much since introducing it to my game. I've still got to tell myself at times, but I'm sure it will come without thinking soon enough. My average break has really improved so it must be working for me. I'm no coach but I believe that whatever feels best for yourself will make you the player that you aspire to be. My lessons off my coach have become invaluable to my game and I would highly recommend lessons or a browse through some threads on here on cue action, there are some highly knowledgable guys on here who are only too willing to help. I will never be a Ronnie or Judd but any improvement helps us mere mortals!!!!

[j6uk]

I play with two point contact at the moment for medical reasons and as chrissmall say's Its not easy to keep the cue on line. I have had a tone after the first month of playing this way, with the first 11 reds with blacks
I enjoy playing classic standup style because of the perspective it gives but I find I am very inconsistent, I'm sure if I practiced 3/4hrs a day I would eliminate the easy misses but that is not going to happen. So its the matchbox in the kitchen for now till my back is up for it, then its back down to the four point contact. Hopefully

[nrage]

.. I have had a tone after ..

Not trying to be a prat or anything, but .. it's "tonne" or "ton" .. tone is, as in the tone of a sound etc.

[DeanH]

Not trying to be a prat or anything, but .. it's "tonne" or "ton" .. tone is, as in the tone of a sound etc.

I have always thought it is tonne (metric) and ton (imperial) for weight, but only "ton" for 100, as in "ton up on the Bath Road", derived from Cockney slang so never tonne

oops, I think I am the bigger prat

[j6uk]

You can see I kinda regret that my miss spent youth was directed to knocking balls around instead of learning a instrument..
Frustrated muso

Not trying to be a prat or anything, but .. it's "tonne" or "ton" .. tone is, as in the tone of a sound etc.

[Terry Davidson]

Hmmm...that would be 'an' instrument

Terry

[nrage]

I have always thought it is tonne (metric) and ton (imperial) for weight, but only "ton" for 100, as in "ton up on the Bath Road", derived from Cockney slang so never tonne

Good point, I wasn't thinking of which word was actually correct, just that both made the sound required and tone didn't As neither ton nor tonne is 100 of anything the etymology of the usage of the word in snooker must be something else, like what you've described perhaps.

[nrage]

Hmmm...that would be 'an' instrument

But it's not surprising that many people get this rule wrong, nobody seems to understand what it actually is.

For anyone interested. The simple version of the rule is, that if the sound of the following word is a vowel sound (not including 'y' btw) then you use "an". The rule is specifically to make the language flow more naturally by preventing vowel sounds occurring next to each other.

What causes confusion is then words with a silent first letter like heir, or honour. The correct usage is "an heir" and "an honour".

The most common mistake I hear is made by news presenters saying "an horrific".

However.. some accents, particularly in the UK, make the first letter of words silent when it would not normally be silent, for example horrific is sometimes pronounced "orrific", and then using "an" would actually be perfectly correct