Lineup is a waste of time

[lesedwards]

Yes I agrre with that, but it in our neck of the woods you can very seldom find a game not to mention a good game. Working on creating a good practice routine besides line ups. All suggestions are welcome. 43 high break so no toughies just good potting exercises.

[j6uk]

21 balls across the blue spot between the middle pockets. Pot all 21 without missing. That should keep you busy, you should have this under your sack by the end of the year.

Working on creating a good practice routine besides line ups. All suggestions are welcome. 43 high break so no toughies just good potting exercises.

[lesedwards]

Sounds good, right now I have been potting blacks from both sides drilling it into my head they are easy. My toughest shot on the table and the most important shot on the table. Will be much better after my new rubber is installed and the pockets re shaped. I have been watching the World Seniors and some shots I cannot believe they can hit the cushion and still wobble in.

[fred.england]

i agree and think the line yp should be a main practice routine for all players in what ever form suits there current standard. its also a good judge of a players ability. many many players claim the ton when they havent had one because it sounds good but just watching them play will give them away. when you know its a lie it must not feel too good either, cant fool yourself.

I have a highest break of 87 and a highest match break of 76 and wouldn't dream of fabricating the truth. Since January when I finished work, I have had numerous opportunities for a ton but it's just not quite there yet. Only yesterday, I was on 71, 1 red left over the middle pocket. A simple stun and I'm on the green or yellow. The ton was staring me in the face and what did I do??? Miss the bloody red!!!! I feel it's in me. I'm not obsessed with breaking that magical barrier but I feel I'm getting really close. I've not long to achieve my goal and if I fail it's not for the want of trying!!!!

[mythman69]

I have a highest break of 87 and a highest match break of 76 and wouldn't dream of fabricating the truth. Since January when I finished work, I have had numerous opportunities for a ton but it's just not quite there yet. Only yesterday, I was on 71, 1 red left over the middle pocket. A simple stun and I'm on the green or yellow. The ton was staring me in the face and what did I do??? Miss the bloody red!!!! I feel it's in me. I'm not obsessed with breaking that magical barrier but I feel I'm getting really close. I've not long to achieve my goal and if I fail it's not for the want of trying!!!!

Keep at it !! It sounds like you are very close indeed.

[cyberheater]

21 balls across the blue spot between the middle pockets. Pot all 21 without missing. That should keep you busy, you should have this under your sack by the end of the year.

LOL. Even Steve Davis at the height of his powers couldn't manage that.

[dieselman147]

lesedwards,
the 21 across the middle might ve too tricky for you just yet. if you want to practice this type of shot then try putting the balls halfway between the middle line and the baulk line instead. practicing one red and the colours or black and five reds in a line above it could be better routines for you at the moment. practice hard and master the simpler routines will be better for you in the long run.

[j6uk]

Les, once tel's sorted out your technique, if you can the get posts #59/60/97 under the nut sack you should start to feel like your moving forwards.. You also could ask your coach terry to show you the tricks learned from the likes of Willy, Cliff and Bob back in the 80s, the routines that put the boot up him and gave him his rocket ronnie rise in the game.

[lesedwards]

Thanks for the info. I just tried to find the post but not able to find it. I searched nut sack but nothing.

[Terry Davidson]

les:

J6uk's suggestion on lining up all 21 reds across the blue spot and trying to pot all 21 from the baulk line is really 'a bridge too far'. Also, the reason I went from an average player to a decent player is I was always practicing with great players and had a major tournament every weekend with all the best amateur players in Britain and at that time since the pro ranks were closed these amateur players were very good and most of them turned pro right away as soon as the pro ranks were opened up.

Steve Davis used this exercise as a warm-up when he was at his peak in the 80's and never managed to get all 21 as he said when he had done 19 he bottled it. John Parrot used to put 6 on either side of the blue and try and pot all 13 and did manage to do that.

The line-up or the cross makes much more sense and doing what I told you, i.e. - if you miss a pot or the position badly then re-set the shot and keep trying it until you master it. Don't try for the really big break, just go for the pot which makes the most sense to continue the break. Once you are running tons frequently then you can get creative with the line-up.

Running the colours and then when on the black set the colours back up and get from black to yellow and continue that until you can run them 3 times in a row without re-setting a shot. The black off the spot without re-setting the cueball is also a good exercise, as is doing this with the pink and blue.

Always warm up by 'shooting the spots' for 5 minutes until you get to doing 4 lengths of the table with the cueball within one ball's width of the brown spot, then move on to a more dedicated practice routine like the line-up.

I agree, once your pockets are done in a week or so you will likely notice a big difference and also blocking and ironing the table will help too.

Also, when you come across a pot which you either miss a lot or don't have confidence in then keep trying that one pot until you've mastered it.

Terry

[alabadi]

les:

when you come across a pot which you either miss a lot or don't have confidence in then keep trying that one pot until you've mastered it.

Terry

i still have a problem with blacks when high, for some reason i am still hitting the near jaw, not far off but still missing my fair share although getting better. i have had to aim thinner than i use to just to pot, especially on the tighter tables.

what i have found is i am not allowing for the nap effect, i have found that when playing delicate or slow rolling shots the black will pull towards the top cushion, so i have to allow for this and aim thinner. i am still struggling to do this consistenly because it just seems wrong when i am down, my brain hasn't accepted that its the correct angle because when looking at it, it seems i will miss on the thin side.

its a case of enforcing this until it becomes accepted , its not a problem on shots that need more power because there is very little time for the black to roll off on the nap so i don't need to adjust anything.

Alabbadi

[Terry Davidson]

alabadi:

A lot of players will have difficulty with one particular shot. For me with no reason I can figure out it's a 3.4 to 1/2-ball pink to the top pocket from the green side of the table. I believe this is caused by me having a slight right-to-left delivery which causes me to hit the pink thick when using power. If I just roll the pink in there is no problem. So I practiced this over and over but I find when using power I still have to compensate as I just cannot figure out why I hit the cueball left of centre very slightly (when I shoot the spots with power there's no lefthand side on the cueball and I still can't figure it out although I've found really loosening the grip seems to help).

With your problem, do you find you undercut the black more from one side of the table than the other? If so, you may have a slight variance in the delivery like me. The nap shouldn't effect the black traveling 3ft very much at all unless the table is not level.

Terry

[lesedwards]

I spent 3 hours yesterday with 7 reds on one side of table and 8 reds on the other side of table just making blacks from different angles. I know my corners are tight but I was making about 75% of them by the end and I will continue with them again tonight until I feel like it is an easy shot. I always start with 5 balls doing each colour and making shape for next colour all at different angles. Then I run the colours and my goal as Terry says is to run them 3 times.

[j6uk]

Nothing like keeping busy

LOL. Even Steve Davis at the height of his powers couldn't manage that.

[shredder]

i still have a problem with blacks when high

You and me both, bro. You and me both.

On a more serious note, I have the same issue, among many others. What I'll do is aim with the cue on the object ball, as that seems to help with angle aiming, however a) I feel like an even bigger rookie doing this, b) it doesn't even always (far from it acutally) result in success, and c) I don't feel like I'm getting "better" doing this - it's like a hack on that particular single shot. I digress