Nic Barrow's latest gadget.....

[tedisbill]

Les, I guarantee, even when you originally had your table and it was very tight, Mark Williams would have walked in and cleared the table.

[sealer]

hey les if you want to improve follow this

you must have work out some half comfortable setup by now so set yourself a line up of only reds forget the colours for now as you cannot run couple of balls so in proper line up frustration will kill you

got the line up?

the objective is to clear the line up of 15 reds, place the first one on black spot and couple of them top of blue keep them nicely spaced up

the way you do it is by working out a routine, you do the same for every shot at all times, remember frustration and old habits will try to prevent you from that but you must take each and every shot the same way and try to remain calm and methodical

i suggest

1. stand behind the shot and work out what you want to do - what shot will you play and where will you end up with the white, at that point you decide where will you hit the white with what streangth etc

2. determine the spot on the red you will hit with the white

3. get down to your stance focusing hard on that spot - at first try to be getting down slowly with pronounced moves you need to make sure you giving it all you have to put the cue on the line and then FREEZE

4. deliver the cue: important is: being still, looking at spot on red while delivering, delivering in relaxed and smooth motion

5. stay down and watch

now keep at it for a week or two

remember that the objective is to keep doing everything for every shot the same way

soon you will be seeing angles and some shots will become easier and easier

i give you 2 weeks to complete 15 reds

once you get it done post a video of how you do it so people can tel you what is the biggest thing to work at

[lesedwards]

Sorry Terry if I upset you that was not my intent. Just very frustrated. I go to your place or my buddy Gene's and pot balls like nothing then I come home with this great attitude and beaming with confidence and with in a couple hours on my table it starts to disappear then after a few days I feel like I cannot make a shot. Just once I would like to go down stairs to my table feeling like I am on top of my game beaming with confidence. Maybe the game is just not for me or maybe I am just too old to learn. If I only could feel the way I did on the golf course. I can remember many times standing on the 16th hole thinking if I can birdie the last three holes I could be in the low 60's no thoughts of well if I can par the last three I will shoot par.

[lesedwards]

Holly man, i look back on my post over the past year and probably 90% of them I am complaining about my game, my table and my confidence. Kind of sad I am sure you guys are sick of listening to me. Sorry. Well if I can sell my table that will rule out one of my complaints and if I decide not to find another table then that will rule out the rest.

[tedisbill]

Hey Les. Just try and take some of the pressure off yourself all the time.

Stop beating yourself up with the game all the time. It doesn't matter whether you can make 100s constantly or whether you make the odd 15-20 break. Just enjoy the game. You're not trying to turn professional or make a living from it.

Just enjoy the game. Take all the pressure off yourself. Doesn't matter if you hardly pot a ball some days. Other days you will then play better. Just try and stick with the things Terry has shown you, and over the rest of this year, you should slowly see some improvements.

Good luck Les. Stop beating yourself up mate :-)

[itsnoteasy]

Les without saying it's the table, you tell us why your missing.

[itsnoteasy]

Hi Terry/Les
Is this the size across the fall? As in 5 9/16 inches. I thought it was 3 9/16 across the fall?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but where do you measure a pocket from? As I will check the pockets at my club just for my own curiosity, is the fall the edge of the slate? Thanks.

[alabadi]

les, you are so lucky that you are well off and can actually afford to have a full size snooker table in your own house. i wish i had one, i would be spending 10 hours a day on it. i would sure improve faster than i have already.

if i was you i'd stop complaining, we all have bad days, and maybe more bad ones than good but, in the end we just try and do the best we can. i use to practice line ups all the time last year but was not getting anywhere fast. i did have the odd 30 and 40 from time to time but most times it was 8-9-13-15...etc.

so i stopped practicing them all together and focused on other aspects of my game for a while, and then recently started practicing 15 reds as it has been mentioned on here to you and had reasonable success usually breaking down on 10, 11 or 12 until i finally cracked it and potted all 15, i added the video link on another thread a couple of months ago. i have cleared the reds a few times now and therefore this gave me the confidence to practice the line up with colours again.

i set up using 1,5,9 and after a couple of days lots of lows and some highs too. i have managed to get many 50s and 60s some teens and 20s too, eventually i managed an 80, i could have even got much more if it wasn't for the white ending up tight on the pink with no shot on the next red.

so what i am saying Les, just relax and keep practicing, as Terry and the others have said, just make things easier by spreading the reds a bit, or just start with 4 reds, when you can clear them with colours consistently add 2 more reds and so on.
be positive as negative thoughts lead to tension and mistakes.

Alabbadi

[lesedwards]

Hey Les. Just try and take some of the pressure off yourself all the time.

Stop beating yourself up with the game all the time. It doesn't matter whether you can make 100s constantly or whether you make the odd 15-20 break. Just enjoy the game. You're not trying to turn professional or make a living from it.

Just enjoy the game. Take all the pressure off yourself. Doesn't matter if you hardly pot a ball some days. Other days you will then play better. Just try and stick with the things Terry has shown you, and over the rest of this year, you should slowly see some improvements.

Good luck Les. Stop beating yourself up mate :-)

Thanks For your advice.

[lesedwards]

Les without saying it's the table, you tell us why your missing.

When I miss it is usually because it is not dead center and it rattles, this happens normally because I have made a red with no shape on a colour which is the majority of the time.

[lesedwards]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but where do you measure a pocket from? As I will check the pockets at my club just for my own curiosity, is the fall the edge of the slate? Thanks.

From the fall straight across which is where the ball falls off the edge of the slate. Match table are normally 3-1/2" club are 3-5/8"

[RogiBear]

When I miss it is usually because it is not dead center and it rattles, this happens normally because I have made a red with no shape on a colour which is the majority of the time.

If that is the case then don't you just need to pay more attention to the cue ball positioning from the straight ball, surely if you're straight you can screw back 4 inches and have 3/4 ball pot on the one next to it?

Also something which helped me when I first started was if I missed when I was practising I would replace the object and cue ball's back and play the shot again until I potted it, so that I would get a sense of what is required for the shot. You could do this with just the 15 reds, keep playing until you clear it but replacing the ball if you miss.

On the line-up with colours, you could be setting your sights too high at the minute. For example if you feel you should make a 50 every time you're probably subconsciously putting pressure on yourself to get it so if you do run out of position early, in the back of your mind you're thinking don't miss don't miss and then you do. Set an easy target to begin with say 8 points and you will build up confidence in getting it and probably surpassing it.

[itsnoteasy]

From the fall straight across which is where the ball falls off the edge of the slate. Match table are normally 3-1/2" club are 3-5/8"

Cheers Les I will check ours, I take it how the corners are cut makes a difference as well if more rounded more generous ,if squarer cut harder.
Well your answer to my question about why you miss gives you something to work on, if you want to do the line up don't put all the balls out it's pointless, if you can only make eight just two reds and the black until you can make sixteen say three out of five attempts, then add another red, etc etc , you then don't get frustrated at seeing the rest of the table full of balls doing nothing.
I wouldn't bother with any reds below the black just now either, just two above.

[DeanH]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but where do you measure a pocket from? As I will check the pockets at my club just for my own curiosity, is the fall the edge of the slate? Thanks.

When I miss it is usually because it is not dead center and it rattles, this happens normally because I have made a red with no shape on a colour which is the majority of the time.

Cheers Les I will check ours, I take it how the corners are cut makes a difference as well if more rounded more generous ,if squarer cut harder.
Well your answer to my question about why you miss gives you something to work on, if you want to do the line up don't put all the balls out it's pointless, if you can only make eight just two reds and the black until you can make sixteen say three out of five attempts, then add another red, etc etc , you then don't get frustrated at seeing the rest of the table full of balls doing nothing.
I wouldn't bother with any reds below the black just now either, just two above.

I see Les has replied

Sorry if this is a stupid question but where do you measure a pocket from? As I will check the pockets at my club just for my own curiosity, is the fall the edge of the slate? Thanks.

definitely not a stupid question
obviously to create the layout of a pocket there are many dimensions to be taken into account, many radius from multiple positions, etc, etc.
Also depends on which organisation's template you follow (WPBSA, IBSF, etc.) where you have differing dimensions.
So, the dimension "across the fall" is the tangent at the "start" of the "hole" of the pocket, and the dimension is the distance between the cushions. (see Corner Pocket Layout with dimensions.jpg)
Then for example you have the dimension across the pocket opening at its narrowest, this is measured further "in" the pocket where the cushions become parallel. (see IBSFCornerMin.jpg)
My question to Terry was whether the "5" was a typo and where this dimension was to be measured.
Also 3 9/16 across the fall seems to be a tad large to all the templates I have here, where the largest seems to be 3 6/16.
This subject is a minefield as well as a can of worms

[DeanH]

Les, do not get rid of your table!
You will regret it for ever.