Potting pinks

[thelongbomber]

bomber, why do you believe ron is looking at the white so much? simply to get more action from the white or what?

It's rather complicated to explain without a long article and some videos. Essentially, you will note that as any snooker player (even an amateur) gets into "the zone" they tend to spend more and more time on the white. At some point - even with amateurs - potting becomes automatic and it seems like they are able to manuveur the white more and more. You can see this even in your own game if you are able to remember those moments when everything seemed right. The pockets got bigger, and it seemed effortless to move the white around. This particular "zen state" whereby we forget everything and don't hear anything except our own heartbeat and we go on "autopilot" is the reference point that I always return to when trying to explain how to cue or when trying to fix a cue action problem (in myself or others).

I also believe that many of the fundamental aiming, sighting, striking, and execution issues can be easily solved if we simply use our own individual "auto pilot" state of mind as a reference point when trying to seek answers.

The OP has mentioned an issue about potting pinks, and so I try to encourage an artificially created (by asking him/her to do it) zen state whereby he goes into the "auto pilot" zone and potting a ball no longer becomes a problem.

You can easily see the difference between a player that is "in state" and an opponent that is "out of state" by asking how you "feel" when you see them play. The player that struggles isn't in the zone, and they are so "into their head" in trying to be a perfect cueist vs the player that is in the zone isn't working hard at all.

Ronnie I bring up often in this kind of discussion because I believe he naturally exploits this aspect of his own game - either unconsciously or by specific intention. Looking at the white is an early indicator of a player that has gone (or is going) unconscious and is playing on autopilot.

The autopilot state is the holy grail of snooker and is one of the reasons we all love to play - to play well. I believe and have personal experience that when trying to play snooker, doing those activities that we would normally do in autopilot should be our aim as it can push us into that state of mind. In my experience, when doing this, I find it fairly straightforward to pot any ball and I have no problem with getting work on the white ball. Positional play is another matter though as that requires good pattern recognition and break planning and understanding.

[thelongbomber]

Forgot to mention, it's not set in hard stone that we must always try to look mostly at the white. It's a sliding scale between more energy on the white vs more energy on the object ball (or ghost ball as I prefer). Necessity to focus on the white is inversely proporitional to the increasing difficulty in potting the ball (long balls, partial pockets, blind cuts, etc). And so for example, when you are potting a near full ball black ball you can put more emphasis on the white ball, and still pot the black. This can solve all the issues with reverse screw (ie: just put more focus energy into the white ball). Watch Ronnie do this often and just watch how often he pots the black off a jaw. They don't always go in clean but he gets a lot of white ball work. On the other hand, with a long ball tight on the cushion (or any other shot you have a preconditioned fear for), you can nearly abandon putting any effort into looking at the white (except to ensure you hit center), and put nearly all your energy and focus into the object ball (ghost ball).

I do this on shots depending on how much white ball control and pace I need. If I need a lot of cue ball movement, I will decide if major cue ball control is worth pursuing depending on the potting difficulty. I might re-engineer my intended positional target depending on how difficult the pot is. You often hear commentators say "don't sacrifice the pot for position" and this usually happens because there is an imbalance in where we put our eyes and mind - often on the wrong ball. We try to get position that's too difficult to hold, or where the ball was never meant to be held. We try to control the white ball more than we try to pot the ball and so that causes us to miss.

[j6uk]

It's rather complicated to explain without a long article and some videos..

sorry bomber but you put a few ronnie vids up with your articles to explain things and it would be good to hear a summery version of, why it would be ronnie stares at the cue ball so intently?

[alabadi]

either unconsciously? or by specific intention.
.

do u mean subconsciously I would have thought if he was unconscious he'd be laid out flat on the floor...lol

[j6uk]

do u mean subconsciously I would have thought if he was unconscious he'd be laid out flat on the floor...lol

i won the worlds when i was unconscious, so many times i can't remember

[alabadi]

i won the worlds when i was unconscious, so many times i can't remember

......lol

[thelongbomber]

sorry bomber but you put a few ronnie vids up with your articles to explain things and it would be good to hear a summery version of, why it would be ronnie stares at the cue ball so intently?

Did you actually read what I wrote? I have explained as much as I can.

[sealer]

Ronnie either glances at cue ball for a sec when on cushion or just uses peripheral vision as he gets down when comfortable position of white - no major focus there - he must be looking at it when lining shots. Then there is pronounced focus on object - sometimes exclusively only on object during feathering - he stares at it madly - cannot you see?. Then he switches eyes to pocket just after strike and at the end he looks after the white. All still in the stance. Best to see when he breaks the pack that this is the order he does it in.

[j6uk]

Did you actually read what I wrote? I have explained as much as I can.

yes i did but in your article you talked quite a bit about playing subconsciously, on auto pilot, in the zen zone and not thinking. but i thought you had some technical insight, do you? or are you holding something back?

[tedisbill]

Longbomber, I don't know what you're looking at, because Ronnie probably spends 80-90% of his time down on the shot, looking at the object ball.

[vmax4steve]

Ronnie either glances at cue ball for a sec when on cushion or just uses peripheral vision as he gets down when comfortable position of white - no major focus there - he must be looking at it when lining shots. Then there is pronounced focus on object - sometimes exclusively only on object during feathering - he stares at it madly - cannot you see?. Then he switches eyes to pocket just after strike and at the end he looks after the white. All still in the stance. Best to see when he breaks the pack that this is the order he does it in.

Like a lot of people longbomber mistakenly believes that when Ronnie looks up at the pocket just after the strike he is looking then at the object ball and that previous to this he must be looking at the cue ball. He doesn't though, he does as you have suggested.
This is the way he plays when he's in the zone, when he's struggling though his focus switches to the object ball late in his action when going for pots and remains on the cue ball when playing safeties, and therefore his timing can be wayward.

His long potting suffers seriously when playing like this as his eyes remain on the cue ball for too long as his target then becomes the cue ball when looking to steer it back to baulk for a shot to nothing.
Something we are all guilty of at times.

[thelongbomber]

My theory on cue action is simply that looking and focusing and thinking more about cue ball control allows everything else to happen automatically. For easier pots (short game, near straight) you can put more time into the cue ball. For longer pots and blind cuts, where the potting angle isn't so obvious, you will need to put more visual time into staring at the ghost ball (or object ball if you like to think of it that way).

I can see some doubt my suggestions. Best thing to know if I'm right is simply to try it.

[j6uk]

maybe this fella can help us to understand what ronnie o'sullivan does at the table, oh and for his sighting method ff to 5.30

[vmax4steve]

maybe this fella can help us to understand what ronnie o'sullivan does at the table, oh and for his sighting method ff to 5.30

From the horses mouth, "the last thing you should be looking at is the object ball"
But not just the object ball per se, the contact point or BOB should be sought out and focussed on.

[j6uk]

My theory on cue action is simply that looking and focusing and thinking more about cue ball control allows everything else to happen automatically. For easier pots (short game, near straight) you can put more time into the cue ball. For longer pots and blind cuts, where the potting angle isn't so obvious, you will need to put more visual time into staring at the ghost ball (or object ball if you like to think of it that way).

I can see some doubt my suggestions. Best thing to know if I'm right is simply to try it.

i believe you have some understanding of what your doing when at the table and of the game in general but, as to what the people who make a living from playing this game, ive yet to read anything you've written to suggest you yet have the knowledge necessary under your sack to make these clams