Best practice exercises for a new player?

[mr.boy]

I've just joined my club and though I played a fair bit of pool at university 10 years ago had previously only tried snooker 3-4 times... and I was never a natural at pool either

I've seen a few exercises on the web but some recommendations on beginner-specific ones would be cool, as would any kind of ordering of easy-hard exercises as I (hopefully) improve.

Right now just potting is hard enough, even easy pots I can miss, and the moment I try to think about position I invariably miss the pot or the white goes nowhere near where I planned - so I prefer to focus on the basics of aiming and potting before cue-ball control, since they always say "first make sure of the pot"... is that a good approach?

My preferred technique right now is a red ball 9" from each pocket and seeing how many I can pot in a row, replacing each as it is potted or ends up too far from a pocket. I saw a kid doing this on TV at the Crucible and thought it looked like a joke, how could anyone miss, but so far my record is 4 pots

[DeanH]

here are some good ones that progress up to advanced
http://fergalobrien.ie/practice.html

[cyberheater]

Check out mine.

http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...ad.php?t=49964

[mr.boy]

Check out mine.

http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...ad.php?t=49964

Thanks for that.

[thelongbomber]

The WPBSA has a grading system for testing which you can also try out.

Level 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQMJch-ZVoQ
Level 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiFYiv3_ml0
Level 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnE-SSd9XvI
Level 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85XnEwJVvQE
Level 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl_AZr1jG0I
Level 6 (part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMz4ReHoPYg
Level 6 (part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPxGJ8NRiw0
Level 7 (part 1-4): http://www.snooker-sportclub.com/dong33.html
Level 8 (all 5 parts): http://www.snooker-sportclub.com/Bronze.html
Level 9: http://www.snooker-sportclub.com/dong21.html
Level 10: http://www.snooker-sportclub.com/gold.html
Level 11: http://www.snooker-sportclub.com/Platinum.html
Level 12: http://www.snooker-sportclub.com/diamond.html

Original Source: http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...#ixzz34HAb88DH

[hotpot]

The first thing to do is learn to pot and getting the fundamental basics right will give you the best chance of achieving this . All the other exercises are pointless if you cannot pot consistently

[mr.boy]

The first thing to do is learn to pot and getting the fundamental basics right will give you the best chance of achieving this . All the other exercises are pointless if you cannot pot consistently

That's kind of my thinking too - if I can't figure out where to aim the white, or I can't get it to go where I aim it, on easy pots at least, everything else is getting ahead of myself

I do feel bad that I can't even predict where the white is going to go even if I am not playing for position... that I don't find intuitive at all

[mr.boy]

The WPBSA has a grading system for testing which you can also try out.

...

Original Source: http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...#ixzz34HAb88DH

Very cool, thanks. I reckon I could maybe do the first one; he has the balls closer to the pockets than I have been doing

[cyberheater]

The first thing to do is learn to pot and getting the fundamental basics right will give you the best chance of achieving this . All the other exercises are pointless if you cannot pot consistently

A bit of a chicken and egg thing really. My cueing has improved tremendously because I've been practising routines on the snooker table. How else are you going to learn to pot if you don't practise exercises on the table?

[mr.boy]

I assumed he meant that most exercises rely on positional play and cue-ball control - otherwise you find yourself having to make very difficult pots very quickly!

You could of course 'cheat' by allowing yourself to move the white after each pot if you only want to focus on pure aiming/potting.

[mr.boy]

Well I tried some exercises today, and it seemed to make me worse! I did putting 6 reds on the pockets and trying to clear them - actually went quite well. So I replaced them with colours, forcing me to clear in order, and managed to clear them a couple of times.

Then I decided to play a frame and it as TERRIBLE. I think I was 30 degrees off on about twenty shots in a row, even short super-easy ones were just going all over the place! I just couldn't do anything.

I'm not sure if I was just tired or was underestimating the shot difficulty after potting far more balls than normal, but I'm sure I was worse than the first time I ever played!
Maybe putting the balls so close to the pockets for the exercises trained me to only be able to pot balls right on the pockets!

[Byrom]

Download the Ding coaching Ap on your phone - it is FREE - some good moves to learn for a reason - well thought out routines by someone in the know obviously - It is good to set targets but we all get lazy - this will help as u carry your phone with you to a club and easy to get you started.

tick off each one after you completed them n move on - have fun

Perhaps think about getting a few lessons to improve your technique later - mix solo play with play against better players - pick brains ask questions - imitate and play and then do the routines again to check for improvements - stick with what works and try and then try and try and try - important to try and stay consistent with your pace your chosen cue action once you have ironed out those bad habits - once you have one - a cue action - you are happy with stick with it - many fiddle too much - develop good habits dont change too many things at once keep up regular practice try and develop a consistent solid pre-shot routine and keep cool - Rome was not built in a day..

OR because its early dayzzz just remember the golden rule is to have fun forget everything n JUST POT AS MANY BALLS AS YOU CAN

[cyberheater]

I'm not sure if I was just tired or was underestimating the shot difficulty after potting far more balls than normal, but I'm sure I was worse than the first time I ever played!
Maybe putting the balls so close to the pockets for the exercises trained me to only be able to pot balls right on the pockets!

This is entirely normal. We would all like to make steady progression but unfortunately it's not like that. Some days you get on the table and you can't pot a ball. But over a period of weeks/months there is an overall improvement.

What you have to understand is that:-

1. This can be an extremely frustrating game. We make is so. We put too much pressure on ourselves relative to our ability. Made worse when we see someone like Ronnie O'Sullivan play who is not only incredibly naturally gifted at the game but has put in thousands of hours of hard practice on the snooker table and can seemingly pot any ball from any distance with no effort.
2. You will miss. Sometimes by a shocking amount. As your technique improves you will miss by less and pot more.
3. Sometime you get on a table and after a while ask yourself what's going on because you can barely pot a ball. It happens. Just accept it. Try to remember the basics. Keep still. Smooth cueing action. Light grip on cue.
4. The only way to improve is steady progressive practice week in week out.

[Byrom]

This is entirely normal. We would all like to make steady progression but unfortunately it's not like that. Some days you get on the table and you can't pot a ball. But over a period of weeks/months there is an overall improvement.

What you have to understand is that:-

1. This can be an extremely frustrating game. We make is so. We put too much pressure on ourselves relative to our ability. Made worse when we see someone like Ronnie O'Sullivan play who is not only incredibly naturally gifted at the game but has put in thousands of hours of hard practice on the snooker table and can seemingly pot any ball from any distance with no effort.
2. You will miss. Sometimes by a shocking amount. As your technique improves you will miss by less and pot more.
3. Sometime you get on a table and after a while ask yourself what's going on because you can barely pot a ball. It happens. Just accept it. Try to remember the basics. Keep still. Smooth cueing action. Light grip on cue.
4. The only way to improve is steady progressive practice week in week out.

good advice this I think.

I feel another inspired snooker quote coming on.

[mr.boy]

Also my left shoulder is stiff now (I'm right-handed). This isn't supposed to be a physical game!

Speaking of Ronnie, I potted a ball left-handed today