long game

[j6uk]

ive been doing some cueing work in the kitchen over the last week and feel im cueing quite nice. last time i did the long blue with white on the baulk line (not really a long shot but used for gauging how straight you cue) i put all 21 ball lined up on the side cush and started banging them in center ball. when i do all 21 i get the head down and do another. so i ended up doing it 105 doing it 5 times, this took just under 30mins. im looking forwards to getting down the club and practicing again..
so, what do the snooerheads do for their long game and straight cueing? is there a favorite routine you do or one you don't like and you know you should be doing? maybe there are some new routines you can recommend?

[guernseygooner]

I like to start off with the long blues and then move onto longer straight pots holding for black. I can go on cold and be pretty successful straight away on the blues but not on the longer ones, which tells me I must be gripping the cue too soon on the longer ones until warmed up.

When you say cueing work in the kitchen - are you practising walk in, feathering and then a practice shot? Do you find this beneficial when you get to actually play?

[stustu151080]

Struggling with my long game aswell. In amongst the balls is fab, just so annoying

[jono*]

White ball over a black pocket, pink on the spot. Bridge hand on the leather of the pocket and pot the pink centre ball or with varying levels of top and bottom. Not having a proper bridge makes it tough and really helps cueing practice.

[Terry Davidson]

I start with the normal long blues but then I switch to placing the object ball level with the pink spot and about 1ft or so from the side cushion so I'm potting to a partially closed pocket. My objective is to pot the ball and screw back for an imaginary pink on spot. I find this shot a bit more difficult than long blues and it helps to get me cueing straight.

Terry

[golferson123]

One thing I used to do is put a ball under my Bridge arm, you will be surprised how many times your get in shots are in front of yellow or green

[Byrom]

I'm going to make an admission here -

My long game it ok but I have got lazy with this - I hardly ever practice it - it bores me. If I do force myself to practice sometimes - I line them up middle of the table pot them all into one pocket left first then do it again in the right pocket - each time I would play the shot the same way and count how many I missed before I cleared up the lot and make a note of it to set a target to beat for next time. First using stun then screw then -if I could be bothered top.

If I practice now I prefer to work on simple routines working instead more useful close control shots and rhythm - my long game is ok so I don't bother about it. I think that sight right thing I tried out must have helped actually.

[j6uk]

I like to start off with the long blues and then move onto longer straight pots holding for black. I can go on cold and be pretty successful straight away on the blues but not on the longer ones, which tells me I must be gripping the cue too soon on the longer ones until warmed up.

When you say cueing work in the kitchen - are you practising walk in, feathering and then a practice shot? Do you find this beneficial when you get to actually play?

yes i practice the whole shot from begging to end. ive created two training aids, one of them is based on the matchbox. though training in the kitchen won't do much for timing, i would say the work ive done at home has been key to my cue-action.
as for when im sparing, im doing all the same moves that ive repeated over and over at home so, if my timing a bit out or im cueing across the ball a bit i can feel it straight away. no need for frustration, i just soak up this misses because i know it will only take a few nice shots and im away

[guernseygooner]

yes i practice the whole shot from begging to end. ive created two training aids, one of them is based on the matchbox. though training in the kitchen won't do much for timing, i would say the work ive done at home has been key to my cue-action.
as for when im sparing, im doing all the same moves that ive repeated over and over at home so, if my timing a bit out or im cueing across the ball a bit i can feel it straight away. no need for frustration, i just soak up this misses because i know it will only take a few nice shots and im away

Interesting, think I will give this a bash. Is this something unique to you or do you think it is something all top players do?

[Byrom]

yes i practice the whole shot from begging to end. ive created two training aids, one of them is based on the matchbox. though training in the kitchen won't do much for timing, i would say the work ive done at home has been key to my cue-action.
as for when im sparing, im doing all the same moves that ive repeated over and over at home so, if my timing a bit out or im cueing across the ball a bit i can feel it straight away. no need for frustration, i just soak up this misses because i know it will only take a few nice shots and im away

Now that's interesting practising on your cooker in front of a mirror on a table at home and stuff - never thought of doing that as If the postman looks through the window he gonna think I'm nuts.

I did practice my making my grip and timing when I first played to get in the habit of making the timing feel more natural on the strike and did this away from the table - bit left of centre idea I came up with and sounds a bit daft though it worked - would you like to know how I did this?

[j6uk]

Interesting, think I will give this a bash. Is this something unique to you or do you think it is something all top players do?

they've all done it, and a lot still do

[j6uk]

if i was in a position to have my own table the kitchen wouldn't get used so much

[Byrom]

I like to start off with the long blues and then move onto longer straight pots holding for black. I can go on cold and be pretty successful straight away on the blues but not on the longer ones, which tells me I must be gripping the cue too soon on the longer ones until warmed up.

I found on long shots because I grip with my second finger and thumb I found if I pointed my first finger down or off my cue it stopped me over gripping this type of shot and shifted my grip to the back more - something I saw some player do once so i tried it - it worked so stuck with it. We all got to work out what works for us ourselves though I suppose.

[Stupree]

long game

I haven't done this for years but as a kid I would always walk around the house with a cue in my hand and would cue on just about anything I could. It drove my mum mad as most of the time I was in the kitchen!

I had two exercises that helped me a lot back then which were cueing through the small handle of a one of my sister's dolls tea set cups and stacking 10 x twenty pence pieces on top of each other and trying to cue them off clean one at a time.

[hotpot]

Straight blues off the spot and screw in off , then long reds just above level with the black and white below baulk line , hold for the black but see how soft i can hit the white .