long game

[thelongbomber]

it's true. Ronnie and other pros pots sometimes blacks / reds off far / near to The jaw!! but that's no coincidence!! they do that sometimes to keep inch perfect position for the next shot. That is NOT because their cue action is not accurate Or less accuracy is required with this shots !!!!!(( just my opinion))......

I don't agree, but we don't have to on everything. I don't think they decide to pot off jaws to get position. Instead, I believe, they decide to get a position, and the object ball happens to go off the jaw - unintentionally. Subtle, but important difference. Just my opinion.

[itsnoteasy]

No sometimes they do LB, sometimes they will pinch the pocket just to get a bit more angle to help with position (that's how well they cue and know their angles)others everyone aims for the money part of the pocket , like on black cuts you wouldn't aim for the centre of the pocket, you aim to go inside the far jaw as that's the widest part of the pocket. Of course there will be times they just plain cue a bit off ,rattle one and get away with it, they won't all be meant, but a lot are.

[vmax4steve]

SNAP yeah i seem the same when practicing long blues. i once potted 7 in a row, so you would think i had the technique down to a tea then missed the next 6 didn't make sense, i find when i miss one shot i miss a few in a row after that.

I once hit twelve in a row and screwed back into the baulk pocket on six of them, set the balls up for a practise frame straight away and played terribly.

No sometimes they do LB, sometimes they will pinch the pocket just to get a bit more angle to help with position (that's how well they cue and know their angles)others everyone aims for the money part of the pocket , like on black cuts you wouldn't aim for the centre of the pocket, you aim to go inside the far jaw as that's the widest part of the pocket. Of course there will be times they just plain cue a bit off ,rattle one and get away with it, they won't all be meant, but a lot are.

I'm with LB on this one, the pro table pockets are 'supposed' to be so tight that this can't be right, certainly not on long shots anyway. When in close in can be done no doubt, but it's a dangerous practise on a tight table to aim with such a narrow margin for error.

[Ramon]

I once hit twelve in a row and screwed back into the baulk pocket on six of them, set the balls up for a practise frame straight away and played terribly.




I'm with LB on this one, the pro table pockets are 'supposed' to be so tight that this can't be right, certainly not on long shots anyway. When in close in can be done no doubt, but it's a dangerous practise on a tight table to aim with such a narrow margin for error.

pros do not think about how tight The pockets are.!!!!! only thing they think about is the target !!!! . S Hendry did'nt made more than 750 CNTY breaks, by changing the size of the pockets each time!!! But i do agree with you about lang shots !!!!

[luke-h]

I think pro's nipping a pocket at close range is the norm but I think when they attempt long shots they don't play to nip, I'm pretty sure they are doing everything within their ability to hit centre pocket.

[itsnoteasy]

I agree , I didn't mean every shot, but they do nip the pocket.

[luke-h]

I agree , I didn't mean every shot, but they do nip the pocket.

Yeah they do, hell if I can get away with it I try and nip to make angles all the time, it's sometime's the only way on slower cloth's to make the angle needed for the next shot lol

[Byrom]

I don't agree, but we don't have to on everything. I don't think they decide to pot off jaws to get position. Instead, I believe, they decide to get a position, and the object ball happens to go off the jaw - unintentionally. Subtle, but important difference. Just my opinion.

Perhaps sometimes it happens unintentionally but I think you are wrong here LB - Ramon - luke itsoeasy and others are in agreement - close in not at distance - even on a star table you can pinch a bit of the pocket for position and sometimes a player would be aware they are aiming for that part of the pocket - so I think they are all right - these match tables are not that tight you know.

[itsnoteasy]

I once hit twelve in a row and screwed back into the baulk pocket on six of them, set the balls up for a practise frame straight away and played terribly.



I'm with LB on this one, the pro table pockets are 'supposed' to be so tight that this can't be right, certainly not on long shots anyway. When in close in can be done no doubt, but it's a dangerous practise on a tight table to aim with such a narrow margin for error.

Now that's impressive Vmax.

[vmax4steve]

Now that's impressive Vmax.

I thought I'd cracked it but on the practise frame afterwards it was back to normal and missing every other ball no matter how easy it was.
The problem with the straight blue exercise is that there are no distractions, just the one ball and the one objective and your eyes are on the straight line of aim whether you look at the cue ball, object ball or pocket. As long as the shoulder doesn't drop before the strike you should make the pot or get close, but once back in frame mode your eyes have the usual distractions on the angled shots like cue ball, pocket, cannon, position etc, and a quick glance other than at the object ball on the strike is fatal.

That's my achilles heel, and yours and most peoples.

To be honest it shouldn't be that difficult to culture a cue action that is straight for just six or nine inches and commit that to muscle memory, but as the hand follows the eye, getting the focus on the target and keeping it there is the hardest thing to do.

[itsnoteasy]

I agree about the cue action, I think a lot of people think they are not cueing straight when in fact they are just not online and are not finding the centre of the cue ball, so the cue is coming back and through straight but it makes no difference.
Recently I have filmed myself front on(just at home) and put it through a coaching app thingy, and found I wasn't getting my cue online, just a fraction out( most of the time)but it is enough, but once down if I drew a line right through me and my cue right to the tip, it came back and went through very straight. So I am going to practice really hard on this.

[alabadi]

well I was at the snooker academy in Sheffield yesterday afternoon and was practicing, bumped into Alan Trigg who I have had coaching with him when I started playing 4 1/2 years ago.

he asked how is my game and I told him at the minute I am struggling. he said I have just been watching you knocking in long blues which I was doing and were getting the majority of them. I told him yeah that's the problem straight shots I'm fine but angles is another matter, especially high on blacks its hit and miss.

so he told me to take a few and he had a look at what I was doing. he said I was getting down online cue was centre ball everything was fine and then as I strike depending which side of the table I was playing from I was cueing slightly across. form the green side right to left and from the yellow side left to right. not by much but to effect the shot ever so slightly. and it makes me hit thicker than intended.

and as these star tables are tighter than your average club table I was catching the near jaw so it was never going to go in. so he gave me a few exercise to do to try and cure it.

one was on the final pause just look at the cue and ignore everything else, he said by focussing on the cue it will illuminate any tendencies to look angle and try to make any adjustments, which apparently I am doing. I tell you its really hard not to look at the OB which I am use to.

after a few shots doing this I almost got rid of the cueing across not entirely but better than before. he also gave me another exercise to practice which was once you select the contact point on the OB get down into the address position and after the final pause I had to keep my eyes locked on the OB contact and not take my eyes of it all the way until my grip hand hit my chest, this is also not easy, I am use to looking at the OB going to the target then the cueball. to keep the eyes locked and not move all way through the strike takes a lot of concentration which I didn't find easy.

I also found it was tiring mentally. I will be trying to do this latter routine as it gave me the most success. I just hope it works because I getting frustrated

[golferson123]

long game

you start looking at the cue and your one step away from snookers version of dartitus

[Terry Davidson]

you start looking at the cue and your one step away from snookers version of dartitus

Definitely agree with that.

alibadi:

The second bit of advice from Alan is a great one and I'm glad you found it helped. Keep working on that and remember anything that takes hard concentration is also difficult mentally, but it's well worth it.

Terry

[golferson123]

long game

I remember in my youth when I was playing well .regular centuries and the odd total some well meaning burk mentioned I had a second pause,coudnt take my eyes of the cue still afflicted now 30 odd years later