Routines for Cueball Control/Position

[SimbaTheLion]

Hi all,

Mid-level player here, have made 10-20 centuries doing line-ups, but in actual frames/matches, I tend to not do so well because my cueball control goes awry, and the trickier pots I'm not so reliable with.

What routines would be best for me at this point for precise positional play? Being even an inch too high/low on the black can be a real killer in an actual frame when the balls are not so kindly laid out, so a drill focused on this kind of absolute precision would be good.

Cheers!

[tedisbill]

what kind of breaks are you making in proper frames mate? If you play a session against a mate, what kind of highest break would you normally have?

[SimbaTheLion]

~50, but varies. Highest break in a frame is 80ish.

[tedisbill]

Well making a 50 every time you play is already a very good standard.

I'd say you need to master the line up. I play the line up and try to stay on the black as much as possible. Hoping to make 140+ break. If you allow any colour on the line up, it allows your positional play to be sloppy.

[SimbaTheLion]

Yeah, do you think it'd be useful to say only continue the line-up when I get on a specific red I choose beforehand, and deny the option to pot any other? I had been considering that but I was wondering if there was a more specific routine for positional play than just an adaptation of the line up. For what it's worth I play with one red below the black, four between pink and black, six between blue and pink, four above blue, and top break with that is 128 clearance.

[tedisbill]

Maybe pick one or two reds you'd like to be on.

Also the "T" exercise in this video is better for more realistic cue ball movement. I do it with the black on the spot as well.

http://youtu.be/moGC529O2t8

[SimbaTheLion]

Cool, thanks for the info and tips, much appreciated, shall give these a go over the coming days .

[jrc750]

Lots of routines on here http://fergalobrien.ie/practice.html

[jrc750]

The advanced one's look like the one's for you

[SimbaTheLion]

Thanks JRC, looks like an excellent resource, favourited .

[svendh]

~50, but varies. Highest break in a frame is 80ish.

sorry but i have never seen a player who makes 50 breaks regularly with a high break of 80 not knowing all the routines out there

[mg222]

[QUOTE=[B]svendh[/B];800167]sorry but i have never seen a player who makes 50 breaks regularly with a high break of 80 not knowing all the routines out there QUOTE]

Absolutely agree with that. We can only assume you are going out of position around 30's and or 40's and breaking down because the "recovery" gets tougher because you are way out of position. That is what separates the men from the boys, i.e. the Pros from the amateurs like us.

About the cue ball control: if you regularly do 50's in game, then it is my firm belief that deep down you have to know the exact reason for your wayward cue ball..... There is a Pro who has a similar problem, Mark King almost always breaks down @ 30's and 40's - has to ve 2, even 3 attempts to win a frame!

I realise this is not what you want to hear. Routine wise, practice with playing cue ball to a very specific point. Good luck, mate.

[SimbaTheLion]

I haven't played snooker for very long (~7 months), so it'd be pretty crazy for me to assert I know all of the drills. It wouldn't hurt even a pro to ask because at the worst they'd get told "you already know all of what I know", and at the best they'd learn something new, which I have done, and I'm grateful for the constructive replies .

Trying to be a bit more specific in what goes wrong; I almost always get some kind of position on the next ball, but my potting skills are not up to speed that I can knock in centuries in real matches without precise positional play. I come from a pool background, so the dinky shots/position are trivially easy for me, but still getting to grips somewhat with the "dear god this table is large" aspect of snooker causing me to under/overrun by ~6-12 inches sometimes, compounded with the difficulty of shots longer than I'm used to as a pool player. Hopefully that clarifies a little quite what is going wrong, it's not like I don't know the angles or anything fundamental like that, moreso just a pacing of the cue ball thing!

[Leo]

I haven't played snooker for very long (~7 months), so it'd be pretty crazy for me to assert I know all of the drills. It wouldn't hurt even a pro to ask because at the worst they'd get told "you already know all of what I know", and at the best they'd learn something new, which I have done, and I'm grateful for the constructive replies .

Trying to be a bit more specific in what goes wrong; I almost always get some kind of position on the next ball, but my potting skills are not up to speed that I can knock in centuries in real matches without precise positional play. I come from a pool background, so the dinky shots/position are trivially easy for me, but still getting to grips somewhat with the "dear god this table is large" aspect of snooker causing me to under/overrun by ~6-12 inches sometimes, compounded with the difficulty of shots longer than I'm used to as a pool player. Hopefully that clarifies a little quite what is going wrong, it's not like I don't know the angles or anything fundamental like that, moreso just a pacing of the cue ball thing!

totally different game as you know,most of us on here who are classed as pretty decent players could clear a pool table up pretty easily and most probably walk into most top pool teams,yet most decent pool players and i know many struggle to get anysort of break on a snooker table.
Stay away from pool and just concentrate on snooker and your positional play will come

[mg222]

Hi all,

Mid-level player here, have made 10-20 centuries doing line-ups, but in actual frames/matches, I tend to not do so well because my cueball control goes awry, and the trickier pots I'm not so reliable with.

What routines would be best for me at this point for precise positional play? Being even an inch too high/low on the black can be a real killer in an actual frame when the balls are not so kindly laid out, so a drill focused on this kind of absolute precision would be good.

Cheers!

Can you share with us which city and country you play in, please?