Do you find safety game is boring in a match?

[mchpddl1]

Do you find safety game is boring in a match? How can you improve your appetite when safety exchange keeps on dragging and you feel mentally tired and bored?

[pottr]

Play against better players... You soon find it's a lot more boring when you're picking out the balls frame after frame instead of developing a decent safety game.

[SnookeredYou]

Do you find safety game is boring in a match? How can you improve your appetite when safety exchange keeps on dragging and you feel mentally tired and bored?

I personally like the safety aspect of the game. I would even say I love it when it drags on. I am a pretty good safety player so I enjoy a good safety battle with a skilled player. I love wearing the opponent down until he makes a mistake or I get him so snookered he can't escape at all. Plus making a perfect safety shot is hugely gratifying, I dare say more gratifying than making a ball.

[CoachGavin]

Do you find safety game is boring in a match?

i think to be a good player you have to respect the safety part of the game and understand how important it is. I enjoy a good safety battle now I'm older and see it like a game of chess. when i was younger it just got in the way of potting but like had been said picking out balls is not fun!

[Ramon]

It's boring !!! But sometimes necessary , imo !!!!

[MikeTheBigMonster]

I wouldn't say it's boring but if you played with a player whereby his safety game was to the extend of not trying an obvious shot or at least 95% risk free potting success rate; yeah that's a hell of boring game indeed.

[Byrom]

Do you find safety game is boring in a match? How can you improve your appetite when safety exchange keeps on dragging and you feel mentally tired and bored?

Good question - When I practice safety - yes I practice it - Someone showed me a little game that this pro player did - he would throw three reds at the bottom of the table and just yellow green and brown on their spots - and would place 20 pound not in areas behind baulk - then try and play the thin safety or figure of eight with side or whatever the shot required from ball in hand in the D and try and land the white on the 20 pound note-

I adapted the game to play against a friend for a fiver or a tenner first to three and winner got the money - soon improved me and in games now I actually imagine the tenner is still there. Anyway this helped me enormously - because I mean who ametur wise practices safety? - its boring as you say - this made it a bit more entertaining and I found it beneficial.

Note this game is actually harder for an am player to practice as their are different variables as to table conditions speed of cloth and cushions as our tables are not as consistent as they are on a pro table.

I play as mood dictates - if I don't feel good sometimes I cant find the line - cant explain why - just get days where you go to table and it just looks hard - I try and play my way in - weird how just running a 20 can get you going again.
Makes me feel better feeling in control of a frame though you can get bogged down with it if you play too much of it but sometimes the game just goes like that and you have to have the patience to grind one out.

In the end though if you think about it this way - snooker is not what you do with your A game - you will always do well when you are on that - its about developing a great B game. I think this is the reason why Selby wins so much - he has a great A game - but perhaps not the best in the world. However I think his B game is far superior than most others.

[ace man]

One of the best parts of the game. Very rewarding to lay a few good safeties blocking half the table, glueing the cueball to baulk cushion...etc. A few of those gets you control of the table.
What I find frustrating with safety exchanges is when I play opponents who fluke them often. Worse than fluked pots. It is amazing the number of times you see people playing the safety one (wrong) way, mess it up completely with accidental kisses and misjudgment, only to find out that now you're in deep trouble.

[shmeeko69]

From a spectator point of view it's quite boring, but necessary and especially if your potting game has left you. You can see how players like Peter Ebdon and Mark Davis can still cause surprising results because of their methodical approach to the game.

[Byrom]

One of the best parts of the game. Very rewarding to lay a few good safeties blocking half the table, glueing the cueball to baulk cushion...etc. A few of those gets you control of the table.
What I find frustrating with safety exchanges is when I play opponents who fluke them often. Worse than fluked pots. It is amazing the number of times you see people playing the safety one (wrong) way, mess it up completely with accidental kisses and misjudgment, only to find out that now you're in deep trouble.

Well I know what you mean but this just happens at most levels in the game from time to time - perhaps it irritates you more when you yourself play lesser players because their safety is a little more luck than judgement sometimes? However I think this is a weakness in your own set up - Don't play the other fellas game - you can't effect his stuff - you just wind up irritating yourself - you know it happens because you just said it - so expect it next time you do play a lesser player - being kind - if you expect it to happen before it does its easier perhaps to laugh it off and just play your own game.

[denja]

You can compare safety play to a game of chess boring to watch but interesting to play, the great Steve Davis was a keen chess player and president of the Chess Foundation and his safety play was pretty good, snooker is not just potting balls

[alabadi]

I agree with Byrom I used to get wound up, when I play a very good safety or snooker then I think he's not going to be able to get out of this without leaving me something.

then they play for a red miss it completely the cueball flying all over the place hits another red and then I end up in a snooker. I just kept thinking how the hell did he manage that the lucky f*****

now I don't expect anything, if I get something its a bonus, if I don't I try and put him in more trouble.

[Neil Taperell]

You can compare safety play to a game of chess boring to watch but interesting to play, the great Steve Davis was a keen chess player and president of the Chess Foundation and his safety play was pretty good, snooker is not just potting balls

Never really appreciated how good Davis was at the time with his safety play , since gone back and watched a few matches of his and he was immense . Think he should have been called Angles before McManus

[shmeeko69]

Davis has certainly been the best safety player of all time. The only person that comes close to him in that department is Mark Selby in my opinion.

[ace man]

Well I know what you mean but this just happens at most levels in the game from time to time - perhaps it irritates you more when you yourself play lesser players because their safety is a little more luck than judgement sometimes? However I think this is a weakness in your own set up - Don't play the other fellas game - you can't effect his stuff - you just wind up irritating yourself - you know it happens because you just said it - so expect it next time you do play a lesser player - being kind - if you expect it to happen before it does its easier perhaps to laugh it off and just play your own game.

You are so right with this one. I laugh off those accidental safeties and kamikaze pot attempts nowadays, but used to have a very very short fuse. However, boiling point is still in there somewhere.