A question, along with a little blow of my own trumpet

[bluenose1940]

I am a few weeks away from being a 75 year old wrinkly but, I vist this site pretty regularly and have learnt so much from it and fellow members for which, once again, many thanks.

Firstly my little blow of my trumpet. Yesterday I couldn't put a foot wrong. I had several breaks in the high teens and probably an equal amount in the mid-twenties but, the 'piece de whatsit' was a break of 43, with all of the colours (after each red) being potted from their spots. I couldn't believe how well I kept contol of the white. For me that is brilliant.

I also had a situation where we were down to the colours, I had potted the yellow, was on the green into the yellow pocket, the brown was right next to the pink on the yellow side cushion about halfway between the blue spot and the yellow pocket. The blue was just above the centre pocket on the green side and the black was on its spot. I thought that I was on to clear the colours if I could move the brown and pink balls. I duly potted the green, cannoned the brown nicely into a potting position, only to watch the pink gently roll across the table and drop into the middle pocket by the blue!!!! Grrrrrrrr!!!

Well that's my bit of trumpet blowing. I had to tell someone because it was such a good day for me. Hope it didn't bore you.

Anyway, on to my question. I do have a problem when potting into the middle pockets from either the black end or the baulk end. It doesn't matter what colour the ball is that I am tring to pot, more often than not I manage to hit the far knuckle of the pocket. I don't have too much of a problem in potting into the middle pockets if the cue ball is either between the blue and pink spots or, between the blue spot and the baulk line. it only seems to happen if the cue ball is either further up the table than the pink spot, or further down behind the baulk line.

If anyone has any tips to help me overcome this I will be most grateful. Many thanks.

[Master Blaster]

Go to the club and practice the pink, off its spot into both middles for half an hour. Take a small break. Repeat the exercise with the brown. Make sure you attempt to pot from the jaws at both ends and rail. Don't just do straight pots, make em tough as well. Practice these pots a foot off the rail too. Do this once a week and see how much you improve. Don't half play the pots, screw back, stun, stun-run through, topspin, dead weight, etc. Once you can pot into the middle and put a lot of mustard on it, your confidence will increase. Middles offer only 1/2 the forgiveness of corner pockets. It's all about developing accuracy, power and confidence. Folk who consistently miss middle bags stop playing them, putting tons of side and spin on the ball to try and pot it into the corners always; this can ruin a break. You must believe in the shot 100%. So this is for the practice table first. When you can nail 7/10, you take it into your match game. Do this practice at least once a week. Once you've mastered pink and brown, you can start practising reds closer to the black and above the pink into the middles.

[vmax4steve]

It could be that your table has tight middles, especially if it's an older table, pre 1990, for after that the middles were made about 1/4 of an inch bigger. We have tables like that in our club, quite nice corner pockets but very tight middles, and you can't pot balls at pace into them, otherwise they will be spat back out again.

If you're consistantly hitting the far jaw with middle pocket pots, try playing the shots with a trace of running side, this will naturally give a thinner contact on the object ball and should help to make the pot, helping side is what it's called and it does work. Never mind what the centre ball players tell you, use what works to help your game, you're too old to put in years of practise and start again with your cue action.
Practise with varying amounts of side to see what works best with and against the nap, and when you have worked this out you can use it to good benefit for pots into the corner pockets as well. Remember that running side will give a thinner contact and you might have to aim thicker than far jaw sometimes, aiming to miss the pocket altogether, but persevere and you will gain benefit from it.

[bluenose1940]

Thanks for your input chaps. Very helpful as usual. Although our tables have recently been re-ciovered, I do think that they are quite old.

I will give the 'running side' a go when I next play on Tuesday.

Thanks again.

P.S. Will be looking to get to 50 now!!!!

[mikeyd100]

Good on you fella - nearing 75 years young and still scoring decent

[Byrom]

Practice the shot you missed over and over in practice until the angles become ingrained and more natural -

we all miss - and given your age I feel you might appreciate this message below - keep smiling keep playing and enjoy

[bluenose1940]

Thank you mikeyd100 and Byrom for your kind words, very encouraging.

Great video by the way.

Another thing that I want to crack, is getting the white to screw back more, sometimes I can do 1.5 feet, sometimes it's only 4 inches, drives me crackers. Also, playing the blue off its spot, getting in and out of baulk, I ALWAYS end up a foot too far or a foot too short, I very rarely get it spot on. I console myself with the fact that I do try, rather than just roll the blue in for the points, which many of the older players do.

[jim evans]

Hope ime still playing at 75,10 yrs to go Lol.

[mikeyd100]

Thank you mikeyd100 and Byrom for your kind words, very encouraging.

Great video by the way.

Another thing that I want to crack, is getting the white to screw back more, sometimes I can do 1.5 feet, sometimes it's only 4 inches, drives me crackers. Also, playing the blue off its spot, getting in and out of baulk, I ALWAYS end up a foot too far or a foot too short, I very rarely get it spot on. I console myself with the fact that I do try, rather than just roll the blue in for the points, which many of the older players do.

You're most welcome mate.
Main thing is that you are trying and enthusiastic, like Byrom said, practise it over n over n over... one day you will be screwing back like Judd Trump & Neil Robertson

[mikeyd100]

Hope ime still playing at 75,10 yrs to go Lol.

Haaha, I'm sure you will Jim.
Tell you what, where I play some guys come in, they look like brothers, they always bring in an elderly chap probably their grandad... Guessing he is about 80+, he has a frame, takes a break then has another.
Its really nice to see that.

[blinky88]

Hi Jim,

I'm 76 and still playing reasonable snooker. I think of the blue as a reco9very ball and when teaching my Son I had him practice the blue for 3 weeks from all parts of the table, it is rare for him to miss the blue from anywhere on the table. He just played the NSW Champion and won 5/2 making 4 breaks over 70, needless to say he pays an extremely good game. He has been the central coast of NSW champion for many years. My advise is to only have the blue on the table and practice until such time you are confident of knocking it into any pocket. Constant practice is very important, it will not be long before you can knock the blue in from anywhere, however it does take time and you have to be patient.