Has anyone seen Nic Barrow's CAT?

[Leo]

Dry land swimming lol, I like that. For me the matchbox teaches you a lot, you can practice your timing ,as you can see when your closing your grip as you cue through the hole, you can feel if your balanced before during and after your shot( I don't think we do this when trying to pot a ball as we are to busy trying to pot the ball) if you have a ten mill tip and a twelve mill hole like the one I use you have to learn to cue level, which means opening your grip ,otherwise you just won't get through it( if you have any type of see sawing going on) this also means keeping the elbow up and still as with the shoulder. Nothing will beat on the table practice obviously but that's a good wee gadget from my point of view and if you can cue through a ball the same way you cue through the matchbox, you will be close to cracking it,I think it's like practice swings at golf we all do those perfectly but address the ball and it can all go pear shaped, but if we could repeat our practice swings ,the worlds our lobster

You can play with your matchbox's or Nic's iron on wheels as much as you like but you'll never beat proper constructive practice hitting balls like you would in a game.

[itsnoteasy]

You can play with your matchbox's or Nic's iron on wheels as much as you like but you'll never beat proper constructive practice hitting balls like you would in a game.

Agreed. Iron on wheels, just brilliant!

[fredkite]

Has anyone seen Nic Barrow's CAT?

Leo speaking the truth.

[ghost121]

Simple fact is that most people don't practise at all, and those that do don't practise properly and those that do practise properly don't practise properly often enough. There are no gadgets, no shortcuts, no secrets. End of.

[GeordieDS]

You can play with your matchbox's or Nic's iron on wheels as much as you like but you'll never beat proper constructive practice hitting balls like you would in a game.

You'll be banned champ, let's go champ

[jonny66]

I've recently realised that my cue action is perfect... as long as I'm not using it to hit the cue ball. As soon as I get on the table it's all over the shop, dropping my elbow, moving my head. I'm trying to fix this now.

[Cannonball]

Dry land swimming lol, I like that. For me the matchbox teaches you a lot, you can practice your timing ,as you can see when your closing your grip as you cue through the hole, you can feel if your balanced before during and after your shot( I don't think we do this when trying to pot a ball as we are to busy trying to pot the ball) if you have a ten mill tip and a twelve mill hole like the one I use you have to learn to cue level, which means opening your grip ,otherwise you just won't get through it( if you have any type of see sawing going on) this also means keeping the elbow up and still as with the shoulder. Nothing will beat on the table practice obviously but that's a good wee gadget from my point of view and if you can cue through a ball the same way you cue through the matchbox, you will be close to cracking it,I think it's like practice swings at golf we all do those perfectly but address the ball and it can all go pear shaped, but if we could repeat our practice swings ,the worlds our lobster

Yeah, it was Bruce Lee who coined that phrase, in response to martial arts that involved little real sparring and combat. If you never throw that block/punch/kick for real, how do you know how much force to use, will you be fast enough, will it even work outside the dojang?

But I like your post; balanced viewpoint. I can see the point in the block with the five holes, I could knock one of those up in wood in no time, for lot less than whatever it costs but I appreciate nicely finished tools aren't cheap or free, so £30 isn't outrageous. Maybe the cost of Nic's tool can be justified but £200 is 200 hours of practice to me. If you got the money to splash on a tool, it's nae problem though.

I know a chap who uses nothing more than the ironing board to form his set-up before league night, pots the baulk colours as a warm up, then plays his league frame and is still the best despite no practice. Then again, he has beaten folk like Ronnie and tricky Ricky. LOL. But he swears by the ironing board, a free tool most people will have in their homes.

I'm going to make the five hole thingy from some mahogany from the shed and give it a go on the ironing board. I'll do some feedback for folk at some point.

[itsnoteasy]

I'm not too keen on the idea of a big lump of something or a hard lump of something being used to cue through, unless you make the holes 14 mill or something like that( which is pointless IMO unless you are a begginer) .I can see you damaging your cue on the way through if you scrape the sides when you step the pace up, spend a tenner on a TUCA or buy a 12 mill punch from eBay and make as many match box ones as you want or even just cue through a swan vesta sleeve ( normal match box sleeves are to wide ) I like the TUCA as it has a ball printed on it and it lets you see what finding the centre of the cue ball should look like( another handy thing if you struggle with that). As has been said none of these things teaches you to play snooker but at home you can work on your action if you don't have a table.

[vmax4steve]

I've recently realised that my cue action is perfect... as long as I'm not using it to hit the cue ball. As soon as I get on the table it's all over the shop, dropping my elbow, moving my head. I'm trying to fix this now.

This is very true of most people, once they have to hit a ball on the table there are so many variables coming into the stroke apart from just cueing straight, the weight of the cue ball hangs heavy over most of us for one, the angle of the pot, cannons that might be required or avoided, possible in offs to consider, the difficulty or importance of the shot or simply not having the focus to look where you should to get the cue on the line of aim in the first place, let alone any anxiety that takes your eye off the object ball on the strike.

It's a minefield for sure, but the answer is confidence in your potting and remembering to look where you should at all points of the shot making process and let your natural cue action simply happen without any conscious thought.

[Cannonball]

I'm not too keen on the idea of a big lump of something or a hard lump of something being used to cue through, unless you make the holes 14 mill or something like that( which is pointless IMO unless you are a begginer) .I can see you damaging your cue on the way through if you scrape the sides when you step the pace up, spend a tenner on a TUCA or buy a 12 mill punch from eBay and make as many match box ones as you want or even just cue through a swan vesta sleeve ( normal match box sleeves are to wide ) I like the TUCA as it has a ball printed on it and it lets you see what finding the centre of the cue ball should look like( another handy thing if you struggle with that). As has been said none of these things teaches you to play snooker but at home you can work on your action if you don't have a table.

Important points^ That's why I fancied mahogany; strong enough not to fall apart but not so tough that it damages the tip or shaft. Ideally it should fall over easily if the tip touches the wood but not damage anything in the process; furniture, cue, or floor. :highly_amused:

The problem as identified by TD may be a habit of looking at the CB if you use this tool a lot.

Years ago, I considered getting a couple of slates together and building a 12ft table out of them (by 3' wide), something that could be stowed in a living room or against a garage wall, to provide some cueing and long potting practice. Building a level frame was the downer.

*INSE et al.: I've just had a look at some clear perspex. If I was to drill say 4/5 holes into it and have it as a 2 1/16" round stand up, and then have a snooker ball picture/card in the distance, could this provide some realistic cueing practice? You know, so you flick between the (clear perspex) CB and OB target the way we would on a table?

[itsnoteasy]

Important points^ That's why I fancied mahogany; strong enough not to fall apart but not so tough that it damages the tip or shaft. Ideally it should fall over easily if the tip touches the wood but not damage anything in the process; furniture, cue, or floor. :highly_amused:

The problem as identified by TD may be a habit of looking at the CB if you use this tool a lot.

Years ago, I considered getting a couple of slates together and building a 12ft table out of them (by 3' wide), something that could be stowed in a living room or against a garage wall, to provide some cueing and long potting practice. Building a level frame was the downer.

*INSE et al.: I've just had a look at some clear perspex. If I was to drill say 4/5 holes into it and have it as a 2 1/16" round stand up, and then have a snooker ball picture/card in the distance, could this provide some realistic cueing practice? You know, so you flick between the (clear perspex) CB and OB target the way we would on a table?

I've heard worse ideas that's for sure. I put a ball at the end of my table and look at that as I cue through my TUCA but to be honest I don't use it for cueing straight, for me it's all about getting down in the centre of the cue ball then it's my grip and elbow and I just practice getting that feeling right, there is no doubt as others have said its hard to transfer onto the table, but we all practice like pros then it's downhill during a match lol, so this is no different, it's just an aid,that definitely helps me, it's not the answer to snooker.
If I had some room but not enough for a full size table I would go for a nine foot cut down full sized job, so it would be nine by six , the only thing you couldn't practice were long pots and the three baulk colours, but all the bottom end scoring shots would be available, I think Geoff Large worked on a few of these cut down jobs, I can't remember what he thought of them.

[msammut]

Has anyone used one of these or had any reviews or feedback?

Seems like a good idea but very expensive.