Having some practice sessions with j6uk

[matthias]

Playing before 2.30pm should be banned, everywhere.

I wish I had the keys to my club, or it would open early... at 2:30 half my day has gone already lol

[Shockerz]

I wish I had the keys to my club, or it would open early... at 2:30 half my day has gone already lol

I've got keys to our club and on Sunday I'm there about 09:30/10:00 to get a little practice in. I had to get on the committee to get them which comes with it's own problems!

Not sure if the trade off worth it I can tell you with the grief you get over trivialities!

[j6uk]

yeah it is handy after the school run, and poppin in to test a cue on the way back.

[bluenose1940]

I have to agree, that's a great post Matthias. I wish that Jason lived near me!!!!

[jefftanwx]

Hi Guys

Just a little write up

After picking up snooker again after 8 years,
(I played when I was young (maybe 10-14) cleaning tables to get free hours
+ had a few years in between but always quitting after a year or so.
But like a bug it keeps returning

So I was playing in our local league for half a year (I'm again playing about a year now) or so and not making much progress,
Got a few 20's and the odd 30 in practice games, always stranding missing a silly one or completely losing position, not knowing where I went wrong, so I was tinkering a lot with technique, (probably creating more problems in the process).

There are not a lot of serious/good players who will have/make the time to help in my area
So I asked for some for some coaching/lessons on here, got some nice reply's & pm's thx for that btw.

Jason pm'd me, he was up for having a look and have some sessions in Krakau Poland
I had contacted him about a cue before, made me a lovely one btw. tiger maple/macassar ebony which is perfect I must say.

We (my wife & I) where up for a holiday so why not Poland
we never been there and it sounded like a small adventure, so off we went for the 1200km road trip with our son (almost 2years) in the back.
(If I ever meet postman pat, I will kill the little ******* WITH his “special delivery” .... lol)

Once we arrived we had a meet in a little square near by the place we were staying, having a chat and some coffee.
I had the feeling we headed of nicely straight away, so we agreed to start our sessions the next day at a local club.
Jason has the keys to this place so he can test his cues before any customers come in, so we had the place to our own.

The next day he picked me up, and started my first session,
we planned it would be nice to have a few hours every day, instead of a few very long ones, (we had 5x 2hours total)

At first Jason just let me play a bit to have a look, noticing I was playing a lot of my shots with screw
(thinking I needed it for position) and explaining me that playing with screw is always a big shot in his opinion.
Showing me different options, and the CB sweet-spot (around the center (around 1 tip up/down) of the CB) something I am really working on at the moment.

And not over complicating things and keep it simple, which is not natural for me
always thinking giving it that extra bit is necessary....

A very big thing Jason noticed was, I’m rushing on shots,
me thinking I was being fluent Just a few feathers, slight pause at the back and go.

But what I was actually doing was, line up, feather, shoot, no real pauses anywhere….
it "looks" good and on good days it works, but consistency is never there.

So we spent quite some time on this, taking more time: tip at the white, feather a few times, and stop at the white, slow back, pause, and nicely strike the ball.

This was very much easier said than done in my case it all feeling very slow & robotic like

I am just now getting a feeling for this; slow everything down and being much more conscious about what I am doing.

Also made some changes during the week on stance, a bit wider(got quite long legs) and more boxer, a shorter walk in more like a step in which combined makes dropping down on the shot straight much easier & consistent.

We also talked about what I usually do when I practice, which is mostly line-ups / black of the spot & colors.
So Jason put an all red line-up on and asked me to clear them, and told me that's what he did when he wanted to get serious about the game.
Mission clear them 3 times (45 pots) keeping position using little (sweet spot) shots in the middle of the table not ending up at the cushion, and not move on with the line-up with colors until you do.

I didn't managed it yet... it proves to be a lot harder than expected & proves a very good lesson in patience & keeping focused on what seems to be a very simple task.

Jason was very patient, even when I was struggling on the easiest tasks, taking time, showing/demonstrating me options.

For me it really was great, and an eye opener seeing someone of Jasons standard/class play and talk about the game, seeing options and opportunities as they present them self on the table.
Being so confident in his skills, that potting and especially positional play really becomes a “game” in itself and make the game look so easy.

Things now start beginning to slot in to place, nothing crazy yet, but I feel I now have a much better base to start progressing.

All in all we had a brilliant time, on and off the table meeting Jason and his family, visiting a great city with lots of history and nice places to go (read bars)

I’m sure we’ll be back to visit, have a few games and a laugh
(but without the car & the kid this time I think)

lol, this ended up being quite a story

cheers
matt

This sounds exactly like me. We've been making the same mistakes! Worse thing that could happen is i always thought i was right. hmmm...

[matthias]

I have to agree, that's a great post Matthias. I wish that Jason lived near me!!!!

thanks

don't know where you live, but Poland is really nice to visit, and the exchange rates (euro/pounds to zloty) are quite good.
so once you're there, you can have a great time, without spending to much.

[matthias]

This sounds exactly like me. We've been making the same mistakes! Worse thing that could happen is i always thought i was right. hmmm...

I can recommend seeing someone, who can give you some pointers and/or a different approach.
Instead of just tinkering by yourself not being sure it's an improvement or not.

Like in my case: slow it all way down, which felt really strange at first,
but I now start to feel more confident and the little 20,30,40 breaks are getting more frequent.
and don't see why these can't be 40,50,60 in time