The Champions Way - Steve Davis coaching video

[Ronnington]

Thanks all!

UPDATE:

So today I had my first ever snooker coaching session and it was a real eye-opener. Awesome experience! Here in Christchurch NZ the only proper snooker coach is a chap called Gary Gillard - he's a World Snooker fully qualified Master Coach, has competed many times in the IBSF World Amateur Championship and was NZ's number 1 ranked player for 6 straight years. He knows his onions all right!

Within a couple of minutes of simple practice drills Gary said my overall positioning, bridging and stance was spot on and I'm keeping my head perfectly still throughout until ball is pocketed. However, when gripping the cue I was using my 3 smallest fingers the most, instead of 90% of the pressure being with the thumb and index finger and letting the other 3 simply act as a very gentle guide. So we worked on rectifying that straight away...

Gary then commented that it seems I do sight the ball evenly with my chin on the centre of the cue (his video analysis to follow next week). However, when addressing the cue ball he said I do exactly what Judd Trump does albeit right-handed - I'm cueing very slightly to the left and on the final delivery striking centre ball & addressing centre ball when adding right-hand side etc etc - how weird!! Never even realised at any point I do this!

So we then started completely from scratch with entry-level drills that beginners to snooker do and worked on fixing this (work in progress)...

It's like a breath of fresh air and by the end of the 90-minute session I was potting 8/10 straight blues corner-to-corner off their spot with stun, top spin into the pocket and a bit of screw. I'm taking a step back in terms of my game temporarily right now, but I'll soon take two steps forward in the next few weeks for sure when I'm finally cueing straight and with the correct grip!

I should've invested in proper snooker coaching when I was 12 instead of wasting all these years! Hey-ho.

[vmax4steve]

You're probably correct; maybe I am using my left eye more than I realise

What about Steve Davis, Ding and Stephen Hendry for even-sighted players?

Hendry was right eye, Davis and Ding like Carter, from the front you can only see part of their left ear as the head is slightly facing to the right so even though the cue is centre chin it passes between the eyes from right eye to left eye, closer to and slightly favouring the left eye.
Remember the brain has information from both eyes, it sees two cues and has to shut off the ghost image of the one that isn't being addressed to the cue ball. If you're looking at the object ball all the way down into your stance with the cue ball in your peripheral vision, you could subconsciously be addressing the ghost image to the cue ball.

To prevent this make sure you look at the cue ball when halfway down and address your tip where you need to, and then look up to the object ball.

Trump addresses to the right because he moves his body on the delivery stroke, watch his right shoulder; make sure your coach understands this before you start tinkering with sighting and stance. He may well do this deliberately to counteract a movement he cannot stop, you may have a different reason like the one I've explained above.

[Ronnington]

Hendry was right eye, Davis and Ding like Carter, from the front you can only see part of their left ear as the head is slightly facing to the right so even though the cue is centre chin it passes between the eyes from right eye to left eye, closer to and slightly favouring the left eye.
Remember the brain has information from both eyes, it sees two cues and has to shut off the ghost image of the one that isn't being addressed to the cue ball. If you're looking at the object ball all the way down into your stance with the cue ball in your peripheral vision, you could subconsciously be addressing the ghost image to the cue ball.

To prevent this make sure you look at the cue ball when halfway down and address your tip where you need to, and then look up to the object ball.

Trump addresses to the right because he moves his body on the delivery stroke, watch his right shoulder; make sure your coach understands this before you start tinkering with sighting and stance. He may well do this deliberately to counteract a movement he cannot stop, you may have a different reason like the one I've explained above.

Thanks Gary said at the end of the session he doesn't want to change anything with my stance as it's spot on and I'm not even thinking about it. Same with my sighting, as I'm potting balls as it is.

Over the next two weeks I just need to concentrate on making this conventional grip second-nature and cueing as perfectly straight as possible with cue ball drills down the blue/pink/black spot with reds either side and my addressing.

Also, lots of line-up practice. I've previously only done line-up work for 2 minutes tops, then get bored quickly, set the table up, break off and play conventional frames. Up 'til now I've had the stupid mindset that line-ups are not simulating true match conditions, when obviously the key to heavy scoring is a high % of close potting and positioning

My next session will include full video analysis from Gary with his laptop, which I'm looking forward to

[Ronnington]

UPDATE:

Yesterday I had my second coaching session. Gary brought along his video equipment to analyse my cueing from various angles; it was fascinating to say the least.

With the camera front-on facing me, it was evident my chin is on centre of the cue under eyes, elbow is directly behind my head, BUT my right shoulder (I'm right-handed) sticks out just a couple of inches - weird. Also, using super slow-mo it showed that although I think I'm being still on the shot, upon striking the cue ball my chin immediately lifts an inch off the cue after contact - so that's something he's got me working on... remaining totally still for a few seconds after executing.

We've also scrapped my 'natural' cue action completely. Gone. Previously, I began feathering just before being completely down on the shot and worked my bridge hand gradually to the point I think it needed to be - while still feathering 2-3 times, it was all a bit frenetic. I can't tell you what my eyes were doing with cue ball and object ball, as it was totally random.

Now: He's got me approaching/getting down on shot nice and slow, bridge hand down, tip roughly 1cm from cue ball, eyes on object ball on back-feather, eyes on cue ball on forward-feather, repeat, object ball on final backswing... keep eyes locked on object ball and... execute

Gary also wants me to drop my elbow on every shot going forward, for more follow-through on my shots. He told me not to contact him again for another coaching session until I've made 3 100+ breaks on the line-up. By his reckoning, I should make these within the next 21 days... We'll see...

So, i'm currently practicing 4x per week 12 hours in total, plus club matches on Thursday evenings. My practice sessions consist of 10 mins straight cue ball drills, 20 minutes corner-to-corner long potting stun/screw/top spin, and 2 hours of line-up work.

Made a 77 and a few 41s on the line-up today... My previous highest break on the line-up was a woeful 41 (my highest matchplay is 56 - go figure??), so something is falling into place nicely now cue ball striking is less effort, as I finally get it's all in the loose wrist/grip/timing - it's just getting that on EVERY shot going forward, not just 6/10 times