Lining the pot up...

[marron]

Hi,

In both pool and snooker i regularly try and line up my pots by looking down the line of the ball and the pocket and also test where to pot by thinking where i want the white to hit the ball by 'mocking' the shot i want to play.

The problem for me is that i take my eyes off the place where i want the cue ball to make contact with the object ball and end up with the balls clashing in thee wrong places and therefore i don't pot the ball correctly.

Has anyone got any other techniques i could use to help me sort this problem?.... replies would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks ,

Stephen

[marron]

Any suggestions.........

[marron]

I really need help on this ...would appreciate any advice

[Belloz22]

hi

i can see that your thread looks a lil bare to say the least, so i thought ill try and give you some advice...

i found when most people learn to play snooker, they learn by picking a point on the object ball in line with the pocket, and then they strike the white onto this spot, however, and thing over a 45 degree angle, or over 4ft will tend to miss the pocket by a mile.

People learning seem to get too strung up at looking for a perfect way of lining the **** up, or picking the correct spot, so they find the spot, and concentrate all there attention on that spot, but because there attention is so high, they forget to relax, cue naturally and generally enjoy the game. It sounds like your trying to hard to find a perfect formula for lining shots up when there actually isn't.

I went through a faze where i would try to line the shot up the same way every time, it made my game suffer as i wasnt relaxing and playing naturally.

Many people under estimate the true potential of our eyes, they are capable on correctly identifying around 80% of the angles on the table, what makes many people miss is the inability to get down correctly on the line of the shot, meaning they don't cue down the correct line, the person misses the shot, and then thinks it was because they looked at the angle wrong, so when the next similar shot comes, they change the angle again, but this time the cue staright and still miss the pot. It becomes an never ending circle.

What i have told many of the players in my club, and what many coaches will is, stand back from the table (not over the top - i.e. end of the room) have a look at the situation on the table. Decide in your head what ball you want to pot, and in which pot you want to pot it. Imagine in your head the shot, imagine the balls hitting and the object ball potting. By imagining this is are already giving yourself and your mind an advantage because as far as your mind knows, you have played this shot before and it already knows how to play it again.

Next take a few deep breaths to relax your muscles, and play the shot. You are not looking to hit a certain spot as such, but rather send the white over a certain line.

The best bit of practice you can do, and steve davis still does, is...

put the blue on it spot, and then put 7 reds near it, giving you a 1/4 ball, 1/2, 3/4 and full ball shot either side of the ball. And then play the shots, this will help teach your mind to recognise the shots when you next see them on the table. Another practice routine is to see how many blacks you can pot off the spot without moving the white. As the blsck is one of the most common shots in shot, and a very important shot, by constantly potting blacks off the spot you will start to learn the angles over time, but it will take practice.

If you are still having problems, i suggest you see a coach who may be able to look at you cue action, and allignment to see if you have any problems in this department. How do take my advice into consideration, allow yourself to play naturally, trust your instincts because they are normally right, and most importantly, trust yourself, pick the angle and commit to it, this way, if you miss you know why, if you change your angle down on the shot, and miss, in your mind you will not be clear what angle caused you to miss....

Happy playing ok