Cue ball tight on cushion

[ace man]

How many of you guys have trouble leaving yourself tight on cushion very often?
Myself, after 15 years of cue sports, one would think that I'd learn to avoid the cushion, but no. Regardless of tables, conditions...etc, I'm bound to leave myself tight on cushion or close to it several times per frame.

Now I've tried hitting extra cushion, reducing tempo, increasing tempo, side, no side...etc. End result, is that I'm right on cushion faced with a tough shot that even pro's don't make that often.
Lately I've put my ego aside and started playing safety on those.
Somehow I'm able to leave myself so awkward on blue for example that only option is to play dead weight from tight on cushion to continue the break. Absolutely awful.

Most disappointing is when you play a shot which appears to look nice. Cue ball travels a lot, looks like you recovered position nicely, and then the damn white thing lands on top of the cushion...again...despite traveling several metres...

I do think that cue ball tight on cushion is probably #1 reason for end of break.

[DeanH]

Been there myself

"when you needed to hit harder you played softer, when you needed to play softer you played harder" - that was me years ago - lack of knowledge of how I struck the cue ball to gain position.
Shot choice is not just which ball to play but also how to play it to get the position you are after for the next ball(s)

To get myself out of the rut of always ending up on the cushion was to start playing the cue ball a little higher to roll though more on nearly every shot where the cushion was beckoning
Then adjusting this as I gained knowledge of how I play and how much I need to get the position of the cue ball.
Then I practised and gained consistency of the screw back and the screw back to bounce off the cushion.
A coach gave me some exercises to gain that sweet range (distance from cushion and from the centre line), by screw back and by rolling forward.
no magic wand, just time at the table
good luck

[jonny66]

What was the routine Dean? I hate being on the cushion, pink from near the middle pocket is the worst.

[DeanH]

blue, pink and black screw to the cushion and back out for the reds area into the sweet zone
he gave me that as I had trouble controlling the deep screw - I added myself the run-through to cushion and back to the zone from the same three colours - then once I started to get a feel I moved to the baulk colours and round two, etc. cushions, etc.

[itsnoteasy]

Hitting the cue ball where you intended, is pretty much a necessity to get It to go where you want. Like picking the line I think we can all judge pace reasonably well but It's tough to learn where the cue balls going if you are hitting it differently all the time. It doesn't take a lot ,half a tip high or low or left or right and the cue balls running away or not travelling.
Another thing is cueing tempo, if thats different all the time you will get different results, it makes a hell of a difference when you have a very repetitive cueing tempo, for some reason this isn't talked about much, maybe it's linked to timing and that seems to get all the attention,so maybe it's not that important but it was to my game.

[DeanH]

ace man - one silver-lining, is that once you can get the cue ball to stop off the cushion; that when you do end on the cushion (by yourself or your opponent) you know how to play them for all the practise you had for all those years :wink:
now, when I am on the cushion I am not bothered or frustrated

[jonny66]

Hitting the cue ball where you intended, is pretty much a necessity to get It to go where you want. Like picking the line I think we can all judge pace reasonably well but It's tough to learn where the cue balls going if you are hitting it differently all the time. It doesn't take a lot ,half a tip high or low or left or right and the cue balls running away or not travelling.
Another thing is cueing tempo, if thats different all the time you will get different results, it makes a hell of a difference when you have a very repetitive cueing tempo, for some reason this isn't talked about much, maybe it's linked to timing and that seems to get all the attention,so maybe it's not that important but it was to my game.

I think cue tempo is timing, you know sometimes you start moving the cue a little slower and you hit the ball nice and sweet, it feels effortless and even though you didn't hit the ball hard, it makes a lovely sound as it hits the back of the pocket, that sound that every snooker player loves to hear.

[Byrom]

John parrot was probably the best player I have seen at playing off a cushion. Maybe he should not have been there in the first place mind and that is key - work on how to avoid ending up there.

I am confident at this type of shot but I change technique for the shot and don't know if its right or wrong or what the textbook tells you I only know it works for me

- firstly I pick out the line then get down as normal - I pull the cue back in one action pause and strike through positively and hold the cue a little firmer. This is one of the shots where I concentrate on the white - I look at the white when striking not the OB the line of the shot is in my peripheral vision. I do this because you have to hit this shot sweet and accurate because you can not see enough of the white properly.

[Ramon]

How many of you guys have trouble leaving yourself tight on cushion very often?
Myself, after 15 years of cue sports, one would think that I'd learn to avoid the cushion, but no. Regardless of tables, conditions...etc, I'm bound to leave myself tight on cushion or close to it several times per frame.

Now I've tried hitting extra cushion, reducing tempo, increasing tempo, side, no side...etc. End result, is that I'm right on cushion faced with a tough shot that even pro's don't make that often.
Lately I've put my ego aside and started playing safety on those.
Somehow I'm able to leave myself so awkward on blue for example that only option is to play dead weight from tight on cushion to continue the break. Absolutely awful.

Most disappointing is when you play a shot which appears to look nice. Cue ball travels a lot, looks like you recovered position nicely, and then the damn white thing lands on top of the cushion...again...despite traveling several metres...

I do think that cue ball tight on cushion is probably #1 reason for end of break.

You already got some good tips here .

Use the cushion more often for your positional play ( as already mentioned above ) .
( Not sure , but i think pottr was the one who also suggested this somewhere in this forum )

Try practice to get more control over your scrwback shots.
Especially stun scrwback shots.

This is one of the routine i practice sometimes. (poor quality photo, i did'nt took it).
Is one of the most difficult routines (for amateurs as well as pros).
you gonna have to pott a red followed by a color.

(one red-one colour-one red-one color.......... until you clear the table).
Your are not allowed to hit the cushion with CB .
Your are not allowed to use the cushion with CB to get back to other side of the table either .
( once the CB hits the cushion , that would be the end of your journey ) .

It's a good routine to learn you get more control over your stun scrwback / stun R T shots .
very useful during break building , imo .


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[ace man]

ace man - one silver-lining, is that once you can get the cue ball to stop off the cushion; that when you do end on the cushion (by yourself or your opponent) you know how to play them for all the practise you had for all those years :wink:
now, when I am on the cushion I am not bothered or frustrated

Haha, yes. Unfortunately, doesn't work like that. By that logic, pro players who rarely if ever end up tight on cushion should be horrible at those shots. But we know they're not.
I do pot my share of those. However, if there's pressure on and lots of reds around, I don't trust my technique enough on those shots. Like johnny66 mentioned, pink from tight on cushion is the worst...perhaps shots like that are too demanding technically for almost anyone.
Of course, guys who are worse than me practically live on cushion. But they're not frustrated by it, probably because they never gave it much thought.

[ace man]

@Ramon, thanks for your suggestion, but this routine you posted is far too difficult.
With no cushion allowed, much better players than me would struggle to clear 2 or 3 reds or so consistently. I'm not that bad myself, had quite a few 50s playing snooker, even under tournament conditions...but this is way way out of my league.
This is more for pros and top level amateurs, might be challenging, even for them.

[throtts]

On the cush, been there a long time back. Its due to the learning curve of positional play.

Practice with just the black on the spot playing the cue ball off the top cushion to play the black again. Its boring but you will learn what a big difference i/2 a tip down or up the cue ball makes to where that cue ball finishes. Remember, you must cue through the cue ball to get the desired result on all shots, no decelerating.

When you learn it and that penny finally drops you will wonder what all the fuss was about..It just takes hours and hours of practice

[Ramon]

@Ramon, thanks for your suggestion, but this routine you posted is far too difficult.
With no cushion allowed, much better players than me would struggle to clear 2 or 3 reds or so consistently. I'm not that bad myself, had quite a few 50s playing snooker, even under tournament conditions...but this is way way out of my league.
This is more for pros and top level amateurs, might be challenging, even for them.

It's indeed one of the most difficult routines !!:snooker:

[Byrom]

Good routine - thanks for posting it - still not been able to do it yet. Got down to the last couple of balls each side a few times and then could not avoid the cushion. Wondered if anyone had managed it?

[tomwalker147]

Hi Aceman, I know this is incredibly simple but just practice the normal line up, I really can't think of a better drill for this.