Sight Right Snooker Aid..

[coomsey76]

Interesting stuff Peter......

Have you had this set up in the club??

Or did you just just adjust your stance with the feed back you got from doing it at home and then go to the club??

[cazmac1]

Interesting stuff Peter......

Have you had this set up in the club??

Or did you just just adjust your stance with the feed back you got from doing it at home and then go to the club??

Hi Jim, I have only set it up at home, I will set it up and film it properly next weekend I will be able to show the line of aim through object ball and white ball all the way to the pocket. What I will then do is pot ten long blues and make a note of what pot went in and then watch the video and see what is going on and make adjustments there and then.

All I did when I last time I played was to make a conscious effort to pull the cue tight in to my chest as I went down on the shot. The funny thing about what I see on the video it that I all ways thought my cuing was off to the other side. So I was really shocked, and there Is no way I could have found this out with out using dartfish or something like that. The good thing is that if you already have a camcorder you could set this up for for the cost of the laser, only £20. The laser I brought has shot up in price but this one is just as good and will do the job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISA...ht_2657wt_1139

Just want to add that this set up is not to help you cue straighter or to find your point of aim it is to show whether your cue is on the line of aim when in the address position. This is at the heart of your basic set up and if this is wrong no matter how much practice you put in you will never improve.

[itsnoteasy]

thanks for posting that, its very interesting, i have loads swirling around my head about it lol. like when you deliver the cue does it travel straight down the "sighting" paper line, if it does are you pulling the cue back onto the correct line during the stroke, also if you can cue straight down the sighting line isnt that more important, as you can then deliver a straight cue which is basically all snooker is about, as sighting can be adjusted by memory of how thick or thin you hit similar shots in the past but if you dont deliver the cue straight constantly nothing else will fall in to place, i am really looking forward to the next video and how the adjustments carry forward, thanks again.

[cazmac1]

thanks for posting that, its very interesting, i have loads swirling around my head about it lol. like when you deliver the cue does it travel straight down the "sighting" paper line, if it does are you pulling the cue back onto the correct line during the stroke, also if you can cue straight down the sighting line isnt that more important, as you can then deliver a straight cue which is basically all snooker is about, as sighting can be adjusted by memory of how thick or thin you hit similar shots in the past but if you dont deliver the cue straight constantly nothing else will fall in to place, i am really looking forward to the next video and how the adjustments carry forward, thanks again.

This is my take on what I learned so far.
First of all there is nothing wrong with my sighting of the shot, my eyes are on the correct line of the shot. the problem is when I get in to my address position the cue is not on the line of aim. Now before I done this I could only see the part of the cue in front of me and in the address position it looks like the cue is perfectly straight. If I was able to put the cue down on the table I would imagine that the laser would be hitting the cue on the part that's in my vision. It won't be dead centre but it would be on the cue all the same. The margins for error are so small in this game that to have 1/2 an inch error at the butt is massive. I'm sure that someone a bit smarter than be would be able to work out what my margin of error was for each given pot distance. to the point where he could give me a pot success percentage based on any given shot, excluding other factors of course. What I was most please with was that I could see that I was delivering the cue very straight with little lateral movement and I was constant in may error. This tells me that is a technical error that can be corrected. I sure that I will be able to make some improvements myself, but would still like to visit Stephen Feeny. As he has had a lot of success with some very good players so must know what he is taking about. Still this is a great cost effective and simple way of checking your own line issues. It would be interesting for someone else on the forum to repeat my experiment and we could compare results.

[itsnoteasy]

How do you reckon the front part of the cue you can see is on line yet the back end is out, considering its all connected. Sorry for all the questions but i am quite geeky and find it all quite compelling lol.

[cazmac1]

Deleted repeat post

[cazmac1]

How do you reckon the front part of the cue you can see is on line yet the back end is out, considering its all connected. Sorry for all the questions but i am quite geeky and find it all quite compelling lol.

The the tip of the cue is on the line of the laser, the further back you travel towards the butt the line start to move across the cue. Or should I say the cue crosses the line of the laser, the point is the the cue needs to be fully on the line from tip to butt in order to deliver the cue on the line of aim. I will try to highlight this in my second video. Once again I have to repeat, this is just a tool to highlight weather your cue is on the line of the shot. There are many other factors that can cause the cue to come off the line like picking the wrong potting angle. I'm not a coach but have built up my knowledge over 30 years of playing snooker. I wish I had these kind of tools in my youth as it would have saved me a lot of wasted practice time trying to perfect something which was so fundamentally flawed. Of course a good coach could eventually spot this fault and correct it especially with the programs such as dart fish. When I went to de hill we discussed this part of my game and given more time I'm sure Del would have spotted the problem and corrected it. The beauty of this is it as plain as the nose on your head and there is not need to have to visualise what is going on and you can play back the video of each battery of shots until you get it to work. if you have the time you could spend all week just doing this without the expense of a coach!

PS Del, said that I had a classic text book stance and that he couldn't understand why I wasn't slamming the balls in "now I know"

[alabadi]

very intersesting video Caz , i am sure i have the same problem as you this is why i am considering either getting a SightRight making one myself or going to get coaching on it.

i think that i need to prove to myself that this is the case same as you did with the video and laser. i use a spotted cueball and can tell that i am putting unintentianal left hand side on delivery just by seeing the cueball spinning. i do initially line up to the centre so either i am cueing across the ball or there is some movement in my cueing arm on delivery.

either way i need to make sure before i start fiddling with setup that might cause more damage than good.

if i get the opportunity to video myself i will upload it to the forum so we can compare results.

I think this is a great idea that players take videos of themself with a problem and upload them here, then once they have found solutions re-upload another video showing the progress and then sharing the knowledge with other members.

great stuff Cazmac i look forward to your next video.

Alabbadi

[nrage]

How do you reckon the front part of the cue you can see is on line yet the back end is out, considering its all connected. Sorry for all the questions but i am quite geeky and find it all quite compelling lol.

@Caz - very cool idea/setup mate

@itsnoteasy - imagine a top down view of the cue and laser. Imagine it set up so the the laser is cutting through the tip of the cue on the extreme right hand side/edge, imagine the the cue is pointing slightly left of straight and so angled from left to right across the laser. So, as you follow the cue back you will see the laser line move slowly left across the cue until at some point (probably 1/3 - 3/4 the length of the cue back from the tip - behind Caz's head and eyes) the laser is now outside the left hand side of the cue. By the time you reach the butt of the cue the laser is 1/2 and inch to the left of the butt.

[Terry Davidson]

cazmac:

Very, very good...I'm going to see if I can get one of those drape lasers and try it out here with myself first and I think it will work for me and then move onto students. Not sure if I'll have to turn off the table lighting or not in order to video the back of the cue with the laser showing on it but it's worth a try.

By the way, this can be done using Dartfish just by drawing a line down the line of aim and then having the player move onto the shot. I'm going to have to get out my computer with the Dartfish on it and give that a try too and see which method works best

Terry

[cazmac1]

cazmac:

Very, very good...I'm going to see if I can get one of those drape lasers and try it out here with myself first and I think it will work for me and then move onto students. Not sure if I'll have to turn off the table lighting or not in order to video the back of the cue with the laser showing on it but it's worth a try.

By the way, this can be done using Dartfish just by drawing a line down the line of aim and then having the player move onto the shot. I'm going to have to get out my computer with the Dartfish on it and give that a try too and see which method works best

Terry

Thanks for all the positive comments guy's, Hi terry the laser I'm using is a very cheap one and therefore don't work too well in bright light, There are stronger lasers on the market which will show up well in brighter light. That said you should still be able to see this laser with the table lights on especially on the back of the arm and cue.

[itsnoteasy]

@Caz - very cool idea/setup mate

@itsnoteasy - imagine a top down view of the cue and laser. Imagine it set up so the the laser is cutting through the tip of the cue on the extreme right hand side/edge, imagine the the cue is pointing slightly left of straight and so angled from left to right across the laser. So, as you follow the cue back you will see the laser line move slowly left across the cue until at some point (probably 1/3 - 3/4 the length of the cue back from the tip - behind Caz's head and eyes) the laser is now outside the left hand side of the cue. By the time you reach the butt of the cue the laser is 1/2 and inch to the left of the butt.

This is the point i was trying to make, Caz had laser set up to run right through his "sightrite" line,he said he was getting down right on line which means his cue was straight in line with sightrite and therefore straight in line with the laser, this can not be the case,thats why i asked if the cue was getting pulled back online during the stroke, he may think he is bang online, but as i said the back end is connected to the front end so it can not be the case, i realise we are talking small margins here but offline is offline and i believe he is either cueing very slightly across the line or is pulling the cue back in line during the follow through. I should say i am pish at snooker and these are just my thoughts on the problem and in no way should be taken to heart. What Caz is doing i think is a fantastic help, better than computer analysis as its instant feedback, and you can be set up perfectly on line every time.

[cazmac1]

This is the point i was trying to make, Caz had laser set up to run right through his "sightrite" line,he said he was getting down right on line which means his cue was straight in line with sightrite and therefore straight in line with the laser, this can not be the case,thats why i asked if the cue was getting pulled back online during the stroke, he may think he is bang online, but as i said the back end is connected to the front end so it can not be the case, i realise we are talking small margins here but offline is offline and i believe he is either cueing very slightly across the line or is pulling the cue back in line during the follow through. I should say i am pish at snooker and these are just my thoughts on the problem and in no way should be taken to heart. What Caz is doing i think is a fantastic help, better than computer analysis as its instant feedback, and you can be set up perfectly on line every time.

Let me phrase it different then my eyes looking along my sight device are looking directly straight ahead as the line is not broken, and my cue APPEARS to be on line. You can see quite clearly from the laser line that I push the cue through straight and do not deviate left or right. yet in the front it appears to be straight. There might be more going on than meets the eye (excuse the pun)I will find at more when I have a chance to get down the club and set every thing up and get a few hours practice in.

[nrage]

This is the point i was trying to make, Caz had laser set up to run right through his "sightrite" line,he said he was getting down right on line which means his cue was straight in line with sightrite and therefore straight in line with the laser, this can not be the case,thats why i asked if the cue was getting pulled back online during the stroke, he may think he is bang online, but as i said the back end is connected to the front end so it can not be the case, i realise we are talking small margins here but offline is offline and i believe he is either cueing very slightly across the line or is pulling the cue back in line during the follow through. I should say i am pish at snooker and these are just my thoughts on the problem and in no way should be taken to heart. What Caz is doing i think is a fantastic help, better than computer analysis as its instant feedback, and you can be set up perfectly on line every time.

That's what I was trying to say. He is cueing very slightly across the line from right to left. The butt is to the left of the line, the tip to the right. But, the key point here is that the length of cue that Caz can see, in front of his head, is all partially on the line (because a cue is much wider than a laser line), the laser line is on the cue for the entire distance Caz can see. The margin of error here is only slight, which is why it's not "visible" to Caz in the section of cue ahead of his eyes. But is visible at the butt of the cue.

[cazmac1]

That's what I was trying to say. He is cueing very slightly across the line from right to left. The butt is to the left of the line, the tip to the right. But, the key point here is that the length of cue that Caz can see, in front of his head, is all partially on the line (because a cue is much wider than a laser line), the laser line is on the cue for the entire distance Caz can see. The margin of error here is only slight, which is why it's not "visible" to Caz in the section of cue ahead of his eyes. But is visible at the butt of the cue.

You got it spot on Nrage. I can't wait to start working on this problem and see what impact it has on my standard. It is very difficult to see if the front of cue is a few millimetres of line, you just can't see it. and is not something you can correct while playing. It is going to take a hell of a lot of hard work for me to get the cue on line and the to work that into my stance so it becomes second nature. But if I can what a confidence boost knowing that the cue is on line every single shot????