Aiming woes

[canuck]

hey snooker gurus. Reading your posts I feel very humbled.

I'm really a beginner in this game by your standards and I notice that my progress is not as fast as I expect it to be.

I think I have major issues with my aiming skills. I've been working on my cueing technique and I am gaining consistency with long straight pots, so I'm happy there. However, my medium range aiming skills during typical break building are awful. I can typically sink a red and a colour, sometimes two reds and two colors in a single break. Rarely more than that. Oftentimes I miss shots that are really easy and end up with pitful breaks.

The trouble is, no matter how much time I invest in trying to improve my aiming skills I make little to no progress. I'm wondering if magic balls, laser guides and other gizmos helped anyone here with their aiming consistency. Is there any practice drills that target aiming skills specifically?

As I said, I believe my cueing isn't a problem. Simply because I can pot a straight or a small angle shot without difficulty even when the distance is large. But once more acute angles appear, I get it all messed up and end up back in the chair before I know it.

Please, please give some advice.

[reverse_side]

Hi again Canuck, I see you're online at the mo so I'll be brief.... do you think that you might be sighting or basically doing something different on a perceived easier shot than on a longer "more difficult" pot. I can sometime miss an easier shot if there's less room round a table coz I can't "walk into" the shot and therefore lose some accuracy. What's your shot preparation like? Do you imagine a "ghost ball" in front of the oject ball, can a friend place a real ball, on the potting angle and then move it out of the way to practice the absolute accurate angle?

over 2u squire.

[canuck]

reverse_side,
I use the "ghost ball" theory to determine the potting angle. However, I do find that any potting attempt with the angle over 30 degrees is at best an inconsistent experience for me. I find that the more acute the angle the harder it is for me to visualise the "ghost ball".

I did practice by placing a real ball in the spot where the cueball is supposed to make contact. Obviously, I was able to pot the majority of the shots then. However, once I stopped placing a ball in the "ghost ball" spot my aim showed little improvement.

Also I find that even the "ghost ball" theory tends to break down when you play a shot with a considerable strength. Playing shots like the cannon off the black onto the reds, I screw up 80% of the time because even if I judge the angles accurately, the force of the shot displaces the black ball just enough to make the shot miss. Of course when I try to compensate for that phenomenon, I typically overcompensate and end up on the other side of the pocket.

Does anyone use a "fractional overlap" or some other technique to improve your aim accuracy?

I feel I need a breakthrough in my aiming skills to have a decent snooker experience though I find american pool a bit on an easy side because the tolerances are so large. In other words, too good to play casual pool but not quite good enough to play snooker in a club. Very frustrating.

[reverse_side]

you know your stuff canuck & you're an xlnt candidate for improvement, I'm off out to a match now but hopefully I'll come back and there'll be some helpful posts for you. (To fknow how to improve, you first need an accurate appraisal of where you are and what you're doing right & wrong)

ttfn

(what I can say is that if your technique is solid and repeatable, you can start to climb the mountain properly; when the balls begin dropping consistently, the angles start becoming second nature; know EXACTLY what you mean about pack splitting off the black... it aint easy)

[hai3000]

Potting balls is most important ability in snooker, if you cannot pot the balls, all other advance technique is not worth a penny.

Through that I'm very new to snooker, I've play it for only some days but I 've taken some 40 breaks. It's because I've play pool and billiard for nearly 20 year. Potting snooker balls is much more difficult than pool balls but it's more easy when you have the inctinct of potting ball.

Every technique like ghost ball, laser that you're using is technique for new player, you must use that technique to develope your potting instinct. I think every pro potting ball using their instinct, not other technique

Your cueing technique is good when you can take long straight pots. I think that you can improve your potting instinct by those potting excercises like line-up. It's the fastest way to success.

I'm dreamming about my first century break, and I hope that you have same dream like me.

Best regards.

PS: i'm reading your post too late, perhap you're advanced player now

[Juza]

This answer is also coming a bit late because i joined the forum today but hope it helps and also hope you can read my english .

I'm afraid that only way to learn to pot balls is constant practice. That is the only way to 'keep your eye in' and learn potting angels.

One way to spot potting angle ( used by Matthew Stevens) is to put your cue directly in behind the object ball and object pocket. This is how you get the spot from object ball you need to hit.

Hope this helps.

[viv]

Something that may help is firstly the sighting is done while standing up and your judgment is as good as most players normally its the going down where things go wrong so try after you decide where you need to hit the ball to pot it, to keep your eye on that as you go down and i don't mean looking at the object ball i mean the part you decided you needed to hit to get the pot,make sure you go forward as you drop down don't swivel your hips then keep your head down no movement whatsoever good luck.

[taz147]

Don't know if this is your problem but lots of people when aiming for acute angles (thin cuts etc) still aim the middle of the cueball at the perceived contact point when in fact that is not the point of aim as it is the outside of the cueball making contact with the aiming point. Also easy shots are often missed because people take them for granted and don't concentrate like they would for tougher shots.

[legod]

This answer is also coming a bit late because i joined the forum today but hope it helps and also hope you can read my english .

I'm afraid that only way to learn to pot balls is constant practice. That is the only way to 'keep your eye in' and learn potting angels.

One way to spot potting angle ( used by Matthew Stevens) is to put your cue directly in behind the object ball and object pocket. This is how you get the spot from object ball you need to hit.

Hope this helps.

The aiming technique used by Matthew Stevens described above needs a bit more explanation otherwise you will find yourself missing.

For long shots and thin cuts, you do occasionally see players walk around the table behind the line intersecting the object ball and the pocket. What they are doing is looking for the point on the object ball that is furthest away from the pocket. This is the CONTACT point - the point at which the cue ball must contact the object ball to send it in the pocket. It is important to understand that the contact point is NOT the AIMING point. The only time that these two points are the same is when the pot is dead straight.
To find the aiming point, place another ball down so that it is touching the contact point of the object ball (the two balls should form a plant into the pocket). Imagine this 2nd ball to be the "ghost cue ball" - in other words, this ball now occupies the path of the cue ball at the moment the cue ball makes contact with the object ball. For a plain ball shot, the AIMING point will be a line directly through the middle of this "ghost" cue ball.
If the pot is at a slight angle, this line will actually intersect the object ball. For a thin cut, the line will miss the object ball altogether (you will effectively be aiming the centre of the cue ball towards a cushion).

The above explanation is better explained by diagrams. You will find these in any good instructional book on snooker or pool. Obviously you can't use the above "ghost ball" technique in a match but it's worth looking at once or twice in practice when you are first learning potting angles. It may help you to visualise the shot if you understand a little bit of the geometry involved.


One other thing of interest is due to slight friction between the balls, the above method of finding the aiming point isn't 100% accurate. Joe Davis explains this in his book "How I Play Snooker". The best demonstration of this is when you see players get a "kick" or a heavy contact and they end up undercutting the pot. The amount of friction we are talking about is very very slight but it may just be enough to cause the pot to be missed when the object ball is a long distance away from the pocket. Perhaps modern day balls have less friction between them than the balls did in Joe Davis' day, I don't know.

Really, the way to learn potting is by trial and error. You will learn to pot "from memory".

Teach yourself a strict routine of visualising and lining up the shot BEFORE you get down to play the shot. There should be no adjustment to your aim once you are down on the table. Once you have chosen your line of aim, the most important thing is keep your head down and cue straight so that you actually hit the ball in the intended direction. From the beginning of your final pause before striking until the end of your follow-through, you eyes should be focussed rigidly on the aiming point.

[Juza]

Very good post Legod.

Sighting is all about memory as you said. It is very difficult to aim on a single 'spot' on the object ball. It is important to stand behind the line of aim and visualize the angle you need to hit the object ball. This is where you need so much practice to know where to hit and then remember where to hit.

[Whirlbreeze]

Hi all,

Speaking about "potting from memory", I`ve got some questions myself.

I used to play alot of snooker , even got onto the competitive side of it. However, I "gave up " the game 7 years back. It just gets so frustrating. I always miss the SIMPLE crucial shots during breaks.

Started playing 6 mths and was on to doing very consistant 20 - 30 breaks missing some simple shot along the way to end good potiential breaks. I was playing about 6 to 8 hours almost everyday. how do i put it, I would say i progressed at a rather good pace (at least to me), but the standard just stops there. I didnt progress any further. if fact, i got worse. that was when i gave up.

Presently, I started playing the game again. the funny thing is, i`m at this point where i`m progressing very quickly again. It`s like going in circles, i`m back at square 1. Miss some SIMPLE pot to end potientially good breaks AGAIN. I plan sometime 3 - 4 pots away. Visualizing the breaks before I play them.

I guess I`ve narrowed down my problem to accuratecy. I`m never consistant. recently, my approach to potting has changed, and it has made me "sharper". What I do is play the shot virtually a few times in my head, visualizing how the cue ball should travel and how the object ball should react before going down for the shot. I don`t use english for 98% of my shots. But my breaks always end on some SIMPLE shot.

I am very curious about Memory potting. From my understanding, it`s like, going down for a shot without visualizing the shot first? eg. a straight pot? I don`t seem to be able to memorize any shot that`s not straight. Please help me on this or and suggestions on potting that might help me? I feel stagnent again.

Thanks.

[Whirlbreeze]

can anyone help me with this? Hope you guys understand the problem I face.

Thanks.

[kester]

Hi there Whirlbreeze,
Don't know if this is your problem but i had the same thing happen to me and i found out that my stance wasn't lined up the same on every shot i've since moved so that my leg on my cueing arm side is directly in line with my aiming point, it put my angles out for a few weeks but i'm now potting more consistantly than ever before.
Hope this helps.

[Whirlbreeze]

Hi Kester,

You might be right. Will play some games soon to check my stance. I paid attention to everything, kinda left my stance out.

[JC...]

possibly of help??

Hi i noticed ur problem and i feel i may have a little bit of advice for you.

One thing alot of us may have noticed by now, and may have a fair bit of trouble with, is that we can seem to pot the harder shots yet we find ourselves missing an easy pot straight after..

The reason that i beleive that this happens comes down to is the respect we give our shots.

Long pots we are careful and take time to visulise the shot a couple of times and for most of us the end result is satsifactory and we are quite pleased.

But i know the reason I miss the easy pots is beacause i don't give the
shot the same respect as i would give to a harder pot.. the end result not being so good..

Therefore, i feel to try and stop this happening would be to try and getting into the habit of preparing the EXACT SAME way for ALL shots and trying to keep what ever technique you use consitently as much as you can..


Hope this helps...



JC...