cueitis

[burny147]

Hi everybody,
In the last 6 monthes my friend has developed cueitis.
He is finding it increasingly difficult to strike the cueball and his confidence is rock bottom.
If anybody has any experience of this and advice on how to get rid of it would be a great help.
Thanks.

[Acrowot]

Is this a new disease?

This is first time have ever heard of cueitis. Take up darts.
:snooker:

[jrc750]

I thought cueitis was buying too many cues

[hotpot]

yes i have sufferd from this a few years ago but it was mainly when i was near the cush , i just couldnt hit seem to hit the white when i wanted to .

The only advise i can give that helped me is to forget about form , results or how your playing atc .

Just play with no back pause and hit the white when you intend to no matter of the end result as things will probably get worse before they get better .

Its all in the mind , and its playing on his mind and will continue to do so until he can learn to relax on the shot again without tensing up .

So my advise would be to just concentrate on delivering the cue aand nothing else , in the end it will come .

[Slasher]

Hi everybody,
In the last 6 monthes my friend has developed cueitis.
He is finding it increasingly difficult to strike the cueball and his confidence is rock bottom.
If anybody has any experience of this and advice on how to get rid of it would be a great help.
Thanks.

Seek professional help soon, this happened to a friend of mine that was on the verge of turning pro and it ruined his career, he developed the "yips" and could not pull the trigger. This also happened to a pro player and it basically finished him.

[wyt147]

yes i have sufferd from this a few years ago but it was mainly when i was near the cush , i just couldnt hit seem to hit the white when i wanted to .

The only advise i can give that helped me is to forget about form , results or how your playing atc .

Just play with no back pause and hit the white when you intend to no matter of the end result as things will probably get worse before they get better .

Its all in the mind , and its playing on his mind and will continue to do so until he can learn to relax on the shot again without tensing up .

So my advise would be to just concentrate on delivering the cue aand nothing else , in the end it will come .

Spot on.

Ferrett took photos of my famous twitch at Pontins....

It can be painful on times. It does seem to revolve around my eyesight and the pause with me and I have had my muscles in my arm lock up as I try to deliver the cue. It also appears to be worse around the cushion as hotpot mentions.

Horrible, horrible.

It is, I am sure all in the mind though.

I did take a rest from the game and it seemed to be easier when I came back but it is still there and some days are worse than others.

I took up pool and noticed that the twitch is more subtle which leads me to think my eyes and distance viewing are part of the problem.

My sympathies to anyone with the same problem.

[burny147]

thanks for advice, nice to see everyone on here does'nt think they're a comedian!!!!

[jaffaboy]

some good advice ,wouldnt wish it on anyone .

[DeanH]

cueitis

thanks for advice, nice to see everyone on here does'nt think they're a comedian!!!!

well, some do but no-one has told them that they are not

Back to your friend, many years ago I had a similar experience, a twitch and a muscle-lock that ruined my cue action totally.
After some months I actually went to the doctor as I had pain in the elbow upto the shoulder. He diagnosed Tennis Elbow with a touch of Golf Elbow (Tennis - outside tendon, golf - inside tendon).
After some usual treatment attempts (injections, physio, etc.) nothing helped and I was resigned to the fact that I will ahve to live with this my whole life. I then happen to start talking to a stranger on a train and he mentioned acupuncture, so I went to my doctor and yes I could have acupuncture on the old NHS, I was booked in for six sessions initally but after the fifth I was ok and I cancelled th sixth.
That was 10 years ago and the elbows have not given me any major problems since.
I am not saying that your friend has anything medical/physical wrong as I did and I seriously hope not :-)
Also what I found that helped was playing pool the bad actioned was not as pronounced and playing pool gave me confidence and time to develop the cue action back again.
All the best
DeanH

[DeanH]

drink a few before

It was when I had severe pain lifting the pint glass that eventually made me go to the doctor in the first place

[burny147]

Its worse when he drinks, its got nothing to do with pressure it happens when we are practicing. Patsy Fagan had it when using the rest, he had to stop and play a different shot. Dave Harold had a problem and i know 2 other lads who play in our league who have had problems. Its not bad habits either my mate has played for 20 years and is a natural player. Sounds like grouch gets a twitch on the big shots to me!!!

[Acrowot]

I never had dartitis when I played darts, but after many years of playing, used to have trouble when scoring. Whenever had to chalk a three in the score, used to have a similar problem and the chalk did not want to mark the board ..... I used to twitch and was very embarrasing, especially when doing it on stage. Would take quite a bit of time, just to chalk the figure three!
:snooker:

[Acrowot]

One of the best players I had the pleasure of playing against and with, got dartitis and it was very sad to watch him trying to play. He was one of the best ton scorers, double top finishers and bull finishers I ever saw play.
:snooker:

[GravityCue]

Hi everybody,
In the last 6 monthes my friend has developed cueitis.
He is finding it increasingly difficult to strike the cueball and his confidence is rock bottom.
If anybody has any experience of this and advice on how to get rid of it would be a great help.
Thanks.

Hi Burny147.

It goes without saying this is a horrible thing to happen to any player.

I had the job of trying to work this out of a top junior player some months back, and fortunately, after fearing that I wasn't going to be able to help, and after some very close analysis, I noticed that his eyes where straying back towards his cue and the cue ball, roughly around the time he was beginning the delivery of his cue. It was only for a split second, but enough to completely destroy his action, confidence, and everything else. I then got him to do everything in his power to keep his eyes fixed on the object ball at the critical stage (that was suitable to him) in his action and the problem disappeared there and then, and hasn't returned since. The problem was that his hand was following what his eyes where doing, so when his eyes looked down, his cue hand would hesitate accordingly.

Ask your friend to confirm to himself at what point he prefers to look up to the object ball for the last time before delivering the cue. When he is happy with his decision, advise him to focus completely on the object ball from there on, without even a hint of his eyes straying elsewhere.

I can make no promises but I really hope this helps.

Cheers.
Neil.

[dantuck_7]

Yep there could be a lot of things causing this, I was extremely slow a few years back and was verging on the same problem. The feeling I remember is that the more effort I would put into playing the shot the less likely I was of actually being able to deliver the cue.

It might sound very mad and obviously isn't a technical solution! but you could maybe advise him to have a practise one lunchtime (when no one else is around), and literally knock a few balls around for the fun of it (no feathering, just hitting bals, not caring whether they go in or not, not even going for pots at this point, just whacking the cue-ball of 3 cushions if you feel like it!). Snooker isn't life or death so what this exercise might do is to try and remove that fear that has sub-consciously been attached to playing. See how that goes for 10 minutes, then maybe have another 10 minutes playing with a reduced cue-action, just say a single feather, no pause on back swing (again not caring whether the pot is made, this is purely hitting balls around).

Hopefully this would start to rejig the mindset. The tricky part (where a pro-coach comes in) is how to get the match game back... It could also be what Neil has mentionned above so have a look for this as well, it maybe that your friend needs to rebuild his cue-action completely. If so, get a coaching session for a couple of hours, Neil or Nic Barrow are very good at spotting things and analysing quite deeply what is the root causes of these problems.