Technical Issues

[mhughes34]

Hi

I've been playin snooker for a few years now, and am in need of technical help. I used to look at the cue ball as I got down to cue, then looked at the cue ball as I struck it. Is this right?? Most people say golf/snooker are similar, but they differ in respect that in snooker you're supposed to look at the target (object ball) as you make contact, whereas in golf you look at where your hitting (golf ball) as you make contact.

So to sum up, where should I be lookin as I get down to cue?? And when I pull the cue back should I look at the white ball, or object ball?? Or even look at the white ball as I pull the cue back, and look at the object ball as I deliver the cue??

HELP!!

[The Statman]

It's a strange one. Apparently you are supposed to be looking at the object ball at the moment you strike the white, but I wouldn't worry too much about that. Apparently it's pretty 50:50 the number of players that do each, anyway.

I once heard Nic Barrow say that while that was probably sound advice, it could be more harmful for someone who has learnt to play, as lots of us did, by just knocking balls around with no formal coaching and got into the habit of looking at the white. If you think about it, when you very very first started you would have to look at the white in order to hit it at all!

He also said that almost all of the directional aim was in the preparation and line-up for the shot, so in theory at least it shouldn't matter where you look if you've done the preparatory work correctly.

I don't know what you should believe, though!

[nrage]

My personal opinion, based on my own personal experience, is that I pot more balls when I look at the object ball, specifically the exact spot on the object ball where I want to make contact.

The typical recommendation is to look at the object ball as you get down on a shot, to look to/from the white and object ball as you feather, on the front pause look at the white, and during the last backswing and/or on the back pause, look at the object ball and push through with your eyes fixed on the object ball.

The reason for this, is the theory that your hands will 'follow' your eyes to a certain extent. So, even if you get down on a shot perfectly straight, if you're looking to the left or right of the object ball (at a pocket for example) you're eyes influence your hands and cause you to steer the white in the direction you're looking, and you miss the pot.

It doesn't seem to matter that the point of impact is usually itself not on the line of aim, the brain seems to do the necessary adjustment and feed this information to the brain, which then draws the line of aim and instructs the hands to follow it.

Most people think of the line of aim as going from the white to the object ball, or a ghost ball in contact with the object ball, but a thought which just came to me is that the line of aim could be said to come right back to your grip hand. If you think of it like that, you can imagine 4 points on the line of aim. Grip hand, bridge hand V, white ball, and object ball ghost ball. All you have to do is ensure those 4 points all are initially on the line of aim, then during the stroke keep the grip hand on that line of aim.

If you ensure the bridge and grip start on the line of aim, then all you need to do is keep the object ball/ghost ball point in mind and push the grip through the other 2 points, to that point. I'm going to try imagining this 4 pointed line of aim at my next practice and see if it helps at all.

[trevs1]

My personal opinion, based on my own personal experience, is that I pot more balls when I look at the object ball, specifically the exact spot on the object ball where I want to make contact.

The typical recommendation is to look at the object ball as you get down on a shot, to look to/from the white and object ball as you feather, on the front pause look at the white, and during the last backswing and/or on the back pause, look at the object ball and push through with your eyes fixed on the object ball. The eyes should rise up to object ball as the cue starts delivery

The reason for this, is the theory that your hands will 'follow' your eyes to a certain extent. So, even if you get down on a shot perfectly straight, if you're looking to the left or right of the object ball (at a pocket for example) you're eyes influence your hands and cause you to steer the white in the direction you're looking, and you miss the pot.

It doesn't seem to matter that the point of impact is usually itself not on the line of aim, the brain seems to do the necessary adjustment and feed this information to the brain, which then draws the line of aim and instructs the hands to follow it.

Most people think of the line of aim as going from the white to the object ball, or a ghost ball in contact with the object ball, but a thought which just came to me is that the line of aim could be said to come right back to your grip hand. If you think of it like that, you can imagine 4 points on the line of aim. Grip hand, bridge hand V, white ball, and object ball ghost ball. All you have to do is ensure those 4 points all are initially on the line of aim, then during the stroke keep the grip hand on that line of aim. Line of aim is from white to object ball. The rest is about good technique to push the cue straight.

If you ensure the bridge and grip start on the line of aim, then all you need to do is keep the object ball/ghost ball point in mind and push the grip through the other 2 points, to that point. I'm going to try imagining this 4 pointed line of aim at my next practice and see if it helps at all.

Good posting, my views added in bold above.