Hello from Sheffield

[Princepugh]

Hello All

I’m joining the forum from Sheffield, UK as a snooker enthusiast, playing only in my local club (Abbeydale, about to close!) and at home on a very modest 5ft table. We bought the table when my son was about 7 and now as a 10 year old he’s showing a keen interest in playing so I’m having to find out as much as I can to make sure he continues to develop. No idea where it will lead to but I’m happy to feed his interest as far as I reasonably can as it’s helping him to develop other skills too and I know I’d have jumped at the chance to play on a big table with my Dad when I was 10.

We started off playing pool with very cheap balls and cues before I got him some 1 & 7/8 inch Aramith balls and a half decent cue this Christmas just gone. From there we’ve both got a lot better very quickly and he’s now watching the snooker on Eurosport and picking up lots of stuff. Suffice it to say that he beats me pretty much all of the time now, which is annoying!

Playing on a full size table has been a challenge though and we’ve had to brush up on stance and technique etc which has made a difference. On our last visit, we took our 1 & 7/8” balls and found that we played much better with these than with the full sized numbers from the club. I wouldn’t have imagined that this could make such a difference to the ability to cue consistently but I guess that just shows my naivety/ignorance. I may post some questions on this topic in due course but will use the search facility first.

Anyway, I look forward to reading the forums and maybe contributing at some point.

Regards

PP

[Neil Taperell]

Nice intro .......hope the lad improves and more importantly , enjoys playing the game .

[alabadi]

Welcome to the forum. I'm in Sheffield towards Firth Park.
I'm trying to get my young un into snooker. He's 6 now, I took him to the club a couple if time and he enjoyed it.who knows where it will lead. As long as he enjoys it , I'll support him.

Keep it up, hope your lad all the luck

[thelongbomber]

Welcome to the forum. Take your son out to see a top player live if you can. Isn't Shaun Murphy near you somewhere? Also, get your son playing better players also. He will learn by watching and competing against better players.

[Princepugh]

Thanks chaps – we’ve been to see a couple of matches at the Crucible now and really enjoyed it. Last year we saw Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng, despite the dishonesty claim by Allen we were impressed with Yupeng and thought he seemed to have a really tidy no-fuss technique. I also got the impression that he was up against it as a foreign player and he didn’t seem to have much support.

This year we went to see Angles McManus v Mark Selby in the quarters but as the soon-to-be champion wrapped that match up early, we got to see Murphy v O’Sullivan which my lad was most excited about. Sadly Murphy wasn’t quite on song but it was still great to see their snooker in action. We were taken by how fast the tables were too, with the players stroking the balls in effortless fashion.

It was during this match that I finally clicked on what makes Ronnie so special when he’s in the zone – I’d actually liken him to Rooney in that he seems to have developed a vision for the table and when he’s in his special place he simply looks prophetic. I know that might sound a bit far fetched but that’s just the impression I was left with. I also think he looked very tired during that match though and when the officials were struggling to get the score board working he looked uninterested and completely disengaged. Understandable perhaps, but Murphys poker face somehow seemed more appropriate.

In terms of my son playing better players, I think that time has pretty much come but I’m still working with him to control his temperament when the times are hard and the game isn’t flowing. That’s a tough one as I think he needs more exposure to learn in that regard but I wouldn’t want to push him into a bad experience which might put him off. We’ll be moving clubs soon so between that and what I discover on this forum we’ll try to make some informed decisions.

Cheers

PP

[jim evans]

welcome mate from another sheffielder .