Will playing pool (8 ball) improve my snooker?

[jonplayer]

Pool vs snooker

This old chestnut has always been argued about, who is better at what. To me it seems obvious, people that play snooker, and people that play pool are the same race of people. They both has the same physiology, two arms, two legs (usually). People develop according to experience that they have. My experience is in snooker. I find pool a bit wierd. To go from one to the other (and be good) means you have to play both quite a bit. I think saying that one player is beter than the other is like comparing oranges and apples.
For me one thing is for sure though technically snooker is more advanced. You can't get away with some of the arm reving and shoulder dropping at the top level. Also snooker is played on a far bigger table so your faced with more tougher pots.
Back to the initial question; IMO practicing pool is better than not playing at all, but going back to snooker will be wierd after to start with.

[andy carson]

the only thing that i can see from pool and snooker is this...

playing pool will get your confidence up, nothing more, as pool is too bloody easy to pot and get postion even with a bad shot... play say the same bad shot at snooker you will miss and leave something up....

[snookerfan91]

Alright thanks it's just the local social club has a pool table (8 ball) for 30p a game I was wondering if constant practice on that would help me or not.

[1lawyer]

Alright thanks it's just the local social club has a pool table (8 ball) for 30p a game I was wondering if constant practice on that would help me or not.

No....

A good snooker player could always play a mean game of pool .....Chris Melling, Selby, Hann, Appleton are exceptional players at both sports for example...but the balls are a different size the angles are different and I would try sticking to snooker...if you wanna get good at both...

I only used to play billiards though and I found this helped me when I started playing snooker instead so I may be wrong, everybody is different...so don't quote me on this one.

[King T]

IMHO

I think your comments focus more on American pool.

I play both uk 8ball and snooker with a snooker cue (in fact i use exactly the same cue specs wise).

In pool i use a heck of a lot of acute angles to get pots, the same can be said for any of the the players in the league i play in. This may however be limited to the league i play in, as most of us are also snooker players.

I would say generally pure pool players are MUCH better potters than snooker players (as nothing but potting enters thier minds), however snooker players are MUCH MUCH better at positional, safety play & pretty much ever other aspect of the game.

Yes I've been talking about american 8 ball pool and not British pool, I am sorry it seems that terminologies vary from region to another, I thought in the UK, pool is used to describe American pool, billiards is used to describe the British format of pool which has smaller balls, yellows and reds only.

I haven't had the chance to practice British 8 ball much since it's rare to find a British pool table here, it's either a full size snooker table or American pool tables, yet I still think snooker is much more advanced, perfecting some techniques in snooker make you do wonders on that small table, especially with a big 12 ft. table the margin of error is magnified many times! Also in snooker long pots are required to be taken, even the top professionals miss long pots due to they fact they are difficult, therefor a snooker player can pot any ball at any distance in any corner effortlessly in billiards.

Check out how easily Ronnie clears the table here, I bet with the same effort and attention it took him to clear the table put in snooker, he'll miss the break off shot and watch his opponent clearing the table

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9JrcfTPtYs

[snookerfan91]

Jeez that is fast!

[RGCirencester]

Why is the clip sped up? It only took 1 minute 7 for ronnie so its not like you'd have had ages longer to wait...

[sneaky_russian]

I'd say playing snooker will improve your 8-ball!!!
I play 8-ball and snooker.After a month of practicing snooker I improved my run in 8-ball from 1 game (of the break) to 3 games in a row (of the break)!Well, I had a coaching session with Terry Davidson and he helped me a LOT!!! Great coach!!!!
One more thing though: don't swithch too often! If ,for example, I practiced snooker for a week or 2 and then started to play 8-ball,it'd take me about 30 min to get used to the cue,table etc.The same with snooker

[snookerfan91]

Thanks for the opinions.

[jonplayer]

Yes I've been talking about american 8 ball pool and not British pool, I am sorry it seems that terminologies vary from region to another, I thought in the UK, pool is used to describe American pool, billiards is used to describe the British format of pool which has smaller balls, yellows and reds only.

I haven't had the chance to practice British 8 ball much since it's rare to find a British pool table here, it's either a full size snooker table or American pool tables, yet I still think snooker is much more advanced, perfecting some techniques in snooker make you do wonders on that small table, especially with a big 12 ft. table the margin of error is magnified many times! Also in snooker long pots are required to be taken, even the top professionals miss long pots due to they fact they are difficult, therefor a snooker player can pot any ball at any distance in any corner effortlessly in billiards.

Check out how easily Ronnie clears the table here, I bet with the same effort and attention it took him to clear the table put in snooker, he'll miss the break off shot and watch his opponent clearing the table

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9JrcfTPtYs

Hi, just to clear it up, Billiards and pool are different games. Over here american pool is called american pool or 9 ball. 8 ball english pool is played with reds and yellows, the pockets are tighter than American pool. Billiards is playes on a 12ft table with only 3 balls.

[muzicman147]

I play both league pool and snooker and i agree pool wont inprove your long potting, i find it does give you the confidence to take on shots you would normaly try in snooker.:snooker:

[snookerfan91]

Alright thanks alot guys.

[mick 142]

In the pubs and social clubs them size tables, will it improve my snooker?

Simple answer NO.

[snookerfan91]

Okay, cheers.