What goes so badly wrong?

[Terry Davidson]

Dean:

I meant 'ignorant' in the dictionary definition, as in 'not knowledgeable'

Terry

[cazmac1]

To the original poster, I feel your pain as your story mirrors mine. I have recently changed club and the new table that I've been playing on is a lot tighter than my previous table and as a result when I'm having an off day I can't even pot a black of the spot when using anything other than medium power. Started to blame the table but today I went down for a solo practice to sort it out which I haven't done for a long time. I started off by working on my grip and after a while started to nail this and hit the ball quite nicely. Yet I was still missing the black off the spot. So I started experimenting with different things and then I changed the way I put my bridge hand and arm on the table. All of sudden I was hitting the ball a lot more accurately and every thing was going in, it felt like a different table.
The point I'm trying to make here it is a small change in the approach to the shot can have a massive impact on how you play. I would suggest you take a leaf out of my book and have a long intensive practice session to find out what's going wrong.
Hope this helps and spurs you on to better things. Although my situation is slightly different from yours if I hadn't changed table I wouldn't have been aware of how poor my shot accuracy had become. I would say it is your day to day accuracy that is letting you down and it is this that you need to work on. How you achieve this is down to you and the amount of work you put in.
Good luck

[alabadi]

bad spells come and go, i have just come back off holiday and hadn't lifted a cue for six weeks, yesterdays practice or the lack of it was a shambles.

i packed up after a couple of hours, i realised that i was rusty and not fit enough after weeks doing nothing. i'm sure in a couple of weeks i should be back to where i was.

then the real practice begins

Alabbadi

[magicman]

Nick Drake is an English singer-songwriter from the late 60's/early 70's who died aged only 26, yet has influenced a host of modern musicians. vmaxforsteve's 'pink moon' quote is from the song 'Pink Moon' from the album 'Pink Moon', although the song 'Day is done' (not on pink moon) is my own personal favourite.

As for snooker - I've recently been practising with Marco Fu and Jimmy Robertson in preparation for playing for England in the Home Internationals, and seeing them regularly indicates to me the vital importance of focus (or concentration) allied with relaxation and as cazmac1 says - accuracy. It's not rocket science when you think about it.

[DeanH]

Dean:

I meant 'ignorant' in the dictionary definition, as in 'not knowledgeable'

Terry

Hi Terry, so did I and I still don't know who Nick Drake is



Thanks Magicman, I shall check this out, I don't know the name but I have probabaly heard the songs, cheers
also, good luck with your matches

[tedisbill]

What goes so badly wrong?

Back to normal now!!

Just hitting the ball well again now. Hitting a couple of 50s and 60s most sessions again now.

Very strange. Honestly thought I'd lost it and I'd never come out of it.

[ADR147]

Nick Drake is an English singer-songwriter from the late 60's/early 70's who died aged only 26, yet has influenced a host of modern musicians. vmaxforsteve's 'pink moon' quote is from the song 'Pink Moon' from the album 'Pink Moon', although the song 'Day is done' (not on pink moon) is my own personal favourite.

am i the only one who finds him a bit samey? of the died young then famous it would be jeff buckley for me.

[nrage]

am i the only one who finds him a bit samey? of the died young then famous it would be jeff buckley for me.

Jeff Buckley was awesome, such a pity!

[ADR147]

Jeff Buckley was awesome, such a pity!

better than the original by miles - not many songs can say that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4

[thelongbomber]

Sorry, I'm chiming in late here but nobody really has mentioned what I'm about to say...

Early last year, I was in the same boat as the OP, some days you shoot well and some days you don't, but then my coach helped me discover something amazing. Before I tell you what that is, the first thing I have to ask is, "Is it possible to quantify or measure how to play well?". That is, given enough time and information, would you be able to break down what a good cue action is and how a player can be "in the zone" mechanically before they are "in the zone" mentally. For example, when you see Ronnie playing the 2007 Northern Ireland Masters against Ali Carter, Ronnie beat Ali with 5 centuries in a best of nine to win 5-1. One of those centuries was a 147. During the course of that match, Ronnie could be seen to be playing out of his skin, floating around the table, potting balls and getting perfect position. It all seemed so effortless and for that day, for Ronnie, it probably was. Watch all 5 centuries here: http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...696#post667696

Playing out of our skin, knocking in balls everywhere is what we all aspire to do when we play this game but of course, being human, it's not that simple.... or is it?

One of my close friends is also my coach and has helped me improve all aspects of my game. Years ago when I played this game it was all subconcious/unconcious whereby I could "feel" the balls making contact, going in pockets, and generally having a wonderful experience playing the game. I understood the basics of good cue action, and some things about stance having read various books on the subject, but my feathering, cue action, grip wasn't fully integrated into my full understanding of how a shot could complete. That is, I hadn't spent enough time on the practice table, monitoring my vision, monitoring my focus, and generally trying to understand every aspect of a completed shot. I came back to the game because I wanted to make a century (still haven't in match play).

Over the past 12 months, my m8 has helped me discover what is undescribed and unseen when you look at the pros play: eye movements, mental focus, grip, stance, approach, ghost balls, ball striking, picking up vector lines, pace control. Through the course of many sessions with him, I have discovered many aspects of the cue action and approach. I understand now that it's possible to uncover how I play and how I strike balls, what my tendencies are when I play position, and how it is that I do what I do. When I first started to play the game 10 years back, I was a damn scary potter (thus my nickname) and I would pot them off the lamp shades often without much regard to cue ball position.

Today, however, I'm a far better player. I can still approach a table cold, get in form within one or two shots, and start potting amazing shots right away because I understand so much more about the entire cueing action, stance, focus, form then I ever did before. I'm absolutely convinced it's the right path and my form and results on the table are showing. Running 30-40 breaks regularly without difficulty, strain or an increasing heartbeat. No adrenalin, no racing heart, no losing my breath. The game is fun because I have control over all aspects of a shot now and I can actually build a break because I understand what I'm doing.

My message to you is, keep discovering as much as you can about ball striking and cue action. Focus especially on the pre-final-delivery aspects of cue action starting from the position of your grip hand as you walk in (crucially important to be behind the shot line), the slower and deliberate landing of your body down on the table (while focusing on the shot line), the first position of your tip as you come up to the shot (should NOT be close to the cue ball but in fact a ball length or so away, just watch Higgins), slow and precise feathers whereby you focus mostly on the cue ball strike point and pace, a longer backswing so that your eyes can move from CB to OB (and from OB to the pocket if you like like Hendry) and the OB ghost ball, and then most importantly in final delivery taking your eyes off the CB and looking at the OB or the OB ghost ball when striking.

There is of course, so much more I could mention but I'm just summarizing the key points in the paragraph above.

Hope that helps!

[thelongbomber]

Also, the most important thing I forgot to say is that when you work on understanding cue action, stance, approach, focus, etc... then when you are NOT cueing well, you can self correct, repair, and get back into optimal cueing. That's easily the biggest benefit of spending the time talking things over with someone with enough experience, knowledge, that can show you what others don't see.

If anyone wants to spend some time with my coach here in Vancouver or on the phone, do let me know.

[nrage]

better than the original by miles - not many songs can say that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4

This is one of my favourites, and so good live too..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgtxj...feature=relmfu

[vmax4steve]

am i the only one who finds him a bit samey? of the died young then famous it would be jeff buckley for me.

Nick Drake had a nasally monotone kind of voice that for some fails to convey emotion, and can be seen to make his melodies sound samey, but as nearly all his songs were melancholy for me it fits. What I like most about Drake is his guitar playing, his lyricism and uses of jazz structures and rhythms. Buckley for sure had a better voice, some say the best ever, but musically they are very similar. Buckley's legend of course benefits from having only made one album, never having the time to lose his muse like Dylan did and churn out mediocre stuff. However the songs released after his death and supposed to be the basis of his second album 'Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk' were very poor imo and might not have seen the light of day had he lived.

Here's a bloke who never lost his muse

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ123T3zD2k

[ADR147]

i love neil young.

[vmax4steve]

My introduction to Nick Drake

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1CEq_STftw

and their very own genius

www.youtube.com/watch?v=89tWvzYtBD0

Always amazes me when music of this calibre remains unknown while claptrap gets sold to the masses via X Factor.
Simon Cowell is SATAN