'Kicks' in snooker.

[saramac]

Does anyone know if the root cause of 'kicks' has been discovered yet? And, if it has been discovered, is anybody attempting to cure the 'kicks' problem?

It must be very frustrating for the players if they get a 'kick' and it completely changes the outcome of a frame - or even a whole match. So I am surprised that there does not seem to more of an effort being made to find a cure for the dreaded 'kick'.

If anyone has any ideas on how to cure the 'kicks' problem, please post them here. I would be very interested to read them.

Happy snookering

[Semih_Sayginer]

theres not been one thing pinpointed as definitely the sole cause of kicks

many ideas blame static or particles of chalk. some say bad cueing can cause them.

im of the opinion that chalk particles and bad cueing cause the biggest % of kicks. only my opinion mind.

[cueman]

Chalk has to be the major factor, simply because whenever you get a kick there is 90% of the time a chalk mark on either the cue ball and most likely the object ball and sometimes both. The mark is usually found on the ball as a little circle and usually needs to be rubbed off with a cloth or referee's glove. Sometimes the mark is that bad you have to scratch it off the ball.

It is very frustrating but unfortunately there seems very little can be done to avoid them as there is no way of knowing when you are going to get one.

[RaNeN]

I have never seen the pool players ask the balls to be cleaned.....How come they never get a kick????

[Aggrolite]

I have never seen the pool players ask the balls to be cleaned.....How come they never get a kick????

haha, because a kick in pool dosen't amatter, your always in position.

so laet.............

[cueman]

I have never seen the pool players ask the balls to be cleaned.....How come they never get a kick????

They do still get them but not as much. They don't use the term 'kick', they say the balls 'skid' instead. Its probably due to the cloth having no nap and the balls being bigger and heavier, there is less chance of a bad contact and with the rack or frame being much shorter than in snooker all of these things contribute to less kicks IMO.

[hegeland]

Actually they do ask the ref to clean the cue ball, albeit not as often as in snooker. I don't know why, but I think cueman is on the right track.

There was a video clip on the BBC snooker website about this, where they asked several different experts about it. Don't think they ended up with a solution though, rather a list of possible explanations.

[MrRottweiler]

I agree with Semih. I believe a kick occures as a result of two factors. Debris on the cue ball, object ball or table bed and the players choice of shot. Types of shot that are prone to kicks are dead to soft weight shots so by adding a bit of pace you remove any possibility of a kick occuring. Object balls that are spotted I think cause the most kicks which is why players like Higgins often 'slam them in' so any bad contact wont be noticed. I emulate this style and very infrequently encounter kicks because I don't give them a chance to occur.

How many times at the World Championships do you think Dennis Taylor will mention the 'fibres that come off the players shoes and work thair way on to the table' nonsense? I think we should open a sportsmans book at TSF for people to predict stuff like that!

[Nott]

I would say I get as many kicks in pool as I get in snooker but because of bigger pockets and shorter distances in general the ball rarely gets off the line enough to miss the pocket hence you notice it more in snooker because its often end of break when a kick happens.

Theres alot of theories about kicks around including oil on the ball, oil in the cloth, chalk, and static electricity.

[moglet]

Hello,

There is quite an amount of information and opinion about this on: http://www.snookersceneonline.com/opinion.htm
http://www.talksnooker.com/