Coaching from Steve Feeney?

[OmaMiesta]

Can't believe you called me an old dog.........

I've always struggled with the dominant eye thing and played with the cue toward my dominant eye. When things go horribly wrong I've sometimes put it straight under my chin and hey presto, the long balls fly in.

6 Months later when in a bad patch, I stick the cue back toward my right eye and the same thing happens..............go figure!

I know exactly what you mean, drives you crazy because some days you cue under your dominant eye and play great then the next you cant pot a ball....switch to centre chin and have almost the exact effect....I think the conclusion is to just stick to one thing and practice with it confidently....and not lose faith when you have a bad day at the office.

[Shockerz]

I know exactly what you mean, drives you crazy because some days you cue under your dominant eye and play great then the next you cant pot a ball....switch to centre chin and have almost the exact effect....I think the conclusion is to just stick to one thing and practice with it confidently....and not lose faith when you have a bad day at the office.

Yeah I can't disagree.

Last 2 years I have swapped it every 6 months and go through the same cycle.

When you're in the hole you try things, what drives me mad is you pretty much pot straight away so why?

There's certainly a reason why it would swap.

[OmaMiesta]

Yeah I can't disagree.

Last 2 years I have swapped it every 6 months and go through the same cycle.

When you're in the hole you try things, what drives me mad is you pretty much pot straight away so why?

There's certainly a reason why it would swap.

To be honest Im starting to feel that we emphasize a little to much on sighting and not enough on consistent straight cue delivery. The fact that we are able to pot balls almost evenly with both centre chin and eye dominance shows that the brain can adapt to sight the line of aim and pot the balls with minor aim tweaks. The rest is probably all due to how consistently we can deliver the cue through that line of aim. But I definitely find that certain shots and angles are easier with the dominant eye and vice versa centre chin. Maybe the key is to find a head position that allows you to pot the highest percentage of angles consistently?

[Shockerz]

To be honest Im starting to feel that we emphasize a little to much on sighting and not enough on consistent straight cue delivery. The fact that we are able to pot balls almost evenly with both centre chin and eye dominance shows that the brain can adapt to sight the line of aim and pot the balls with minor aim tweaks. The rest is probably all due to how consistently we can deliver the cue through that line of aim. But I definitely find that certain shots and angles are easier with the dominant eye and vice versa centre chin. Maybe the key is to find a head position that allows you to pot the highest percentage of angles consistently?

Possibly. I don't know the answer that's for sure.

If I was playing badly and went for a lesson and the guy said stick the cue under my right eye and then I immediately started to pot everything I would think eureka, I've found the light!

Each time I have stuck with a position for 6 months and then got on with trying to deliver the cue straight and it goes in a cycle. 6 months is a pretty long time so I have moved on each time so what changes and moves it back to the beginning?

Until I can get some solutions behind that then I guess I won't move on.

[jonny66]

I find I can sight the shot a lot better with my head further back up the cue, so there's more cue between the eyes and the cue ball. Logical really, you have more of the cue to see if it's pointing in the right direction. Actually doing it involves putting myself in an uncomfortable position though and it doesn't always lend itself to a good delivery, so basically I just trust my aim and try to push the cue through nicely before I can doubt myself.

[Cue crafty]

Yeah I can't disagree.

Last 2 years I have swapped it every 6 months and go through the same cycle.

When you're in the hole you try things, what drives me mad is you pretty much pot straight away so why?

There's certainly a reason why it would swap.

Jumping in this thread again and may have missed things already being said, so apologies if so, but this really reminds me of what Hendry recently said in the interview posted on here. Namely that trying different techniques finally made him confused and he didn't know which one to trust. If you can still remember your natural game and those attributes that went with it, try to feel it instead search for it. When you were at you best, there was a good reason for it. Doesn't matter that you can't find that place after a few practice sessions, like golf you may think you have adopted the original style but on film you probably clearly have not. I remember a video on here of you Shocks pretty close to completing the line up. I would be studying that mate and doing a new vid to compare your technique. You've got the talent, but change in snooker or golf can confuse the mind and make it think it's lost in a labyrinth of variations.

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn here but don't like to see a talented player suffer, so wanted to give an opinion.

[OmaMiesta]

Jumping in this thread again and may have missed things already being said, so apologies if so, but this really reminds me of what Hendry recently said in the interview posted on here. Namely that trying different techniques finally made him confused and he didn't know which one to trust. If you can still remember your natural game and those attributes that went with it, try to feel it instead search for it. When you were at you best, there was a good reason for it. Doesn't matter that you can't find that place after a few practice sessions, like golf you may think you have adopted the original style but on film you probably clearly have not. I remember a video on here of you Shocks pretty close to completing the line up. I would be studying that mate and doing a new vid to compare your technique. You've got the talent, but change in snooker or golf can confuse the mind and make it think it's lost in a labyrinth of variations.

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn here but don't like to see a talented player suffer, so wanted to give an opinion.

Great post, wise words.

[Csmith]

Jumping in this thread again and may have missed things already being said, so apologies if so, but this really reminds me of what Hendry recently said in the interview posted on here. Namely that trying different techniques finally made him confused and he didn't know which one to trust. If you can still remember your natural game and those attributes that went with it, try to feel it instead search for it. When you were at you best, there was a good reason for it. Doesn't matter that you can't find that place after a few practice sessions, like golf you may think you have adopted the original style but on film you probably clearly have not. I remember a video on here of you Shocks pretty close to completing the line up. I would be studying that mate and doing a new vid to compare your technique. You've got the talent, but change in snooker or golf can confuse the mind and make it think it's lost in a labyrinth of variations.

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn here but don't like to see a talented player suffer, so wanted to give an opinion.

I noticed Hendry recently playing without a pause or a shorter pause. Not sure it helped him, but it looked like he was trying to go back to his natural game, the way he played in the early 90's.

I think I'm done with changes unless I am directed to make an adjustment by a coach. My only technical focuses going forward are, stability, relaxed grip, keeping still and follow through. If I'm playing poorly, one of those things is the reason for it.

[Shockerz]

Jumping in this thread again and may have missed things already being said, so apologies if so, but this really reminds me of what Hendry recently said in the interview posted on here. Namely that trying different techniques finally made him confused and he didn't know which one to trust. If you can still remember your natural game and those attributes that went with it, try to feel it instead search for it. When you were at you best, there was a good reason for it. Doesn't matter that you can't find that place after a few practice sessions, like golf you may think you have adopted the original style but on film you probably clearly have not. I remember a video on here of you Shocks pretty close to completing the line up. I would be studying that mate and doing a new vid to compare your technique. You've got the talent, but change in snooker or golf can confuse the mind and make it think it's lost in a labyrinth of variations.

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn here but don't like to see a talented player suffer, so wanted to give an opinion.

You're not out of turn at all mate, I guess we all get to this stage every now and again. I found the video you mentioned (8th March 2015 - you have a good memory) and cannot believe how many things aren't right; cocked hand, jerky rhythm, all stuns and screws and the head comes up on most shots but they still went in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYvTcw4Ks_E&t=2s

It shows me as the cue toward my right eye so I guess that answers that. I know I was videoing as trying to stop my head coming up and remember having a couple of 70's, an 86 against my nipper and then my first century in a frame so then went heavy into trying to cure those faults; maybe that's the problem and I am just someone who plays with those things, not so sure though.

There's another video straight after that on youtube showing me getting stuffed by Barry Hawkins with my head jerking up again so I guess that's me.

What do you do though as it's difficult to know if things go bad because you don't accept the tools you have and practice them, you stray too far into coaching and cannot free your mind of technique whilst in the game or I'm just getting older!

I'll take a video with me tomorrow and record some of those 9 breaks at line up; if my heads still I'll go back to lifting it up!

Thanks for your kind words, I seem to be a delicate flower nowadays. lol

[Cue crafty]

You're not out of turn at all mate, I guess we all get to this stage every now and again. I found the video you mentioned (8th March 2015 - you have a good memory) and cannot believe how many things aren't right; cocked hand, jerky rhythm, all stuns and screws and the head comes up on most shots but they still went in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYvTcw4Ks_E&t=2s

It shows me as the cue toward my right eye so I guess that answers that. I know I was videoing as trying to stop my head coming up and remember having a couple of 70's, an 86 against my nipper and then my first century in a frame so then went heavy into trying to cure those faults; maybe that's the problem and I am just someone who plays with those things, not so sure though.

There's another video straight after that on youtube showing me getting stuffed by Barry Hawkins with my head jerking up again so I guess that's me.

What do you do though as it's difficult to know if things go bad because you don't accept the tools you have and practice them, you stray too far into coaching and cannot free your mind of technique whilst in the game or I'm just getting older!

I'll take a video with me tomorrow and record some of those 9 breaks at line up; if my heads still I'll go back to lifting it up!

Thanks for your kind words, I seem to be a delicate flower nowadays. lol

Glad you dug this out, good watch. "You"see a lot of technical faults in the video, but what really stands out to me is your timing in it. My god it's good. Just watch again and see your stroke, forget the negatives, the feathers and delivery are the same for every stroke. Your game here appears to be all rhythm and timing. That's what I see. The delivery is wonderfully deliberate and nicely timed.

[Shockerz]

Glad you dug this out, good watch. "You"see a lot of technical faults in the video, but what really stands out to me is your timing in it. My god it's good. Just watch again and see your stroke, forget the negatives, the feathers and delivery are the same for every stroke. Your game here appears to be all rhythm and timing. That's what I see. The delivery is wonderfully deliberate and nicely timed.

I guess it's the engineer in my and 'fix it' mentality.

I'll do a video and have a look at the difference. Thanks for looking.

[Terry Davidson]

To be honest Im starting to feel that we emphasize a little to much on sighting and not enough on consistent straight cue delivery. The fact that we are able to pot balls almost evenly with both centre chin and eye dominance shows that the brain can adapt to sight the line of aim and pot the balls with minor aim tweaks. The rest is probably all due to how consistently we can deliver the cue through that line of aim. But I definitely find that certain shots and angles are easier with the dominant eye and vice versa centre chin. Maybe the key is to find a head position that allows you to pot the highest percentage of angles consistently?

Aha! So somebody in this world agrees with me on consistent and straight cue delivery is the most important thing and vision comes second because the brain will adapt with enough practice to almost any alignment. The one thing players should think about is when you move your cue on your chin you are also altering your upper-body alignment and it's a 50-50 shot whether it will be better or worse. Try just turning your head a bit although do not inject any strain.

Also, the experience of changing something can have that effect. From Nic Barrow...he believes when you change something you're concentrating on that specific item and not really thinking about all the rest of it so you are mostly playing with your subconscious mind, which never misses because it's all natural. Food for thought.

[OmaMiesta]

Aha! So somebody in this world agrees with me on consistent and straight cue delivery is the most important thing and vision comes second because the brain will adapt with enough practice to almost any alignment. The one thing players should think about is when you move your cue on your chin you are also altering your upper-body alignment and it's a 50-50 shot whether it will be better or worse. Try just turning your head a bit although do not inject any strain.

Also, the experience of changing something can have that effect. From Nic Barrow...he believes when you change something you're concentrating on that specific item and not really thinking about all the rest of it so you are mostly playing with your subconscious mind, which never misses because it's all natural. Food for thought.

Never used to think this Terry but I think I'm now a believer. Straight cuing is definitely under practiced.... Recent tournament results for me are proving this too be the case....I had success playing both dominant eye and centre chin back to back weeks. Now I just need to find one method and stick to it because I keep changing too much making me inconsistent

[GasMonkey]

Aha! So somebody in this world agrees with me on consistent and straight cue delivery is the most important thing and vision comes second because the brain will adapt with enough practice to almost any alignment. The one thing players should think about is when you move your cue on your chin you are also altering your upper-body alignment and it's a 50-50 shot whether it will be better or worse. Try just turning your head a bit although do not inject any strain.

Also, the experience of changing something can have that effect. From Nic Barrow...he believes when you change something you're concentrating on that specific item and not really thinking about all the rest of it so you are mostly playing with your subconscious mind, which never misses because it's all natural. Food for thought.

Of course straight cueing is important. Very close in you can get away with it but move to middle/long distance and it's obvious. Sighting is EQUALLY important. The brain learns through repetition leading to subconscious recognition e.g. potting angles. The key is to do the SAME thing ALL THE TIME. Some people naturally deliver the cue straight and others have to really work at it.

The main reason I can see Mr Feeney's methods benefitting so many players is that it shows them where their brain shows them the line of shot from and they can consistently find it from dead behind it. It's removing a variable i.e. guessing your starting point, and replacing it with a constant. Being a static ball sport the more "constants" you can introduce, from a scientific perspective the more consistent you should be. These systems exist due to everyone's brains being wired differently. They're not magic pills but can form part of an overall technique. JUST coaching this method would be lunacy, the same as saying sighting is unimportant is lunacy. These things must be worked on in isolation if improvements are to be achieved as fast as possible.

It's rather sad that people need to state "at last somebody agrees with me" regarding X factor of technique bring more important than Y factor. The other sport that provokes so many differences in methods is golf. Advocates of the different systems may disagree yet don't feel the need to disprove other methods. The similarities between the player groups are that the players tinker, chopping and changing between methods to try and shortcut hard work and structured learning. The discipline to ingraine changes into becoming constants is mostly the problem, not which method is used

[chrisg]

Of course straight cueing is important. Very close in you can get away with it but move to middle/long distance and it's obvious. Sighting is EQUALLY important. The brain learns through repetition leading to subconscious recognition e.g. potting angles. The key is to do the SAME thing ALL THE TIME. Some people naturally deliver the cue straight and others have to really work at it.

The main reason I can see Mr Feeney's methods benefitting so many players is that it shows them where their brain shows them the line of shot from and they can consistently find it from dead behind it. It's removing a variable i.e. guessing your starting point, and replacing it with a constant. Being a static ball sport the more "constants" you can introduce, from a scientific perspective the more consistent you should be. These systems exist due to everyone's brains being wired differently. They're not magic pills but can form part of an overall technique. JUST coaching this method would be lunacy, the same as saying sighting is unimportant is lunacy. These things must be worked on in isolation if improvements are to be achieved as fast as possible.

It's rather sad that people need to state "at last somebody agrees with me" regarding X factor of technique bring more important than Y factor. The other sport that provokes so many differences in methods is golf. Advocates of the different systems may disagree yet don't feel the need to disprove other methods. The similarities between the player groups are that the players tinker, chopping and changing between methods to try and shortcut hard work and structured learning. The discipline to ingraine changes into becoming constants is mostly the problem, not which method is used

Basically you are saying stick with one technique and practice hard until you feel comfortable.

IMO - there are going to be 4 reasons why a player isn't consistent. I had another coaching lesson this week, and found I was falling into bad habit with my grip.

The four variables are:

Solid bridge...
Solid grip/relaxed
Solid stance
Solid cue fixed to chest...

If you fall into any one of those bad habits re those variables, then you won't necessarily improve...

Sighting/Aligning is important. But I've found with my body shape that adopting a wider stance than the "normal" has worked wonders for me seeing angles down on shot.

Grip...Coach said my grip was "too relaxed" hence in the lesson, I was swerving and not cueing straight. SO, although having a relaxed grip is important, it can be overdone, i.e, too relaxed.


Bridge....On screw backs - I was not lowering bridge hand knuckles enough hence not screwing back off cushion...Once I made that tweak, I was screwing far and wide!

This video below has helped me a lot with potting! What's great is you can forget about your stance a little bit - I personally think people get too fixated about where they are positioning their legs, and forgetting it is their eyes and their cue that are potting, and not their legs!

https://youtu.be/KjCnZSVjBrw