How should I stand, modern vs classic approach.

[eihi]

How did you determine which stance is best fitted for your vision? I remember as kid trying copy Joe's stance. I just recently read somewhere he had bad vision in his right eye, so his stance make much more sense to me now.

I started shooting left handed(pool, no snooker where I live ) because that put my my dominant right eye over the shaft , standing like Joe puts your left eye over the shaft if you are right handed.

[DeanH]

Joe only did this because he was essentially blind in his right eye, so it is not the "norm".

Best is to find where you are comfortable, where you see the shot and pot the balls
What works for one is not for all

There are many videos on tinternet from various snooker coaches that may help you define your stance.
Nic Barrow, Barry Stark to name but two.
I don't know their sites or youtube-channels off hand and there are others as well.
Hopefully someone will pop on here with good links for you.

welcome to TSF

[blahblah01]

Re "the norm": strangely a lot of Pros DO NOT cue under what would conventionally be their Dominant Eye ie right for right handed. I'll do a scan sometime and post a list, but it could well bethat right(left) handers cueing under their right(left) eye could well be shorter. (Selby closes his left eye to see if he can pot\clip an OB, then cues under his left.)

blah's top Youtube Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE Do the 2 Reds for a bit and all that stuff (ie what is comfortable etc) should become clear to you

[eihi]

Thank you Dean. I have been watching Stark's videos the last few weeks. Wealth of knowledge, i try and watch a couple drills before I go practice. He had one thing he mentioned about first getting into the game and not having a table of his own, he would set up an ironing board at the height of the snooker table and use that to practice his stroke.
Now I have been practicing my positions at home the same way.


I will look into Barrow

[eihi]

Re "the norm": strangely a lot of Pros DO NOT cue under what would conventionally be their Dominant Eye ie right for right handed. I'll do a scan sometime and post a list, but it could well bethat right(left) handers cueing under their right(left) eye could well be shorter. (Selby closes his left eye to see if he can pot\clip an OB, then cues under his left.)

blah's top Youtube Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE Do the 2 Reds for a bit and all that stuff (ie what is comfortable etc) should become clear to you

I too have noticed that they do not cue under their right eye as well. It seems to me that a square stance you will positioning the cue more under your right eye.

[Terry Davidson]

Steve Davis once said 'you don't pot the ball with your feet', meaning stance is not really important as long as it's stable and comfortable. Most good players will cue under or nearer to their opposite eye but that's not for visual reasons but rather it makes the set-up better and changing things will alter the set-up and you stand a 50-50 chance of making things better or worse.

Take the stance that most comfortable for you and stick with it and your brain will soon adapt. Joe Davis said a lot of players ruined their game by trying to copy his set-up. In a long match he used to fray the knot on his tie and ruin it.

[eihi]

blahblah01 THANK YOU , I just watched that video, and that was really helpful, I know I never would have came across that without a link due to the title being in Russian(or whatever that might me).

Do you by chance know what is that coaches name in that video, also in the video he referenced, about 15 years ago one of the worlds best snooker coaches came up with this way of "walking in" do you by chance know the name or coach he was referencing?

[Terry Davidson]

Re "the norm": strangely a lot of Pros DO NOT cue under what would conventionally be their Dominant Eye ie right for right handed. I'll do a scan sometime and post a list, but it could well bethat right(left) handers cueing under their right(left) eye could well be shorter. (Selby closes his left eye to see if he can pot\clip an OB, then cues under his left.)

blah's top Youtube Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE Do the 2 Reds for a bit and all that stuff (ie what is comfortable etc) should become clear to you

Allen Trigg is the speaker and I believe he's referring to Frank Callan who is regarded as the best coach who ever lived

[eihi]

Thank you so much Terry!
I am just getting back into playing after 15 years off. I had played for about 7 years in total when I was younger when I got a copy How I play Snooker. My game went down dramatically, I thought I had just so many bad habits from years of play in my stroke, I decided to try using his technique left handed, so essentially starting over from scratch.
and within a few months a was able to pot balls better than I had in the previous 7 years playing right handed.
In hindsight, the intial 7 years I was playing, though I played everyday and practiced a lot, I was never very good. I attribute this to mindless practice and to using the "ghost ball technique". I think you really need to practice good techniques to get the most out of practice.

[DeanH]

Re "the norm": strangely a lot of Pros DO NOT cue under what would conventionally be their Dominant Eye ie right for right handed. I'll do a scan sometime and post a list, but it could well bethat right(left) handers cueing under their right(left) eye could well be shorter. (Selby closes his left eye to see if he can pot\clip an OB, then cues under his left.)

blah's top Youtube Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE Do the 2 Reds for a bit and all that stuff (ie what is comfortable etc) should become clear to you

The question of handedness and cueing position (under R or L eye or centre=chin) was asked some time ago and I got the following from observation:
Right handed & Right eye = 4
Right handed & Left eye = 11
Right handed & Centred = 19

Left handed & Right eye = 5
Left Handed & Left eye = none noted
Left handed & Centred = 8

Right & Left eyed & Centred = 1 (ROS)

not the whole pro tour noted, but what you say above looks pretty true

[golferson123]

get down in your stance in front of a mirror place your tip on the mirror and adjust either your stance or your eyes till the cue is straight in the reflection and thats YOUR personal alignment

[Catch 22]

get down in your stance in front of a mirror place your tip on the mirror and adjust either your stance or your eyes till the cue is straight in the reflection and thats YOUR personal alignment

I like that . That's a good idea

[Terry Davidson]

get down in your stance in front of a mirror place your tip on the mirror and adjust either your stance or your eyes till the cue is straight in the reflection and thats YOUR personal alignment

This is a brilliant idea! I use a mirror with my students but not in this way. In fact I might get down there tonight and try it on myself just to confirm or deny I'm setting up straight. I've never heard of this before.

[j6uk]

yeah sounds very good, nice one golf.

[Cue crafty]

get down in your stance in front of a mirror place your tip on the mirror and adjust either your stance or your eyes till the cue is straight in the reflection and thats YOUR personal alignment

Sound advice. I did this early days when playing and was happy my elbow was in line with the cue. But this is not overly important if you look at Ray Reardon for instance. Great visual though that can't be improved with video. A large mirror head on view and side view is very revealing an informative. More often than not you are not where your mind eye thinks you are.