Sighting method/exercises...?

[Fritz]

Hello,

I've just started practicing snooker about 4 x week for an hour after playing a little in my twenties.

I feel my cue action is fairly good ,I can follow the blue in off with the white into the side pockets 10/10, can cue up & down the spots between red balls pretty easily and can pot straight shots off the blue spot from baulk somewhat consistently.

My problem is I have massive difficulty seeing angles, I cannot seem visualize the line between pocket and object ball....the same goes for ghost ball method..

If I line up the reds down the center of the table and try to pot in sides or top pockets I'm missing about 90% of the time.

Does anyone have any system or exercises to develop my sighting of the potting angle? I live in Amsterdam and a cursory search found no coaches nearby.

Thanks in advance!

[vmax]

Hello,

I've just started practicing snooker about 4 x week for an hour after playing a little in my twenties.

I feel my cue action is fairly good ,I can follow the blue in off with the white into the side pockets 10/10, can cue up & down the spots between red balls pretty easily and can pot straight shots off the blue spot from baulk somewhat consistently.

My problem is I have massive difficulty seeing angles, I cannot seem visualize the line between pocket and object ball....the same goes for ghost ball method..

If I line up the reds down the center of the table and try to pot in sides or top pockets I'm missing about 90% of the time.

Does anyone have any system or exercises to develop my sighting of the potting angle? I live in Amsterdam and a cursory search found no coaches nearby.

Thanks in advance!

Stop practising straight shots as that's not what you want to have in actual match play as the cue ball can only then go forwards and backwards. You find a lot of new players will practise these straight shots too much and then subconsciously leave themselves very straightish position wise when playing matches for fear of missing the pot.

As for visualising the angle, you simply look from cue ball to object ball and see where the cue ball needs to hit the object ball in order to pot it. There is no magic formula other than to look and see, but what you look at when you deliver the cue is important as the hand follows the eye so you should be looking at the object ball, to be more precise the contact point on the object ball which is the part of the object ball that will be covered by the cue ball when the two contact each other.

Vesica_piscis_circles.svg.png

The green bit is the contact point and is what you should be looking at when first visualising the angle when stood behind the shot before getting down into the stance, flick your eyes from cue ball to the contact point as you get down, look to the cue ball when down to make sure tip is centre of the cue ball then look at the contact point again when delivering the cue. Obviously the size of the contact point alters the more thick or thin the angle is but don't aim the tip at the contact point, trust your natural hand/eye to know that what you want is the cue ball to make that contact point and as long as you're looking at it the subconscious will do it for you.

After this it's a matter of learning to keep still on the shot and staying in control of your emotions.

[chrisg]

Or use Rob Reed's Ghost Ball Potting Aid, as reviewed, below...

https://snookerzone.co.uk/the-training-zone/

On another point, straight cueing is essential - are you sure you can cue the ball as straight as a dye? You might not have an aiming issue - it might be a cueing issue? On a straight pot you have to cue straight, but on an angled ball, you have more scope to cue less straight if you understand what I mean....

[vmax]

Or use Rob Reed's Ghost Ball Potting Aid, as reviewed, below...

https://snookerzone.co.uk/the-training-zone/

On another point, straight cueing is essential - are you sure you can cue the ball as straight as a dye? You might not have an aiming issue - it might be a cueing issue? On a straight pot you have to cue straight, but on an angled ball, you have more scope to cue less straight if you understand what I mean....

There are other straight cueing exercises other than straight pots. The thing with straight potting practise is that one can look at the pocket on the strike and still make the pot as all targets are on the same line, on angled pots if you do this you miss as the hand follows the eye, that's the reason I don't line up dead straight blues from the baulk line anymore, I now put the cue ball on the green or yellow spots to test my cueing.
Had a practise this lunchtime and made five out of five from each spot, then didn't pot a single one for five minutes :hopelessness:

[rimmer10]

Or use Rob Reed's Ghost Ball Potting Aid, as reviewed, below...

https://snookerzone.co.uk/the-training-zone/

On another point, straight cueing is essential - are you sure you can cue the ball as straight as a dye? You might not have an aiming issue - it might be a cueing issue? On a straight pot you have to cue straight, but on an angled ball, you have more scope to cue less straight if you understand what I mean....

Sorry for having to disagree with you on that one Chris. The more angled the shot the more accurate your cueing has to be because say 1mm of being offline results in a lot more angle change on cut shots then it does on straight ones

[chrisg]

Sorry for having to disagree with you on that one Chris. The more angled the shot the more accurate your cueing has to because say 1mm of being offline results in a lot more angle change on cut shots then it does on straight ones

This is why staying down on the shot after is so important as you can get to know if you've got a cueing or aiming issue!