Going through a bad run

[littlefinger]

I am playing snooker for almost 3 years. My game went zero to pretty good. But for the past 2 months i m facing issues. Not even being able to pot straight balls, or u can say playing like a newbie. Whats the matter wid me. Continously, every day from the 2nd last month. M dissappointed n frustated AF. Tips please.

[The Artful Dodger]

I am playing snooker for almost 3 years. My game went zero to pretty good. But for the past 2 months i m facing issues. Not even being able to pot straight balls, or u can say playing like a newbie. Whats the matter wid me. Continously, every day from the 2nd last month. M dissappointed n frustated AF. Tips please.

Almost certainly your cue action.... make sure you address the line of shot correctly.. walk in to the shot, do NOT hold the cue tightly..push thru the cue ball on delivery of the shot in a smooth manner and dont try for power... do take a pause on the backswing.. and make sure you stay down on the shot and watch it go in from there. Start with easy shots..cue ball maybe a foot or two at most from object ball and no more than half table away... repeat repeat repeat...slowly it will start coming back to you..you can start lengthening the distances..work out some potting routines.. plenty on you tube..

[Mark187187]

Just need to play through it. Unless you've changed something in your game or are playing less often, it's just one of those things. Now it's in you head making it worse. Try to keep playing fluently and don't over think.

[vmax]

Something in your personal life other than snooker is making you lose focus, been there myself a few times. When whatever it is no longer becomes important your game will return, could take a while though.
BTW losing focus is forgetting/not bothering to look, you could force yourself to look with a regimented technique but that could muck up your natural action so it's best if it comes naturally.

[tomwalker147]

Something in your personal life other than snooker is making you lose focus, been there myself a few times. When whatever it is no longer becomes important your game will return, could take a while though.
BTW losing focus is forgetting/not bothering to look, you could force yourself to look with a regimented technique but that could muck up your natural action so it's best if it comes naturally.

Just to back this up, i've hidden the fact that for the last 2 years i've been suffering with what can only be described as depression. My snooker has been erratic in this period either fantastic knocking in centuries or unable to make 20.
So easily frustrated, angry and anxious during this time, that coupled with being busy and stressed through work makes such a technical game so difficult to execute. I know this isn't a forum for my mental wellbeing but if your head isn't right and you're not focused this will certainly effect your game without you even realising.

I've recently addressed my issues and my manner around the table and concentration/execution in the balls is more well thought out than it's ever been, i'm expecting huge progress over the next year or so.

[movieman1866]

Last year I had a really bad spell were I felt like I'd forgotten how to play. Missing loads of easy pots, which affected my confidence and caused me to get even worse. I only play once a week and this went on for several weeks.
I then did a basic test to see if I was cueing straight, ball on the brown spot and cue ball on the yellow spot and run through. I wasn't even close to keeping both balls on the baulk line. Adjusted my stance by moving my right foot out and I was then cueing straight, although it didn't look or feel right. I did this in the next frame and it was a massive improvement. The trouble was it always felt like I was guessing in how much to move my right foot and was very inconsistent.
I've recently started to cue with the cue under my right eye as I'm right eye dominant. I can now see that I'm cueing straight and am no longer guessing. I'm slowly getting used to doing this after years of having my head centered over the cue. My eyesight prescription changed about 3 years ago after being the same for over 20 years so this could very well have been the cause.

[magicman]

Well littlefinger, if you think your having a hard time of it now, wait until Sansa and Arya catch up with you at Winterfell

[Delphi]

I know how it feels, my highest break ever has been 22 for like 35 years, so really low level, a week ago however i made a 23 break and 2 days ago a 28 break.
This is of course still a low level, and i entered another club yesterday after playing for 4 hours on Saturday to practise and it was really awfull, nothing worked out, missing the easiest balls.

I can only guess that i wasn't feeling confident in a new club surrounded with people i don't know yet.
I have a new session with my coach in 3 weeks to see what i'm doing wrong.

On a positive note, Jimmy is coming to yet another club in Ghent in 2 weeks so i'm looking forward meeting him again

[vmax]

I see an awful lot of poor players simply getting down without looking. You must see the contact point on the object ball before you get down into your stance, it then goes into your short term memory as you take your eye off it to address the cue ball. If you don't do this how can you expect to be on the right line ?

I played last night and was awful to start with but realised that this was what I wasn't doing, so I simply focussed on finding the contact point of the object ball and looking at it for a second before I got down to be certain where it was and voila, a 46, a 37, and a 27 clearance in the next three frames along with many teens and some really good thin clip safety while the balls I missed jawed rather than went a foot wide.

Nothing else was in my head apart from that, didn't think about stance, grip, head movement etc etc, just remembered to look and as my subconscious knew I was on the right line 90% of the time there was no subconscious anxiety to cause any movement.

[balkend]

"You must see the contact point on the object ball before you get down into your stance, it then goes into your short term memory as you take your eye off it to address the cue ball. If you don't do this how can you expect to be on the right line ?"
VMAX speaks words of wisdom , I am trying to do this until it becomes second nature . I find relaxing back and neck muscles going down into stance helps me

[Delphi]

Yeah thats one my mistakes too, and i'm having a hard time to get the feathering, pause and specially follow through trained into me.
Playing the wrogn way for 35 years can cause that i suppose, but i'll keep on working it.