Give MAC a Crack

[reverse_side]

A snooker coach has just joined the forum (MAC) and is willing to take questions from members with queries on technique, the mental side, practice and matches.

Please make sure you've at least searched for an answer in previous threads first.

A font of knowledge is also available on the Coaching section of Frank Callan's website

Fire away, and be the first....

(PS Thanks Robert602; these tags are really useful, image shack creates most of the code for using an image as a link too.)

Also, bit eager usin these tags, can someone move this thread to the Coaching section .

..

[MAC]

Hi everybody,

I'm MAC the resident snooker coach. First a bit about myself. I am 21 years old, and my highest break is currently 137. I have just completed My BSc (Hons) degree in diagnostic radiography, and I am ready to start my first job. I have been coaching players since I was 16, and because I coached myself as a junior player, I have a lot of knowledge regarding the more technical aspects of the cue action, and mental approach to the game. When I am not taking x-rays I work as the resident coach at my local snooker club, which atracts a lot of novice junior and adult players alike. Please feel free to ask me any questions about technique, break building, approach etc. Reverse side asked me to list what I consider to be the 5 most important aspects of a players game. I will start with the cue action.

1. One of the most frequently ignored questions in the cue action is sighting, i.e. which ball the player is looking at while playing a shot. When I start coaching junior players (and adults too), I usually ask them which ball they look at when they play the shot. About 90% of the responses I get is the white ball. If you look at any coaching manual, the reccomendation is for the eyes to be fixed on the object ball during the moment of impact, because this allows the player to follow through in the straightest possible way and stay down for the duration of the shot without moving their body. What I try and get players to do is look between the white and object ball when they are aiming the cue, then during the last drawback, the eyes should be firmly glued to the white until the cue has been pulled back. As the player pauses on the backswing, the eyes should then move onto the point of the object ball, and the cue action completed.

2. Something else I find a lot of error in is the speed of the final drawback before the shot is played. The majority of club players pull the cue back too fast, which then means that the cue is delivered much too quick through the white. This means that much more effort is needed to play the shots, particularly screw back and shots that require power (e.g. pack splitters). The reason for this I think is that the speed of the drawback will automatically in the players brain tell them how smoothly to deliver the cue through the white. This is 'timing', and 'timing' is the single most important part of positional play and the seemingly effortless way in which pro's screw the ball back. It has been defined as the maximum accelleration as the cue strikes the white. The best way to describe this is by using a car as an example. A car sets off from a stationary position, and the driver is wanting to travel at 30mph, so he/she will gradually build up the speed of the car by working through the gearbox. Similarly, if you slow down the delivery of a players cue, it should be a similar motion. If a player is wanting to hit the white at say 20mph, they should increase accelleration through the shot. The problem with many club players is that they deliver the cue at 20mph throughout the whole of the shot, which is why they tend to 'whack' the cue ball and get stun instead of screw back. I know I'm jibbering on here but I can't stress how important this is!

3. The grip is very important too and is also something which tends to get overlooked by many club players. The thumb and index finger should form a ring which is the main part of the grip. The other 3 fingers only act as a guide. What the player will find if they grip the cue too tight is that when they pull the cue back, it will naturally elevate, and will not run parallel with the table. This can cause the player to miss cue, and chip the white when screwing back. What the player should do is grip the cue no tighter than they would if they had just picked it up off the table. The ring that is formed by the thumb/index finger should always stay intact, and as the cue pulls back, the only things that can move to keep the cue parallel are the 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers, and they should naturally come off the cue to achieve this motion.

4. Practice routines. If you are looking to improve its a good idea to peform routines that will help you with your game, from beginner to advanced shots. Its no good getting a table on your own and setting up the balls to just randomly hit them around the table. It should be structured. For example, when I enter the snooker club on a morning, I always start with 1 line up (to get my eye in), and then proceed to more difficult tasks. The line up is ok for practicing your potting, but is not a good way to gague your break building skills. The main problem with the line up is that you are always playing for a choice of 6 or more reds. It's important to challenge yourself, not fool yourself by making life easy. Try potting 20 consecutive pinks off the spot, each time playing for position on the pink again, and always potting the pink into a different pocket. This improves your stun/screw shots around the pink/black spots, and concequently, increases your confidence in matches, so you know when you get an opportunity around the pink and black, you will have a better chance of making a match winning break. Practice clearing the colours off their spots, again this improves confidence in maches when you get a chance to clear, and also this routine has all the different types of shot incorporated into it. Spread the reds around the pink/black spots, bunching reds together and putting reds on the side cushions. These are just a few examples.

5. Shot selection. It's ok having the best cue action in the world if you do not know what shot to play for next. This is the downfall of so many players, and when I do more advanced coaching sessions, I tend to talk players through what I am doing and why. There are so many examples of this, and to a certain degree, shot selection is not something that can be taught directly, because there are so many different shot possibilities on a snooker table. The main goal is to pot the reds in a pattern which will help to release more reds, and make breaks easier. There are a few players in my club whi have made 80 and 90 breaks, but can't make the century. They sometines ask me why, and when I look I can see the problem. They will pick off the loose reds because they are easy. Concequently, when they get to 80 or 90, the only balls remaining on the table are tied up on the rails, or touching together in a pack etc. When I make a break, I am always looking for angles on the colours to cannon out these balls early and give myself more options for the future. Also, I tend to play in areas, not for pinpoint position. I will look at an area on the table if I am playing for a red, and say to myself 'if I leave the white here, I will be on that red to the black pocket, if I overscrew it I will be on that red to the centre pocket, and If I under hit it, I'm on that red etc. This is the best way to think early on in a break. The only time this rule should be broken is if there are only a couple of reds left and its impossible to play for more than one red.

I hope this helps, and I will look forward to reading any future posts.

Regards, MAC.

[reverse_side]

Very intersting MAC, a question that's been buzzing in my head for a while, that I normally just give the answer, "They're just phenomenally talented with great hand-to-eye coordination", is....

How do some of the Pro's get away with what the average eagle-eyed player would say is fault with their technique; e.g. Alan McManus's head lift, John Parrot's sway at impact, Ebdon & Wilkinson's oversized bridge, Joe Swail's grip and elbow position, Harold&Fu's virtually stationary aiming&feathering, Hunter's continual punch shots, Jimmy's weird aiming etc.

Leading on from this, what advice would you give to juniors and/or beginners that see these players doing what they do and to avoid emulating a 'fault'.

[MAC]

Well to a certain extent reverse side, you have provided part of the answer when you mentioned 'Good hand/eye coordination'. This is what I would consider to be natural ability. Obviously, all snooker coaches and snooker manuals have a textbook description of the perfect cue action, which provides all players with a standard to work from. Some players have to work on this more than others. Players with natural talent for snooker have always had the ability to pot balls without doing anything with their cue action. What I would say is 'if it's not broken, dont fix it'.
Nevertheless, there is a huge difference between Joe Swail's funny backhand compared to Alan McManus' with his head movements, because as we seen in Ireland, Alan was missing a huge number of long pots which was a result of this. In contrast, Joe Swail would be unable to pot balls in any other way than the style that he uses now, so as a junior player, it would have been no good for his coach to tell him to play with a textbook cue action, as this would have almost certainly disrupted his snooker playing ability.
What you must also consider is that with break-building around the pink and black spot, accuracy is not as important. Secondly, if you look at Alan McManus, his head does not actually move until the cue has hit the white, at which point, movement will not actually affect the shot. Instead of looking at this bad point, look at the other parts of Alan's cue action that DO allow him to deliver the cue straight. He has the perfect 'pause' in his backswing, coupled with excellent timing of the ball, so he's not putting a large amount of effort into his shots.
The problem therefore stems from the fact that not everyone can play snooker with the textbook style, due to a number of reasons. The bodys anatomy is a problem, because all players are diferent shapes and sizes. Take Mark King for example, his stance has both legs bent because he is very tall, similar to John Parrott. So because everyone has an image of the perfect cue action, any deviation from this standard is considered to be abnormal, but this is the stark reality of snooker players!

[reverse_side]

yeah, it'd be good to have a chat with Joe (calling all Ferrets!) and hear how he felt it was more comfortable to play like this instead of a textbook style and how he came across it. We had a guy in a Cheshire league that actually held the cue with his palm of his righthand facing 180 degrees outwards. I feel that Joe appreciates 'anchors' in his technique; the way (like me) he uses his chest to hold the cue against and (no WAY like me) he jams his arm back as far as it can go to help him be more solid. His fluid hand then has to make up for these other rigid elements; and fantastically well he does too - he's congenitally deaf as well, what a star.

I'll be looking eagerly at Alan McManus' head (the Grand Prix maybe) next time! I'm remembering him lifting as he delivers the cue rather than immediately after hitting the white.

It's a given then that we can't rely on using the same mold for every player. But I would say that for a player with a glaring area they could change a reap a raft of rewards, it would be a brave coach not to try and address that fault... unless they were stroking in regualr high breaks. Having said that, there are top performers at other sports (golf for example) that even the best realise that a major building block of their technique needs changing; they need to decide if they're 'brave' enough to do anything about it.

At 6'4" my tripod stance works well for me that I'd feel an orthodox stance would introduce a much to elevated position that would also involve a lot of physical discomfort too.... "that giraffe stance should be banned" one opponent said after I played well against him!! (he was in his socks and wearing a baseball cap so I had some ammunition to say the least!). I've also found my stance to be strong enough to survive 20 stone heffalumps that occasionally stumble into you!

[MAC]

I suppose its a sort of simultaneous lifting of head/hitting the white. If you actually try lifting your head slightly, it dosen't affect the direction of the cue. Head movement is probably not that great a deal as whole body movement is. At the end of the day, this is snooker, not musical statues!!!!!

[reverse_side]

He'd have a few bruises from Steve Davis' dad that's for sure. Would any of your 'pupils' want to join the forum? Your best effort's up on the High Break thread now.

[MAC]

Thanks. I have told some of my pupils about this site. Hopefully some will join at some stage soon.

[jayjay]

Hi Mac,

Welcome, this is a brilliant thread!!
What is your insight to matchplay psychology and dealing with nerves????

JayJay

[miscuehamburg]

Hi,
yes, this thread is very interesting. I read your 5 points and started to work on point 2. It is new to me, that one can differ between power and timing. I tried to slow down the last drawback, but found the necessary pause on the backswing disturbing. In the end I still put too much power in the forwards delivery of the cue. Maybe i should shift my eyes on the object ball earlier on and do the last swing in one motion?
If you know any useful practise routine for timing please let me know.

[MAC]

Hi.

I can see what your problem may be. Obviously, what I wrote in section 2 was just an overview, and will not work for all players. Here is a method that may work better for you if you find the pause difficult. Instead of waiting until the cue has stopped moving on the backswing before you move your eyes on to the object ball, begin moving your eyes just before this, i.e. when the cue is in its last 1-2cm of movement before it stops. By doing this, you will not require a distinct pause, and can just release the cue. Assuming you pull the cue back slowly enough (it should take about 1-2 seconds), there is actually no need for a pause.
In terms of practicing this, there are no obvious techniques that I can think of. Hovever, one shot that you may find helpful is to practice straight screw backs. Because screw back relies so heavily on 'timing', playing this shot with minimal cue effort will gradually increase your understanding of the feel of the shot. If you practice the shot enough, you will evetually find that you will be able to play this shot without delivering the cue too hard. Remember, screw back, like all other shots, rely on follow through, so try using follow through to get the most effort out of the shot. When I say follow through, your cue should actually move at least 2 ball lengths through the white ball following the shot. And remember, stay down and dont move until the ball has dropped in the pocket.

Regards, MAC.

[miscuehamburg]

Hi. Just wanted to bumb up this thread and say thanks to MAC. I'm working on it...