Does quitting smoking effect your snooker?

[1lawyer]

Last week I played and had several breaks over 50 and felt great...today I made one break over 50 all day...
Was it a just a bad day or was it due to the fact I have just given up smoking. My concentration was very poor ....any help or ideas would be appreciated...maybe you have gone thro the same thing?

[DawRef]

Only you will know. All players, whatever their standard, will have good and bad days. Today you had a bad day. Whether that was to do with giving up smoking, who knows.

[jasond28]

I'm a firm believer that quitting smoking can have an effect on your game.

I've spoken to a couple of ex pro's in the past who said there eyesight changed when they quit smoking. One of them said he had trouble seeing the edge of the object ball when playing thin cut shots.

I quit smoking back in June and noticed I had trouble with my eyes focusing on the object ball on long pots.

[jasond28]

It got better over time.

One of the ex pro's I spoke to said that smoking has an effect on the blood vessels in your eyes so after years of smoking your eyes get used to it.

[checkSide]

Quitting smoking will be good for your game in the long run. I'm sure of that.

Concentration will be an issue early on as the nicotine high increases your concentration. After a week or so you'll be over the nicotine addiction and you'll be able to concentrate better without the highs and lows of the nicotine rush and withdrawal.

That's imho, I am hoping to quit myself!

[kenlee]

smoking really does help especially when im under pressure or nervous in a match

[Phil]

Last week I played and had several breaks over 50 and felt great...today I made one break over 50 all day...
Was it a just a bad day or was it due to the fact I have just given up smoking. My concentration was very poor ....any help or ideas would be appreciated...maybe you have gone thro the same thing?

what would you do here where I live? you can't smoke in a billard hall anymore in my area...!

[luchtzak]

Used to smoke, couldn't have a break over 20 as I had to go back to my cigarette ;-)

Besides smoking makes you nervous (contrary to what smokers say that it makes you calm).

Now I have a lot less stress around the table and I am happy giving up my bad habit ;-)

[dannyd0g]

if you have just given up smoking, your brain will be all over the place due to nicotine withdrawl symptoms, and concentration would be very difficult. After a few days this should pass though. You wont get the artificial/intense nicotine boosts to concentration anymore, nor the lows either as it wears off, just a constant calmer, more methodical and saner concentration once your brain stops relying on nicotine for fuel.

[Monique]

Well tobacco is a drug and hard one. Quitting is likely to affect all aspects of your life for a while. It's actually the same when to have to stop or start some medications BTW. I don't know if it's true but I heard that Stephen Lee is suffering thyroidis problems but doesn't take the medications that could help his condition because of the side effects: tachicardia, anxiety and tremour in hands. I've gone through that and it settles but it took me two years which is probably not an option in a pro snooker carreer.
About cigs, it will pass and hopefully rather quickly ... Good luck!

[goshow]

I quit a couple of years back and at the time my snooker went rapidly downhill because i enjoyed smoking and it was a routine in my game. I play a frame, have a tab, pay a frame and so on.

Now i can honestly say my game is far superior to what it ever was. I still fancy the occasional tab but wait five mins and the feelings have gone. I can now play one frame straight into the next without spoiling it for my opponent by making him or her have to wait ive while i'm being selfish and arrogant by having a smoke.

It really winds me up now when i'm playing in the league and after the first frame my opponent goes outside for a smoke, leaving me to wiat five mins till i can crack on again.

Persevere with it mate, it gets easier.

[Phil]

You cant smoke in a snooker hall or any public place over here either, but you can outside...

just until 31. december 2008 it was terrible in these halls here with lot of smoking going on, since 1. January smoking is prohibited in closed public areas.

[Phil]

well, it is not the government that banned smoking in switzerland. we do have a direct democracy in Switzerland, people voted against smoking in closed public areas 2 years ago in our state. we do actually have a vote here and it works - most of the times.

[Phil]

Did you get to vote on ....banning the sale of cigs outright, banning alcohol or joining the euro....no....so you cant say that democracy exists or indeed works in swiss or anywhere else.

sure it does! maybe you should come here once and I explain it to you. yes, we did vote for the alcohol level 0.5 %o for traffic instad of 0.8 we had before. we did also vote for cigs not being sold to people under 18. and yes, once we will be voting for joining the euro, but this will take a lot of time. we did indeed vote to join the EEA (European Economic Area) some years ago. Oh, and by the way we did get to vote about buying the new F/A 18 fighter or not.

you probably don't know our direct democracy system at all, so why do you make false pretences like that?

[Paulie]

I think that for "Private Clubs" there should be an opt out of the ban. Members should be allowed to vote every year on banned smoking or not for 12 months and that result is honoured. Any new staff members who do not want to work in a smoky environment should be made aware that every 12 months they may be a change of smoking for a further 12 months. If they are not happy then they have the choice to not apply. Not 100% sure what to do with current staff members but any who were employed before the ban should technically have no real issue with it. Maybe.

In the case of snooker halls, they are such big places with only a few people in the main hall. In the club I play at there are 20 tables so maybe a max of 50+ people at any one time with full table use, which never happens. With the A/C they have smoking was never an issue, not before the ban anyway.

Maybe let the players smoke in the hall and ban it in the bar area? But not allow the bar patrons to go into the hall for a smoke, make them go outside?