Advice please - what to do next

[steve clarke]

I’ve been working hard on my potting for a while and am at last beginning to see some progress.

However, I’m lucky if I get more than 2 or 3 consecutive shots when playing because I’m only concentrating on the pot, not the next shot.

Any tips / exercises on how to control the cue ball?

Or indeed how to select the next shot?

[nrage]

The next step I would recommend is to place all the reds down the center in a line up, pick any starting point and pot them. See how many you can pot in a row. As you pick your next ball to pot, start to think about where you want the white for the one after that. Play the pot and try to achieve that position. This exercise is fairly forgiving, if you miss position there is likely to be another ball on, which is good for someone who is just starting with positional play, as otherwise you spend more time re-setting the exercise than actually practicing it.

After that it gets harder. Place black, pink and blue on the table and do the same thing but play for red/colour/red/etc. It's much harder as position is harder to make on the colour, and if you get bad position on the colour, the next red, and so on.

Another exercise is to place the black on the spot, and 2 reds either side evenly spaced out towards the side cushions. Place the white so you have a 3/4 or straighter shot on one of the reds nearest the black. Play to pot it and bounce the white off the cushion and back out into a position to pot the black, pot that and make the same position on the next red, repeat. This one teaches positional control off the cushion, and it all about judging the angle you have and adjusting the pace to suit. Most shots are medium/slow pace. The straighter you are on the red/black the closer to medium and if you get to 3/4 ball or less you need very little power or you'll find yourself 1/2 way up the table.

[steve clarke]

Thanks for that nrage.

Gave it a try last night - it's harder than it looks!

One of the problems now is that I'm concentrating on what to do with the CB and missing the pot!

Still, I've now got something new to incorporate into my practice - thanks again for your advice, much appreciated.

[nrage]

Thanks for that nrage.

Gave it a try last night - it's harder than it looks!

One of the problems now is that I'm concentrating on what to do with the CB and missing the pot!

Still, I've now got something new to incorporate into my practice - thanks again for your advice, much appreciated.

You're welcome.

Some more things to think about.. When playing for position don't pick an exact spot to aim for, but rather imagine a large (basketball or larger) sized circle where the ideal position is somewhere near the center of that, and play into the circle. Start to pick your circles so that they encompass several possible positions/reds. Try to find several possible circles and judge objectively which circle is easier to make, which has more reds available, etc.

When deciding how to get to the circle, take into consideration the path the white takes to get there, try to find a path where the white ends up traveling along the line of aim (if possible) vs going across the line of aim. If you can travel along the line of aim, then your margin for error is much greater i.e. 1ft vs 1inch. An example of this is seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhy-77D_uds&feature=plcp
@ 1:15

[steve clarke]

Great - thanks for that.

I'll give it a try - one thing I've found with snooker is that, certainly for me, things take time!

Again, thank you, much appreciated.

Steve

[throtts]

Great - thanks for that.

I'll give it a try - one thing I've found with snooker is that, certainly for me, things take time!

Again, thank you, much appreciated.

Steve

No, Steve... Things take time for all players, it's a very skilful game to learn and it takes so long. Don't believe all you read on forums about players speculating how great they are and with that how little they play..

Remember, the pot is the most important thing first, then position. With lots of time and practise, when you are looking at your next shot standing up working out the angle you will know what part of the cue ball you will need your tip to strike to achieve the position on the next ball making your alignment when going down for the shot the first important thing.

You should get yourself a snooker tuition book, I prefer a book to a DVD...

[hotpot]

Some good advice , as sais the pot should be whats in the forefront of your mind , the position play should be thought over before taking the shot then you decide where you are going to hit the white and at what pace . Some simple touch shot routines is a good way of getting the feel of the white and how it reacts . Take note of where youre hitting the white and watch how it reacts .

Its a long learning curve and will take time to master .

[Terry Davidson]

steve:

To learn how to figure out just where to hit the white to achieve the position you want go to thesnookergym and check out Nic Barrow's 'perfect stun angle' writings and his positional play tips

Terry

[nrage]

steve:

To learn how to figure out just where to hit the white to achieve the position you want go to thesnookergym and check out Nic Barrow's 'perfect stun angle' writings and his positional play tips

Do you have a link Terry.. I find it /really/ hard to find anything on Nic's site.

Edit: Aha, I think this is the one you mean?
http://www.thesnookergym.com/pdf/Positional_Play.pdf

[alabadi]

once you are good at potting then you can practice getting position for the white, there are lots of videos on youtube plus the great coaches here will give you sound advice.

what i do as long as there is an angle is to find the stun path, some call it the Tangent line, which states that when playing stun the OB and the cue ball will travel 90 degrees to each other.

so once you can see this all you need is to hit lower to be outside this angle or higher if you want a shallower angle remember all you are doing is hitting center ball on the vertical line. also you have to take into consideration the strength of the shot, however as long as you know the path the white will take u can adjust the power to get the desired position

there is a great video on youtube that shows this perfectly, you might want to ignore the first 5 minutes or so as he explains stance bridge and so-forth for the complete beginner, what you might be interested in starts from 6 minutes in.

hope this helps, it did me a lot of good in understanding cueball paths, once you are more advanced he also has good videos on spin and its effects.

here is the link...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbmNcYH52eo&feature=plcp

Alabbadi

[alabadi]

once you are good at potting then you can practice getting position for the white, there are lots of videos on youtube plus the great coaches here will give you sound advice.

what i do as long as there is an angle is to find the stun path, some call it the Tangent line, which states that when playing stun the OB and the cue ball will travel 90 degrees to each other.

so once you can see this all you need is to hit lower to be outside this angle or higher if you want a shallower angle remember all you are doing is hitting center ball on the vertical line. also you have to take into consideration the strength of the shot, however as long as you know the path the white will take u can adjust the power to get the desired position

there is a great video on youtube that shows this perfectly, you might want to ignore the first 5 minutes or so as he explains stance bridge and so-forth for the complete beginner, what you might be interested in starts from 6 minutes in.

hope this helps, it did me a lot of good in understanding cueball paths, once you are more advanced he also has good videos on spin and its effects.

here is the link...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbmNcYH52eo&feature=plcp

Alabbadi

[steve clarke]

Thank you all, gentlemen, for your responses.

I played on Friday and could hardly pot a ball!

However, nil desperandum..............:tennis:

Cheers

Steve

[nrage]

Thank you all, gentlemen, for your responses.

I played on Friday and could hardly pot a ball!

However, nil desperandum..............:tennis:

Yeah, when you change anything, even how you think about the shot, and what you concentrate on, things will get worse before they get better.

I think the key with positional play is to compartmentalise somewhat. By that I mean, decide on the positional aspect as you aim (before you get down), decide on the height and power of the shot. Then confirm your aim and walk in as normal. On the shot, concentrate 95%+ on the pot and ~5% on the height and power you selected. Do not consciously think of the position itself - I find that thinking of the position can cause me to play shots thin, or thick, as my brain tries to adjust things to make the position required. Instead you need to be 100% confident in the shot selected before you got down, and just play it.

Another drill which is helpful for learning how the cue ball reacts to power and height is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4gvd1swf1o&feature=plcp

If you're struggling to pot, go back to the line up of just reds and concentrate on just the potting aspect a few times through. I found my potting went a bit as I started to think about more things and it just took some dedicated potting practice to bring it back.

[steve clarke]

Thanks nrage.

It's easy to get demoralised but I'm a great one for picking myself up and carrying on.

Should be, I've had enough practice...............

I'll keep practising my potting and trying to introdue a bit of cue ball control as I go.

Thanks again.

Cheers

Steve

[CoachGavin]

Hello Steve,

I would get to the point where you are quite confident of the pot first. If you can play a straight pink to the corner and expect to get it then you can play the same pot with screw, stun and topspin. Work on your cue action so that you are quite confident of pots of 6 feet or less. Then when you are confident of the pot you can work on the positional side. If you start worrying about where the white is going and you are missing the pot then you are changing 2 variables. Get the pot each time and then you can vary the place you strike the white and experiment with position. I hope that helps and I hope you have managed to use the techniques I gave you.