John Higgins

[RocketRonnie]

How important is it to have your cueing arm in line with the cue

I noticed during the masters that John Higgins arm was slightly at a angle

[Kiddo]

It helps you hit the cue ball more straigth and smooth. Your shot gets more precise...

You should try to watch these videos of Ronnie's showing how to cue and stuff on:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/h...00/2558391.stm

[RocketRonnie]

Thanks for the link but i have already seen it

So why does higgins play so well

[Sonny]

look at Joe Swail for a text book example of how to cue

[reverse_side]

Professionals are always striving to make sure they're technique is effective and bullet proof ; his coach will have noticed his elbow being pulled in too far, but thought he was playing well enough - not broken don't fix it. The more important 'fault' the coverage showed was that his sighting was all over the place; Ronnie's was perfect, flashing between the balls but making sure as he paused on his backswing, his eyes were fixed on the object ball. John's was too quick and he played most shots still looking at the cue ball. The Pro's have phenomenal talent to give them some tolerance; us mere mortals can't afford to stray too far from the text book.
Sonny, Joe Swail!!! Amazing isn't it, pornographic hand action but silky timing good enough to challenge Jimmy's & Ronnie's - and he's congenitally deaf!

[RocketRonnie]

Why do you need to pause on the back swing

Where and when can you get embassy world championship tickets

[Sonny]

yeah Joe Swail is a true enigma - I love watching him almost as much as Ronnie and Mark Williams

[cueman]

Its not imperative that your elbow is in line with your cue when looked at so long as the cue is being delivered straight. Higgins has always cued like this and look at the success he has had, it is not a weakness, its just how his arm gets through the cue ball.

The pause is important as it helps to get your eyes to focus on the object ball before delivering the cue. Its also widely regarded as helping with the timing of the shot, it helps deliver the cue through with maximum acceleration with minimum effort. If you look at players like Graeme Dott or Paul Hunter they don't have a long pause and sometimes their actions seem a bit snatchy. Look at how long Hendry's pause is and see how it has improved his game. Though if you pause too long it can cause a bit of tension building up in the arm and means that you'll probably over hit cue ball.

[Sonny]

I think Hendrys pause is too long. Look at Stephen Lee for how to do the pause thing. Look at Dave Harold and James Wattana for how not to do it with resultant lack of cue power

[reverse_side]

Rocket, listen to cueman and sonny, they know what they're talking about; it's the bedrock of playing well and you'll improve a lot quicker. You sound very eager to learn, so try looking for a team to join and then someone who has a knack of explaining the basics in a blindingly obvious way.
It was easy for me to watch some snooker at the Crucible, we just wandered through the foyer on the way to Uni and asked about cancellations; but what you can do is visit www.embassysnooker.com and follow the links.
The most essential part about the pause, is what it allows you to do: calmly move your aim from the cue ball to the object ball, then when you're settled, you can stroke your cue through. Look at darts and golf, quite similar, and Bobby George is always saying, "Look at where you're aiming". People play for decades and miss out on this technique.
Having said that, maybe I should take my own advice, was on 88 tonight (in doubles strangely) and over-cooked the yellow and missed the green with the rest EOB; chuffed with 90 though.