Thinking Ahead

[Kick]

Alright, i've another question to seek your opinions! I find that when I play, and as i say, i'm very much an amateur and have little consistancy, i find my trouble in thinking ahead and thinking positionally.

Does anyone have any advice on how to approach 'thinking shots ahead'. I'm not asking what shots to play for, just how you approach the table and what you say to yourself in your head to think the shot through, what are your thought processes? any tips?

cheers guys!

[reverse_side]

Hi Kick, we've all been there and the best way to groove being able to think positionally is to either watch the TV and imagine what shot they're going to play or, when you're actually playing to pot lots of balls yourself and then each time you'll need to think ahead where the white's going and where you want it to get to.

Obviously there's 2 problems, the Pro's may play shot you're not capable of for your current level and the other is that you may not be potting a lot of balls in the first place.

2 solutions could be to look out for Pro's that play superb position without being forced to employ deep screw, reverse side (!), power shots etc, the other is to play on your own at least once a week to really learn how balls interact... suppose billiards is very useful for that.

I'd suggest watching Henders or Higgins when they're in the balls as they use a majority of simple shots played very well that an amatuer can aspire to..... Ronnie tends to use great timing to move the white around which is for later in your snooker career! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/othe...o/default.stm##

The essentials of position is being able to virtually guarantee the path of the white after hitting the object ball and imagining it rolling along that line; like a golf putt. The only way you can do this when you're playing someone is to hit the object ball in the right place and then learn the repeatable angle it deflects off; but if you don't pot the ball or get it safe, it doesn't hardwire the information into your brain and the extra distraction of trying to win is sometimes too much. (A Pro at any sport spends hours and hours practicing various elements to feel confident in repeating the performance in a match, a snooker player may pot 50 mid-range blues to corner every day JUST for the 1 time in a match he may need to play it.... most amateurs [me included] don't have the time for solo practice but it can prove invaluable).

SO, what can YOU do to improve you skills of positional play and planning a break? Well, practice potting first so you get to a good enough standard to feel confident in getting 50-75% of them. Then the memory of the position will start to become more relevant, I suppose even when you've not potted the ball, you can still look eagerly for where the white's ended up and think where it SHOULD have landed.... if you'd've hit it a bit thicker or thinner in the first place.

If you're mathematically minded, there are theories you can look-up for what physics is involved when balls collide and start thinking of phrases like; angle of incident, angle of deflection etc (Aye-merry-cans will talk of cut angle) etc, http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/pool/index.html is a font.

To come back to 'thinking shots through' then, as you play more, you see patterns of what's possible, but you probably need to groove certain common shots so you can feel comfortable playing them and even looking forward to them.

Certain situations come up time and time again too, so if you can practice them, you'll know what to do each time. The Pro's will obviously spend a majority around the black but also practice shots-to-something that get left at break-off.

Eventually, when you watch the tournaments in the future, you too will be imagining what shot you'd play, and it'll not only be the shot the player gets down and plays, but it'll be the commentators choice too and your finger mark in dust on the TV screen will be the same as the white circles Dennis Taylor scribes up.

Once you know what shots you need in your armoury, you can recognise them when they come up and it'll feel more like you're on a break as soon as it's your shot rather than a probable miss or at best a few shots before your opponent gets another chance.

A great tip would be to look at the space in front of the object ball as a triangle about the size of 4 sheets of A4 paper, try and land the white in this area and also try and make the white come towards the ball-on not across the triangle..... that way the pace you play the shot matters less for getting on the next ball.

Hope some of this helps Kick and good luck; the more you try, the more you'll enjoy.

Is 24 still your best break? Let me know as soon as this improves on the High Break Board thread.

[Kick]

Cheers mate, some good points there! yesterday i actually went to a snooker club on my own for the first time and spent 2 hours just potting really, and towards the end started to pick up some form in and around the black spot, i also did a drill of placing 5 reds around the black and working positionally, which helped alot and developed a pot success rate of around 70%, which i was chuffed with!

i also spent a while just knocking the cue ball around the table, getting a feel for it, which i feel could really bring my game on.

i also spent a few minutes practicing long pots, and nailled around 4 pots of around 8ft distance, again i was pleased as i'm only really used to pool tables!

i'll need to keep practicing, and my goal within the next 2 years is to develop enough skill to be able to 'compete' and not get destroyed in a league match for example.

My highest break is still 24 at the moment, and again a short term goal is to beat this by the end of the month, hopefully if i can get practice in, felt a bit of a tit playing on my own! all to develop my game though!

[reverse_side]

sore-rite Kick, pleasure to help... felt a bit of a tit? Tell you what, when you're getting down on every shot and your mate's watching with a sickly feeling knowing you're probably gonna score a fair few points, it'll all be worth it. Having said that, make it when your opponent in a match is watching you calmly weigh up your choice of shot... your mates'll be chuffed you've improved.

So you're seeing an improvement already, that's impressive. If you have time, get the white, the yellow and the red on the table, and hit the white to try and hot the red then the yellow in one shot. Or hit the yellow then the red .... use cushions if you like and you'll be playing a majority of billiard shots which help to plan on aiming where the white's going.

You'e found that the pace of the table's important, it matters a lot if you can gauge how hard to hit a shot. It's surprising how far the white will travel when you actually just stroke the ball smoothly.

When you've set the table up for a frame see if you can play the white out of baulk and back into the D ith only 3 shots, going behind the pack and not hitting a cushion or another ball.

Keep practicing, it'll all help to make you feel more confident which allows you to play better to, which makes you more confident etc etc.

[stoichen]

When I read the original topic I was waiting with baited breath for a trademark reverse_side reply and I've not been left dissapointed! Good stuff mate.
By the way, I've found that playing snooker computer games has improved my general understanding of the sport.

Stu

[The_Godfather]

When I read the original topic I was waiting with baited breath for a trademark reverse_side reply and I've not been left dissapointed! Good stuff mate.
By the way, I've found that playing snooker computer games has improved my general understanding of the sport.

Stu

So long as its a very realistic game like "Snooker 2005". lol