New from Western Canada

[arsalanjami]

Hi Guys and Gals,

My 2nd post - My first one was posted in a thread with no response haha

I am posting from Western Canada - I have been playing on and off for about 12 years - but until last year i had just been shooting balls blindly for fun with friends at the local club. It was a place of gathering for me and my buddies to smoke some reefer and enjoy playing single games, doubles, and sometimes points with multiple players.

I got myself a new cue last year, along with Steve Davis's book, John Spencers's book, and on the way is Joe Davis's book at the moment. I have completely transformed my stance, grip, elbow, bridge, sighting - and as you can imagine that had totally destroyed my natural game. Now my natural game wasn't great by any means but I had a great feel for the shot previously.

I competed in a few local tournaments last year and didn't win a single match due to discovering what "pressure" is. I had no idea what it was until i actually played in a tournament myself.

This year is a completely different story. I have managed to compete with players who i couldn't get near of and have started winning. I have a tendency to dominate players and just breakdown when i need to win the last frame to win the match - The pressure builds on itself and the rest is history.

My game is improving with practice as I have realized my faults (mostly to do with stance elbow grip, not throwing the cue using elbow but tight grip). My aiming is on point. My goal is to improve my action as I know what to do on the table -- just a matter of holding my cue action under pressure (haha - if only it was that easy).

I have gone from making 10-20 breaks to now making 30-60's (not in tournament but serious matches against players). Tournament high break would be 31 or 37 cant remember - but remember I have only played in about 5-6 tournaments and have just started basically this year. On the practice table (line up, scattered balls) I can pretty much clear the table with 3-5 mistakes (silly mistakes loss of focus).

Overall if i was to summarize my improvements - I would say practicing my "new" cue action, judgement of the pace of the table, playing on the cushion to get high on black, splitting the pack from the blue, splitting with black with screw or follow running side from cushion, and clearing the colors. Thank you Barry Stark

I will start posting videos soon for your critique.

Thanks for reading my rant.

AJ

[DeanH]

welcome to TSF
good to hear there are some events to have a go at
good luck

[markz]

Welcome to TSF, there are a few fellow Canadians on here that you might be able to play or see at your tournaments.

[Neil Taperell]

Nice progress made there AJ , enjoyment is the key ......as well as a bit of pressure .

And as the post above says , there are a good few Canadians on here . Hopefully you can get a decent break in a match to increase your confidence also .

[Terry Davidson]

Welcome. I see you say 'Western Canada' so I assume Sask, Alberta or BC. As far as I can tell there's not much snooker in Sask. a bit in Alberta and a bit more in BC. Here in Ontario we are having our last ranking tournament of the season this Saturday and so far we have 53 players, which is amazing. The Ontario provincial champs also has around 55 players registered and there's still over a day to go left for registrations.

Good luck for the future and play in every tournament you can as that's the only way to overcome tournament stress.

[sharkster63]

Welcome to the forum, good place to talk about the many good and bad points and get some very good advice from some veterans of the game. Cheers

[arsalanjami]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Terry : I am in Calgary, AB - and you are on point about the snooker here. Calgary has one place where tournaments have been held (Leather Pockets) and the owner has decided to remove the tables and put in 9 ball tables so there won't be any decent place to have a tournament. There is also Mike's Billiards (3 tables), and the #1 Legion downtown which has a nice 8 table setup but no one wants to play there as it is right in the middle of downtown. I know a couple of guys trying to get a place open but probably won't happen for a year or so. There is Corner Pocket in Red deer which has 4 tables now for the Richler Cup and a new club in Edmonton called Topshots with brand new Wiraka M1 tables - great place.

There is also a snooker league that runs from Sept to March with weekly matches but I couldn't play due to work.

I have been able to play in Snooker Canada's Richler Cup Qualifiers and went to the Central Canadian Classic in Winnipeg. It is quite costly for me to come East to play but I plan in the new couple years!

I will be playing in the Western Canadians, and the RIchler Cup in April and that will probably be it until something else comes around.

The max we get is 12-16 players in Calgary for any local event but I am sure there are more players who just don't come.

So jealous you guys have 50+ players in a single event!

[arsalanjami]

Played a quick best of 5 during lunch hour with a buddy for fun - first two frames w ere 6 ball - won uneventfully. The 3rd frame we decided to make it 10 ball as it was probably our last game before going back to work - and I knocked in a break of 69!!! missed the a long 1/4 ball brown to the yellow pocket for a clearance! buzzingg!