Striking centre ball

[Csmith]

I was having a friendly game with a mate last night and got into a rut where I couldn't pot a straight ball, and I was missing long shots by a few feet. I then remembered something I saw Terry Davidson had said about 90% of cueing problems starting in the backswing. I slowed down my backswing and very deliberately made sure it was straight. After that I started knocking in some decent long balls and making some breaks. It may be a placebo (Like so many little tweaks in snooker), but it certainly seemed to help, and I didn't lose a frame after.

I haven't had a practice session doing that yet, but I used to often put some accidental right hand side on the ball when playing up and down the spots, so it'll be interesting to see if that helps reduce it.

A straight backswing will make all the difference. If you pull the cue back crooked, you have to follow the same crooked path to get back to where you intend to hit the white. Best to just come straight back so you only need to push the cue through. Easier said than done sometimes though.

[vmax4steve]

A straight backswing will make all the difference. If you pull the cue back crooked, you have to follow the same crooked path to get back to where you intend to hit the white.

Most cueing problems stem from not having the cue on the line of aim.
The tip to the centre of the cue ball should be a given if we all have good/corrected eyesight, but getting the butt of the cue on the line of aim is more important and is purely down to placement of the feet.
Get your feet/stance right, butt on the line, tip to the centre of the cue ball, and then brain knows everythings straight so doesn't subconsciously compensate by pulling the butt onto the line on the backswing, pivoting the tip in the bridge and consequently striking across the cue ball.

[jonny66]

Wow can't believe this, thought I had this problem
Saw my coach many times and still can't fix this

Exactly same problem , nothing to do with stance

Please share stuff that you thing might have helped you and I will update too

Mine was a cueing problem. I had/have what I would call a noisy back hand, it moves too much through the stroke. This technique that Del talks about of opening the fingers on the back stroke and letting my elbow do all the work going through has helped a lot. Takes some getting used to though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yFhk4m_DZA&t=3s

[thunder66]

I did the spots test again today, up and down and when I strike what looks like the centre of the cue ball to me, I get a touch of right hand side on it. I can strike a touch more to the left and it comes back straight, obviously too much and it puts left on the cue ball. Anyone else get this? Do you just strike what looks a little off all the time?

Jonny,

To share with you my own experience, I had tried this variant of the running the spots exercise, with 5-7mm gap, and adjust your stance or whatever you want to tweak, until you can consistently do it. I start off my practice with this excercise each time, if I can do it 5 times in a row I'd go on to the next exercise. And this helped me a lot.

The exercise is at 2:18:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE

- Thunder

[brookst]

Hi guys,
A couple of exercises I find useful in terms of cueing and hitting the white well are,
Place the swan neck rest at one end of the table pointing virtically along the middle of the table with a cube of calk on the edge of the table and rest the handle of the rest on that as opposed to the handle resting on the wood of the table.
Now play the usual up the table through the spots from the black spot but this will now include going through the legs of the swan neck going up the table and then back through the legs again after the ball has hit the cushion and hopefully back down the rest of the table to land back again against your cue tip.... hopefully I tend to do 10 of these in a row when i go to the snooker hall and see how many out of 10 I can get.

A related exercise is set up the table the same with the rest and have the white again on or inline with the spots. But this time aim to just miss the left leg of rest (aiming not to go through the legs but just miss the left leg) play the white with right hand side and aim to hit the top cushion and come back through the gap in the legs not on the way up as i said but TOO go through them on the way back using the side you put on the white. Do 10 this way then 10 on the right side.

Just something I do sometimes and someone else might find helpful. Have a good weekend.

[blahblah01]

Jonny,

To share with you my own experience, I had tried this variant of the running the spots exercise, with 5-7mm gap, and adjust your stance or whatever you want to tweak, until you can consistently do it. I start off my practice with this excercise each time, if I can do it 5 times in a row I'd go on to the next exercise. And this helped me a lot.

The exercise is at 2:18:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE

- Thunder

Many, many thanks for this Clip

I did the sight, approach, bend and shoot (ie no feathering, further sighting etc) just with balls scattered around the table and WOW. Compared to "normal" my success rate went up; but those I missed, missed by further. Some more practicing on the approach and just composing before playing, ie little\no feathering and in goes my first 50 (admittedly only in practice) since starting playing in January

[jonny66]

Many, many thanks for this Clip

I did the sight, approach, bend and shoot (ie no feathering, further sighting etc) just with balls scattered around the table and WOW. Compared to "normal" my success rate went up; but those I missed, missed by further. Some more practicing on the approach and just composing before playing, ie little\no feathering and in goes my first 50 (admittedly only in practice) since starting playing in January

All my highest breaks have been when I hardly feather the ball and just play "naturally", but it's hard to do that under any kind of pressure. There's a Steve Davis article I found in someone on here's sig where he talks about this, basically he say's you need to find a happy medium between getting down and stroking the balls in and staying down feathering too long. That's why he's such a fan of Selby's cue action, it's the same every time, get down, 2 feathers, slow pull back, pause, deliver, every time, no matter how hard or easy the shot is.

[blahblah01]

All my highest breaks have been when I hardly feather the ball and just play "naturally", but it's hard to do that under any kind of pressure. There's a Steve Davis article I found in someone on here's sig where he talks about this, basically he say's you need to find a happy medium between getting down and stroking the balls in and staying down feathering too long. That's why he's such a fan of Selby's cue action, it's the same every time, get down, 2 feathers, slow pull back, pause, deliver, every time, no matter how hard or easy the shot is.

It was really weird the first time I did it. Sometimes I was cueing before head was down, and the ball's were still flying in....

It felt very unnatural, with no sense of rhythm\feel etc. During the 2nd\3rdsession I think I managed to get some rhythm, and I'm getting feel from striking...

I'm meeting up with EnglishBoy for a game tonight, and have Club Comp on Monday night, so I'll see how it goes.

[Shockerz]

It was really weird the first time I did it. Sometimes I was cueing before head was down, and the ball's were still flying in....

It felt very unnatural, with no sense of rhythm\feel etc. During the 2nd\3rdsession I think I managed to get some rhythm, and I'm getting feel from striking...

I'm meeting up with EnglishBoy for a game tonight, and have Club Comp on Monday night, so I'll see how it goes.

For me it's the pause that makes the biggest difference.

I have to really concentrate to feather straight but even when I don't, if I pause on the backswing for a decent amount of time (obviously it's personal how long) , I generally come through straight.

As I get more confident this somehow gets lost and I generally go through the same process again having to concentrate on the pause!

[blahblah01]

For me it's the pause that makes the biggest difference.

I have to really concentrate to feather straight but even when I don't, if I pause on the backswing for a decent amount of time (obviously it's personal how long) , I generally come through straight.

As I get more confident this somehow gets lost and I generally go through the same process again having to concentrate on the pause!

You seem to be missing the word over in there )

I'm not sure Snooker is a game for over confidence, excitement etc....

[Shockerz]

You seem to be missing the word over in there )

I'm not sure Snooker is a game for over confidence, excitement etc....

Yeah I can see why you'd think that.

I really meant as I get confident so stop having to think about technique which can of course be damaging on it's own; too much thinking about technique can kill your game.

I guess when I think I have drilled a routine into my method you sort of accept (rightly or wrongly) that you can move onto something else or you would always be thinking about grip, pause, sighting etc.

I just struggle with the straight cueing and always have.

but, what a great game it is!

[howardlax]

Enlightened from a word in golf center near my house,
if you strike left, it goes to left; if you strike right, it adds right hand side; if you strike middle, it is a fxxx miracle....

[Catch 22]

All my highest breaks have been when I hardly feather the ball and just play "naturally", but it's hard to do that under any kind of pressure. There's a Steve Davis article I found in someone on here's sig where he talks about this, basically he say's you need to find a happy medium between getting down and stroking the balls in and staying down feathering too long. That's why he's such a fan of Selby's cue action, it's the same every time, get down, 2 feathers, slow pull back, pause, deliver, every time, no matter how hard or easy the shot is.

This is what I was working on ,on my last coaching session . Basically he altered my cue action to a happy medium of not too fast and not too slow . Works well