Shooting Left

[xeberdee]

So I read a couple of post here about this issue already, but would like to hear some opinions.

Been playing for about 1 and a half years, I'm 56 - just had lens implants and my eyesight is now A1. Do at least 3 hours a day practice - systematic and organized.
In the beginning I noticed that I was putting a little left hand side on the ball, so I practised straight shots concentrated on stance and approach, used a lazer to fix it. I was actually hitting the white to the left of centre purposefully, what my brain told me was centre, wasn't. I can see it now, and can almost consistently hit the white down the line/table and back with no deviance or side on the ball for the most part. I am sure that my eyes fall in the middle of the line of shot on delivery (thanks to the lazer), and that I'm hitting white now in the centre, but I still have something going on with my potting.

On short short straight shots, I can see that the ball is going into the left side of the pocket. As the shot get longer, this gets worse until I'm missing almost consistently to the left.
If I play a long straight blue with top from white on the baulk line, the result is that about 80% of these end up to the left of the pocket with the white to the right. I'm only getting about 20% in with the white after it. Sometimes If I concentrate and I'm careful about the approach and delivery by pushing the cue thru and pushing the blue into the pocket it seems to help, but then I start missing and they all go left. If I just go instinctive into the shot without thought or care, I can then bang 2 or 3 in a row in, then suddenly my brain says 'bet you can't do that again' and I start missing to the left again.

It would seem, random cueing errors and attitude aside, that my idea of what is straight is actually left of true. I'm seeing the shot wrong, even simple straight shots. My fix has been to aim the ball into the right hand side of the pocket. The longer the shot, the more I correct for this. This helps me get in more balls, but as a new player who is just learning this game for the first time, I would like some opinions as to if it's a good idea to teach myself to aim 'incorrectly' like this.

Some coaches (eg. Nic Barrow) will say in this case that you must teach your brain to see the shot as straight, and this will happen over time to correct the inconsistency. I respect him a lot, and took his advice and that's why I'm aiming to the right, and observing where the ball goes. I've noticed that it does sometimes go the the right too, and when I start a session, I will do some straight shots to see where my brain is on the day. Some days its left, and some days it's bang on, some days even to the right. I might be noticing that I am shooting to the right side of the pocket more frequently, so it might be working - but it's really too early to tell for sure (1 month on).

And then there are those days where nothing seems to work and I'm all over the place in the same session

[xeberdee]

Forgot to mention that I am naturally left eye dominant, and that I have experimented A LOT with different positions for my head over the cue in the beginning. At one point I was convinced that I needed to put my left eye over the cue, as a lot of coaches recommend it, but the stats from many many tests didn't bear this out - and some coaches talk also about the preferred eye, which clouds the issue a little. It seems that I could pot just as many balls (at that point in my development) with my cue dead centre on my chin. So I went with that.

I'm thinking that maybe now that my cue action is way better I might get more consistent results and should test this again.
Just realised while writing this post, that the issue might be because I'm not over my dominant left eye as many recommend - this is pushing my brains image of straight slightly to the right, so I correct for this and miss left.

[vmax]

It could be a stance issue, butt of the cue isn't on the line of aim but the tip is so you're shooting across the ball. Forget head position, it's the position of the feet that determines the placement of the cue on the line of aim and your eyes will guide you if you allow them to, your instinctive potting tells you this. Next time you instinctively drop down into your stance and start potting look at the position of your feet and compare to where they are when you're playing badly.
Too many people blame their eyesight when they have a stance issue that takes the cue off the line for some reason. For many that's about comfort and they shift their feet as they're getting down which takes the body, cue arm and therefore cue off the line, for many it's about conscious thought, trying to get the cue into a certain place between their eyes thus overiding their natural sighting.

For others though it's about movement on the stroke, a small consistant movement that's ever present on the delivery stroke or one that happens now and again and for this you need to film yourself on your mobile and watch it back very carefully, watch only your body and head, forget about the balls.

[xeberdee]

Thanks for your reply. What's most difficult as a beginner is finding out what is most problematic, as it can be many things at the same time that can also vary in consistency from day to day - and you name 2 more here that could be the culprit. I think as you solve one problem, it reveals others that need fixing too. I film myself quite a lot for this reason, and I've fixed most of the main things with my cue action like this, but as you say, you need to carefully watch for the very small things that can cause errors. After all, If I lean just a tiny bit more into the shot to either side it can result in a massive movement in the path of the white over the table. The only way to know if I'm 'in the groove' with regards stance, is to let everything rest into a comfortable position and then measure that. The butt position is hard to measure with video. The ideal scenario I suppose would be a lazer lined to a straight shot, viewed from the back - but also a shot from the front to see if anything is going on there. I've got a video camera on a stand, and a mobile phone. I'll give it a try see what it reveals.

[NonStarter]

It could be a stance issue, butt of the cue isn't on the line of aim but the tip is so you're shooting across the ball. Forget head position, it's the position of the feet that determines the placement of the cue on the line of aim and your eyes will guide you if you allow them to, your instinctive potting tells you this. Next time you instinctively drop down into your stance and start potting look at the position of your feet and compare to where they are when you're playing badly.

I have played the game for years and recently tried to take it more seriously and found I am cueing down the wrong line and across. I've never thought about where the butt is in relation to the line of the shot but it actually makes perfect sense! What would you suggest to check this (as its difficult with recording) to check this alignment and most importantly, how do you correct it? I have put on a few pounds during lockdown and I think the moobs/chest may be what's throwing the back of my cue offline. How do you diagnose and rectify this?

[itsnoteasy]

I have played the game for years and recently tried to take it more seriously and found I am cueing down the wrong line and across. I've never thought about where the butt is in relation to the line of the shot but it actually makes perfect sense! What would you suggest to check this (as its difficult with recording) to check this alignment and most importantly, how do you correct it? I have put on a few pounds during lockdown and I think the moobs/chest may be what's throwing the back of my cue offline. How do you diagnose and rectify this?

Two chalks on the Cush, either side of the baulk line just wide enough for your cue. Get down placing your cue along the baulk line, if you have the butt on line as well you won't touch the chalks as your cue will go in between them, if you have the tip on line but the butt slightly off, it will touch the chalks. Worth a try.
the old saying of chest to cue helps as well, so you put your cue in line first then you place your chest on your cue, don't get down then pull your cue into your chest.

[xeberdee]

Well after a day of testing with various camera angles, I have a bit more info.

First shot is dead on, and the rest are to the left, sometimes to the right.

The iphone footage from the front was useless as I couldn't sync the shots, and it was hard to see any difference between shots, except that the object ball went to the left or right. This is also in the audio on the backstroke cam.

I can see that my elbow is mostly to the right, and almost centered on the first shot I managed to put in the pocket. I have a tendency to pull the backstroke left, which is consistent with the shot ending left.

I tried this evening to sort out my elbow and backstroke, but the results were still shots going off to the left.

[Danger Steve]

I’d say loosen your grip. I’ve been noticing in my own game I’ll keep missing shots to the left of the pocket. Eventually after a few days of fault finding I seemed to cure the problem by loosing my grip! I now hold the cue with mainly my thumb and that flap of skin between thumb and forefinger, the rest of my fingers unfurl on the back swing and then close up again but they never really grip the cue at all if that makes sense?

Also I would say you need to slowly build up the acceleration as you strike the cue ball, don’t try and go full speed from the back swing, you tend to snatch at the shot and miss to the left!

Also from the video, assuming the laser is the line of the shot? I would say your standing too far to the left, your right foot should be on that line.

[xeberdee]

I’d say loosen your grip. I’ve been noticing in my own game I’ll keep missing shots to the left of the pocket. Eventually after a few days of fault finding I seemed to cure the problem by loosing my grip! I now hold the cue with mainly my thumb and that flap of skin between thumb and forefinger, the rest of my fingers unfurl on the back swing and then close up again but they never really grip the cue at all if that makes sense?

Also I would say you need to slowly build up the acceleration as you strike the cue ball, don’t try and go full speed from the back swing, you tend to snatch at the shot and miss to the left!

Also from the video, assuming the laser is the line of the shot? I would say your standing too far to the left, your right foot should be on that line.

Thanks for the feedback.! Funny you should mention the grip, because one of the good players at our club suggested that I grip the cue more tightly - so maybe I'm over doing it.
Regards feet, you are right, I'm pretty consistently slightly to the left of the line of the shot (which is to the best of my ability the laser) - this is what I notice I do when I hit them instinctive and consistent.

I've tried putting the line more in the center (feels to me), so more to the right, and widening my stance - I can still miss to the right, and I'm consistently missing to left still.

That's why I've come to the conclusion that it's a brain thing - I see the shot wrong no matter what I change, so I have to train myself to see it right before I start changing everything too much.

I agree about the snatching - it's a bad habit that I just can't seem to shake - that and not following thru on all shots.

[Starsky]

Hi Xeberdee,
Welcome to the forum .

Firstly I would advise if possible getting a lesson from a qualified coach. Within an hour they would be able to look at your technique and find out the major issues which would avoid all the guess work.
If that’s not possible i would check out Steve Barton’s channel on YouTube .
This is what I would recommend , I would try to concentrate on no more than two areas at a time and focus on those until they are fixed .
If your hitting to the left your either not cueing straight and putting left hand side on the ball or your line of aim is out. It could possibly be both . I guess you already know this as you’ve mentioned it already . You can have the best grip , stance and smooth cue action in the world but if you haven’t got those first two things correct your still going to hit to the ball to the left or right . .
I guess you’ve already tested if your putting unwanted side on the ball by playing a ball up and down the spots from the brown . You can also test your straight cue action by cueing along the baulk line .
If you’ve confirmed it then I would concentrate on correcting that first and drill it in before moving onto your line of aim . I would say having a straight cue action is the no1 objective when trying to play snooker. If your not putting side on the ball it’s your line of aim that’s out. If that’s the case then ignore the next paragraph

From your video I’m guessing that you MIGHT be putting left hand side on the ball due to your elbow position being to the right. Try to bring it in to the left more and then see if that makes a difference across the spots again . If your able to eliminate any unwanted side only then move onto pots again. Once your happy try a few very simple straight pots making sure your using the new elbow position. If that solves the issue of hitting to the left then you need to drill this in with simple drills until it becomes part of your muscle memory.

If your cueing straight and still hitting to the left then you need to adjust your line of aim . This is nearly all done BEFORE you get down to play the shot. Try adjusting your whole body position including feet slightly to the right or left checking to make sure foot is in the line aim you are trying to achieve . Have a look at Steve Barton’s videos on this subject to see what I mean . Try the shot now and see if it corrects the issue. You might need to keep getting back up and readjusting your position until your confident your line of aim is correct . Once your getting the desired results drill it in until it’s muscle memory using simple practice routines .


Good luck !

[xeberdee]

Cheers Starsky - and thanks for your input. I've been over all Steve's stuff, and Barry Starks, and Nic Barrows Snooker Gym which is really great too, probably my favourite of them all - it offers great insight into what snooker players have to deal with, but also has A LOT of tutorials too.One thing is knowing what you have to do, and the other is actually doing it again and again and again in exactly the same way every time. I've been over my elbow position, but I can see in the latest film that it is slipping back out, I am also stabbing at the ball still, or moving off the shot in follow thru.
In many films I can see that when I am potting really well, all the same 'mistakes' are present, not to say that there's no point in working on a perfect cue action - just that it can function well and not so well too. I am aware of many of the things I lack and that's what I practice daily to get consistent.

Today I practised aware of my elbow, foot position and pushing the cue thru in a controlled way, not like a swinging pendulum, but more like a piston. I was much more acurate - well that's today. Maybe tomorrow it's back Most of the shots that miss though, are to the left, and even straight shots lined up with a laser, look like they are going off to the right to me.

I did a test where I lined up the balls till they looked straight, then put the laser on them. The evidence is hard to ignore, object all goes left.

That's why I'm still aiming to the right for now, and hoping that at some point I will accept this as the correct true straight line.

[xeberdee]

This mornings practice was great too, and I had a large percentage of balls going in with hardly any of those persistent misses to the left. My routine is now that I step slightly to what I think is the right of the line, which seems to solve the cueing across the ball issue, keep my elbow tucked in (straight and vertical) and make sure that the cue doesn't twist or veer off in the follow thru - with a slight aiming adjustment for the right side of the pocket, most balls were going bang in center pocket.

[Starsky]

This mornings practice was great too, and I had a large percentage of balls going in with hardly any of those persistent misses to the left. My routine is now that I step slightly to what I think is the right of the line, which seems to solve the cueing across the ball issue, keep my elbow tucked in (straight and vertical) and make sure that the cue doesn't twist or veer off in the follow thru - with a slight aiming adjustment for the right side of the pocket, most balls were going bang in center pocket.

Well done, sounds like progress has been made .

[vmax]

Practise your stance feet position by cueing along the baulkine with the cue ball on the yellow or green spot and an object ball dead straight on the end of the baulk line on the side cushion (something to focus on) with a piece of masking tape extending the baulk line onto and along the side rail of the table under the butt of the cue.
Line up the shot using the centre of the object ball on the side cushion as the target, drop down into your stance and when settled let the cue drop onto the side rail and without it moving check where the middle of the butt is in relation to the centre of the masking tape.
Stand behind the shot in different places until your walk in gets the middle of the butt right on top of the middle of the masking tape, btw do not twist or move your feet when getting down as you see the shot best when stood up and your initial feet position has been supplied to your brain as correct and twisting your feet on the way down takes the body and cue off line.

Oh and forget Nick Barrow, he gives you too much to think about.

[xeberdee]

What felt like a straight shot to me, was actually a combination of stance and cueing across the ball, as so rightly pointed out here by Vmax. Bad sighting, and me adding a little left to compensate. I understand it now and I'm working hard to break this habit. The backstroke and feathering is also really important and needs work.

Due respect to Nick Barrow though, as he was the one who initially put me on the right track to take a very close look at my action with 'shorter/straighter/simpler' shots and to look for cueing across the ball, and he is the one coach I know who makes a point of, and is very strongly advocating for NOT thinking too much whilst actually playing. There's a difference between analysis and performance - he does go very deep with thoughtful analysis in practice, but recommends a very light mindful awareness whilst performing and playing a shot. I think it comes from mediation techniques, he spent time in the east so probably picked up some of those ideas there. It's impossible to empty your mind, but you can just be aware of what's going on but not actively pursue any of those thoughts and just get on with it - that's the zone you need to be in if you ask me. It's definitely when I play best, and what Nick is advocating.