four points of contact (chin, chest, bridge, grip hand) question...

[bentCue]

Hi,
I am trying to change my cueing action to have 4 contact points, but it seems that my aiming becomes much more difficult with my chin/chest on the cue.
My dominant eye is the right eye, and having the chin on the cue seems to mess up my sight.

where am i supposed to have my chin when being right-eyed? should the cue line up with my eye?
And how much weight should be on chest and chin? just a subtle touch or a certain amount of pressure?

cheers

[mikee]

A dominant eye will still naturally take effect even with your cue on your chin ,might just be a slight bias .Why are you changing your cue action

[Starsky]

Take my advice …. Stick to learning the basics first and concentrate on that and then practice as much as you can .

Going down the technical route can be a recipe for disaster even for an experienced player let alone a newbie .

Paralysis by analysis is golf saying but works just as well in snooker. Trust me I’ve been going through it myself for the last few months and I’m one of the better players on here .

[NonStarter]

Starsky is 100% right. Cue smooth and learn the basics. Solid bridge and stance is about as technical as you need to get, with a repeatable pre shot routine

[bentCue]

ok, thanks for the comments. i will keep trying the 4 contact points approach for a few more days and see how it goes. a coach at the club recommended it.
if it doesn't work out for me, i revert back. ;-)

[Danger Steve]

Hi,
I am trying to change my cueing action to have 4 contact points, but it seems that my aiming becomes much more difficult with my chin/chest on the cue.
My dominant eye is the right eye, and having the chin on the cue seems to mess up my sight.

where am i supposed to have my chin when being right-eyed? should the cue line up with my eye?
And how much weight should be on chest and chin? just a subtle touch or a certain amount of pressure?

cheers

Your chin should barely touch the cue, chest maybe a tad more pressure, a nice solid bridge hand is important and don’t strangle the butt!! I think the dominant eye comes to play more when standing and lining up the shot and how you position your feet and body prior to walking into the shot? Some players do have the cue to the right or left of their chin directly under the dominant eye, others (I being one) keep the cue in the middle of my chin. If it’s what you have naturally done without thinking about it all these years then I would probably keep the chin cue position the same and don’t tinker with that part! Steve Barton has covered this in one of his YouTube videos which is worth a watch!

A few of the more significant breakthroughs for me (which are still a work in progress) are, shortening my bridge slightly, more controlled feathers and making sure I get my feet right so I can get into a nice low position which keeps the cue as parallel as possible to the table! Cueing down on shots will throw the cue ball off all over the show, especially if you naturally put a tiny bit of side on to the cue ball.

[vmax]

You should be able to have the cue naturally in your vision centre (dominant eye) due to the angle of your head in relation to the line of aim and the position of your feet. It may rest centre chin but the angle of your head will mean that you're not facing directly down the line of aim but a bit to one side of it.
For me as a left eye dominant right handed player my boxer stance (left foot in front of right foot) position for a straight blue off its spot to the middle pocket from the green side of the table means that I'm actually facing the yellow pocket and that naturally drops my left eye over the cue.

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[bentCue]

ah i see, thanks!
what do you think is more important: the chin contact or the chest contact?
seems like the chest is far more helpful to support a straight cue action than the chin

[vmax]

The contact from the chin is not there to support the cue, it's to tell you that you haven't moved your head on the strike if you can feel that contact all the way through the stroke. It may look like I've got a chest contact but I don't, neither do I have a chin contact as you can see from the side view, as a tall player and a glasses wearer I find it hard to get my chin on the cue as then I'm looking at the object ball above my lenses and therefore can't see it.
Right handed players with a dominant right eye tend to have a square stance, both feet square to the table as this drop the head over the cue to favour the right eye, Luca Brecel (right hander) has his right foot in front of his left so is, as one could say, 'oversquare' but it suits his vision centre and that's the most important thing, allowing the way you yourself see a straight line to guide you into position. Get your stance right first and don't tinker with it if it's against your natural sighting.

A general rule of thumb is to get a part of your right foot on the line of aim (right hander) or left foot (left hander) and to place your other foot in the place where the butt of the cue is exactly on the line of aim. You can experiment with putting that foot wide, narrow, forward, square, wide and forward, wide and square, narrow and foward, narrow and square and a miriad of positions in between to get the butt in the right place. Do this along the baulk line with the cue ball on the either the green or yellow spots while cueing up centre cue ball to hit an object ball placed centre of the ball on the line on the side cushion. If you can get a high percentage of exact double kisses on the object ball where the cue ball comes back along the line then you're pretty close. Or you can play up and down the spots, cue ball on brown spot and play the cue ball to the top cushion along the blue, pink and black spots to bring it back to the tip on your cue, but for this to work the top cushion needs to be perfectly fitted so as not to throw the cue ball off on contact, if it's loose then it could go anywhere.

Some coaches will try to get you to play in a certain way, but that's not the way it should be as everyone is different. Get your stance right first and once the butt of the cue is exactly on the line of aim it's just a question of moving the cue forwards and backwards over a distance of twelve inches.

[Shockerz]

Hi,
I am trying to change my cueing action to have 4 contact points, but it seems that my aiming becomes much more difficult with my chin/chest on the cue.
My dominant eye is the right eye, and having the chin on the cue seems to mess up my sight.

where am i supposed to have my chin when being right-eyed? should the cue line up with my eye?
And how much weight should be on chest and chin? just a subtle touch or a certain amount of pressure?

cheers

Obviously you'll always get lots of opinions on this generally based on people's personal experience, I am also right eye dominant.

For me and just my 2 cents worth. I would go straight back to your normal position before you started changes and then see where the cue is in relation to your right eye as this should tell you where it naturally was and go from there.

I understand there are 2 trains of though and that is to put it close or under your dominant eye (depending on how far you tilt your head as it may change your eye being over the cue) or your chin and let your brain slowly work out aiming and over time you will learn/relearn all the angles.

I slightly tilt me head to the left so the cue isn't quite under my right eye but probably between the eye and the chin. Maybe practice some straight shots or down the spots once you've decided to check.

Once you've concluded where you want the cue, forget about it and move on or you'll be stuck here second guessing yourself, you should be able to check it in 30 minutes at the table.

Just my opinion.

[tomwalker147]

I've said this before on here but for me practice is the main thing, you'll find your natural sighting will come into play. I've played for 23 years and don't know which eye I sight with.

The 4 point contact is nice but again whether you do this or not there are 2 main trains of thought for me which I think would benefit any player;
1) Nice solid stance with weight ever so slightly forwards - helps you get through the cue ball
2) keep head still on delivery of the cue - I always have this thought going into a match or practice. This one thought alone for me almost guarantees the pot and makes everything else in terms of technique fall in line

All the best

[Starsky]

I've said this before on here but for me practice is the main thing, you'll find your natural sighting will come into play. I've played for 23 years and don't know which eye I sight with.

The 4 point contact is nice but again whether you do this or not there are 2 main trains of thought for me which I think would benefit any player;
1) Nice solid stance with weight ever so slightly forwards - helps you get through the cue ball
2) keep head still on delivery of the cue - I always have this thought going into a match or practice. This one thought alone for me almost guarantees the pot and makes everything else in terms of technique fall in line

All the best

Basically what I said but explained in a much better way

Like you I have no idea what eye I am sighted either or where I place the cue in relation to my eyes . It’s just something you do naturally with hours spent on a table .

[tomwalker147]

Basically what I said but explained in a much better way

Like you I have no idea what eye I am sighted either or where I place the cue in relation to my eyes . It’s just something you do naturally with hours spent on a table .

I've changed my technique a few times over the years, first time was when I saw Selby win the worlds and then practice down our club, I slowed down and my technique became deliberate and it absolutely destroyed me. I actually potted very well and positioning improved but rhythm deserted me too often.
Another time I went for a days coaching and the coach set up a few drills which I completed flawlessly, he then basically said "yep everything looks good what do you want me to do". I told him I was getting annoyed breaking down around the 70-80 mark and he suggested I try a double feather on the final front pause (hope that somehow makes sense) to help with keeping a nice rhythm - again that didn't work.

Anyway got a bit older and realised playing twice a week basically gives a base level I wont dip below too often and will occasionally play very well. Ultimately putting the hours in is most important but what probably trumps that is preparation for matches and how my head is going into matches. I found my mental preparation for the marathon I did in October got me through and I genuinely think heading into a snooker match in the right mindset gives an extra 50%

[Starsky]

I've changed my technique a few times over the years, first time was when I saw Selby win the worlds and then practice down our club, I slowed down and my technique became deliberate and it absolutely destroyed me. I actually potted very well and positioning improved but rhythm deserted me too often.
Another time I went for a days coaching and the coach set up a few drills which I completed flawlessly, he then basically said "yep everything looks good what do you want me to do". I told him I was getting annoyed breaking down around the 70-80 mark and he suggested I try a double feather on the final front pause (hope that somehow makes sense) to help with keeping a nice rhythm - again that didn't work.

Anyway got a bit older and realised playing twice a week basically gives a base level I wont dip below too often and will occasionally play very well. Ultimately putting the hours in is most important but what probably trumps that is preparation for matches and how my head is going into matches. I found my mental preparation for the marathon I did in October got me through and I genuinely think heading into a snooker match in the right mindset gives an extra 50%

Blimey Tom , we’ve gone on similar paths albeit mine more recently.

Your bang on with what your saying . Going down the technical route and changing too many things doesn’t work once you get to a decent level.
Ive just started to realise I’ve lost my natural game( I’m a natural player who never got coached ) and had forgotten how I had played. Constantly changing things and overthinking, sometimes even on the shot.
Got given a great bit of advice by an ex pro recently ‘ you’ve hit hundreds before , just get down and hit the bloody shot !’.

I’m trying to follow that mantra now even if I miss easy ones doing it where before I’d be looking to change something .


Out of interest , how do you prepare mentally ?( a short hijack of the thread , sorry )

[tomwalker147]

Blimey Tom , we’ve gone on similar paths albeit mine more recently.

Your bang on with what your saying . Going down the technical route and changing too many things doesn’t work once you get to a decent level.
Ive just started to realise I’ve lost my natural game( I’m a natural player who never got coached ) and had forgotten how I had played. Constantly changing things and overthinking, sometimes even on the shot.
Got given a great bit of advice by an ex pro recently ‘ you’ve hit hundreds before , just get down and hit the bloody shot !’.

I’m trying to follow that mantra now even if I miss easy ones doing it where before I’d be looking to change something .


Out of interest , how do you prepare mentally ?( a short hijack of the thread , sorry )

Yep apologies for the hijacking gents!
It's weird because I 'gave the game up' for 2 months this year, coming back I've kind of just got on with it, remembered basic fundamentals and my game's better than ever. Like you i've made 100's so why change anything technical?!
I was battling my game even 3/4 months ago when I paid DangerSteve a visit, I wanted to give a good account of myself but played pretty poorly to be honest but looking back I was messing around with allsorts.

For me mentally it's just trying to follow the same routine, I remember if I had a match at half 7 i'd always get home from work, eat, have a bath and then get straight up the club for 7. Quick line up and then play. It sounds ridiculous but 20 minutes in the bath and the stress of my working day completely left me and i'd feel relaxed going up the club. I also like to practice 48 hours before a match and always end practice on a high note if possible.