What causes inconsistency?

[mchpddl1]

Why i play so well on one day, cue straight every shot, and a few days later, keep on cueing across the cue ball.

I tried so so many ways to find out reasons, really cannot find any real evidence what causes my good form on one day and bad on another

[1lawyer]

It could be a number of things.

I always play bad if I am tired. If I slow down and try and correct things it gets worse, I think it is all down to your state of mind. If you think you are playing well you tend to see the shot and just play it. If you think something ain't right you just ain't with it and doubt yourself. I just try and keep my eyes of the OB get on the right line get down and pot it. If things are going bad I have found it helps me not to think about it, so instead of slowing down I speed up and that tends to work, don't ask me why because I don't know.

That's snooker, even ROS has bad days, so what hope is there for players like us? Mind you on his bad days I bet he still has a few tons.:snooker:

[cantpotforshíte]

1lawyer beat me to it ... I'm convinced that bad form/good form is down to state of mind.
Fair enough - you can instrust a beginner to not cue across the ball, keep his head still etc etc., but if anybody who has experience and decent technique starts moving on the shot then it's because his mind wasn't right before and on the shot.
Personally I reckon that it's a waste of time to tell somebody who is struggling
for form what they are physically doing wrong. If you move your head on the shot, or cue across, then it's because your body knows that you didn't get down for the shot correctly.
It's all about visualising the shot. The whole shot. (and nothing but the shot )
You need firstly to envisage an exact spot for the white ball to finish upon after you've potted the object ball. Personally, I've found that physically pointing to the spot with my cue helps. If you haven't got a clear whole shot to envisage, then your body won't be able to carry out the unclear instructions from your brain.
Once you have this image in your head (of the whole shot) you need to think about it as you are getting down on the shot, once you are down, and I find it helps to envisage it during the pause at the end of the final backswing. Think in pictures, not words. It sounds complex but it only takes a nanosecond to flash that image through your mind.
Getting down on the shot slowly can give you time to think of the image.

There are a lot of people on here that will tell you that inconsistency is due to imperfect cueing, your feet not being in the right place, not following through etc etc. and who probably think the mental game is of secondary importance.

Feel free to take on board all their comments (there are some excellent technical coaches on here) but personally I think that state of mind is everything. Well, nearly everything.

[vmax4steve]

My personal belief is that snooker is all about hand and eye co-ordination. Basically you will hit what you are looking at, so at the moment of impact of cue on cue ball you must have your eyes focussed on the part of the object ball that the cue ball has to hit, and nothing else.
You mustn't look at the cue ball, the pocket, your tip, the part of the table where you want the cue ball to go, the ball/balls that the cue ball will kiss or cannon. Even though all of these things are in your mind as part of the shot, when the cue ball is struck only one thing must be on your mind, otherwise your eyes will leave the target you are aiming at, your hand will follow and you will miss.
Your eyes give your brain all the information it needs, no concious thought is needed about the correct angle, ghost ball technique etc. All you have to do is picture the shot and then focus correctly at the moment of impact of tip on cue ball. Sounds very easy but it is in fact extremely difficult to just take one thing out of the entire picture. Pros do it 90% of the time, everyone else to a lesser degree. Find some way of making sure that you do it by implementing something into your technique where it becomes habit, for only then will you be more consistant. The entire final backswing is my moment of focus, and I find myself staring at the space that the object ball occupied for a brief moment after the object ball has been struck. To follow the object ball too soon to see if it is on target makes you more liable to move the focus before the ball is struck, so this must be guarded against.

[brendan147]

There are a lot of factors contribute to our inconsistency. IMO, here are some of them:-

1) Poor Fitness (physical and/or mental:- you will never be able give yourself 100% into the game if you are physically/mentally broken);

2) Poor Practice Routine and Schedule (How much your commitment in spending your time practicing alone? How effective is your practice routine to improve your technique etc etc?);

3) Trying to hard (instead of enjoying the game); &

4) Poor Preparation/Concentration (this is about psychology:- are you ready and positive to win the frame/match?)

I could go on...but these BIG 4 factors are the main reason in my inconsistency so far.

[jb134]

Head movement.

However, lets not just list the negatives.

Here's the main thing that promotes consistency

CONFIDENCE!

[C-J]

My personal belief is that snooker is all about hand and eye co-ordination. Basically you will hit what you are looking at, so at the moment of impact of cue on cue ball you must have your eyes focussed on the part of the object ball that the cue ball has to hit, and nothing else.
You mustn't look at the cue ball, the pocket, your tip, the part of the table where you want the cue ball to go, the ball/balls that the cue ball will kiss or cannon. Even though all of these things are in your mind as part of the shot, when the cue ball is struck only one thing must be on your mind, otherwise your eyes will leave the target you are aiming at, your hand will follow and you will miss.
Your eyes give your brain all the information it needs, no concious thought is needed about the correct angle, ghost ball technique etc. All you have to do is picture the shot and then focus correctly at the moment of impact of tip on cue ball. Sounds very easy but it is in fact extremely difficult to just take one thing out of the entire picture. Pros do it 90% of the time, everyone else to a lesser degree. Find some way of making sure that you do it by implementing something into your technique where it becomes habit, for only then will you be more consistant. The entire final backswing is my moment of focus, and I find myself staring at the space that the object ball occupied for a brief moment after the object ball has been struck. To follow the object ball too soon to see if it is on target makes you more liable move the focus before the ball is struck, so this must be guarded against.

This really is the best advice.
When you playing well it's easy to forget why.You feel good,start to speed up and walk round the table full of confidence.Soon now you will start to be a bit lazy in your concentration because the balls are going in anyway.
Next day you want to start again with this feeling but miss a few.You concentate a bit harder but the feeling is not coming back.This is because you don't now why it slipped away and so you don't now what to concentrate on.

If you're not looking at the contactpoint on the OB you will lose a sense of straightness(with your peripheral view on the cueball),lose your deliberate followthrough and will be more and more likely to cue across.
You start to work on your technique but nothing was wrong with it yesterday so it will probably only make things worse......

[hotpot]

The thing that caused so much inconsistency for me was the unintentional side i used to put on the ball . Even great players like Steve Davis and Cliff thorburn suffered with this problem for a while .

[jb134]

I believe that is what eventually caused Cliff to retire.

[hotpot]

I believe that is what eventually caused Cliff to retire.

Was,nt aware of that . Who would have thought Davis would have a problem hitting across the ball with his technique .

[mchpddl1]

Thanks for all your great advises.

So what caused Steve and Cliff to cue across for some time, was it technical fault built on, or something?

[vmax4steve]

When you playing well it's easy to forget why.You feel good,start to speed up and walk round the table full of confidence.Soon now you will start to be a bit lazy in your concentration because the balls are going in anyway.
Next day you want to start again with this feeling but miss a few.You concentate a bit harder but the feeling is not coming back.This is because you don't now why it slipped away and so you don't now what to concentrate on.

Hear, hear C-J.
I spent years trying to better my game but only ended up frustrating myself by changing a perfectly sound technique and ended up quitting the game for three years. When I started again I immediately got into my natural technique that I used to use when I played pool, focussing on the object ball, and started to play well again.
I don't play well all the time, but now I know why and can do something about it, and the strange thing is that on reflection, when I look back at a shot that I missed, I realise that I took my eyes off it, simple as that.

[Terry Davidson]

The most common cause of inconsistency is some small upper body movement either during the backswing or delivery. For proof, take a look at Ronnie's body when he breaks off using his left hand. He 'pumps' his head and shoulder.

Keep your chin on the cue at all times once you are down on the shot, and this includes feathering, backswing and delivery.

Of course, the other big point is CONFIDENCE, as has already been mentioned

Terry

[vmax4steve]

The most common cause of inconsistency is some small upper body movement either during the backswing or delivery. For proof, take a look at Ronnie's body when he breaks off using his left hand. He 'pumps' his head and shoulder.

Keep your chin on the cue at all times once you are down on the shot, and this includes feathering, backswing and delivery.

Of course, the other big point is CONFIDENCE, as has already been mentioned

Terry

Good advice Terry, but there's a hole in the theory, and that hole is called Alex Higgins. Now this might be just a load of old codswallop, but I believe that Alex Higgins got away with moving on the shot because he kept his eyes on the object ball.

[matoski]

Inconsidtency comes only because of small number of hours you put into practice. You can't expect to be consistant if You practice 2-3 hours per day , twice a week. (my case exactly)