Problem with Long Blue routine

[funnydoodle]

hi everyone! yesterday i was practicing solo and i tried doing the long blue routine. I started by putting the cueball on the yellow side of the baulk line and potted 10/12 straight blues into the opposite corner at the other end. However, when i tried potting from the green side of the baulk line, i keep missing the pot. mostly went about 1 inch off to the right of the pocket and miss. I'm wondering if it's because of the elbow of my bridge hand being elevated by the cushion while cueing from the green side and causing problems for my cue action. What you guys think? How can i fix it?

[Terry Davidson]

It sound like for some reason you are putting just a touch of right hand siding on the cueball as you strike. Based on what you say in that your forearm is elevated perhaps you should try the same exercise again but this time concentrate on keeping your bridge 'V' absolutely stable and the thumb tight against the upper forefinger.

The only other reason I can think of off-hand is perhaps you are standing and thus setting up differently on the left side of the table? Have a friend look at that and see if you alignment is a little different.

Remember to ensure the pot is lined up to the edge of the leather where it meets the top cushion for both shots

Terry

[sprogbasket]

Funnydoodle,

the problem could also be a "sighting issue" whereby you are inadvertently hitting across the cue ball for another reason....

I hope I am not teaching you or any other readers to suck eggs here but...One of the basic factors in potting balls that many seem to overlook is ascertaining which of your eys is the dominant one and adopting an appropriate stance to take this into account.

For most people one eye is stronger than the other.

It is simple to find out which eye is stronger -

1.Place a cube of chalk on top of the middle of the back cushion on a snooker table.
2.Now stand at the baulk end in a direct line from the chalk.
3. With both eyes open point (with either hand) at the chalk.
4.Now close your left eye - are you still pointing at the chalk or has it moved ?
5. Now open your left eye and close your right eye - are you still pointing directly at the chalk.

It you were pointing at the chalk and your finger did not appear to move then you are blessed with perfectly balanced sight.

If your finger appeared to move when you closed your left eye then you are left eyed.

If your finger appeared to move when you closed your right eye then you are right eyed.


The purpose of this is so that when you align your pots you are cueing under your dominant eye and thereby sighting correctly if you are not aware of this you may well be incorrectly sighting shots and cueing acoss the cue ball.

I believe this has a tendency to happen when one cues shots from the side of the table opposite from one's dominant eye.

I would hazard a guess Funnydoodle that you are either left handed and right eyed or right handed and left eyed ?

Point being - pay close attention to proper stance for dominant eye when sighting / potting balls.

Please let me know if this helps.

[Giggity1984]

I think eye dominance is overated. Your brain interprets the information its given the same way regardless of where your eyes are in relation to the cue. plonk your chin on the cue an forget about your eyes. You'll just over complicate it otherwise!

[nrage]

I think eye dominance is overated. Your brain interprets the information its given the same way regardless of where your eyes are in relation to the cue. plonk your chin on the cue an forget about your eyes. You'll just over complicate it otherwise!

I think you're dead right. However, I think you can get used to sighting a certain way, and changing that can cause problems initially until you get used to doing it the 'new' way. I think I had this problem coming from pool to snooker, where I changed my stance from a side on pool stance to a square snooker stance. Initially I had sighting trouble. Now, I have gotten used to the new perspective

[dantuck_7]

What I try and do with this routine is to intensely monitor my balance for any slight movement (I think this is where I'm going wrong with my long-potting atm). I found when practising this last week that I was very slightly lifting off the shot to left.

One way to do this is to play the shot and then remain in position for a good 5 seconds afterwards, that way if you do have any imbalance you'll start noticing it. It might sound a bit starnge but what I forced myself to do when getting up on the shot was to stand up diretcly 'into' the shot (not falling away to the LHS (assuming your right-handed)). Obviously this is just one area to look at but its worth checking.

[caesar]

One good way of ensuring you are both lining up and cueing along the line of the shot is to place the white as normal and line up a thin straight line object like a ruler behind the white in a perfect line with the pocket/pot.

Now as far as possible ignore the ruler and do your normal pre shot routine and line yourself up to the white. When there stop and look at how aligned your cue is to the straight line. If needed you can try feathering the cue now and see if you're pulling across the line of the shot.

If you practice this you can ensure you are always getting onto the line of the shot correctly.

[nrage]

One good way of ensuring you are both lining up and cueing along the line of the shot is to place the white as normal and line up a thin straight line object like a ruler behind the white in a perfect line with the pocket/pot.

Now as far as possible ignore the ruler and do your normal pre shot routine and line yourself up to the white. When there stop and look at how aligned your cue is to the straight line. If needed you can try feathering the cue now and see if you're pulling across the line of the shot.

If you practice this you can ensure you are always getting onto the line of the shot correctly.

Something like this..
http://a3.l3-images.myspacecdn.com/i...f2c64211/l.jpg

Steve Davis's invention :P

[caesar]

Not exactly. I mean having a line behind the white ball so you can compare your cue line with the line underneath, easily seeing if you're off line.

[funnydoodle]

Thanks for all the tips and advice. Well, I think sprogbasket may have pointed out one of my problems because when I get down on the shot, I only have my left eye open. Reason being I get to see the whole picture without getting double vision when looking back and forth between object ball n cueball. I'm more comfortable potting this way. And yes, I'm a righty with left dominant eye.

I tend to miss a lot of long pots but knowing I can pot 10/12 long blues on one side is telling me that my cueing is at least consistently straight. I think my problem may be sighting and aiming. Sometimes when i am looking at a shot while standing, then I get down on the shot and close my right eye, the angle might look a lil off and the brain is telling me to adjust my line of shot. I think this is where I mess up.

Because of this, I tend to miss a lot of blues to the middle pocket. I've tried to tell myself not to adjust and stick to my initial line of shot recently, and my potting has improved I must say.

[jarcher]

Left Eye Dominant

It turns out that I am the same as you and only noticed this when i started missing pots, all to one side as where my cue was resting on my chin, wasn't lining up with what I was looking at.

By simply moving my cue fractionally to the left of my chin, suddenly I was starting to become a lot more accurate with my potting. It's training yourself to always rest the chin to the cue in the same position for every shot.