Im seriously losing my sanity with this game !!!! HELP !!!!

[Belloz22]

Wow thank you very much for such an amazing and detailed response. Its give me alot to think about and work on. I will give it and try and post a video up soon to make sure im doing everything right.

[itsnoteasy]

Nobody has said this I think, but you definitely are flicking your eyes off the pot towards the pocket, if you want to check this for yourself go to the first shot you miss put your finger over the object ball on the screen and concentrate on what your eyes do, you are looking at the pocket before the object ball gets anywhere near it, and with the pace of that shot you must be moving them too early to do it. Maybe a coach could check this properly It could be within the limits.

[Belloz22]

Im hoping once my technique improves I will be less inclined to move my eyes then. Got 45 mins in today and really pushed my technique...... straight bridge arm, armpit down, grip further back and cocked to the left, and longer back swing. My potting and cueing felt amazing when I was trying it. Def very uncomfy and very unnatural to me but il def continue. The technique made me feel like I had to keep my head down which is good too. Things looking promise but def along way to go making it become comfy and normal

[itsnoteasy]

There has been some great advice given by both coaches and players, follow it and it will come to you, best of luck, today was a good start.

[Terry Davidson]

belloz:

I just checked your latest video again and I stand corrected, your right shoulder is down just fine and the left shoulder is up and behind the head. However the elbow and upper arm is still out of alignment.

So get down into the address position and have a buddy manually move your elbow to directly over the cue or else get a mirror and set it up on the baulkline and cue into the mirror (it should show from top of elbow down to the cue). Once lined up correctly you will find your elbow will gradually move back to its old position as you feather so you will have to work on this, even at home in front of a mirror if you have a spot.

IMPORTANT...one thing I forgot to mention in my long-winded post above. When you cock the wrist outward to the left and have the thumb pointed at the floor the other very key factor in this is THE BACK OF THE PALM SHOULD BE AGAINST THE BUTT OF THE CUE WHEN IN THE ADDRESS POSITION. (As you backswing it will lift off the butt and then return to it as you deliver.)

For an excellent example of this take a look at Ronnie or Shaun Murphy when their cue is stopped in the address position. I can't explain why exactly, but when I do this correctly I cue much better and I think it's because I have a solid reference point to return to as I go through the address position during the delivery. A loose grip is also essential to get this right.

Terry

[Belloz22]

I'll continue as I am for now..... I kinda found that when I straightened my bridge arm and pushed arm pit down, it did seem to feel like I was bringing the cue and arm into line with my head and made me stay down. I will keep going and try again in front of mirror to see how this new positioning is affecting my alignment etc..... whether it has helped my alignment with bringing my cueing arm in line with my head. Hopefully things start to improve and if it doesn't help my alignment, hopefully it will aid my cueing at least until it starts to become straight and not across the ball. But I will try get my dad to adjust my elbow for me so it is in the right position.

As I said, I will keep working on all the things this week, I.e. - cocked grip, still shoulder, straight bridge arm, and especially bringing my grip behind the 90degree mark. Although I can definitely feel its cutting down on how far I can feather (which is odd feeling) I do feel I can control the push through more and follow through better. On Monday next week I will record myself doing a few different things again using the new technical changes just to make sure I'm still on the right track, or whether I need to alter other things.

My goal: To work on my technique between now and the beginning of the new season at the end of September - hopefully I can get to a stage whether I am consistently cueing with a good technique.

[Terry Davidson]

belloz:

Pushing your bridge arm out will also be pushing the bridge arm shoulder out (as recommended by Joe Davis originally) and this will have (for you) the really beneficial effect of allowing you to feel the hinge motion with the elbow and help to keep your left elbow up until after the strike. A win-win situation.

Terry

[narl]

My cue nearly became a 2 piece last night with how I was playing. Shaft got boinked off the floor.

[lesedwards]

I have been there too. In fact I am still there. Terry is coaching me and we have started from scratch again. Between my Snooker Gym and Terry I hope to be playing much better by fall when the tournaments start. I have switched cues changed grips changed my stance looking for that magic cure but there is no magic cure. We all need good fundamentals and I think your game will come together.

[Belloz22]

I have been there too. In fact I am still there. Terry is coaching me and we have started from scratch again. Between my Snooker Gym and Terry I hope to be playing much better by fall when the tournaments start. I have switched cues changed grips changed my stance looking for that magic cure but there is no magic cure. We all need good fundamentals and I think your game will come together.

Yea i'm hoping if I fix technical issues, it means that if I do have issues with potting angles, at least I know I can focus on that knowing I'm cueing straight. As much as it all feels very odd and uncomfy at the min, i'm definetly sticking with it. I'm more determined now than ever to get it right and improve. All I've been doing so far is spending 30mins in club focusing completing on doing all technical things right while just single ball potting - so all focus on the technique. Then when I've found time in the house, I've been practicing my technique/cueing.

Come this Monday I will film myself again with the new techniques and post again, I want to make sure ever thing I have changed is correct as I don't want to start drilling back habits again

[Belloz22]

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life, but thought would make sense to get a continuation of my problems/improvements in one thread. Anyway, since all the feeback, I have been working hard on practice, I got to the stage where I was regularly making 20+ breaks every frame, which doesn't seem much, but was good and consistent for me. I was actually confident of potting balls. Ive worked on the grip massively and keeping the shoulder up, but gradually noticed my grip hand seems to be creeping back to a 90degree angle, whereas I wanted to keep it further back to eliminate the shoulder dropping.

Anyway, the reason im reposting is because I am finding massively that my game has improved, but what im finding now is that 95 percent of my pot attempts are in or around the pocket area, but im finding more and more than im consistently missing pots to the knuckles of the pockets, and it isn't a case of consistently over or undercutting, it feels like an inaccuracy to aim towards the center of the pocket. So any idea how I can eliminate this. The reason its a prob is because when you consistently miss balls on the knuckles I am then consistently leaving the OB on the pocket and conceding points I shouldn't be. Sometimes I wish I was missing by a wider mile??

So any ideas how to cut out the consistent missing to the knuckles of the pockets, on short shots as well as long shots ?

[j6uk]

Its likely you have a few issues here Belloz. If you could, stick up a short video..
I would relax on the grip idea next time you hit the table. For me the most important is to hit from the elbow, the only time I kind of grip my cue is opening and closing the back three fingers on shot completion. Even then its more of a wrap to stop the cue going under the body.

[Belloz22]

Its likely you have a few issues here Belloz. If you could, stick up a short video..
I would relax on the grip idea next time you hit the table. For me the most important is to hit from the elbow, the only time I kind of grip my cue is opening and closing the back three fingers on shot completion. Even then its more of a wrap to stop the cue going under the body.

To be honest, most of the changes that had been requested to me I have changed, besides still struggling with getting my grip further back behind 90 degrees. I still maintain I have difficultly keeping my eye on the back of the OB ball, anyway, could my eyes moving towards the pocket be causing me to aim and hit the knuckle of the pocket ?

[j6uk]

If your eyes move before the white connects with the ob then, you've simply moved on the shot and that's a no no.

could my eyes moving towards the pocket be causing me to aim and hit the knuckle of the pocket ?

[lesedwards]

If your eyes move before the white connects with the ob then, you've simply moved on the shot and that's a no no.

Terry has been on to me about the same thing. He told me once I start my front pause my eyes are suppose to swith to the OB and stick to it like glue and send the tip of my cue right through the object ball. I got the eye problem fixed and then I started jabbing at the cue ball instead of firing the cue right through. Very frustrating game but I believe if we stick to our practice it will improve.....I hope. I try to get in a couple hours practice every night on my table.