Messing with my basics, ruined my game!!

[MINNESOTA FATS]

i just started playing the game more seriously after a couple years of pretty much knocking balls around my technique was pretty fast in terms of shot selection and cueing with reasonably good potting but with sometimes unpredictable positional results so i decided to slow down take on a more solid stance and slower cue action and mess on with my basics, it has totally ruined my game and i dont remember what i played like before i started messing on, now when ever i go down on a shot all i am thinking is where my feet are placed am i on line, how i am gripping the cue where my chin and chest are am i following through properly a million thoughts on technique and not one on concentrating on potting the ball, i dont know how to get rid of these thoughts so that my game may start improving again as i want to try anything to prevent giving up on the game, as i love playing it, anyone else had this problem?

[j6uk]

yes i too have been there before i made the conscious decision to play and learn the game properly, just like having to do when learning anything else. try making a cue with the same attitude, just doing what comes naturally, yes its thicker at the one end, with a tipped brass ferrule and it should be smooth, but will the first batch of cues play well? unlikely. would it be a good few years of understanding the materials, learning the craft, and with focused graft? probably yes.

[Byrom]

Yes this point is often over looked by coaches - many of whom do not understand this concept properly - lots of them rush into working on lots of things all at once which you can probably do with a beginner but when you are dealing with someone who already knows the game you can upset the natural flow by giving them too much to think about - it is a very important point - same happened to me. A very good piece of advice I had helped me resolve this.

Reason is you are giving yourself too much to think about at once you are over-thinking it and the brain cannot focus on more than one thing at once.

An perfect analogy would be driving - if you learn to drive at first you are thinking handbrake off mirror signal move out - put clutch in first gear accelerate - clutch in - second - bit jerky clutch in slower third - i am sure you understand my point here?

After a while this process becomes natural and you do not have to think about it - pass your test and you do it your own way smoother albeit with one or two flaws.

Now I think it important to get this right from the start - see someone good to learn you from the off then -an advanced driving course with a block booking - then after this when you reach the acquired level - find your own way yourself - the coach should know when you are ready and he will have evaluated your aims and objectives in the game from the outset and worked out a plan of action to get you there. Some might aspire to be a pro F1 some just want to drive well F2 Some just want to play to a standard advanced driver 50 break plus. Not everyone needs loads of lessons some are more natural than others.

Even a competent player every so often go for a snooker MOT with a reputable coach This does not necessarily mean a qualified one -it might be that someone has learned to a standard and can improve your game and I believe you can learn a little from everyone you meet.

Trick is to work only on one or two little things - not too much - one or two things only and that way these one or two things do not throw another off everything else.

HOWEVER - if you try and re-build your game from scratch when you had a good standard and a comfortable rhythm/pre-shot routine then you could effect your natural game no end.

Freeing your mind just to play is a hard thing to do - for me music helps me get back to my natural game - I try and think of a repetitive tune - or my favorite song and this helps me eliminate all the nonsense going on in my head and I get back to playing more natural locking in in my natural rhythm and pre shot routine and pace around the table.

Rather like driving again when you switch on the radio and get from A to B and don't remember the journey in between.
Works for me and I hope it might help you - give it a try

[j6uk]

but unlike becoming a good snooker player you can learn to drive in one day. it wont be 'some days i can drive and drive really well, and other days i can't get it into second, keep bumping into things and running red lights'. to use driving i'd liken a good player to a good performance car racing driver. its another craft and you would need to go through the process of learning, this would involve more than put your foot down and flow with the road.

[vmax4steve]

Someone else made this analogy between snooker and driving and it pretty much sums it up. In order to steer the car in a straight line you don't look at the bonnet, you look at the road ahead. Same with snooker, you don't look at the cue ball when playing the stroke, you look at the object ball.
The car stays straight and the cue stays straight.

[itsnoteasy]

Very very good point Vmax, even when walking we look where we are going we don't look at our feet.

[j6uk]

unless your feeling sorry for yourself

Very very good point Vmax, even when walking we look where we are going we don't look at our feet.

[itsnoteasy]

Ha! Fair made me chuckle that.

[ace man]

Messing with my basics, ruined my game!!

I agree with with working on one or maybe two small things at the time and hopefully new learned techniques become automatic and completely subconscious over time.
Driving analogy is also very good. Say you want to learn some advanced technique like heel toe braking. It will feel impossible at first. There are certain fundamental skills to learn here, just like in snooker. Until those are in your memory banks, you will frequently grind your gears and maybe even ruin the clutch...:-)

[Terry Davidson]

The problem many of us snooker players have it we lack the discipline to improve. So now the question becomes 'what do you mean by discipline Terry?'. It is having the ability to work on JUST ONE THING AT A TIME and having just one thought in your head as you get into the shot.

Too many of us (myself included) try and crowd too many thoughts into solo practice, like placing the feet, the grip (big one for me), the slow backswing, the drive through, staying still at the end of the shot. I've just very easily put down 5 separate things and could easily add a 6th, which is locking the eyes on the object ball at time of strike. A 7th could be not dropping the elbow until after the strike. An 8th would be to stay perfectly still. A 9th would be only 2-3 feathers.

With all this 'junk' in a player's mind it's no wonder he can't concentrate on what he's supposed to be doing, which is just pot balls and control the cueball (sounds simple doesn't it)?

I have actually walked back a few times and made sure my stance was correct and then forgot about it and didn't pay anymore attention to it. Then I concentrated on just staying still which was helped considerably by a slow backswing and loose grip and then I have now forgotten about that and I've confirmed I do stay still these days.

Then I concentrated on staying still at the end of the shot along with driving through and I'm still working on this (the problem at my age is trying to learn anything at all, there's just no room left in my brain to take in new stuff).

So everyone who is having problems and has their mind thinking about many things just settle down, work on just one thing (you can choose anything you think is lacking) and work on that one thing and master it, forget about it and then move on to the next.

Terry

[Byrom]

but unlike becoming a good snooker player you can learn to drive in one day. it wont be 'some days i can drive and drive really well, and other days i can't get it into second, keep bumping into things and running red lights'. to use driving i'd liken a good player to a good performance car racing driver. its another craft and you would need to go through the process of learning, this would involve more than put your foot down and flow with the road.

I was using the driving analogy just as a connection with snooker juxtaposed with a metaphorical connotation as you might say

I agree you cant become a racing driver over night - and you cant become pro at snooker overnight either -but lots of us dream of it - takes hours of instruction and time spent on the track homing your craft - snooker is the same on the table.

On the other point of freeing your mind I agree with Terry - you can overload your mind by working on too many things at once - same as you could if you took a normal driver put them in a formula 1 car and tried to make them drive it like a pro they would be back to rethinking everything being clunky on the gearbox - over hitting it on the acceleration.

Takes time to re-learn these things and re-mode yourself to drive or play snooker a different way if you are re-building the old snooker technique back up from scratch - especially - as you are in effect trying to shake off the old driving habits.

Driving around town is like playing snooker in the clubs at a decent club level - you can get good at it still but there are other levels of skill you need to get you onto a real race track competing with a higher level of driver - we never stop learning. You will learn eventually the more you drove alongside one the more you pick up.

Me I'm happy pottering around town my motor - I'm quite a smooth driver - get from to A to B without a care but at times when tired especially my concentration is poor and occasionally yes I do bump into things - but I am happy - until the insurance re-newel comes

[vmax4steve]

unless your feeling sorry for yourself

So as you don't trip over your bottom lip

[SouthPaw]

Someone else made this analogy between snooker and driving and it pretty much sums it up. In order to steer the car in a straight line you don't look at the bonnet, you look at the road ahead. Same with snooker, you don't look at the cue ball when playing the stroke, you look at the object ball.
The car stays straight and the cue stays straight.

I've always wondered about this concept and golf..? When putting on the green players' always look at the ball, why don't they look in the direction the ball needs to go at the moment of strike, it's always after..? I can understand in a normal swing but for a putting swing as it's so basic...

[vmax4steve]

I've always wondered about this concept and golf..? When putting on the green players' always look at the ball, why don't they look in the direction the ball needs to go at the moment of strike, it's always after..? I can understand in a normal swing but for a putting swing as it's so basic...

It's a matter of what the target is as the eyes should always be locked on the target. In snooker the target is the object ball, not the pocket, in golf the target is the golf ball, not the hole.
Bend down on the putting green and use the putter like a snooker cue and the target then becomes the hole. This is because the brain will then see the golf ball, hole and putter handle all lined up together on the line of aim, but when standing in the normal putting stance it doesn't because there is no line of aim going through the putter all the way to the hole, it stops at the floor and the golfer must trust that he has lined it up correctly and focus on the ball when stroking the putt.

I would suppose that when the putt is very short and the hole is in the same field of vision as the ball then maybe the golfer can indeed look at the hole when striking, as a non golfer I wouldn't know for sure.

This is why such a shot using the putter like a cue is illegal in golf, it's far too easy, like potting the cue ball straight into a pocket.

[SouthPaw]

Messing with my basics, ruined my game!!

It all makes logical sense now, thanks for your input Steve... I'm not a regular golfer myself but always assumed the hole was the target... I suppose golf could be compared to sports like football, in relation to where is best to focus your eyes during the strike...