Can't get through the lineup - tips and ideas

[lesedwards]

okay i couldn't resist and i took a peek at this one, i flicked though and though hey he's hitting the ball with more authority!
but what's with this pointless routine? when are you gonna get down to work fella? come on lets go, no time to wast!
one crucial thing is to have a destination plan for the white on every-stingle-shot you ever play on a snooker table, yes play position, even if your fart arsing around like in this vid.. do the 15reds, do the 15reds. 15reds.

I do this routine for a few reasons.
1. Simple pots which helps me work on cueing, BOB and position on colours
2. Build confidence
3. Ball position on running colours
4. Pink off its spot is a very difficult shot on my table with very narrow side pockets
5. Black off its spot always good for anyone when black is the main ball on the table.

Yes tonight is lineup night. RED, RED, RED, Might throw the black in for a while.

[lesedwards]

You have a Nice snooker table, Les.!!!!!! LoL

Thanks, I love my table except for the pockets, as Chappy5 mentioned they look a little tight. Yes they are very tight in fact just about identical to TV Pockets. I have a guy coming next week to open them up.

[vmax4steve]

I have posted my hour n half practice session that I did tonight. This is my normal routine I do every other night, then I switch it up with some line up work in between. I actually start with running the white up and down the spots to my cue tip then long blues at that point I thought I should just run the video as I go. The more I concentrate on BOB the better I am potting but sometimes I forget about the long back swing and the rear pause then the next time I get the pause and backswing but forget about BOB but when everything clicks it is golden. I hope to get another match with Floyd this week which is always good for my game.

https://bambuser.com/v/4538382

Every shot you missed was as a result of taking your eye off BOB or not finding it before your stance, the miscue as well. When your eyes move your hand, head and body follow them, remember that

Forget the long backswing and the pause, the pause comes naturally when you keep your eye on BOB. Your right arm cannot be pushed out straight, that gives you a cue arm that is behind the vertical, otherwise you would have too much cue over your thumb and holding the cue further up the butt will put the cue out of balance with too much weight behind your grip hand.

Never mind that this is not the classic way, both Barry Hawkins and Mark Allen play this way, as did Cliff Thorburn, although maybe not as extreme as you.
Shorter backswing but longer follow through is natural to them and also to you, so don't worry about that at all. You will learn to live with it and your timing will come naturally to you as you progress as long as you keep your eyes on BOB. You may even find that after a while the position of you cue arm will subconsciously change as your game evolves and gets better.

Play a single ball practise exercise from every spot. Re-spot the ball if you pot it or miss it but do not replace the cue ball, learn to control it off every spot. Start with 5 shots off the yellow spot (whether potted or not), then green, then the brown. Don't shy away from those 1/2 & 1/4 ball cuts, as you must learn to recognise them and learn where the cue ball goes as regards to pace and spin applied to it.

Play the single ball exercise from the pink and blue spots 10 times to enhance cue ball control. The pots are easier and you have six pockets to choose from.
When playing this exercise you will find a time will come when you don't have to use the baulk pockets so often on pink and blue, then you will have reached a point where your cue ball control has improved and then you can move on to 10 from the black spot as well.

Intersperse this exercise with the line up and end by placing all the balls randomly on the table and simply potting them until the table is cleared.

Do this for a month before posting another video.

Oh and set up a dead on three ball plant (balls touching each other) across and on the black cushion and hit the front ball hard to pot the third ball into the corner pocket. If it goes in you don't have tight pockets and you can tell your table fitter to only ease the middles by half an inch. If it doesn't go in then he can ease the corners as well.

I did notice that you have trouble potting across the table when the cue ball was near to a side cushion, this is due to having very little room and not being able to stand at least a step away behind the cue ball and place your feet properly when stepping into your stance.
You will have to find a way to counter that when playing on your own table. It's the same for me in my club Les, the walls are only about six inches from the heel of my right foot when I'm down in my stance with the cue ball near the side cushion and I have to stand against the wall and move my feet sideways into position rather than step forward into my stance.

I counteract this by looking finding and focussing on BOB as I'm walking towards the cue ball to stand behind the shot instead of waiting until I get there. It could work for you as well, on all shots.

EYES ON BOB

[j6uk]

I have posted my hour n half practice session that I did tonight. This is my normal routine I do every other night, then I switch it up with some line up work in between. I actually start with running the white up and down the spots to my cue tip then long blues at that point I thought I should just run the video as I go. The more I concentrate on BOB the better I am potting but sometimes I forget about the long back swing and the rear pause then the next time I get the pause and backswing but forget about BOB but when everything clicks it is golden. I hope to get another match with Floyd this week which is always good for my game.

https://bambuser.com/v/4538382

okay i couldn't resist and i took a peek at this one, i flicked though and though hey he's hitting the ball with more authority!
but what's with this pointless routine? when are you gonna get down to work fella? come on lets go, no time to wast!
one crucial thing is to have a destination plan for the white on every-stingle-shot you ever play on a snooker table, yes play position, even if your fart arsing around like in this vid.. do the 15reds, do the 15reds. 15reds.

[Chappy5]

You have a Nice snooker table, Les.!!!!!! LoL

Pockets look a bit tight to me.








Sorry Les i had to!!

[Ramon]

You have a Nice snooker table, Les.!!!!!! LoL

[lesedwards]

Which is my point exactly Les and something Terry should know. One step at a time for both teacher and pupil. Keep looking at BOB, think of nothing else, you're getting there and you know it.

I have posted my hour n half practice session that I did tonight. This is my normal routine I do every other night, then I switch it up with some line up work in between. I actually start with running the white up and down the spots to my cue tip then long blues at that point I thought I should just run the video as I go. The more I concentrate on BOB the better I am potting but sometimes I forget about the long back swing and the rear pause then the next time I get the pause and backswing but forget about BOB but when everything clicks it is golden. I hope to get another match with Floyd this week which is always good for my game.

https://bambuser.com/v/4538382

[lesedwards]

Which is my point exactly Les and something Terry should know. One step at a time for both teacher and pupil. Keep looking at BOB, think of nothing else, you're getting there and you know it.

Thanks, that is exactly what I am going to do.

[j6uk]

the people who talk the most know less the most.
if a good coach wants to talk, its not about technique, its about their own experience and how it can play itself out on the table in a match, its about the the table itself and positional play..

[vmax4steve]

Oh oh now we have people fighting over my problems. Terry is a great coach when it comes to Technique and Cliff is a great coach when it comes to knowing how to play the table. The problem is both Terry and Cliff are close to 2 hour drive from me so I only see Terry on the odd occasion which does not help because by the time I go back to see him I have put all my bad habits back into action. Anything Terry says on here he has already worked on with me. I am beginning to think maybe I am a lost cause and should stick to golf. I have so many things going through my head now I can't think straight. Front Pause, Rear Pause, Slow Back Swing, Follow Right Thru, Eye on BOB, Stance, Parallel Grip then put all these things together with extra tight pockets and you get one very frustrating Snooker Player.

Which is my point exactly Les and something Terry should know. One step at a time for both teacher and pupil. Keep looking at BOB, think of nothing else, you're getting there and you know it.

[lesedwards]

I have a lot of respect for your knowledge Terry but as a teacher you should stop telling a beginner like Les all the faults he has and then tell him to sort them out one at a time. Don't you think that everything you tell him is going to be floating around in his head all at once when trying to concentrate on just one thing.
You don't hand over the complete Oxford English Dictionary to an illiterate on his first reading lesson, you teach him the phonetic alphabet and get him to spell cuh-ah-tuh CAT.

Don't get the hump if others have gotten through when you didn't, Les didn't learn from you for a reason, too much information all at once, and now you're doing it again.

Oh oh now we have people fighting over my problems. Terry is a great coach when it comes to Technique and Cliff is a great coach when it comes to knowing how to play the table. The problem is both Terry and Cliff are close to 2 hour drive from me so I only see Terry on the odd occasion which does not help because by the time I go back to see him I have put all my bad habits back into action. Anything Terry says on here he has already worked on with me. I am beginning to think maybe I am a lost cause and should stick to golf. I have so many things going through my head now I can't think straight. Front Pause, Rear Pause, Slow Back Swing, Follow Right Thru, Eye on BOB, Stance, Parallel Grip then put all these things together with extra tight pockets and you get one very frustrating Snooker Player.

[vmax4steve]

Les:

I looked at the video and note your grip forearm is still behind the vertical at address.

The grip is not at all like what I taught you and you should address that when it becomes the #1 item on your laundry list. Your grip should be in its final configuration BEFORE you get down into the address position.

Your feathering is a little bit wonky in that you do 2 feathers and then a front pause and then 2 or 3 MORE feathers with a shorter front pause and then final backswing. Eliminate the second set of feathers and stick with the longer front pause to allow you to lock onto BOB or at least the object ball. (You are right, your final backswing should be slowed down as much as you possibly can.)

Definitely don't like the way you infer you got worse after getting coaching from Cliff and myself. I think if you had listened to both of us and worked on what we told you without introducing your own little 'tweeks' you would have started improving. Now that you are starting with Nic's DVD set then stick with it and DO NOT introduce your own little ideas. I know that's the way you learned to play golf however you ain't 16yrs old anymore and besides that the coaches you have seen, either live or on video, have combined about 150yrs of learning and just MIGHT know a thing or two.

Good luck and do something with that grip first and then slow down the backswing.

Terry

I have a lot of respect for your knowledge Terry but as a teacher you should stop telling a beginner like Les all the faults he has and then tell him to sort them out one at a time. Don't you think that everything you tell him is going to be floating around in his head all at once when trying to concentrate on just one thing.
You don't hand over the complete Oxford English Dictionary to an illiterate on his first reading lesson, you teach him the phonetic alphabet and get him to spell cuh-ah-tuh CAT.

Don't get the hump if others have gotten through when you didn't, Les didn't learn from you for a reason, too much information all at once, and now you're doing it again.

[lesedwards]

Hi Terry I did not mean to put down either you or Cliff, you have both provided me with lots of knowledge and again it's me going off in my own little world. I thought I had my grip at parallel but after watching the video I also see what you are talking about. I will work on that when I start back tonight on the Snooker Gym. Ode is widening my pockets next week even if he can get another 1/4" out of the corners and take a little off the radius of the sides I will be happy.

[Terry Davidson]

Round 2 okay guys I spent a couple hours practising just straight in shots trying to get some kind of consistency in my new stroke. Still needs work and every so often I still want to take my eye off of BOB and onto the pocket. There is one right off the start that I know I did just that and another one in the side. A couple where my shape did not turn out exactly the way I wanted. I will leave it to you guys.

https://bambuser.com/v/4535423

Les:

I looked at the video and note your grip forearm is still behind the vertical at address.

The grip is not at all like what I taught you and you should address that when it becomes the #1 item on your laundry list. Your grip should be in its final configuration BEFORE you get down into the address position.

Your feathering is a little bit wonky in that you do 2 feathers and then a front pause and then 2 or 3 MORE feathers with a shorter front pause and then final backswing. Eliminate the second set of feathers and stick with the longer front pause to allow you to lock onto BOB or at least the object ball. (You are right, your final backswing should be slowed down as much as you possibly can.)

Definitely don't like the way you infer you got worse after getting coaching from Cliff and myself. I think if you had listened to both of us and worked on what we told you without introducing your own little 'tweeks' you would have started improving. Now that you are starting with Nic's DVD set then stick with it and DO NOT introduce your own little ideas. I know that's the way you learned to play golf however you ain't 16yrs old anymore and besides that the coaches you have seen, either live or on video, have combined about 150yrs of learning and just MIGHT know a thing or two.

Good luck and do something with that grip first and then slow down the backswing.

Terry

[lesedwards]

Suddenly those pockets aren't so tight Les. Better again, keep it up, but remember you're still walking. Put those colours on the table and get used to playing position and how the cue ball reacts to your stroke. If you don't get on a colour in such a way as to not disturb the line then simply pot a red instead for better position on the next colour.
Glad to see you're no longer replacing the ones you miss.

Find the contact point on the object ball when stood behind the shot, keep your eye on it at the moment of the strike.

Thanks, yes I will put them back on today. I did find with just reds I was real lazy with position I was just finding the best red a then the next one. Colours will be back on today.