Snooker New Shots And Snooker Trick Shots

Level 1, the hurdle shot. I think this is the easiest of the ten shots we're looking at, because it really isn't that much harder to play than a straightforward double. Because the most difficult bit to get right is still lining it up correctly. Generally speaking, the object ball comes away from the cushion at roughly the same angle that it goes on, but when you jump it, it breaks a bit wider, and the higher up the cushion it goes, the wider it's likely to break. But if you keep it low, it's not too much of a problem to allow for. Unfortunately, this shot is limited a little bit by its range. Even though these balls are on the same side of the table, they're still too far away to jump over unless I land the object ball in the pocket. And you need to be behind the ball relatively straight, or you have no chance of making it bounce high enough. But you don't need to strike down on the object ball that much, and you have to be a bit careful, because it's very easy to drop both the balls off the table. Surprisingly, this doesn't require a raised bridge. You need to be striking down on the cube as much as possible, but with your hand flat on the table. Then it's just a case of getting the pace right. Firm enough to jump, but not too much to jump off the table. And you want to hit it about halfway to the bottom. This is just a good shot to be aware of. Level 2, the cushion swerve. Stuart Bingham demonstrates this shot perfectly, allowing him to spin around the black and make contact with the yellow. Again, this type of shot isn't too difficult when you know exactly where to strike the cube ball. The trick to this is backspin rather than sidespin. Watch how much I can make the cube ball straighten up here. And that was all backspin. I can increase this effect by using sidespin as well, and even make it swerve back off the cushion. It makes a shot like this, which would normally be quite a tough one to hit, very simple. We need to strike down on the cube ball with lots of left outside and backspin, but you don't want it to bounce. If it bounces, it'll go wrong. You just need to strike down on it, but keep the cube ball on the bed of the table and play it quite firm. You see how it's swerved back towards the red there. This can be a really helpful shot. And if you get the line right, then it isn't anywhere near as difficult to play as some of the shots coming up. I'm using this trick shot as an example because it wouldn't be a legal shot in a game of snooker. Unlike pool, you're not allowed to jump over an object ball that's in the way. This is mostly because snooker clubs didn't have a lot of money and didn't want the shots damaging the tables. So you're not allowed to jump out of a snooker or jump over the ball you're hitting first. But once you've hit that ball, you're allowed to jump over any other. So this is level three and the bounce off. Which can be useful shots like this one, where you've got a lot of balls in the way. And if we just simply bounce the cube ball into the object ball, we can jump over those reds and get down for a colour. This shot has limited uses, mostly when you want to get the cube ball out of an area where it's being blocked. But you can also use it to play position in ways you wouldn't normally be able to, like I wouldn't have been able to get on the black here. So how do you play this shot? This is a simple one to explain, although I don't see it being used as often as it could be. All you need is the right angle, and then you just need to jump the cube ball into the object ball. You really don't have to jump it that high or play the shot that hard. If I just want to jump over these reds here, I'm just going to have to hit it about halfway to the bottom of the cube ball again, and it should pop out the shot. Level four, side spin pop. This technique allows you to play more shots. This one's a little bit harder, but most players will still be all right with it. I can't quite see any of the green here, but I'm still going to pot it using a lot of left-hand side. But this isn't your typical swerve shot to escape from a snooker. This has more to do with potting the balls. We are swerving the cube ball, but instead of a big swerve, we're playing it in a very controlled way. So how do you do this and essentially pot around corners? What I'm going to do is just use side spin. So I'm going to forget the pinks there, forget the obstacle or whatever it is that's in the way, and just play a normal slow shot with side spin. It isn't the easiest shot in the world to judge, but I'm not trying to swerve around here. I'm just trying to play it as I would if I was just trying to play the shot with right-hand side. The grab effect really helps you out here, but I'll explain all about that in a video at the end. Level five, the warp shot. Even though I've got a dead straight shot on the blue, it's still possible to get down on those reds. If you know how to play a shot with reverse side, then you'll be aware it's very difficult to line it up, especially if you're coming to the shot cold. It can be two or three attempts before you get it on line. Then you'll understand how the warp shot's similar, but about 10 times harder to aim correctly. Because striking down on the cube ball with that height with maximum side spin makes it very difficult to pot the ball or even get position. So how exactly do you even go about playing a shot like this? I want this to go to the left, so I need to hit it on the left-hand side and strike down on it as much as possible. I need to hit it just below centre, but the lower I hit it, the more it'll come back towards me. It's just a really difficult one to play accurately. And of course, there are a number of easier ways to get the cube ball away from the cushion when you end up a little bit straight. This, however, is an even harder way of getting the cube ball away from the cushion, and it's to jump it onto the cushion. Actually, that wasn't too bad. Level 6, the cushion drop. This one requires the angle to be taking the cube ball very slightly towards the cushion. But just like other shots where we're bouncing the cube ball into the object ball, you don't actually need to make it bounce that much. Again, about halfway towards the bottom is good. You don't want it to bounce too high, and again, it's just a case of concentrating on the pot and getting the height right. This is definitely a case when less is more. The cushions on a snooker table don't slope towards the bed very much, so if you get the cube ball onto the cushion, the chances are it's going to roll off the other side. And you only really want to get the cube ball onto the edge of the cushion. In fact, I'd say as a rule, the further onto the cushion the cube ball bounces, the slower it's going to come back. But I do like the way it gets the cube ball back into the middle of the table, so I may have a go at it if I've got an easy enough shot. Before our next shot, we're just going to find Andrexi from Medellin, Colombia, which is there. Sometimes you can even do things that appear to be completely impossible. Level seven, the impossible cut. This is a cunning deception. You can't pop the object ball from this angle, so you don't. You actually play the cube ball into the cushion with a load of side spin, which causes it to spin back towards you. And if you play the shot perfectly, you catch the object ball on the way back. And when you push the object ball down the cushion with outside spin, this is what happens. You want to get the cube ball in exactly the right place, which means hitting it significantly cushion first. And you don't want to play the shot too hard, because you don't need as much power as you might think, and the speed can stop the shot working altogether. You need the cube ball to spin on the cloth towards the object ball, or the shot simply won't work. If you can get it to work, however, you can play it from almost anywhere on the table. Now for something I've only heard about happening once, where somebody ended up touching ball on the final black, had to play away, tried to come off the cushion and missed it. Probably the best way to pot it is a masse shot. I'm really not that good at these. Got it. Level eight, the masse. To play this shot, you're going to need to use a loop bridge, and if possible, rest the bridge against the side of your body. If you strike down the cube ball on a 90 degree angle, close to the edge, and you're looking to just stab at the cube ball in a firm way, but it doesn't have to be too hard. If you don't hit it firm enough, you may not get enough spin, or possibly even miss cue. And you can do a lot more of it if you can play it better than I can. Now for a shot I've only ever seen Alex Higgins get close to playing. I'd love to be able to teach you how to make the object ball jump out of the pocket and run in down the cushion, but I can't. Instead... This is about jumping out the middle pocket. The only reason I can think of where you'd actually want to do this is if you wanted to pot the ball that was right by the middle pocket, but you couldn't quite cut it in. The problem with this is it's a very difficult shot even to pot the ball down the cushion, and if you play it, you're likely to go in off or jump the ball off the table. It's a shot that's nearly impossible to get right, but what do you need to know in order to have a chance of playing it? On a snooker table this is nearly impossible, and it only works if you get the middle of the cue ball to hit the top of the pocket. To do so, ideally you need quite a big angle and to strike down the cue ball with a bit of topspin. But it's about a one in a thousand you actually get it right, so I'm not even sure why you'd try this shot. It actually took two days of trying to get these two examples, and it drove me so crazy I never want to see this shot again. Our last shot's going to be even more of a challenge, so before that we're just going to find Franco from Salta, Argentina, which is there. Level 10, the pitch shot. As I've already explained, mostly when you jump over a ball it's a foul. So surprisingly there's nothing in the rules of the game that prevent you from playing this. This shot, however, does have some realistic uses in a slightly scaled-down way. The good news with these shots is if you're not trying to jump over the entire ball, you only need to get as high as the amount of ball you're trying to jump. So we're trying to jump about a quarter of the ball here, so we only need to get the object ball about a quarter of the ball off the table. Now to do this we need to strike down on it, hit it about halfway to the bottom again, and it really helps if you can put your hand on the cushion because you can get more power striking down at a higher angle. You've just got to make sure the cue ball stops. Well hey, that was a little bit lucky. Although, as it turned out, it wasn't because I could see when I played the clip back that I actually jumped over the object ball, so this would have been a foul. However, I can see this being helpful when the very edge of the ball is in the way and you just need to jump it a little bit over the top. Or maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Although, if you want to know more about playing snooker in general or how to play snooker with sidespin, have a look at these two videos. And remember, don't just watch play and make the commitment to becoming a better player by subscribing to the channel and visit the website. See you later.