New Snooker Shots.

Like it or not, the way snooker is played is changing, and ever since it first appeared on TV, it's been possible to track that change. And although these days the standard of play is clearly far better, the modern player has found new tricks and new ways to manipulate the game. So here's the top 10 shots that players will have to adapt to, to gain an advantage over their opponents. A long time ago, Australian snooker player Eddie Charlton said you should never attempt to move a red from a red, and he had a good reason for this. If you're potting a colour, the red you're carrying away from a cushion or out of a difficult position is the next ball you're probably going to be playing. But if you play the shot from a red, and the cue ball finishes in an awkward position, you've then got to pressure pot to try and keep the break going. But these days, you're going to need to be able to move a red from a red, otherwise sometimes you're going to be at a real disadvantage. This type of shot is played so often now that Jordan Brown even played it twice in his Welsh Open winning break. So let's look at something a little more interesting, or maybe not, because our next shot is Mark Williams's new break. This one probably split the snooker world right down the middle as to whether or not this is a good and acceptable shot, and it was clear that Tom Ford certainly didn't like it. This shot seems especially odd when you consider you're usually trying to get the cue ball away from the object balls as much as possible. However, recently professional snooker players have found it increasingly difficult to get the cue ball behind the ball colours, which means they keep leaving a free shot to their opponent. Now this isn't because of their lack of skill, this is because of a problem with the table, and that's a specific problem relating to the cushions. Most of the time, the balls will bounce off a cushion exactly the same way that light reflects off a mirror. So if you place a mirror on the cushion and try to pop the ball in the reflection of the pocket, you should play the perfect double. Unfortunately, especially on new tables, the shallower the angle you play the shot at, the less effective this is. As the balls do something we usually describe as sliding, which means they break a little bit wider, and on a break-off shot, the cue ball hits three cushions and can slide off every single one. Meaning if you want to get the cue ball in behind the ball colours, you have to hit it so thick you almost always bring a red back, hence rolling into the pack. Unless there's a touching ball, my opponent now can't get back to bulk, meaning they have to play to the top cushion. Meaning I now have a simple shot down the table with little risk of leaving a pot on. Although this did go wrong for Williams against Selby, possibly costing him the match in the Champion of Champions. And by playing into the reds himself, Ronnie managed to force Mark into playing to the top cushion, possibly force a re-rack. It's not yet clear if this will catch on, but players are going to have to find a way of playing a safer break-off. Our next shot involves potting a red early on in a frame and finding yourself out of position down the bulk end of the table. Because in the past, a roll-up snooker was definitely the shot to play. But players are escaping from these shots and leaving the balls completely safe on such a regular basis these days that it's not even a desirable shot to play anymore. From wherever the cue ball finishes, the modern player still tries to attack these days. Snookers, it seems, have become overrated. In the past, if you ended up in this position on a colour, you'd probably just play a snooker. But these days, it's seen as another position to attack from and get the cue ball down the table, either by running it around three cushions or screwing the cue ball in and out of bulk round two. Ronnie O'Sullivan has said that playing pots on bulk colours when you're out of position like this is one of the main things that players have had to adapt to in recent years. But how exactly do you play them? If you finish straighter on the green, you just want to play this as a screw shot. But the further you come this way down the table, the more you want to use a small amount of left-hand side. If you find yourself with even more angle than this, you can even screw the cue ball directly off the bulk cushion and get yourself back down the table. Just because people are playing more attacking shots doesn't mean the safety shots aren't changing as well. What happens when a frame of snooker ends and the players are level on points? Well, you have what's known as a re-spotted black, where you simply re-spot the black and place the cue ball in the D. You then sort of break off, as demonstrated by Ali Carter here, but you never really want this first shot. That's because there's very little chance of me potting this shot, so it can only really go wrong. That's why when a player wins the coin toss, they'll almost always put their opponent in, rather than getting a double kiss, leaving the black over a pocket, or simply not playing it at the correct pace. But do you have to play this dangerous shot? So the modern way to play it is to strike the black half ball and leave the black and the cue ball on opposite side cushions, preferably with the black below the cue ball, so the double isn't on. And as long as you don't leave the double on, this can be a far simpler shot to play in a pressure situation. And if it finishes in the right place, it can still be quite awkward, and it can be a tricky shot to get completely safe sometimes. Before our next shot, we're just going to find Will, who's from Noblesville in Indiana, which is about there. Our next shot is the thin escape from a snooker to get the cue ball back safe. It looks a difficult shot to play well, but these days players are getting these with a surprising consistency. Shots like these are just another reason why snookers have become overrated. Unless the cue ball's right up behind a bolt colour, this is how most professional snooker players are escaping from snookers, and it usually means leaving a difficult shot for their opponent. But how are they playing these shots so well? Well, because of the miss rule, they're actually able to miss it a few times, making sure each time it's thin before they finally hit it, meaning it's very unlikely that anybody's going to catch a red too thick. In the past, when you finished out of position on a colour, you had a choice. Do you cut your losses and try to play safe, or do you attempt a risky long pot? But currently, this is less of a choice, as players are making these break-winning shots from more and more ridiculous positions. This is either playing a long blue or a bolt colour from distance, and once again it's an example of a player backing their own potting rather than giving their opponent a chance. Talking of backing their own potting, you could even argue that the shot to nothing isn't really played anymore. The way this shot is played has just been changed a little bit, but I think significantly. Instead of playing a long pot with the intention of getting the cue ball back safe if you miss it, which might result in you having to play one of the shots we talked about earlier, or if you really finish in a bad position, one of those overrated snookers, players these days are now playing the long pot with the intention of leaving themselves not completely safe, but with a chance of a bolt colour or possibly the blue. Once again backing themselves to make the pot rather than risking giving the table up to their opponents. Again, as I said several times already, snookering someone behind a bolt colour has become far less effective, and it's now more of a last resort. But before we look at the eighth shot, we're going to... Quick, before anyone realises these barely look like numbers. But before that, we're going to find Sergio Bastoni in Tercia Island in the Azores. Well, I think this highlights something that I believe my generation changed. And that simply involves playing the black off its spot, or maybe not simply. The younger generation started to take on the black off its spot from wherever the cue ball finished, and there was a good reason for that. For the last 20 years or so, junior players have been practising these shots continuously, sometimes monotonously, playing the black off its spot hundreds and hundreds of times in just one practice session. So when they got to a match, this is a shot they felt very comfortable with. These days, it doesn't actually matter how difficult the cut in the black is. Players are still taking on and expecting to get it. Now, there was a number of shots I wanted to add to this list, but they weren't really significant for one reason or another. So let's have a bonus round, starting with Cliff Thorburn and the dump shot. This is where you just play the cue ball onto the top cushion rather than risking playing back to bulk. Now, this was a long time ago, and the shot would have already existed, although him or another Canadian player probably gave it his name. Although screwing the cue ball back safe is a shot that's played a lot more often these days, it's not like it never existed in the past. So it's only a bonus shot. The next shot is something I've seen Ding do a few times, where he's managed to pop a ball off a ball blocking a pocket. Which isn't as easy as it looks, and he plays it impressively well, but it's only ever him that I've seen playing it, so I can't really count that as a new shot. And annoyingly, I couldn't even find any examples of him playing it. And because the quality of the tables have improved, players are generally a lot more trusting of them. Players were obviously still opening the reds in the past, but you could argue that these days, this type of shot has become a lot more essential. Again, instead of giving the table back to their opponents, even if you can play one of those overrated snookers, players are once again backing their own abilities, and are usually trying to get into the reds from the first opportunity, no matter how difficult or risky this might be. To new viewers of snooker, our final choice might be a surprising one. That's because it's exhibition shots, and even though this won't help anyone win a frame, no one was really playing these shots at all even 10 or 15 years ago. Nowadays, you could argue with players like Judd Trump, this is something the crowd actually comes to see, but in the past, this was a completely different story. Even Alex Higgins would rarely play complex shots unless it was the simplest way of winning a frame. These exciting shots could be seen as an insult to your opponent. It's hard to imagine that just a few years ago, playing an exhibition shot could be seen as showing off, and showing off was heavily frowned upon. Even during Ronnie O'Sullivan's career, him playing left-handed and having 100 breaks left-handed was seen as a little bit insulting by some. Thankfully, all of that has changed, and Judd can even do whatever the hell this is, and no one really seems to mind. Because it's this type of shot that seems to be generating more of an audience for snooker than anything else, and thankfully, people have seen sense and no longer seem to mind. So if you want to see exactly how difficult it is to play these shots, and what you need to do in order to play them, then 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!