Shaun Murphy Snooker Cue Action How It Works.

Sean Murphy is clearly one of the best players in the world, but his technique has some slightly unusual elements. But it's these elements that allow him to deliver the cue almost perfectly straight. So why is Sean able to produce such a straight delivery and generate so much cue power? Just how does his cue action work? Sean Murphy clearly has one of the best cue actions in the world. It's almost like his superpower, the way he's able to stay incredibly still, and bring his cue through in an almost perfectly straight line. So to show how well Sean's able to play the game, I decided to compare his technique to my own. You can see how much more I move on the shot, and how much more my cue comes across the line and wobbles out of position. It clearly shows my game is going to be less consistent, although it might make me look better. The fact that nothing moves when Sean strikes the cue ball actually makes his shot seem less dramatic. Fellow professional Neil Robertson also has a great cue action that isn't able to stay nearly as still on the shots that require a higher amount of power. But when Sean plays a shot, all that seems to happen is his cue very slightly jumps up a little bit off his bridge hand. In theory, having a really stable technique like this should benefit him greatly, but it's not like you can just decide to deliver your cue in a perfectly straight line. So what's his trick to making Joe Trump-style shots look effortless? Normally I'd have to look into a player's technique in great detail when they're playing matches, and of course I've done this, but with Sean we have another opportunity, because normally you can't be sure on exactly what a player's doing unless they tell you. Fortunately for us, we're able to find out, because for some reason, Sean is the sort of weirdo that has his own YouTube channel. Hi, I'm Sean, and welcome to my YouTube channel. Here he explains about the basics of a technique, as well as how to play numerous shots, but unfortunately he stopped making these videos about five years ago now. And in one of these videos, Sean explains if you lift your bridge hand up off the table when you're down on the shot, you're stood too close to the table. And if you just stand far enough back that you can't actually lift your bridge hand up in the air when you're down on the shot, this is going to keep a lot of your weight going forwards and prevent you from moving so much. But does it actually work? To find out, I decided to take this advice and give it a go. I'm just standing far enough away from the table that all my weight's going forward, and I wouldn't be able to lift my hand up in the air. And it seemed to help me stay still on the shot and feel a little bit more confident on the basic pots. When you play a firm shot like that, your cue hand actually collides with your body. So the good thing about leaning into the shot is you're actually giving yourself more room before your cue arm actually makes contact with your body. This should allow you to follow through a little bit further, which might create a tiny bit more spin on the cue ball. And when your cue hand makes contact with your body, it could cause your cue to wobble as well. So if this is further away, it's going to be less of a problem. Sean's straight cue action is also greatly helped by his grip and the specific way he holds the cue. His grip on the cue, however, seems to be quite firm, other than this little finger that seems to come away a little bit like this. Other than that, all his fingers seem to be fairly tightly wrapped around the cue. But that's not the entire story. As Sean brings his cue arm backwards and opens up his grip, he very slightly rotates the back of his hand outwards. This is just caused by having a tight grip with his thumb and forefinger, and when he brings the cue right back, only touching it with the tip of his little finger. Normally it's very easy to pull your cue around your body as you play the shot, but this wrist action prevents you from doing that. It should help push the cue through straight and get the elbow to drop down on line perfectly. Let's see if I can get that right. By using my grip in this way, it means my elbow doesn't tuck into my shoulder as I strike the cue ball, and keeps the cue going through in a perfectly straight line. Delivering your cue straight like this isn't something you can really do just by thinking about it. You need to do the right sort of practice. And luckily on his YouTube channel, Sean also suggests a practice routine that will be able to help with this. The idea is to simply play the reg straight down the table and get it to come back and kiss the cue ball. And doing this type of practice also helps you remain still on the shot. But before we go any further, we're just going to find Darth Gortha from Falmouth in the UK, before he shows up with his army. Sean also has excellent cue power and is able to produce a lot of spin on the cue ball, but he's able to play these powerful shots and get a large reaction out of the cue ball without jumping off them. So how exactly is Sean able to play these types of shots without throwing his entire body at the ball? Well, the answer is, Sean won't quite be able to get as much spin on the cue ball as those players, but because his technique's so solid and good and consistent, he's still able to generate quite a bit of cue power. It's just you don't really notice it. Even though he has quite a firm grip on the cue, the fact that he's able to open up his hand a little bit, combined with his excellent cue action, means he has a comparable amount of cue power to some of the best players in the world. Sean's also well known for being one of the best rest players in the game. And this is something else that he explains the secrets of, among other things, on his YouTube channel. But we'll have a better look at that after we find Sky Blue from Wimbledon, London, obviously in the UK. Here I'm once again massively grateful to Sean's YouTube channel because I probably wouldn't have picked this up myself. It's just a shame he didn't continue making videos. But what he basically pointed out is if you're playing a shot with a rest, you usually have your arm at this angle. So if you push the rest through straight, as straight as you can, eventually it's going to go away to one side because your arm can only push it through straight for so long. So what he recommends doing is pulling it back only a little way and pushing it forward only a short way, so you have a short, stabby action, which normally you wouldn't think would be a good idea, but he's one of the best rest players in the world, so let's give it a go. So short pull back, short follow through, and yeah, that actually seemed pretty good. I had a little bit of practice doing exactly this, and it did seem to work. In fact, I was so confident, I decided I'd try something harder. But will it work on a really tough shot down the rail? Genuinely first attempt here. Right, so short pull back, short follow through. Oh! It's going to need take two. OK, take two. Short pull back, short follow through. Yes! Yeah, that works really well. Sean also seems to be really good at playing cushion shots, so is there anything I could see in his technique that may give him a slight advantage? I'm not sure if this helps or not, but when most players play a shot off the cushion, they'll have their hand in that position, they're putting a lot of their weight forwards, so it doesn't really matter that their fingers are together. Sean, however, pushes his little and ring finger wide and keeps two fingers together like that, and I don't know if that just helps very slightly give him better balance, and he's able to play the shot better. I'm not sure if that helps or not. Now, something he does do that definitely will help, though I'm not sure yet why, is when he's striking down on the ball, similar to a lot of other top players, actually, most predominantly Ronnie that I've seen, he seems to, instead of bringing his cue straight back and then straight through the ball, he seems to just dip it down slightly and bring the cue back up to the same height before delivering it. And I don't know why, but that seems to make any shot where you're digging down on the cue ball, even a little bit, a lot easier to play. I really enjoy making these videos because every time I make one of these, I generally learn something about my own game that will help, so is there anything I can learn from Sean Murphy's technique specifically? Well, to start off with, Stan, just far enough back from the table that it means when you're down on the shot, you can't raise your bridge arm up in the air. If you do this, it's going to prevent a lot of unwanted body movement. Secondly, try and use your wrist action, and in particular your fingers, to prevent yourself from pulling your cue around your body as you play the shot. If you get the wrist action right with your fingers, it should keep your cue at a nice straight parallel angle. Third, playing this straight stun shot, trying to get a double kiss, is a great way to test straight cueing. That's not bad. And then we've got using a short pullback, short follow-through, jabby cue action with the rest. Doesn't sound like a good idea, but I promise you, it works. And finally, there's using a slightly wider bridge when your hand's on the rail, because I think this gives you just a tiny bit better balance. I picked up quite a bit here, but I also learned quite a bit when I looked at Ronnie O'Sullivan's technique and also Judd Trump's technique, so you can have a look at those 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.