Mark Selby Cue Action Snooker and Pool.

When he's at the table, Mark Selby visibly adjusts the position of his head and body on every single shot. But despite this, he's an incredibly accurate potter, four-time world champion, world number one and former world pool champion. So how did he accomplish all of this while moving around randomly on the shot? Well, to start off with, he isn't exactly moving randomly. If you watch closely, he moves his head over to the right by a small amount and his body just follows. Which of course led me to speculate, why is he doing this? Well, as far as I can tell, there seems to be a difference between how Mark sees the cue ball and how Mark sights the shot as a whole. Or it could just be how Mark gets into the correct position. But either way, you can split his shots into two distinct parts. And either way, it seems to be about his dominant left eye. For the first part of the shot, he's finding the centre of the cue ball. And he does this with the cue fairly central on his chin. But it doesn't appear that Mark can see the rest of the shot from this position. Then on the second part of the shot, once he's found the centre of the cue ball, he starts slowly moving his head over until he's sighting the shot under his left eye. And once he's there, he strikes the cue ball almost straight away. It's not unusual to have one eye that's stronger than the other. We describe this as dominant. And if a player has one eye that's stronger than the other, they'll usually cue up underneath it. But what is unusual is getting into the right position on the shot. Most players with a dominant eye will train themselves to go to the table in the right position. This is obviously something Mark started doing at an early age and couldn't be corrected until it was too late. It would normally prevent most people from ever reaching the top of the game, but Mark seems to have a special ability that I'll explain later. But what's far more important than how he does it is what he's actually looking at. He spends the first part of the shot just staring at the cue ball. And once he's confident he's in the right place, he then flicks his eyes up at the object ball, flicks them back at the cue ball and then flicks them back at the object ball again just to check he's on the correct line. And after that, he then plays the shot. You can visibly see him looking up at the object ball on this shot, where the red's a long way away and he's having to bridge over the green. And also on that first phase when he's down on the shot, he seems to be adjusting his position quite a bit to make sure he's exactly in the right place. Again, this is something I wouldn't advise, but Mark has the ability to deal with it because of how well he can see the shots. This is Mark's special ability that I was talking about earlier, having a great understanding of where the balls are going to go. A lot of this will be down to practice and Mark's straight delivery that we'll talk about more later. But what you're looking at when you're on the shot can make a huge difference as well, like striking the cue ball in the centre, which isn't as easy as it appears because it can be difficult to tell exactly where the centre of the cue ball is. But the closer you can get to the centre of the cue ball, the easier it's going to be to cue straight. It's definitely possible to pop balls with side spin, and if it's a small amount, quite often it doesn't make a huge difference, but it can make you a little bit inconsistent. So how much does it really matter? It's definitely beneficial, but not something you need to worry about. This is what you want to focus on when you're playing the shot if you want the best chance of seeing where the object ball's going to go. To start off with, just imagine where the cue ball needs to go in order to pop the object ball. Then just think about pushing the cue through the centre of where the cue ball is to the centre of where the cue ball's going to go. As long as you start off in the right place, you can ignore the cue ball and just push your tip straight through to where you're aiming on the object ball. However, you do need to allow for the space the cue ball's going to take up, otherwise you'll hit every shot far too straight. This is a common mistake players make when they're learning the game, and it can feel really uncomfortable to be aiming far wider than it seems necessary. And this is the most vital part of any shot, finding the right point on the object ball and pushing a cue straight through towards it. Mark's ability to line the shot up incredibly accurately is part of the reason he's one of the best players in the world right now, and he's able to do this because of how well he uses the time he takes on the shot. Mark clearly uses this time to work out if he's striking the correct place on the object ball, and he doesn't actually play the shot until he's absolutely sure. But what's the best way to get into the right position at the table? Ideally, you want to be working out where you're aiming for on the object ball from back here, and stay on this line all the way into the table. You really don't want to be changing your position when you're down on the shot like this. As I've already explained, Mark sees the shots so well, and because of the time he takes on each one, he can pretty much walk to the table from any position. Mark seems to have the ability to know exactly where the shots are going, and that's something that can't really be taught. Even though you can't advise this unique part of Mark's technique, you also can't deny the fact that it clearly works for him. Awkward judgement shots come up all the time in snooker, and we take for granted how vital they are. But of course, it's not the only thing that's made Mark a world champion. And the rest of his technique seems to be pretty flawless, especially his straight cueing and his grip. But before we look at Mark's grip, we're going to find Ultimate Gaming from Adama, Ethiopia. Which is about there. You can clearly see the way Mark grips the cue is exceptionally good. On his backswing, his fingers almost seem to unravel around the cue, but stay in contact with it at all times, before squeezing it tightly again on the way through. And I have been trying hard to recreate his grip. But unfortunately, I couldn't get anywhere near it. I didn't seem to be holding the cue in anything like the same way. And I'd love to be able to, because it's probably one of the best grips I've seen. The other thing I notice about his grip is when he pushes the cue through, the knuckle of his little finger gets squeezed out a little bit wider. You can see the back part of his hand come out just a little bit as he plays the shot here. It looks a bit like this, although this is a bit of an over-exaggeration. And it seems to stop a player pulling their cue around their body, and help them push it through straight. Something else I wanted to talk about was Mark's stance. The position of his feet is what you might describe as textbook, with his left foot being a little way in front and pointing outward, so his knee doesn't tuck into his body. But what about his other foot? Where you position this foot will directly influence the position of your body and where your cue's going to be. So if you want to get your cue into the right place... Think about how you position your foot underneath it and exactly where it needs to go. The exact position you place your foot makes a huge difference to the shot, and if you're in the right place, it feels a lot easier. If you stand too far to the left, the shot usually goes to the left. Stand too far to the right, and it goes the other way. If you don't believe me, give this a try, because if you find the right place, it feels like you're automatically going to pop the ball. So if you can work out exactly what position to get your foot in, then you're going to be playing the shot exactly where it needs to go. But before we go any further, we're just going to find Dylan, who's in the Dominican Republic, which is there. Other things to note about Mark's cue action is he plays every shot with a long backswing, and that's always followed by smooth delivery, where he pushes his cue hand through into his body. As he plays the shot, his head stays still, but he dips the cue a little away from his chin. Some players do this, some players keep the cue on their chin all the way through the shot. It's just player preference, really. But the lower down your body your hand ends up, the further through it's able to go, and this might explain why Mark's able to produce so much spin on the cue ball, especially at low speeds, even if he can't hit the ball as hard as other players. But you can't really have a video about Mark Thelby without talking about his excellent safety. Hang on. That's not bad, is it? There's not a huge amount of advice I can give you on this, because each individual safety shot is different. Mark always tries to play a snooker where he can, but doing this is easier said than done. Something that'll help you out in a lot of situations is trying to get the cue ball into these triangles. It's not always easy to leave the cue ball in these positions, but if you get it there, you'll hardly ever leave a pot on. And that's because you're blocking both corner pockets like this. It's also worth noting that Mark, believe it or not, is actually quite an attacking player, but he does seem to have a deep understanding of what is and what isn't a frame-winning chance, and if the chance isn't there to win the frame at that visit, he usually seems to turn it down. But there are also a few examples of where this has cost him matches in the past. After looking at Mark's entire technique, I think what I've learnt from it most is just how valuable taking enough time on the shot is, especially if you're not feeling confident or you don't really like the shot you're playing. Just taking that little bit of extra time can make all the difference. And it's fascinating how his technique differs from someone like Sean Murphy or Ronnie O'Sullivan, and if you want to know how their techniques work, 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.