Snooker Angles Why So Difficult? How To Aim

Why is it so difficult, even for experienced players, to consistently see the right angles and line-up shots accurately? It's even possible for a shot to miss when it looks to the untrained eye like it's been lined up perfectly. Although, if you actually line up a shot perfectly to the centre of the pocket, you can't really miss. From this distance, even if I cue it horrifically badly, it's still going to rattle and go in. Obviously, if you're playing a firmer shot from a greater amount of distance, then straight cueing isn't just helpful, it's absolutely essential. But on the majority of close-range shots, if you get the angle right, you will pop the ball. So here's how you see all of the angles. Considering how confusing and difficult the angles can be, you would have thought snooker players would have come up with a way of understanding it by now. And they have. Angle-specific potting angles designed to show you where to aim on the most straight shots, the thinnest shots, and everything in between. This allows us to compare completely different shots on different parts of the table, and say they have the same angle. And we do this by describing how much of the object ball the cue ball covers. Instead of looking at every shot like it's different, this allows us to create standard potting angles. For example, if you strike the object ball exactly in the middle, covering all of it, you'll hit it dead straight, and this is a full-ball shot. If you hit the object ball right at the edge, you hit half the object ball, so this is a half-ball shot, and it creates a predictable result. As does striking the object ball exactly halfway between the middle and the edge. This is referred to as a three-quarter ball shot, because obviously you're covering three-quarters of the ball. If you do the same thing with the edge of the cue ball rather than the middle, then you strike exactly a quarter of the object ball. So now I know if I strike exactly three-quarters of this black on the left-hand side, I'm going to pot it, and that's exactly the same as this blue, where if I strike three-quarters of it on the left-hand side, I'm also going to pot it. However, this isn't as helpful as you might think. And that's because of shots like this. If I play it three-quarter ball, it's going to miss thick, and if I play it half-ball, it's going to miss thin. I can pot it by splitting the difference and playing it five-eighths, but that's getting a little bit complicated now, and it gets to the point where eighths won't even be good enough. Not only is it inaccurate, it's far too confusing, especially when there's a much more effective way of lining shots up accurately. And this allows you to play shots at any angle without thinking too much about it. So why do we still need potting angles? But this is where it might help, because if I know the shot I've just missed was roughly half-ball, and I notice I'm missing quite a few half-ball shots, then I can practice it and do something about it. What I can now do is practice shots that are roughly half-ball to the right-hand side. And if I can get about five of these shots in a row, then it should mean I stop having a problem with this sort of an angle, and I pot this sort of shot a lot more regularly. And it's also a good way of describing where you want to be on your next shot. For example, here I'd like a nice half-ball black to help me get into these reds. And that is pretty much spot-on. But if you really want to aim the shots correctly, there's a different way of doing it. As long as you're striking the cue ball close to the centre, then you can just think about pushing your cue straight through the cue ball to where you're aiming on the object ball. So on this red, I'm aiming for this dot, and I'm just trying to push my cue to this point. This isn't complicated to work out, and it means I can just push my cue straight through to the centre of the object ball. But unfortunately, it doesn't work unless the shots are absolutely dead straight, causing you to miss everything else thick. This is exactly why the angles are so difficult to work out. And this is why a lot of people find Snooker such a difficult game to play, because you seem to line the shot up directly for the pocket, and it almost always goes far too straight. But of course, there's a simple reason for this. This is because you need to allow space for the cue ball to get in a straight line with the object ball and the pocket, meaning when you line the shot up, you're pushing the cue ball through to the position where you want it to end up. So you're looking to push your cue through from where the centre of the cue ball is to where it's going, and this will give you a target to aim for on the object ball, and if you hit that target, the object ball will go in the pocket. This takes a little bit of getting used to before you start to trust you're playing these shots correctly. But once you get the hang of it, you'll find all shots a lot easier, except for the thin ones. Because on these shots, the point you're aiming for will actually be a little bit wider the object ball, meaning you're aiming for nothing, and that makes it a lot harder. If you remember the half-ball shot from earlier, then this is anything thinner than that, which is very nearly half the shots you'll have to play. So the way I'd advise lining up any thinner shot like this red is instead of working out where the centre of the cue ball's going to go, instead, just work out where the inside corner's going to go, and try and line that up to where it needs to be. Nearly knocked the pink in there. Together, these allow you to line up any shot you might come across on a table, like a thinner shot or even a thicker shot. However, there's still a problem that makes it a little bit harder still. And we're going to look at that after we find Atsuk from Stuttgart, Germany, which is in there. Why it's even harder to find the correct angle is because sometimes, even if you play the cue ball into a direct line between the object ball and the pocket, it will still miss and straighten up a little bit. And that's annoying. But it's also because of something called impact throw. A lot of people will be aware if you have two reds really close together like this, and you push into them from a top angle, they'll move as one for a brief amount of time, allowing them to straighten up a bit. And that same effect is going to take place when I strike the black here. So in order to pot it, I need to aim just a fraction thinner. This causes shots to straighten up more the thinner they get. And the only real way around it is to just allow for the slight amount of straightening up. The good news is it's such a small difference, you should be able to naturally adapt to it without ever really having to think about it. But it does explain why on shots like this one, you're best off playing them slightly cushioned first in order to pot the ball straight down the cushion. And this altogether is why it's so difficult to know exactly where to strike the object ball. To start off with, you need to make sure you're striking the cue ball through the centre. And if you're doing that, you can more or less just ignore the cue ball and push your tip through to where you're aiming on the object ball. But this only works on straight shots if you haven't allowed for the space the cue ball's going to take up. This is why newcomers to the game find it so difficult, because it's very easy to overlook this and play the majority of shots too thick. So it's really just as simple as allowing for where the cue ball needs to be so it's directly in line with the object ball and the pocket. However, even if you do this on some thinner shots, the object ball will straighten up as the cue ball pushes it on straight for a little bit. However, this is such a small effect, you'll barely even notice it. You can then use potting angles to understand which shots it is you're having trouble with, allowing you to practice the very shots that are holding you back so you can improve your game. But there's still one more thing that makes finding the correct angle difficult, and that's that you may not be aiming exactly where you think you are. And it affects all types of shots, including straight ones like this. And it's usually caused by the fact that you're not quite sure on what part of the cue ball is actually striking the object ball. But it does have a relatively straightforward solution. And I've already explained why it can make straight shots harder to see than angled shots sometimes in this previous video. Or if you want to know more about impact throw, have a look at the other video. 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.