Snooker Aiming Cushion Shots The Snooker Secrets

Podding off the cushion is supposed to make things harder and that's why you play the cue ball safe against them. So if you're struggling to cue these shots straight enough, I know exactly how to help with that. But far more importantly, I'm going to show you all the secrets that allow you to play these shots just as accurately as you would with your bridge hand flat on the table. And by far the most crucial part of that is to select the perfect bridge for how far the cue ball is away from the cushion. When there isn't quite room to put your hand on the table, meaning you'd have too short of a backswing, ideally you want to be using something known as the looped bridge. You make a loop bridge by positioning your hand on the cushion and putting your thumb into your middle finger under your index finger. You can then run the cue along the side of your thumb, stopping it moving in that direction, and then hook your index finger over the top of it, stopping it going anywhere in the other direction, and that should keep it in a nice solid place for you to pop the ball. A loop bridge works perfectly until the cue ball gets too close to the cushion because you won't be able to see where you're striking the cue ball over the top of your hand. So here you need to do something different. So place your fingers flat on the table with your knuckles hanging over the side, and this means you can run the cue along your index finger. Now if you bring your thumb up on the other side of your cue, again this stops it going in either direction. It's not quite as good as a loop bridge because the cue can still obviously travel up in the air, which it couldn't before, but it does mean I can easily see all of the cue ball exactly where I need to strike, and it makes the pop from this position a lot easier. But this works by running the tip of your cue over the edge of the cushion, so if the cue ball's really close to the cushion or even touching it, you can't do this and it's going to need a different bridge. However, this isn't too different from the previous bridge. All you need to do is start with that bridge but this time push your thumb a little tighter into your forefinger, so instead of running between your fingers, the cue runs along the top of it, so it keeps it above the cushion and you're in the perfect position to pop the ball. So when I get a cushion shot, I can think to myself that's tight against the cushion so I need to use this bridge, or if I'm a little bit further away and I want to play a more powerful shot with backspin, then I can use a looped bridge, and if the cue ball's a little bit too close to the cushion and a loop bridge would make my hand get in the way, I can just then run the cue along the cushion like this. But so far I've only shown you how to play these better. Here are the real secrets that help you play them like they're any other shot. This series of videos I'm calling the secrets where I explain all the vital information that you just won't get anywhere else. And we're going to begin with sidespin because most don't realize when you're striking off the cushion, you could be applying sidespin even when it looks like you're striking the cue right in the center. This is because a shot where you can put your hand on the table doesn't look the same. To a shot you have to play off the cushion, and you'll probably find the closer to the cushion the cue ball gets, the further out your aim becomes. It's as a shot, not to a shot. Stupid. But you do need to know if you're striking the cue ball with unwanted sidespin and how much. You can find this out by first making sure you're playing shots straight up with your hand on the table, and then play the same shot with the cue ball tight against the bolt cushion. As long as you got it dead in line with the spots you should be able to do it the same again, hitting the cue ball in the same place. But you may find you're unwittingly imparting a small amount of side on the cue ball when it looks like you're striking the cue ball in exactly the same position. You can then use this to work out where the center of the cue ball is. As you can see on the video I'm not striking this in the center, but your eyes can play tricks on you, and this looks to me like it is, even though it clearly makes me put quite a bit of left hand side on the cue ball. And if you play around with this a little bit you can work out exactly where the center of the cue ball is. That to me looks all wrong, but if I play it down the spots it'll actually come back pretty straight, and you can see on the camera this actually is the center of the cue ball. As I've already explained depending on how far the cue ball is away from the cushion the center position will look slightly different, so you may want to try it from a few different locations until you're hitting it up and back through the spots from everywhere. But this makes a big difference to how straight you can cue the shots, especially if the white is tight up against the cushion. From this position just a little bit of side spin will throw the cue ball off by a very long way, so if you're able to strike the cue ball a lot more centrally you'll find it easier to aim, line up, and even cue straight. But there's another secret I can share that will help you play shots that are really close to the cushion, especially if you find you keep miscuing these shots. To avoid miscues all you need to do is scrape the top of the cushion with the tip of your cue on the way through, so as you push your cue through you also push the tip of your cue into the top of the cushion, and what this means is not only you avoid miscues but you also hit a thicker part of the ball and that helps you pot shots more accurately. Something else you need to get right with shots that are closer to the cushion is your chalk tip combination, because if you're playing shots like I've shown you already there should be no chance of you miscuing, so if that's a problem then it's probably something to do with your equipment and you've just got to make sure that that's all working nicely for you so there's no chance that you're going to get a miscue because of it. Before we do any more let's just find Matty in Gaborone Botswana which is in there, and lastly it's probably easier on these shots especially if you're not using a loop bridge for your cue to jump up in the air as you play the shot, so it's even more vital with these shots to make sure your chin's on the cue and you're preventing it jumping up in the air. You just need to keep your chin resting on the cue all the way through the shot so if it does jump up in the air your head's keeping it down in the same position. Again not only will this help you strike the white cleaner but it'll also help improve your accuracy especially on the harder shots as well. And if you're looking to improve your accuracy in general why not have a look at Ronnie O'Sullivan's coaching by going to www.snooker.online and remember to use the promo code BREAK to get it at a discounted price. The only thing we haven't looked at is digging down to put backspin on the cue ball and this is crucial because if you know the secrets it's nowhere near as difficult as you might think it is. This type of shot is actually very easy to play with the loop bridge I showed you earlier, that is until you get a little bit too close to the cushion. When it gets inside this range it's a little bit harder so you have to stand your fingers on the cushion and dig down at the cue ball like you're bridging over a ball and this can seem more difficult until you get everything balanced. The first thing you have to do when you position your fingers on the table is make sure you're actually leaning in towards the table. Now this may seem counterintuitive but if you're not putting weight on this arm then there's no way you're going to stay in the right place and you'll end up wobbling on the shot. The second thing you need to do is look up at the shot this may sound obvious but because you're aiming down so much it's very easy to just look down at the cue ball and not actually be able to see the red so it can be quite difficult at times especially if you're cueing down on the ball a lot to see the object ball so you've got to make sure you're looking up at the right position so you know you're aiming in the right place and you've got a chance of potting it. Something else that'll help with this is your stance because with my regular stance position here I'm actually not high enough to bridge over the cushion so I actually have to bring my feet a little bit closer together to get the height. Now the closer your feet get together the more unstable you're going to be so just try and keep them as wide as you possibly can but just enough so you actually get the height. Finally you want to be trying to play these shots with what I describe as a rotary motion. The way you do that is you dip your cue down a little bit on the way back and it actually helps you push over the top of the cushion as you go through like that. Now this also creates a slightly smoother motion so as I'm pushing the cue through here I'm going to be pulling it back and it's going to lap over the top of my hand and go through. It's one smooth motion and it actually works a lot better. Everything you've seen so far has been part of the snooker secret series where I show you the things people don't usually tell you about the basics of the game like the nuances of cueing off the cushion for example or if you want to find the secrets to playing long pots more consistently have a look at this video and I've got another video here that shows you how to aim shot by shot in a break 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!