Snooker Cue Action Tips For Consistent Cue Action

To play a shot completely straight I have to make this line on the cue ball strike this line on the object ball. But even if I strike the cue ball directly through the centre and aim for this point on the centre of the object ball, I can still miss. And that's because it's not the centre of the cue ball that I'm playing towards the centre of the object ball. This can be a big cause of inconsistent potting and explains how you can pot two identical shots in a row and then miss a third when you seem to do everything exactly the same. And it also explains why you can miss to exactly the same place every time when you seem to have lined the shot up perfectly. If you don't know where the centre of the cue ball is then you're not going to be able to work out where you're striking the object ball. In fact you'll probably struggle with most shots and find you're missing to the same side of the pocket each time usually by the same amount. So here's how you can fix it. If you keep missing shots to the right hand side like I did on that last black then you can just assume that the centre of the cue ball is slightly to the left of where you think it is. Now I don't mean strike the cue ball with your cue slightly to the left of centre. Still hit it with your cue in the same place but what I mean is assume the back of the cue ball the bit that's striking the object ball in this case the red is slightly further to the left. So as I'm playing the shot and lining it up I'm actually lining this up to strike very slightly to the right of where I normally strike and as you can see that's slightly too much. I still potted the object ball but it went very slightly to the left side of the pocket. So if I try again and just assume the centre of the cue ball is in between where I first thought it was and where I corrected it to I should now be in the right place. And after you've successfully completed a few shots you'll start seeing the balls like this automatically and you won't have to think about it anymore at least until you start missing repetitive shots again and you'll have to repeat the process. This technique is crucial if you want to consistently cue the ball straight however it's not the only thing you need to know. Most players will rest their cues against the side of their bodies but you only want to do this as gently as possible. If you pull the cue in too tight it can change how you've lined up the shot and even in extreme cases cause you to cue around your body and strike the cue ball sideways at an angle which isn't going to help anything. A big part of feathering and cuing up to the shot is making sure as you're putting the cue backwards and forwards it's just resting against your body and there's no tension there whatsoever so when you strike the cue ball you know you're going to hit it smoothly but this isn't always easy to do. For example I was on a brown like this last week and I knew if I got it and got on the blue I was going to clear up and make a hundred break but unfortunately the pressure of the situation got to me and it was probably squeezing the cue into my body too tight that caused me to rattle the brown and fail to get a hundred break. So you're not always going to be able to get this right but just being aware of it will make a huge difference both with this and with the next thing. If you're resting the cue against the side of your body then you need to get the side of your body into the right place and obviously that'll be determined by the position in which you stand. The better position you stand in the more consistently you're going to pot the ball. Now you don't need to be standing in the right position to pot the ball for example I could stand here for this blue which is way over to one side and just lean over I should still be able to pot it. In fact a good snooker player will be able to probably clear the table hopping around on one leg. Actually that's a good idea for a YouTube video I should probably try that. Right video ideas clear table on one leg. But the game can be a lot easier to play if where you're standing automatically gets your body into a position that when you rest your cue gently against the side of your body you don't have to make any adjustments or alterations because you're already lined up on the perfect angle to pot the ball. The way you work out where you are is by lining up to the shot and looking down beneath your cue at which part of your foot is directly underneath your cue and once you've worked that out you can then work out where you want your foot in relation to the cue and when you find the right place you'll just be able to get down on the shot and you'll automatically hit it dead straight without even thinking about it. And that's because if you stand in the right place with the cue gently resting against the side of your body then the cue will automatically be on the right line to pot the ball so long as you then push it through smoothly. So before we look at smoother cueing we're just going to find Chance who's in Lawton, Oklahoma which is there. Something else that can cause you minor inconsistencies is striking the cue ball before you're ready. Now this can be confusing because I've taken forever on this shot but I can still rush the delivery and that means when I start pulling my cue back I suddenly push it through like that really quickly and this can cause you to be a little bit out with the pot and a lot out with the pace of the shot and cause you to be a long way out of position. If you've got this problem then you may worry about shots where you've got to strike the cue ball hard or close to the edge where you might be worried about missed cueing shots and the solution to this problem is to increase the distance between your bridge hand and the cue ball and make sure you're pulling the cue back a lot further and you have a smoother delivery of the cue because you'll find this takes a lot of pressure off the shot when you're actually pushing the cue through. You only need to do this with thermo shots but it allows you to get more speed and more spin out of the cue ball with less effort because you're able to push the cue through smoother. And to prove how well this works I'm going to pop this awkward red down the cushion first time in one take. I might not be able to say all the words right but because I can pull the cue back smoothly and further then I can deliver it exactly how I want to and it takes a lot of pressure off these shots. Once you have a cue action that works fairly consistently the big secret to improving it is to keep as much as possible the same because the more predictable your cue action is the better you are going to be able to line up the shot and the better you are at lining up the shot the more confident you'll be in your cue action and the less likely you are to move on the shot or cue across it. And a more predictable cue action allows you to line the shot up more consistently and the better you line the shot up the more confidence you'll have in your cue action. So with practice and a little bit of time this is how you steadily improve and that probably means all that's left to do is see if I can clear the table standing on one leg. Although that might have to wait until I completely run out of ideas and we've got a couple of big shot recreation videos just like these two coming up in the near future. So 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.