Snooker Aiming Straight

Striking the cueball to one side doesn't just make it spin. Because it's a curved surface, it also deflects away in the opposite direction. This lightweight plastic ball exaggerates the effect, and you can see how striking on the left makes the ball go to the right. So if I strike the cueball on the left-hand side, then that means it's going to come away from my tip, heading ever so slightly to the right, and that could result in me missing the shot. But alternatively, you will be able to cue straighter the closer you get to striking the centre of the cueball. This will improve your potting, although it's not exactly straightforward to get right. So I'm going to show you seven different ways to cue straighter. But we're going to begin with equipment, because your cue can actually make quite a big difference. This was the cheapest cue I could find online a couple of years ago. And you can see, if I hit the cueball on the left-hand side here, it skews way off to the right. But if I do the same thing with my regular cue, and hit it with exactly the same amount on the left-hand side, it doesn't throw to the right anywhere near as much. And that means if I want to pot any shot with a cheap cue, I've got to be a lot more accurate. Although, just because a cue's more expensive, it doesn't necessarily mean it's any better. I'm not suggesting you should change cues, it's just something to be aware of. And just because your cue pushes the white through straighter, it doesn't make it any easier to strike it in the centre. But this might. This is really straightforward to make, and it's just a piece of card that's exactly the same width as a cueball. It's got a hole right in the middle of it, so you can push it onto the end of your cue. Then if I line up the edges of the card to the edges of the cueball, it shows me exactly where the centre of the cueball is. And that's a lot harder to see than you might think. Because the standard snooker cueball doesn't have markings on it, it can be very difficult to see exactly where the centre is, and your eyes can really play tricks on you here. I've even seen players who think they're cueing up to the centre of the cueball be a couple of tip lengths out to the side. But a simple piece of card can show you exactly where the tip needs to go, which can be a little surprising if you're not quite getting this right. And even if you rotate your cue, you're still going to be able to line up the edges of the card to the edges of the ball. You might expect this to get in the way of your cueing quite a bit, but so long as you keep it right up the tip end, it doesn't really. It's just absolutely vital you get the hole right in the middle, otherwise you're not going to be able to see where the centre of the cueball is, and you're just going to end up missing pops. But if you get it in the right place, this is probably the easiest way of practising striking the cueball right in the centre. But there could be another problem. Even though you may be striking the cueball in the centre, you might not be striking it from the right direction, and this is going to cause you to miss without playing the shot with any sidespin. We refer to this as cueing across the ball, and this little piece of card won't help with that. For this, we're going to need a more old-fashioned method. So, of course, this is placing the cueball on the brown spot, and playing it directly through the spots. I find it helpful to put a block of chalk on the end of the table, so you can see exactly where you're aiming. And this just shows you if you're striking the cueball with any unwanted sidespin. So, of course, left-hand side makes the cueball go to the left of the cushion, and right-hand side makes it go to the right. And the more sidespin you've got on the cueball, the further it'll go. If, however, you appear to be playing shots without any sidespin, you're just not hitting the chalk, then this is probably because your cue isn't on the line of the shot, and you're very slightly cueing across the ball. If you can get the cueball to go to the chalk and come back to the tip of your cue, not only are you striking it in the centre, but you're also playing it exactly straight. Which is good, but it doesn't really simulate a shot. Because potting a ball always feels really different. So how can you check your cueing while playing a shot at the same time? Well, possibly by playing shots down the cushion, because cushion shots require a very high level of accuracy. And if both balls are touching the cushion, then I'm in a position where if I play the shot with right-hand side, that's going to knock the cueball out from the cushion, hit the red into the cushion, and that's going to miss. And if I play the shot with left-hand side, that's going to knock the cueball into the cushion, that's going to hit the red, and it's still going to miss. And that means the only way to pot a shot like this is to hit it absolutely dead straight, with no side spin whatsoever. This works best along the ball cushion, because it makes the pot slightly harder, and you want to play it in the direction where the cushion doesn't get in the way of your hand. It's worth then just having a few goes of these, and you'll find you start playing the shots a lot straighter. The problem with practising shots this way is it's difficult to tell what went wrong, because every single mistake has exactly the same outcome. We're going to look at something we haven't considered yet after we find Lang Son from Vinh, Vietnam, which is right about there. And that is practice balls. Because all of these balls have markings on them, it's really easy to see if the cueball's got any significant side spin on it. But are these balls worth the money? Well, there are positives and negatives. Some of these balls are specifically designed to show you exactly where you need to aim, and, of course, where you need to strike the cueball to make it spin the way you want. But the disadvantages include the fact that it's not exactly easy to set these up perfectly straight, and you're probably only a little bit better at doing this than you will be at finding the centre of the cueball. Secondly, these balls aren't always the same weight. For example, this one's about seven grams lighter than the rest of the balls on the table, so it screws back a lot further. And on angled shots like these, it can be difficult to see if the ball's got any side spin on it whatsoever. So, in conclusion, these can be very helpful, but they're designed to help you in a very specific way. These lightweight balls, however, are slightly different, and they're designed to solve a problem we looked at earlier. Remember when I said that playing through the spots could help you find the centre of the cueball, and also check that you're cueing on line, but it didn't ever feel like you're playing an actual shot? But now it does, because there's a ball there. The object ball's so light, you can still see if the cueball's got any side spin on it when it hits the cushion. Unfortunately, when you get really close, you end up getting a double kiss, and this knocks the cueball slightly offline. But this is really designed to help us in a similar way to the cushion shot from earlier. So, if I get a perfect double kiss, I know I'm cueing straight. But that's not all. This cueball's designed to only run straight if you strike it perfectly in the centre. So, if I don't, there's no way it's getting in that pocket down there. I'll link my full review of these at the end, but my big question is, does any of this really matter? We're going to find out after we find Marv from Hamburg, Germany. Good to get in. There we go. As we've already seen, even a small amount of side spin can make the cueball deflect quite a way offline. And I haven't even mentioned other ways that side spin affects the cueball, like spinning on the cloth. But it's possible. In fact, it's even relatively straightforward sometimes. The line shots up and pop balls with side spin. So, why can't you just allow for it? Well, even Ronnie at times has explained that he's struggled to find the centre of the cueball. And this is something you have to learn to be able to deal with, because you can't always guarantee you're going to strike the cueball exactly straight. And there is, of course, a way of doing this more consistently. A tiny trace of side really won't make too much difference, unless you change your mind about how hard you're going to hit the shot. If you do this, you're likely to miss. What you need to do is make sure you know how hard you're going to play the shot before you get to it, and keep this the same. And in that way, you should naturally allow for any small amount of side you put on the cueball. This isn't a perfect solution, but then again, you're never going to be striking the cueball perfectly in the centre. So you're going to have to learn to deal with this in some way. But even though you're not going to be able to do this perfectly every time, you still want to be able to do this better, because this will help you play the more complex shots. So the next method involves your eyes and where they're positioned. My eyes are currently in a similar position to these two reds. Without moving my head, I can see the bulk colours, but they're closer to my left eye. I can see the pink, but it's closer to my right eye, just like it's closer to this red. So if I'm looking at the blue, I can see that better, because it's the same distance from both my eyes. This is the theory that if both my eyes are the same distance from the cueball, I can see the shot better than if my head's at an angle and one of my eyes is a bit closer. This is how it works. I'm lined up to the green dead straight, but I'm looking in this direction. So it's actually harder to see if I'm playing the shot right, and a lot easier if I'm perfectly square onto the shot. I show exactly how to do this in the top video, and the bottom video shows you my review of the balls from earlier. 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.