Snooker Simple Tips Make 95% Improve

This is how 95% of players can improve their snooker. Tip 1. Aiming. Aim for where the cue ball's going, not where the cue ball is. Imagine the cue ball stuck to the end of your cue and you need to move it from where it is to where you're aiming and we call the straight line in between the line of the shot and if you push your cue straight along this line you'll hit where you're aiming and if you're aiming in the right place the object ball will enter the pocket. Tip 2. Angles. But what do you do if the shot's at an angle rather than just straight? Once again, you need to aim for where the cue ball's going and you can work out where this is by imagining it's directly behind the object ball in line with the pocket. You then aim for this imaginary position and push your cue along the line of the shot directly to this point. The biggest mistake in snooker is not allowing enough space for the cue ball and it's why most new players line up and play shots a long way too thick. Tip 3. Centre ball striking. For this to work you do need to strike the cue ball in the centre because the further away your tip gets to one side of the ball the more the tip will push the ball in the opposite direction. Aim the cue through the centre of the cue ball along the line of the shot to your target on the object ball. To play an accurate pot you find the target aim through the centre of the cue ball to the target and push your cue through on this line. Remember with a majority of shots you only have to get close to striking the centre of the cue ball and improving your centre ball striking won't help your game that much. What's far more crucial is learning about where you need to strike the object ball. Tip 4. Sighting. And this is because even on straight shots you're not always aiming where you think you are. Often players will aim a shot like this for the cue ball to hit there which is obviously going to push the blue way to the left side of the pocket but they'll be convinced that they're lining the shot up straight. Sighting is one of the most vital parts of the game and the only way a player can come to truly understand where they're aiming on the ball and how they're lining the shot up is with practice. There are so many different angles to get used to that even the best players in the world lose their ability to sight the ball properly without practice and that links us nicely into today's sponsor. Got a special offer for you that includes a full 30% off Ronnie O'Sullivan's snooker masterclass. 12 hours of coaching from Ronnie O'Sullivan himself. Just use the promo code BREAK30 and follow the link through to the website. As well as a 30% discount everybody who subscribes before the 9th of May will be entered into a prize draw with a chance of meeting Ronnie in person. I look forward to teaching you everything I know on my ultimate snooker course. Tip 5. Stance position. Standing in the right place makes it easier to pot the ball. You've already seen how cueing along the line of the shot is essential to its success but if we extend this line back across the floor you can see where my cue needs to be in order to pot the blue here. Now I can easily pot the blue because it's a fairly simple shot if I stand in this position but from this position it's actually quite difficult to know if I'm in the right place and that was a real challenge to pot the blue there. Whereas if I'm stood in the perfect position then my cue's automatically going to be on the line of the shot without me even having to do anything so it should be easier for me to pot the ball. Generally speaking if you're stood too far to the left you either put left hand side on the cue ball or strike the cue ball further to the right than what you want which will result in the pot missing to the left and if you're stood too far to the right you end up putting a bit of right hand side on the cue ball and hitting the cue ball to the left which involves you missing the pot to the right. This means if the shots are going to the left move your stance right and if your shots are going to the right move your stance left until you find the perfect position which for me is here so I can just work out where I'm stood on the line of the shot and remember this position for the next one. And that means when I go to play the green if I hold my cue above the line of the shot I can feel where I'm putting my foot underneath and it's in the right position to make this green as easy as possible for me to play. Your grip position at the end of the shot can make a big difference to your entire cue action so if you just think about where your fingertips are on the shot and specifically where they end up once you play the shot So mine roughly ended up right underneath the cue at the bottom like that but as I'm playing the shot you can imagine it's possible to rotate your wrist this way or all the way back this way and that's going to have a similar effect to standing in the wrong position. If I rotate clockwise on the way through the shot the end of my cue will move to the right hand side and rotating anti-clockwise will make it move to the left but watch what happens if I rotate it to the left anti-clockwise here. The cue ball went right even though my cue went left and the reason that happened is because my cue started out on the right hand side and then went left so you never really know what side spin you're putting on the cue ball when you're doing this and which side this is going to cause you to miss the shot. Because of this all you can really do is work out a position that feels right for your wrist that seems to make the balls go in the right direction and stick to it and try and get your hand to finish in this position every single time. Just believing you're going to pop the ball once you get down on the shot makes a huge difference and seriously improves your chances of getting it right. Here's why. When you initially get to the table you've usually lined a shot up about as well as you can but as soon as you start doubting yourself and thinking that you're maybe not in the right position or you're not going to cue the shot properly you can start unintentionally moving and very easily miss the ball by a long way just by not having the confidence you're going to pot it. When you get to the table stay still and confident in the right position knowing you're going to play the shot as well as you possibly can then you can learn a lot from where the shot goes about what's likely to happen with the next shot. For example I just slightly potted that one off the jaw so I'll learn for the next shot where I need to aim slightly differently. However if I've moved around a lot on the shot I won't know exactly where I've aimed or how I've played the shot so you're just losing that feedback and it's this feedback building up over time that makes you a better player more than anything else I can tell you in this video. Before the next one let's just find Matt who's in Smithfield North Carolina which is there. When you have a pot you expect to get it's vital to have a look at the next shot and not just work out which ball you want to be on but what angle you want. So for example here if I end up in this position on the black that red isn't going to be there so when I play this shot I'm going to be going away from the one red I need to get position on so it's vital when I play this shot to end up top side of the black so I've got an angle then to pot it and go down the table for that red. Here for example the only way I can split these reds is if I get the cue ball in this sort of an area and finishing straight or with too much angle on the black is not only going to possibly stop me potting it it's going to prevent me from playing the next shot so the good shot here isn't going into the reds it's leaving the right angle to do so in the first place that shot was played the shot before. When you're not confident you're going to pot the next shot try and think about the position you're likely to leave your opponent in this means instead of taking one of these two reds on that's likely to leave my opponent in instead playing this thinner red that's always going to get the cue ball back to bulk no matter how I play it or how badly I hit it choosing the right shot for your ability always gives you the best chance of winning the frame like playing the snooker rather than going for a pot I was unlikely to get there and if I'd missed that red my opponent would have been snookered behind the black there are thousands of these different tactical shots to learn where if you pot the ball it goes well for you but it also can go well for you if you miss learning these shots makes the difference between a good player and a great player and I didn't miss that shot because I just grazed the cushion on the way through if you push the cushion rubber down with the tip of your cue as you go to play the shot it actually makes it a lot easier and a lot less likely that you'll miss cue and if you followed all of these tips there's a 95% chance it's improved your snooker and if you want to improve your snooker further have a look at these two videos including this one that explains the rocket method 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