Snooker Cue Action How It Works Luca Brecel

Known as the Belgian Bullet, Luca Brussel is a three-time ranking event winner after taking victory at the China Championship, Scottish Open and more recently at the Champions League. I'm just more interested in the cue action, you know. OK, Ronnie, we're going to look at Luca's technique and cue action and work out what it is that makes him one of the best long potters in the world right now. And we may discover some abnormalities in this technique that appear to be unique to Luca, and find out not only how he deals with these difficulties, but how he's able to use them to even improve his overall performance. So this is how Luca Brussel's cue action works. Although we're beginning specifically with Luca's long potting. And if you've seen one of my best shot recreation videos, you'll notice Luca appearing quite a lot, powering the cue ball back into bulk off a long red. He's probably the best in the world at this type of shot, but the way he strikes the cue ball is actually very different to a player like Sean Murphy. In a number of different ways. Sean's known for keeping his head completely still on the shot and his cue completely level. Whereas with Luca, things are just a little bit different. Like how he aligns his tip up to the cue ball, which is always just slightly above or just slightly below centre. Then when he goes to play the shot, he suddenly dips his cue down if he wants to put a lot of backspin on the cue ball. Now, I believe I've discovered why he does this, and I'll explain it in a minute. But it reminded me of how Jimmy White appeared to be cuing up to the bottom of the cue ball and plays this shot with top right, for example. Jimmy's always cued up to the very bottom of the cue ball because he knows that means he's hitting it in the centre. And then when he goes to strike the cue ball, he hits higher up on it. What Luca does is very, very similar. Except when Luca wants to put quite a lot of backspin on the cue ball, he cues up slightly higher and then dips down. And when he wants to put a lot of topspin on the cue ball, he also strikes fairly centrally and then cues up on his final delivery. But this has more to do with his cue action than anything else. To be honest, I'm just more interested in the cue action. On his final backswing, he raises his body up to the angle he needs. So if it's a shot like this, you don't need any angle, so the body stays still as you play the shot. Or if you want to strike lower, as you bring the cue back, you raise your body up and then you're at the right angle to push through the very bottom of the cue ball. Obviously, I wouldn't advise doing it, though, as it makes the game so much easier to play if you actually cue up to where you're aiming on the white and strike the ball in that position. But as I said, I believe there is a reason why Luca does this. About half the professional players on tour will keep the cue tight to their chin as they strike the cue ball, whereas the second half will let it drop away as they deliver the cue. It's just personal preference, really, but Luca is in the second half. And this helps us to understand how he delivers the cue. Because he raises his body up as he pulls the cue back and then dips it away from his chin, this often results in a scooping motion that on powerful shots sees his cue end up way in the air. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you're only striking the cue ball at the bottom of this curve, then for the time your tip is in contact with the cue ball, it's going almost completely straight, and it's slightly lower than it normally would be. Even though this may work for Luca and generate a lot of spin, allowing your tip to jump up in the air after the shot isn't ideal, and you'll be a far more accurate potter if you just keep it still and on your bridge. But of course, he only does this on the more powerful shots. On the lower-to-medium-paced shots, like in a break-building situation that I've got here, he actually has quite a short punchy cue action. And this is actually quite good for increasing your cue ball control and making your potting a little bit more consistent. In a break-building situation, and the majority of shots which he plays, he will stay completely still. I'm just explaining the few shots he has to play slightly firmer. Although I don't like this, it looks like we're upside down. Let's go back the right way up again. This means he can stay still on the shot and play it in a very controlled way, or he can use his entire arm and generate a huge amount of spin on the cue ball. And this might be why he's able to generate so much cue power with seemingly such little effort, although part of that will be his wrist action. And he seems to have a unique way of making the most of this as well. Like the majority of professional players, he wraps his thumb and forefinger around the cue like this, not too tight so the cue still moves in his hand. It's the back of his grip where the difference is. For Luca, he actually moves his hand away from the cue in this sort of way and then grabs it again with his palm as he starts to push it through. Because of this, at the back of his swing, the cue does appear to be on this yellow line, and as he pushes it through, it goes through straight on the white line, although the camera slightly distorts this by moving. Now, this doesn't mean he's swinging his cue out and hitting through the cue ball at an angle. What he is doing, however, is flicking his wrist out at the back of his swing, and this makes it look like his cue's pointing at a different angle, but as soon as he delivers the cue, he tightens this bit up again, and that causes it to go on a perfect straight line through the cue ball. So it comes out and then tightens up. And part of the reason this works is because his elbow points very slightly away from his body, so when he pulls the cue back, he's actually pulling it away from himself, but as soon as he pushes it through again, everything automatically lines up. From the moment the palm of his hand touches the cue, everything moves forward in a perfect straight line, and because of his wrist action, he's able to generate a lot of spin on the cue ball at the same time. So now we know what the majority of Luca's cue action does, let's put it all together and see how it works. So when Luca plays a shot, let's say quite a powerful shot here with a lot of backspin, he cues up higher than he intends to strike the cue ball, and then after a long backswing where he's raising his body up... OK, so after looking back at this video a lot, I discovered Luca's body actually doesn't raise up, allowing him to dig down at the cue ball. It's just his shoulder, mostly. So what happens is his body stays completely still, and his arm comes up and then lets him dig down a bit. So, sorry about that. His wrist comes out to the right-hand side, with his arm also to the right slightly, so when he delivers the cue, everything pushes back in, and quite often, if he plays it hard enough, his cue will flick up in the air. So how does he play so well when he does this? Well, the secret is, even though there seems to be more moving parts than you'd want, at the moment he strikes the cue ball, everything seems to be going perfectly straight, and his cue stays perfectly horizontal for that moment as well. But it's worth pointing out again, this is only on the firmer shots. On the majority of shots, even though he might dip his cue down or raise it up a little bit, everything stays still. Luca's bridgehand has some unusual characteristics as well, but before we look at that, we're just going to find Brent in Yamhill County, Oregon. Which is there. This may be a little unusual, but also might not be. Instead of running the cue between the knuckle of his forefinger and his thumb, he actually puts his thumb a little bit higher and runs it along this little channel here. And this means it's always got to be at a slightly higher height, which might be why he dips down a little bit on some shots. So I think we've got an answer to why he sometimes changes the height he delivers the cue at on his final delivery. Because to do this, your thumb needs to be a little bit higher up, and you can't lower your bridge down as much as you would normally. So the only way to get to the bottom of the cue ball from here would be to go down a little bit. Something else you might notice about his bridge arm is he keeps it fairly straight. But it tends to be the case that the taller you get, the more you bend your bridge arm. And Luca isn't one of the tallest players, so he keeps his fairly straight. Also involved in the bridgehand, a lot of players don't like putting theirs near to the cushion, because it can leave them in an awkward position. But Luca probably has the longest bridge in terms of bridging off the cushion, that he won't actually put his hand on the table when the cue ball gets anywhere near it. Obviously, I think this is too long and he should just put his hand on the table, but players do have their own unique ways of doing things. Other than this, his technique is fairly standard. His stance is what you'd describe as square on, which means both feet are about the same distance from the table. But what about rest play? Recently, Luca ended up in a difficult position and was able to pull out one of the best rest shots ever seen. It took a lot of tries to recreate this and play it as cleanly as he did. But generally speaking, he seems to have a fairly standard, but more than adequate rest technique. So unsurprisingly, I've come to the conclusion that one of the best players in the world actually has a great technique, with some unusual characteristics that seem to be caused by his slightly irregular bridgehand, like the way he has to sort of dip down at the ball to put some backspin on it. But I am impressed with his grip, because pushing the cue through with your fingers at the right time during the shot can not only improve your cue power, but also help you generate more spin on the cue ball. And Luca's managed to find a way to do this and keep his cue perfectly straight as he does it. And this isn't anywhere near as easy as it sounds, because you've only got one thumb on one side of the cue and four fingers on the other side, and trying to push them through accurately at the same time without throwing your cue off-line can be really challenging, and I think Luca's found a great solution to this. This works so well, I've even been trying to incorporate it into my own technique, because I think if you grip the cue a little bit earlier, it helps your entire arm go through a lot straighter. But that's it, we've managed to cover in detail every single part of Luca's... Wait, wait! He also has a slight pause at the end of his backswing, which seems to work quite well in helping him time the shot. OK, now we're done. If you want to see more videos where I'm analysing snooker players' techniques, have a look at the Mark Williams video, or even ask Ronnie O'Sullivan. He'll tell you, it's all about the cue action. And have a look at his 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.