Snooker Cushion Shots Potting Spin

Potting the balls along the cushion on a snooker table is incredibly difficult, and that's because you have to approach the pockets from their tightest angle. That is, unless you know the secrets that make these shots a lot easier. To pot this shot, I'm going to need to make a simultaneous contact between cushion and red. This is almost certainly wrong, and although you can still pot the ball like this, you're making it a little bit harder for yourself. To help explain this, I'm going to use these two reds that are touching. Because they're directly lined up to the pocket, the majority of contacts will knock the second red in. But what if I play the first red towards the black spot? You'd expect it to knock the second red wide, but actually straightens it up. To see why this happens, we're using these two marked balls, and you can see if you watch the blue 10 ball here, that the back of it is just fractionally pulled wide. Because the contact time isn't instantaneous, and this causes the pot to miss. But the same effect applies on regular shots, like here where I've got a lot of angle and I'm trying to pot the 10 ball into that pocket there. This is where I want the cue ball to go on contact, but as you can see, I hit it a fraction thick. This should still more or less go in, maybe rattle on the near jaw, but in fact the pot misses by a long way, and this is because the object ball's thrown wide. And the thinner the shot is, the more of this throw you have to allow for. Snooker players generally get used to this with practice. But this is all caused because the contact between cue ball and object ball isn't instantaneous, and the little bit of friction drags it wide. But what happens if I do the same thing on the cushion? This is why you don't want to be lining up the shot to hit cushion and ball at the same time, because it'll throw the object ball wide into the cushion, and if it's a steep enough angle, this could cause it to miss by the time it gets to the pocket. But luckily, you can play the shot a little bit thinner than this because the cushion flexes a little bit. So if you aim to hit the cushion very fractionally before the ball, about that much, you'll end up knocking it directly down the cushion towards the pocket. Just remember, this is only a tiny fraction. So in order to pop the red, I need to play it fractionally cushion first. If you don't believe me, try it. But unfortunately, playing shots accurately along the cushion is a little bit more complicated than this. And to be truthful, a little bit easier than I've already made out. To start off with, we have to go over the obvious. A snooker table is a lot like a cat's fur, meaning it's only smooth down the table, and this has an effect on shots. So in theory, if I play this shot slow, the red should fractionally roll to that jaw. And a slower shot will normally hug the top cushion, even if you're a little out. Obviously, along the ball cushion, this is a little bit harder as the balls run away from the cushion, and the effect just won't help you anywhere else. But there are other ways to make the shot easier. And that involves what we were talking about earlier. Because when you're near a cushion, you don't have to worry so much about the object ball throwing wide. And this makes the shot quite a bit easier, because even if you're playing it from quite a steep angle, because the cushion slows the cue ball down, it prevents it from throwing the object ball so wide. The 10 ball's going flush along the cushion here because the cue ball was prevented from going any further left by the cushion. This gives you a bigger margin for error because you can hit the object ball and cushion at the same time, or you can hit the cushion quite a bit before and still get away with potting it. But you're better off hitting the cushion just a hair before the object ball, unless you're using sidespin. The crucial thing to note here is if you play a shot with sidespin, it throws the object ball in the opposite direction. So left-hand side throws the object ball to the right here. So if you use exactly the right amount of sidespin, it'll basically eliminate the throw. The thinner the shot, the more sides you're going to need. But if you get it right, you can play it dead in line, and it'll go straight to the pocket. You can see on this shot, I actually get the cue ball exactly in the right place, and the spin perfectly counteracts the throw. And you can also see the 10 ball's running straight towards the pocket, unlike the shot from earlier, where you can see the friction between the cue ball and object ball is dragging the 10 ball wide. But this doesn't work if you're playing a shot along the cushion, because if we've already seen, the cushion stops the cue ball from throwing the object ball wide, so you'll almost always miss the pop. If you're playing a shot on the cushion to your left, then playing it with left-hand side makes it almost impossible. But what does work and actually helps the object ball run along the cushion if you get it right, is if you're using the same sidespin as the angle you're playing the shot at. If the cushion's on the opposite side of you to the spin you're putting on the cue ball, this can help you play the shot along the cushion. The sidespin will make it a little bit harder to aim accurately, and you may find you don't hit anywhere near the correct place on the object ball. But if you do, you can get away with hitting a little bit thicker and a little bit thinner. Which is good, because it means whatever cushion you're playing the shot along, as long as the ball's tight to the cushion, you have a slightly bigger target to aim for. But what if the ball isn't tight on the cushion? Before we do any more on this, we're just going to find Nikola from Changsu, China, which is there. These shots are definitely harder, and again, this is mostly because you can't see the middle of the pocket. And that makes it difficult when I'm trying to line a shot up from this position, because from here it looks like I can play the red directly into the back of the pocket. But in reality, I've actually got to aim to play the red onto the far jaw. This is a problem caused by perspective. It looks from a wider angle like you have to play the shot in this direction. But really, if you want to consistently pot these shots, you need to be aiming them onto the far jaw. The next thing that makes cushion shots difficult is spin. Not the spin you put on the cue ball, but the spin that's transmitted onto the object ball whenever it comes into contact with a cushion or jaw. So you have to play the shot in a certain way. What this means is if you're playing a shot like this, you can't afford to hit the cushion at any stage. Partly because the pocket on the snooker table is just too tight. But mostly because it'll spin the object ball away from the pocket. And this will get worse the harder you hit it. So if you play the shot quite wide onto the far jaw, it's likely to go in. But if you play it onto the near jaw and hit the same place, it's likely to miss. And this is mostly because the cushions spin the ball out. And even if you manage to finish straighter on the shot, this isn't necessarily going to be easy, because you could end up with some awkward bridging. So we're going to be looking at bridging off the cushion a bit after we find Talal from Manaman, Bahrain, which is about there. With these shots, you need to adjust your bridge depending on how close the cue ball is to the cushion. When you're playing a shot off the cushion, you don't want to be striking down from too high or getting your bridge hand in the way of the cue ball somehow. You want to keep your bridge hand as low as possible and run the cue between your first finger or thumb, hopefully fairly parallel to the cushion. And lining the shot up isn't quite the same either. When you're playing a shot off the cushion, it might look like you're playing it with a lot of sidespin, or you might be playing it with a lot of sidespin and not realise it. To find out, just play the cue ball up and down the spots, but play it from back on the cushion, and what you discover might surprise you. If you're a little bit further away, I never really think it matters what position your fingers are on the cushion, as long as they're stopping it moving from side to side. I usually think this is a fairly easy shot to get right. The only other thing I suggest learning for when you've got shots that are this close to the cushion, is if you want to play a power shot, sometimes your cue drops off the back of your bridge very easily. So what I'd suggest doing is learning how to put your fingers on the table like this and give yourself a little bit more space. This takes a bit of practice before you can actually get it steady, but once you do, it's a lot easier to play shots with a bit more power. We've talked quite a bit in this video about aiming correctly and playing shots with side spin, so if you want to find out more about that, have a look at these two videos. 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