Snooker Cue Spin Tutorial.

All of these shots are only being played with extreme amounts of topspin or backspin, and the greater the spin you can generate on the cueball means the larger number of exhibition shots you're going to be able to play. But more importantly, getting the cueball to rotate faster is going to give you better control over the simplest shots and will definitely result in higher breaks. But what happens when a cueball comes into contact with an object ball and it isn't spinning? All the balls on a snooker table are meant to be the same weight, so in theory if one hits another absolutely full on it should stop dead. That is of course unless it's spinning, in which case it'll move in whichever direction it spins. This controls the direction the cueball takes. That was spinning forwards. Generally speaking the higher you strike the cueball the more it will run on. That's because the cueball here isn't just running along the cloth, it's actually over-spinning. This speeds it up when it's in contact with the table and the higher you hit it the more it spins. But that's not quite it because if your cue stops on impact the cueball isn't going to quite follow through as far. This is because the pace of the shot is hindered when your cue slows down. You need it to keep accelerating. This just means completing the shot by pushing your hand all the way through into your body. You also want to keep your cue fairly flat to the table because we don't want it to bounce here. Now there are genuine benefits to making the cueball bounce. The exhibition shots I played earlier simply wouldn't have worked if I couldn't make the cueball jump and skid along the table. But if our goal is just to make the cueball run through as fast as possible this little hop on contact isn't going to help, because it'll take the cueball away from the bed of the table and make it run through less efficiently. To make the cueball comfortably run through a long way you want to avoid striking down on it. Strike as high as you feel comfortable and when you strike the cueball push through a long way and don't stop on contact with the cueball. Playing a shot with topspin and playing a shot with backspin are actually very similar. The only problem is playing a shot with backspin has a greater number of challenges. To start off with if I'm screwing back on a straight shot then at some point I'm going to have to get my cue out of the way. And if you get this wrong you're going to struggle to get anywhere near the amount of backspin on the cueball you'd like. Put simply although you can power the cueball through you have to spin it backwards. This means it's essential to deliver the cue in a smooth controlled and firm way. The problem is just like a topspin shot the more you follow through the more backspin you're going to get on the cueball. So this is one you definitely want to practice on a slightly off straight shot. Again as with a topspin shot the closer you hit to the edge of the cueball this time lower down on it the more spin you're going to generate. And again if you make the cueball bounce that's going to reduce the amount of time it's in contact with the table for and this is just going to result in less backspin. But with backspin these things combined become a lot more vital. Because unlike a topspin shot you can't force the cueball through with raw power. If you get one of these things wrong then you're not likely to get any backspin on the cueball whatsoever. Which is a shame because the more spin you can get on the cueball the easier it's going to be to break build. Here's how. When you're running the cueball through you're limited by the natural angle of the shot. That was a fairly straight shot so the cueball was going to run through fairly straight. This next shot's at an angle so the cueball is going to run down the table no matter what I do as long as I play the shot like this. Backspin however means we don't have to follow the natural angle and gives us greater control over positional shots. Being able to get more spin on the cueball actually gives you more control over the simple shots and this just allows you to get higher breaks. Let me show you how. This happens a lot where you're sort of sliding away from position. I had too much angle there on the red which has led to me having too much angle on the blue. It's going to be quite hard to slow this down and hold for this red and now it's going to be hard to slow the cueball down even for the bulk colours. The great news is it's possible to put more spin on the cueball and therefore give yourself more control. It just requires the right practice. But before we get to that we're going to find Sam who's from Wokingham in the UK which is about there. And this is how you can practice it. You simply start off by potting a red and screwing the cueball back to the cushion but you don't stop there. You try and play that shot as softly as you possibly can. So we're just going to try and play that slightly slower than I've just played it and still screw the cueball back to the cushion. Now the slower you can play it the more reaction you're going to get out of the cueball and that's going to mean you can control the cueball a little bit more, hold it a little bit better and play the shot with less power. If you try this for at least 20 shots you will notice a slight difference in the reaction you get out of the cueball. You may find you under hit a few shots first and get a few miscues but eventually you're going to feel a bit more confident about your cueing. But the more spin I can get on the cueball the more I can play a controlled backspin shot so I don't go quite as far for the blue and that allows me to have a shot that's a little bit straighter and again being able to get more spin on the cueball allows me to control it for the next red and all of a sudden I'm in a better position where I can play the cueball anywhere I want. I can just play up nicely for the blue and give myself a nice angle for the yellow but this isn't the only way it helps. You're also going to get more of a reaction out of the cueball at a slower more controlled pace so you won't have to put so much force into the cueball and there's less of a risk of missing it. Practicing this won't seem to change much you're just going to find you can screw back just a tiny little bit further but that's going to make all the difference. Because there's a lot of shots on a snooker table where just the smallest amount of pace keeps the ball out and if you can just play it a tiny bit softer it makes all the difference. Action! By increasing your cue power you can straighten shots up but what if you get a shot like this where I want the cueball to come down here and actually break a bit wider? Well you can do that by bouncing the cueball into the object ball and playing it as a slight stun shot as well. So now I've got the right angle a bit straight again so I can bounce it again to get up for that red over on the other side of the table and I wouldn't be able to do that without bouncing it. So this is how it works just off straight pop if I pop into this side of the pocket and play it as a slow controlled shot with a lot of backspin like I was showing before it stops pretty much dead straight. With shots like these I'm keeping my cue as flat to the table as I can. Now if I use a little bit more angle and play it with a lot more power I'm going to be able to get the cueball to come down the table this way quite a lot actually if I play this as a stun shot. It's gone left quite a bit but I can get it to do a lot more than that if I strike down on the cueball. So now I'm popping it into the same part of the pocket as I was on the last shot but I'm also striking down on the cueball and this is just going to help it bounce wider on impact with the red. As you can see it's just jumped down the table. With these shots I'm not hugely striking down I'm keeping my hand in a fairly normal position and just striking down a little bit. So this is how it works in a break to start off with I don't have to play this quite so hard because we're using topspin to help the cueball run through. For this next shot we can just slow the cueball down with backspin though we get nicely on the next red. I've come a little bit straight for this red so I'm just going to strike down on it a little bit so we can bounce the shot wider so I don't have to hit it anywhere near as hard. Play the same thing again just striking down on it a tiny bit so we nicely and easily come on and off the top cushion even play that a little bit thick we're still perfect on the red. I just want to screw the cueball back a little bit so I'm again just going to play it nice and smoothly so I get that nice reaction out of it and don't have to do too much with it again and I can do the same thing again here nice smooth reaction out the cueball and play up for that red. So these shots clearly help with basic break building but what if you want to play some exhibition shots? But let's just find Jeff who's from Birch Bay in Washington in the United States just about got that in there. Playing these shots just requires a very exact balance between spin and power and once you can really make the cueball spin and make it bounce you can start playing exhibition shots like this. The sheer power is going to make the cueball bounce around the pink here and the back spin is going to help us get on the yellow. I've even played it way too well. The cueball arcs because initially it's bouncing and moving too fast for the spin to react. Playing these shots just requires the right amount of power to get it right and a small amount of luck but of course the best positional shots require at least a small amount of side spin. So how do you do that? Getting a large amount of side spin on the cueball actually requires the same technique but unfortunately in a number of ways it takes the cueball off its straight path towards the object ball which can make it very confusing but I created a video that explains exactly what it does and how you can use side spin right here 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!