Snooker Technique Secret Tips 2023

People often wonder why some snooker players always seem to tap the table with the fingers of their bridge hand before they play a shot. It might seem completely unnecessary but there are actually two good reasons for this that are very similar. The first is to prevent a player from striking the cue ball too quickly. We call this snatching at the shot. This means instead of pulling the cue back as far as I want to, I suddenly strike the cue ball, causing a jerky motion because the cue's still coming backwards when I suddenly push it forwards. This will almost certainly cause you to strike the shot at the wrong speed, meaning you'll lose position and possibly miss the pot. But if I get used to tapping the table a few times at the end of my back swing that guarantees that I can't strike the ball before I finish doing this. So there's going to be a pause and if there's a pause this guarantees I can't snatch at anything. But some players tap the table for a completely different reason to build up rhythm and tempo, but this rhythm prevents you from snatching at the ball and playing the shots too quickly as well. By tapping on the table at the right time, players will be subconsciously getting into the rhythm of pulling the cue back and pushing it through again. This mostly helps players who don't pause at the end of their back swing because it gets them into the right rhythm so they don't push the cue forward until they finish pulling it back. Either way it prevents players snatching at the shot by aiding their timing. But not a lot of people know that. That's why I'm calling this video The Secrets. Simple ways to help and improve your game that probably don't get talked about enough or even at all and we're beginning all of that with the bridge hand trick. To form a bridge place your hand flat on the table, lift your knuckles up and bring your thumb in tight. You can then position your cue between your thumb and the knuckle of your forefinger and not only does this provide a steady platform to move your cue backwards and forwards on, it also forms a pivot point that helps you pop balls more consistently. It's difficult to keep your hand completely still but if you manage it that means your cue will only be able to pivot on this point rather than move and that means even with a really bad delivery you could still end up potting the ball. Because my bridge hand's closer to the cue ball it means big sideways movements back here only result in small sideways movements at the tip end which still should be enough for me to miss except if I push the cue through incorrectly and strike too far to the left on the cue ball this is going to cause it to move to the left side of the object ball but at the same time this is putting left hand side on the cue ball which causes it to deflect to the right side of the object ball and these two forces can completely cancel each other out but they rarely cancel each other out perfectly. Cueing across the ball is never a good idea especially on long shots but if you keep your bridge hand completely still it's a lot less likely you're going to miss from closer range. The elbow trick. Everybody knows that jumping up off a shot is a good way to ruin it but few people know how to stop doing this. You may have heard you're meant to keep your entire body still apart from your cue arm but if you try to do this you might end up tenting up your cue arm as well and end up missing the pot or quite possibly having a loose cue arm and moving half of your body by mistake. The fact is if you're concentrating on potting the ball it's difficult to concentrate on keeping your whole body still so you tend to move without really noticing it. So instead only try to keep this bit still then nothing else will tense up and you won't have any of these problems because if I keep my elbows still there's actually not much of my body I can move that will bring my cue off line so by keeping it in the same place you know you're going to be cueing straight on line and you're able to cue through the ball smoothly. That is if you're on the right line in the first place. Straight cueing trick. With this it's far more vital to get behind the cue ball with your cue perfectly in line than it is to be able to push the cue through perfectly straight. That is if you get these two crucial parts of your cue action right. When you're touching the cue ball if this part of your arm is roughly pointing downwards towards the floor giving you equal room to pull the cue back and push it through again and your elbow is somewhere near being over the top of your cue then your cue action is going to be good enough to pop most shots. That is so long as your cue is running straight on line with the shot. So if I stand back from the table and hold my cue on the line of the shot as I walk towards it then I'm going to begin the shot with my cue in exactly the right place on exactly the right angle and as long my cueing is fairly good that should mean it goes directly towards the pocket and the way to do this is to hold your cue above the line of the shot as you walk into the table so you know it's going to be starting out with you in the right place because if you get the two technical elements I explained earlier right then your cue won't wobble that much so it's all about getting it on the right line in the first place and it works even with a tougher shot like this one because if I can get to the table with my cue in the right place and at the right angle and I keep my bridge arm completely still then even a substandard delivery is still going to be good enough to push the cue through straight and pop the ball. The standing trick. But this only works if you stand in exactly the right place because if I bring the cue in correctly here on the line I'm going to pop the ball but the back of my cue is actually a little bit too far to the left hand side so when I push it through it looks like I'm going to hit the right place but end up missing it to the left as well. The way it works is the tip of my cue is going to be in the right place wherever I'm standing but if I stand too far over to the right the back of my cue goes over there and I'm going to hit the shot that way whereas if I'm standing too far to the left I'm going to hit the ball in that direction so I've got to find exactly the right place to stand that keeps my cue on the line of the shot. This shows how standing too far to the right makes you miss to the right hand side and standing too far to the left makes you miss to the left hand side. So if we've just missed a shot to the right hand side of the pocket what we can do is use the cue to work out exactly where the line of the shot is and then stand slightly further to the left than where we were on the previous shot and this should correct the problem and get us perfectly on line unless the shot's now going very slightly to the left of where you're aiming in which case you can now move your foot very slightly back to the right hand side and see if that's in the right place and when you find the perfect place where the shots go absolutely dead straight just remember where you're standing but also how far forward or back this foot is can make a difference as well. Now I'm right-handed so the further forward I go with this foot the more the shot's going to tend to go to the left hand side and the further back I go the more likely it's going to go to the right hand side but if you're left-handed this will be completely the other way round. When you find the correct position for both of your feet you know that when you bring the cue to the table on the right line you're not going to pull it one way or the other when you get down on the shot and this means you're going to have increased chances of pulling the ball. We've got more snooker secrets after we find designer 17 who's from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina which is there. The focus trick. This means just focusing on the next shot when things are going badly and it's terrible advice really because it's really difficult to do that but professional snooker players are rarely concerned about how things are going or how well they're playing because they have no control over what happens in the past. What they do have control over are future shots so their entire focus is on playing the next shot. It can really improve your game if you stop worrying about how well you're playing and just focus on the shot you've got to play next but like I said that's bad advice because it's really difficult to do that in the real world. But if you want real world advice who better to get it from than Alan If you sign up now on www.snooker.online you'll get a big discount and if you enter our promo code BREAK that's going to get you an extra 5% discount on top. But back to this video and the aiming trick. Probably the most helpful secret that even experienced players aren't aware of is you're not always aiming exactly where you think you are. For example I think I'm playing the shot straight but it goes slightly to the left and this is probably because I'm not 100% sure where the centre of the cue ball is and where I think the centre of the cue ball is is actually slightly to the side so I hit it into the right place of the red but it doesn't go in the right direction. To play the shot straight I need to first know I'm striking the centre of the red with the centre of the cue ball. And if you get it right it's surprising what you can confidently pop but it's complicated. In fact it took the entirety of these two videos for me to explain it but once you understand it it will make you a lot better potter. 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.