Are you wondering if your cue action, stance, or general mechanics are causing you to miss shots? Congratulations! You aren’t alone! I think it’s quite common for players to question their mechanics when they miss a shot. For the lucky few that have a certified coach or knowledgeable adviser with them, they get the correct answer right away. For the rest of us, however, we don’t always get a clear and accurate answer unless we fully understand how to self-diagnose our misses. Some people can fix their own mechanics through trial and error, but it’s usually a long and painful process. When I talk about your mechanics, I’m really talking about everything you do physically from start to finish including:
- how you physically approach the table
- how you stand
- where you look before and after
- how you grip
- where your cue is in relation to your elbow, shoulder, head
- how your head gets into line.
- how your arm moves
- how your eyes move
Having a cueing action or mechanical imperfection is actually more common than you might think. I think it’s one of the primary factors that separate pro-level snooker players from everyone else. Fixing a mechanical imperfection isn’t that easy. The first challenge is knowing and discovering what that mechanical imperfection is, and then secondly making the correct adjustments to fix it. Quite often, we might be misled by our own diagnosis. For example, if you tend to dip your cue into some of your shots (a common problem), you might believe it’s your grip, or your elbow, or your shoulder, or even worse the cue itself. It could well be any of those things, but what if it’s how you approach the table and how your head and eyes come into line with the shot? If your eyes aren’t in line with the shot when you stand, they might not be when you get down. As a result, it’s entirely possible you could be introducing that cue dip because your eyes and head weren’t in line in the first place. This could cause you to dip into a shot because you are trying to make your cue follow a line that you can’t see perfectly. Sometimes, errors can be solved by changing one or two moving parts in your overall mechanics, but that doesn’t always make it more correct or perfect. Some people might change their stance, or their cue, or their grip action and sometimes it ends up working for them and they stick with it. These little mechanical corrections and patches - I call them kinks - can end up being minor flaws that can introduce more errors into your cueing later on. One kink introduces another which introduces another and so on. Before you know it, your cue action and mechanics starts looking like a series of kinks and flaws that are bundled together into one big mess. Yes, these cumulative errors may work to bring your cue into line and straight, but that still doesn’t make it correct. I think a classic example of how far you can go with strange kinks, mechanical patchwork, and cueing imperfections is Barry Pinches. His approach to the table is so mechanical and pre-determined, that he literally has to remember a 20 step dance routine just to get in line. I’m not saying it doesn’t work for him. It has thus far allowed him to get to the current level of competitive play and ranking. I’m convinced, however, that his mechanics will limit him to a certain level of play and when he reaches a plateau in his abilities, he will be constrained by the previous errors in his mechanics. Even the great Stephen Hendry, has at least one kink that I know of: just before he gets down on the shot, he cocks his head to the right momentarily as he approaches the table. It could be that he tried it one time in practice, and he just stuck with it because it worked. Maybe it’s something he does unconsciously - although I doubt that. Hendry’s kink is minor and generally when he is down on the shot, his cueing is near perfect. I see it all the time at my club. Bad mechanics that limit a player to a certain level of play. Kinks that work themselves into a players concious and subconcious because they just found that it worked. In their defense, it’s not their fault as they don’t have a qualified coach or resource to fall back on. I think in most clubs and leagues everyone has at least some minor cueing imperfection that hinders them. These kinks often have a direct affect on the success a person can achieve in their game. For some, it’s how far they can go with break building, and for others those kinks become crutches that prevent consistency, long ball potting, or something else. Think about things you might be doing in your mechanics that just ended up working fine for you. Are you using patches and tricks to get the job done? Have you been doing it for so long you no longer think it’s an imperfection? So what is perfect cue action? Well, it’s not an easy question to answer. I think given the history of snooker, we can look at some general characteristics and recommended guidelines on good cueing and good mechanics. You can look at the top players in the game that have published material on the subject of mechanics like Steve Davis, Ray Reardon and the like. You can also learn through observation by looking at other great cueists like Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Lee, Ding Jun Hui and the like. World Snooker Coaching and certified coaches are also great resources for learning what is considered good mechanics and flawless cueing. I think comparing your own cue action and mechanics with the recommended guidelines is a perfectly acceptable - and actually necessary - thing to do. Those guidelines on how to achieve flawless cueing and mechanics are based on the cumulative knowledge about the game from many players and coaches. It’s hard to argue with. Start there first. Analyze your own mechanics with a video recording or a mirror and compare it with the recommended guidelines on good mechanics. You can even get other professionals to analyze you by posting a video of yourself on TheSnookerForum or on AZBilliards Forums. There are plenty of coaches and cue mechanics there that can give you some valuable feedback. Has this blog post helped you think about your mechanics differently or inspired to you fix flaws you know about? Let me know! Post a comment below!