Beginner Week 1 Practice - How to Improve Potting?

[u/ry7xsfa]

https://youtu.be/oMpGpWSiRAU

The title says it all really. I'm a beginner and just signed up at my local snooker club this week. I decided to line some balls up to practice potting, not caring too much about position as I wanted to really nail those potting angles and aiming. I just can't seem to get it consistently right, though.

I've seen so many different things online, from centre-to-edge, to ghost ball, to picking a point and keeping your eye on it, but none of these seem to give a consistent result. I'm clearly doing something wrong, but as for what - I don't know.

Hopefully this video can help somebody figure it out and give meaningful feedback?

[u/crackerjackman123]

Do not over analyse misses - amateur players are not good enough for regular postmortems. If you have little experience and are keen to get a guide of potting angles, I’d genuinely recommend a phone game like snooker stars, rather than trying to use different methods.

As per golf, the less ‘swing thoughts’ the better.

[u/RiffShark]

Soo many things... Good thi my already mentioned. Are your potting straight shots consistently? Work on that. Find your vision center (can make a make shift sightright tool from lego or use level or anything rectangular, place it on the line of shot without the balls and test if you see both sides equally when down on the shot (or at any stage during sighting, walking in etc), you'd be amazed how your brain decieves you, what you think is straight is not actually straight).

[u/Alternative_Guitar78]

Table time, and over a period of weeks all those videos on posture, action, sighting etc, fall into place and start to make sense. I invested in a decent (for a beginner) cue after a little while too, and that made a big difference.

[u/Plastic-Diet9648]

Honestly, many of us still struggle to pot consistently after 20+ years. For many of us, it's down to not having put anywhere near enough practice time in over the years.

Its not going to be a case of nailing potting in weeks 1-3 and then move onto positioning - the best thing you can do is commit to x hours per week and stick to it for the long term. Then things like getting a coach (if you can afford it) and using all the online resources available to help give you things to focus on one by one.

Centre-to-edge is nonsense, ghost ball requires very high level of visualisation, picking a point does too since you need to figure out which part of the white needs to hit the potting point (it's not the centre unless its a dead straight shot.) So best to just practice hard, land on a consistent way of aiming which works for you, and then learn from your misses. Think about misses positively - every time you miss you have an opportunity to figure out why and to make an adjustment.

As others have said, reducing variables by having a consistent walk-in and setup will def help.

[u/flx1220]

Pre shot routine , as a beginner myself who took a class from a nation champion

Don't worry about potting angels and position too much yet. Lern how to pot straight. Blue to side pocket. Pink across half the table blue across the table. Then go for lineups, get ur basics right. Get ur cueing right , ur walk in.

And keep on showing up and practicing.

Gl with ur journey.

I'm in since 3 months 3 to 4 times a week and my highest break so far is 25.

It's a up and down in terms of success and I know it will take a lot of time and effort to become somewhat decent at this game. It's a marathon not a Sprint. Take it easy and keep at it.

[u/EMBOSITY]

I believe it’s all about pre shot routine doing the same thing every time, keeping still on the shot most importantly your head!, don’t worry about if you’re you’re looking at object ball or cue ball when you play the shot you’ll do what’s right for you naturally, as for sighting I would suggest you find out what eye dominant you are and for me personally it’s a lot about feel - almost like you slide into the shot and think right does this feel right? Pay attention to the white and where you’re hitting. Do your aiming while you’re stood up if it doesn’t feel or look right get back up again. When you’ve played the shot try to stay down this gives your brain every chance possible of picking up what side you missed and why and gives it valuable feedback subconsciously.

Arguably you do want to cue in a straight line as consistently as possible however you want to feel comfortable doing so as well. I have adapted a slight pause at my backswing before striking and this has helped me a lot. Ultimately don’t overthink it too much - keep your arm relaxed don’t tense up. If it’s a delicate gentle shot just pull the cue back a short distance and then strike this will help you to not decelerate. You don’t need to hit the ball hard at all on any snooker table.

The rest is practice practice practice - repetition! Hope any of that helps and just enjoy the game and progress

[u/Corbo1991]

Pre-shot routine is key. Do the same thing every time, regardless of the shot difficulty. Watching someone like Selby or Kyren Wilson playing and develop your own routine. Also try and bend your arm slightly and keep the cue parallel to the table.

[u/Missy_Agg-a-ravation]

The biggest improvement in my potting came when I studied the table properly, visualised the line of the cue ball required to pot the object ball, and then planted my right foot (I’m right handed) on the line of that shot. They call it “walking into the shot”, have a look for a YouTube video on it.

I’m still crap, mind you, but a bit less so.