Time Running Out

We are finally getting towards the end of the Snooker season for some reason I keep winning in the all the cups and knockouts which is having the side effect of extending the season.

The Police Championship is only three days away. I am getting a little nervous, the standard was good last year, I spoke with a lad who played in the billiards two years ago he said he was quite a good player but got knocked out in the round robin stages. He didn't even qualify for the quarter finals. A couple of players had 50+ breaks against him. I know he is a snooker player but it is still a worry as I my goal is to get to the semi's.

I have a couple of days practice left. I forgot to update the blog with my last two practice sessions. But the basic gist is practice is boring and drives me mad.!!!

It is not the practice that drives me mad it's my apparent lack of progress. For example yesterday I went armed with some printouts of the long loser, short jenny and long jenny to the club to practice them for 30 minutes each.

The diagrams are great and the videos of the shot look fantastic but in practice they are very hard as you cannot see the aiming point and the tables nap differs. I played on table 6 in the club which has a very thick nap but it rather a poor table for general play as I wanted to see the effect side has against a proper nap.

I place the ball as per Martins picture and failed every time to get the shot. I placed for the natural angle but still got no where near the bag. I had placed the red half way between the middle bag and the baulk line and out about 5 inches. After missing 20 times. I finally move the white around onto the baulk line 3/4 way between the green and brown spot and when the shot is played slowly with a good amount of 5pm side( really floating the side through the ball) I managed to get the shot 6 times out of 10.

Looking at the shot its really hard to get the natural angle as the ball is so close to the side, indeed the angle looks wrong it looks rather narrow compared to the angle of a drop cannon.
Aiming for the half ball shot the side takes effect but the white does not hit the red ball at half ball it hits slightly thicker due to the side. Allowing for the throw off caused by the side is causing me problems. At least I am getting the shot now.

I practiced this at numerous positions for at least an hour, tedious but I did find I managed it from a few different spots.

Today I played the very long loser, It is actually easier to make than the short Jenny as I can actually see the angle, you can get very close to the pocket just by getting the natural angle the side just helps to whip the ball into the pocket. It's still a 5 from 10 shot but does allow you to recover from a bad position.

I am gradually realising my follow through is still not enough and that I need to play slight drag on long slow shot's. However I can now spot when I am cueing wrong and try to correct it. If I feel my follow through is poor I revert to long losers off the middle spot and screwing the red into a bottom pocket (clock face) as these wont go in unless you are cueing sweetly.

I suppose deep down I am making progress with the shots it's just an uphill battle. I have been reading a few billiard books available of on the Internet these were written in 1905. Even then they say the only way to become proficient at the game is to practice the same shot time after time after time. Even then they stated that cueing was the most important part of the game.

I know I have made progress, passed the exam played in a comp and won a match and can beat team players from Stalybridge who play the game on a regular basis.

The one thing about this game above all else is the absolute fact that this is a beautiful Game. I have watched the snooker this week on television and have seen many nice shots. But none of them a good or as interesting as getting a short jenny which whips into the pocket and doesnt touch the sides. If I can convince a few of the young lads in the club to take up this game I am sure their snooker would improve tenfold.