Latest Update

So last week I played an experienced billiards player and was soundly beaten by 2 frames to none. The first went to the black but I felt that I had been out played the entire frame regardless; the second was a clear loss. This week I won pretty well, my opponent had just begun playing again after a break and was a little rusty. Overall my season is still going very well in my opinion and I feel that I'm improving a little every week.

My Road Map to Improvement

Well as far as I can see it there are three parts to snooker improvement. Technique, knowledge and practise.

I am constantly working on technique, I think that this sets me apart from the vast majority of others down in this bottom division and why I still believe that I may eventually climb into the mid divisions. Of course most of my technique work comes from reading information and watching internet videos which is useful but not the best way of learning it imo. I think getting a coach to help is vital, which is why - at some point next year - I'm going to enrol with the snooker club pro Grant Conquest for a monthly check up where I'll mainly be looking to overhaul all of the technical aspects of my cuing action. I'd like to make it super solid if possible. I know Grant pretty well, and I'm sure that he'll be brutally honest with me - which is exactly what I need.

What I mean by knowledge is that most of the positional shots around the table can actually be learned (in the sense of "I have a half ball angle on the black, I can stun up for the yellow in this position"). Of course if I was really talented at visualizing the path of the cue ball this wouldn't be necessary. But unfortunately for me - I'm not. So instead, I can talk to good players and watch videos to learn the fundamental shots. Like all of the typical positional shots for clearing the colours off of the spots for example. Or how to play in and out of baulk from the blue to get back up around the pack. This is another area that I'm really focussing on at the moment - and already I know shots now that I didn't know before. The more I learn, the easier the game will surely get.

Finally I need to put individual practise time in at the table. There's no other way. Once Christmas is out of the way (work is a nightmare at this time of year) then I'll look to get three regular practise sessions per week set up so that I can work on my game. Hopefully the breaks will then begin to come.

Thoughts on Bottom Division Opposition

With the exception of my nemesis billiard playing opponent, most players down here suffer from the thrill of the pot syndrome. That is, they take on some really crazy pots sometimes because of the thrill they get when it works out. It's where most of my scoring opportunities come from: I just wait for them to miss a difficult shot and try and cash in. I'm not trying to criticise them, if that's how they get their enjoyment from snooker then I'm happy - but I intend to try and get away from that mentality because I too suffer sometimes.

Update

I've had a good start to the season, 11/12 frames won. I don't believe this is indicative of a huge skill advantage on my part though, I've been out scoring my opponents by a ratio of about 3:2 which suggests that I have won more frames than I 'deserve'. Division four wise my team are sitting in fourth place, just one point behind the joint second place teams and three points behind the leaders. Hopefully we can stay in contention until the spring.

I feel that my game is going in the right direction at the moment. We had a team practise this afternoon and I made a few twenty breaks and really felt like the cue was going through straight. In fact, I believe that I've got back to the standard that I was playing a few years ago before my break from the game. Not enough skill to be considered good, but enough to enable me to usually beat casual players.

I don't intend to rest on my laurels though. I'm never going to break from the game again (barring ill health or other circumstances out of my control), and I want to put a lot of hours in to try and achieve a standard that I can be proud of. I have no grand illusions of regular century breaks or anything like that, but an occasional 50-80 break would be awesome. So to this end I'm going to continue to play as much as I can. I'm also trying very hard to observe as much as I can while I play. The more knowledge I can pick up - even from watching someone else - the further I'll be able to go in snooker. I have two big weaknesses: Technique and Position, and these are the two things I'm working on the hardest at the moment.

So my return to the snooker league has gone well so far, and I hope my improvement continues. I'll blog again nearer to Christmas