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.