There are three main skills you need to be a good snooker player:
potting skills
The ability to sink balls is crucial in the game of snooker. (That’s what it’s all about!). In order to pocket the correct balls in snooker, you need to know the angle at which you want the jack to fly, and then hit it directly on the opposite side of the ball with the cue ball. Sounds easy in theory, but in practice it is far more difficult than it sounds. You always have to consider how much force you need to use to hit the cue ball, because if you use too much force, the cue ball may jump out of your pocket. (Hit both sides of the bag and come back to the table). However, if you don’t use enough force, the jack may not reach the pocket.
ball control
One of the most important skills needed to play really good snooker is cue ball control. In a game of snooker you can’t just focus on potting a ball and hoping the cue ball will stop in a perfect spot for your next shot. You must plan ahead and learn to read the game. A good snooker player will be able to play a stop shot, draw back and a follow on shot. A stop shot is played to stop the cue ball almost immediately after it makes contact with the target ball. This can be a great way to position the cue ball, since you’ll know almost exactly where it will stop. (That’s because it should stop where the original jack was). To play a stop shot, you usually have to hit the cue ball in the middle. However, this can vary depending on the distance of the jack from the cue ball.
A draw back is used to roll the cue ball backwards after making contact with the jack. To play a draw back, you must hit the ball below the midpoint. Generally speaking, the deeper you hit the ball, the more likely it will roll back. You can also make the ball roll back further by using more force when hitting. A follow-up shot is used to roll the cue ball forward after making contact with the jack. You can play a follow shot by hitting the white ball over the center point. As you can probably guess, the higher you hit the cue ball, the farther forward it will roll after making contact with the jack. Playing a draw back shot or a follow-on shot greatly increases your chances of missing your shot, potentially causing you to lose the frame. Therefore, you need to practice these types of punches over and over again.
security
Every professional snooker player uses safety at some point in a match. Usually the very first shot played in each frame is a safety shot. A safety shot is basically just a shot that puts your opponent in a difficult situation. When there aren’t good chances of a pot on the table, a professional player will usually play a safety shot. Because if a player misses a pot in a professional game, the other player will most likely take that opportunity. Missing a pot often results in losing a frame, so we use safety.
One of the best types of safety shots is a snooker. This is where you leave a player with no direct root from cue ball to target ball. This often means they have to use the table cushions to hit the target ball. This makes their shot very difficult and can often result in a foul that earns you points. (This foul occurs when the cue ball misses the target ball. Obviously, you also need to learn to take shots to get out of sticky situations like snooker. This involves learning to gauge the bounce the cue ball makes off the cue ball receives rinks and also at what angle the cue ball must hit the rink in order to reach the target ball. This can take a great deal of practice to get right and sometimes even pros make a mistake.
If you have good potting skills and good cue ball control you will be a confident snooker player, but once you bring confidence to your game you will be on the road to success.
Thanks to Andrew S Hood | #skills #professional #snooker #player
