Too late to start playing?

Duffman K

I love watching snooker and I've always wanted to play it, I had an hour of snooker yesterday in my local leisureplex and I was fairly terrible, my highest break was 9 :cool:

I'm 18 now and I'd like to start playing, is it too late?

If not, any tips ?

babymanval

It's never "too late" to take anything up, except if you're 90 and want to be a downhill mountain biker etc. Idealistically put, "nothing is impossible", but realistically it's a safe enough statement to say that you won't get to professional level at this stage. A lot of snooker players do the bulk of their real development in those obsessive formative teen years, the ones when you have 8 hours a day of solitary dedication to give to something, similar to guitar etc.

I took it up when I was 14, was knockin in centuries by 18/19, but that came from hours of play every day, which, at your age with the adult world and all its wonders opening up in front of you, you probably can't afford that time-wise (or financially).

My advice would be:
1) Don't turn it into a job. It's a game, for enjoyment. Personally I can't derive any real enjoyment from snooker/pool these days, because if I miss even one shot per frame I feel like I've fallen short of a perfect standard that I will never realistically attain. This is because I wanted to "go pro" when I was a teenager. That said...

2) Buy a cue, you wont really know what feels right with your level of knowledge, but drop €100 or so to begin with (if you have it) on somethin that you can play with every time. Maybe in the Riley shop or somethin. This is important. Get an old club owner to put a tip on it for a fiver or so and play it in.

3) Look up some practice techniques (the internet is so much more informative than when I was learning; what with youtube/coaching sites etc) and get playing on your own. Get some real solid time in solo to hone your technique; maybe 80/20 at first. You won't improve your game by playing in scrappy frames with no standard. You need to miss shots in practice, and put the balls back for the same shot until you get it... That said, playing under pressure/competitively for a fiver/the bill is CRUCIAL to harden you. A lot of players (myself included) have a pretty good game and know the game inside out, but put them in a pressure situation and the technique stalls and they can't make 16. Playing better players/getting beaten (just players a level or two above you) is key for improving.

4) Watch more snooker on tv/youtube, and mimic the styles you see. Shot selection is so important, so learn how to think and approach the game. This won't really be important though until you can make 20'3/30's and beyond to be honest.

5) It's all about pushing the cue through on a straight, smoothly delivered line, with follow through. It's such a basic concept, but a range of factors cause you to push through with lateral (side to side) movement, which causes the white to move before hitting the intended point on the ball you're trying to pot. My advice is not to hold the cue too tightly, and from an early stage concentrate on having your back arm hanging in as vertical a fashion as possible. New players struggle with getting their elbow vertically over the cue at the back arm, but this will eliminate movement.

6) Get a tight V-shaped point between your thumb and your index knuckle on your bridge hand (the one on the table). Too loose and your cue will be falling to the side, too tight and it will be rising as you push through.

7) You'll have a basic awareness of what side spin does to shots after playing for a while. My advice is to avoid side completely when you are learning. I'm a "side ball" player (use side spin on most shots, versus the MUCH simpler "plain ball" player), and I feel I would've reached an even higher level if I didn't learn to play this way.

8) Do NOT get obsessed with trying to speed play as Ronnie plays. So many do this. Sure, it's exciting and looks impressive to be able to clear a table in 4 minutes, but it's just not possible unless you're a prodigy, and there's a reason that only two players have won the worlds playing like that, and Ronnie's last 3 were actually at a fairly average shot duration in the latter part of his career. It's just too inconsistent. Ask a certain fat Maltese player who happens to be one of the most natural talents in the world, but has never been consistently winning at the elite level.

9) Stance: I like to walk on to the "line" of the shot with my dominant foot (i.e. If you're right handed, your right foot), and point it directly in the direction you are hitting the ball. My left is squared across the way with a decent gap, and with a bend at the knee. Keep your dominant leg locked/straight. You're trying to avoid lateral movement again by "swinging" side to side because your legs are too close together/both bent. Some taller players widen their stance to compensate for this, to get down to table level more comfortably.

10) Initially, you won't naturally know what looks "right" in terms of the potting angle of shots. I used to check the angle by standing behind the red or whatever and looking at it from behind, towards the pocket, then keeping an eye on where I needed to hit on it to achieve the same effect. If you place a ball directly behind the ball you want to pot, i.e. the same way a "plant/canon" works, then if you come back to the white you'll see where on the potting ball you need to hit to pot it.

11) Run your cue under your chin as straight as possible, very lightly placing pressure (not too much) downward on the cue.

12) Look up "line-ups" online, do them. Hones your positional play and potting, as well as automatically tattoos to your mind the angle that certain shots require in around the black spot etc.

... Best of luck, there's lots more online, but get playing. It can however cost you thousands to develop your game so maybe try find a player who has a table in their house, or get in with a private members golf club etc. who don't get much use out of their table and maybe come to an arrangement. I don't know if the limited number of snooker clubs do flat fee members arrangements these days either

chainsawman

babymanval wrote: »

It's never "too late" to take anything up, except if you're 90 and want to be a downhill mountain biker etc. Idealistically put, "nothing is impossible", but realistically it's a safe enough statement to say that you won't get to professional level at this stage. A lot of snooker players do the bulk of their real development in those obsessive formative teen years, the ones when you have 8 hours a day of solitary dedication to give to something, similar to guitar etc.

I took it up when I was 14, was knockin in centuries by 18/19, but that came from hours of play every day, which, at your age with the adult world and all its wonders opening up in front of you, you probably can't afford that time-wise (or financially).

My advice would be:
1) Don't turn it into a job. It's a game, for enjoyment. Personally I can't derive any real enjoyment from snooker/pool these days, because if I miss even one shot per frame I feel like I've fallen short of a perfect standard that I will never realistically attain. This is because I wanted to "go pro" when I was a teenager. That said...

2) Buy a cue, you wont really know what feels right with your level of knowledge, but drop €100 or so to begin with (if you have it) on somethin that you can play with every time. Maybe in the Riley shop or somethin. This is important. Get an old club owner to put a tip on it for a fiver or so and play it in.

3) Look up some practice techniques (the internet is so much more informative than when I was learning; what with youtube/coaching sites etc) and get playing on your own. Get some real solid time in solo to hone your technique; maybe 80/20 at first. You won't improve your game by playing in scrappy frames with no standard. You need to miss shots in practice, and put the balls back for the same shot until you get it... That said, playing under pressure/competitively for a fiver/the bill is CRUCIAL to harden you. A lot of players (myself included) have a pretty good game and know the game inside out, but put them in a pressure situation and the technique stalls and they can't make 16. Playing better players/getting beaten (just players a level or two above you) is key for improving.

4) Watch more snooker on tv/youtube, and mimic the styles you see. Shot selection is so important, so learn how to think and approach the game. This won't really be important though until you can make 20'3/30's and beyond to be honest.

5) It's all about pushing the cue through on a straight, smoothly delivered line, with follow through. It's such a basic concept, but a range of factors cause you to push through with lateral (side to side) movement, which causes the white to move before hitting the intended point on the ball you're trying to pot. My advice is not to hold the cue too tightly, and from an early stage concentrate on having your back arm hanging in as vertical a fashion as possible. New players struggle with getting their elbow vertically over the cue at the back arm, but this will eliminate movement.

6) Get a tight V-shaped point between your thumb and your index knuckle on your bridge hand (the one on the table). Too loose and your cue will be falling to the side, too tight and it will be rising as you push through.

7) You'll have a basic awareness of what side spin does to shots after playing for a while. My advice is to avoid side completely when you are learning. I'm a "side ball" player (use side spin on most shots, versus the MUCH simpler "plain ball" player), and I feel I would've reached an even higher level if I didn't learn to play this way.

8) Do NOT get obsessed with trying to speed play as Ronnie plays. So many do this. Sure, it's exciting and looks impressive to be able to clear a table in 4 minutes, but it's just not possible unless you're a prodigy, and there's a reason that only two players have won the worlds playing like that, and Ronnie's last 3 were actually at a fairly average shot duration in the latter part of his career. It's just too inconsistent. Ask a certain fat Maltese player who happens to be one of the most natural talents in the world, but has never been consistently winning at the elite level.

9) Stance: I like to walk on to the "line" of the shot with my dominant foot (i.e. If you're right handed, your right foot), and point it directly in the direction you are hitting the ball. My left is squared across the way with a decent gap, and with a bend at the knee. Keep your dominant leg locked/straight. You're trying to avoid lateral movement again by "swinging" side to side because your legs are too close together/both bent. Some taller players widen their stance to compensate for this, to get down to table level more comfortably.

10) Initially, you won't naturally know what looks "right" in terms of the potting angle of shots. I used to check the angle by standing behind the red or whatever and looking at it from behind, towards the pocket, then keeping an eye on where I needed to hit on it to achieve the same effect. If you place a ball directly behind the ball you want to pot, i.e. the same way a "plant/canon" works, then if you come back to the white you'll see where on the potting ball you need to hit to pot it.

11) Run your cue under your chin as straight as possible, very lightly placing pressure (not too much) downward on the cue.

12) Look up "line-ups" online, do them. Hones your positional play and potting, as well as automatically tattoos to your mind the angle that certain shots require in around the black spot etc.

... Best of luck, there's lots more online, but get playing. It can however cost you thousands to develop your game so maybe try find a player who has a table in their house, or get in with a private members golf club etc. who don't get much use out of their table and maybe come to an arrangement. I don't know if the limited number of snooker clubs do flat fee members arrangements these days either

Brilliant Post mate... I started playing at 17 yrs old.... Still loving it still my eyes went when passing 40 yrs old... Playing nine ball pool, perfect for me, ... A Pro ,Eddie Charlton from Australia played snooker in his seventies without needing a glasses... Amazing Man , He died few years ago...