In this video, 4 times World Champion, Gareth Potts, takes us through perfecting your cue action, how to use a pause to get more control and reaction on the cue ball.
Video Transcription:
Gareth Potts: So in this video we're now going to concentrate on the
cue action. There's a lot of different ways to cue up to the
ball. A lot of people cue up to the ball in lots of different
ways and a lot of it is preference and the way that you would
naturally pick up the cue and the way you would naturally pick
up the cue to cue up to the ball. It's hard to teach someone
the way to cue but there are certain things and certain elements
that you have to do to allow you to have a good cue action to
allow you to get the reaction on to the ball. So as I'm cueing
up the ball, this is what's called feathering up to the cue ball
so as I'm going up, I'm lining up where I'm going to be striking
the cue ball. So in this instance, I'm going to meet the cue
ball quiet and low down to get some bounce spin basically, so
some back spin. So as I'm cueing up like this this is what I'm
doing I'm feathering up to the ball.
Now, there has to be a pause at some point so the pause is
either on the cue ball or the pause is either at the top of the
back swing sometimes you can do both so I would naturally
personally I would pause at the top of the back swing which
creates the power it's all about timing so as I'm cueing up I'm
feathering up to the cue ball maybe three four five times, pause
on the cue ball as I draw the cue back pause at the top of the
back swing and then strike. Another way of cueing up is exactly
the same you would pause on the cue ball but then have a less of
a pause at the top of the back swing and then strike.
Personally, I don't think this is the best way to do it because
you need to have the pause at the top of the back swing which
allows you to get the timing on to the cue ball.
Andy: So when you're watching snooker, you'll hear commentators
talk about having a brilliant cue action. What does that cue
action look like? What makes that player have a basically good
action?
Gareth Potts: Yeah. Well like I say, every player that you watch will
have a different cue action. They talk about players like Ronny
O'Sullivan and Stephen Lee having the best cue actions and I
think the reason why they have the best cue action is because
they can get the most reaction on the cue ball so therefore
Stephen Lee can screw back the white full length of the table on
a snooker table with such minimum efforts and so can Ronny
O'Sullivan. A lot of the players can screw the cue ball back but
them sort of players can do it with much more ease than the rest
of the players and the reason of that is because they get a lot
more timing. It's just like golf, it's not how hard you swing
at the ball it's just about finding the timing, and the timing
then comes from the pause so if you watch someone like Stephen
Lee and Ronny O'Sullivan, they have a huge pause at the top of
the back swing so as they draw the cue back they have a pause,
it's not just one continuous motion and then striking the cue
ball, there has to come a pause, so there's either a pause on
the cue ball or there's a pause at the top of the backswing
which allows the cue to create the timing on to the ball so
therefore if you're trying to create a lot of back spin or a lot
of top spin it allows you to put the timing into the shot.
Andy: Is this where acceleration comes in so as you're cueing
through the ball you are accelerating through it?
Gareth Potts: Yes. That's a really good point because what happens is,
as you draw the cue back there's a pause at the top of the back
swing so from this point now you have to accelerate through the
ball so it has to get starts off slower and now it has to get
gradually faster. What happens a lot of the time is players
will decelerate through the ball so they'll come off quick and
then slow down which then takes all the reaction what you're
trying to do to the cue ball so if you're trying to play with
bottom spin if you decelerate it takes the reaction away from
the cue ball you have to accelerate as you are delivering the
cue so as you pause at the top of the back swing you then have
to get quicker through the ball.
Andy: For more videos from Gareth Potts please visit homeleisuredirect.com
