Gradual Acceleration

Pidge · 2015-10-19T23:33:44+00:00

I remember as a kid watching Hendry play in the World Champs and one shot stuck in my mind. He hit a deep deepened screw shot and it looked like he hardly hit it. The cue ball paused, then took off like Usain Bolt. I couldn't get that much action hitting it as hard as I could let alone by tapping the white. My dad had the match taped and I would watch this shot over and over. I noticed how slowly he started the delivery towards the cue ball. The first inch was very slow and it gradually picked up pace. I played around with it and couldn't get the hang of it. Persistence paid off and eventually I had the timing down. I couldn't quite recreate the shot... I was just a kid, not on super fast cloth and I wasn't Hendry. But I did notice how easy deep screw shots were with very little effort. My accuracy on the white sky rocketed especially on screw shots. I was hitting the shot with perfect timing. I see a lot of players rushing the transition and beginning of the delivery. This causes a few issues that limits how much juice you can give the white. When you think about hitting the white hard you naturally tense and it kills the cues acceleration. You move, drop the elbow too soon and this makes you hit the shot not where you intend. How many times have you seen players lined up close to miscueing because they're so low but end up putting topspin on the cue ball. For anyone wanting to give this a try it does take time to practice it and get your own timing and rhythm. It will feel like you can't hit the ball hard enough if 1 inch of the delivery is wasted going slow... It isn't the case. I had to lengthen my bridge a couple of inches to combat this as a kid, so a slightly longer bridge might help. It will feel jerky, but chances are if you watch it back it will look very smooth. You do need to follow through to your full potential too, but don't exaggerate it. If you naturally follow through 6 inches, don't try following through 10 inches. That's about it. Now, my deep screw allows me to screw back on a snooker table with an object ball about a ft from a corner and the white in baulk, right back into baulk and back out to roughly between the baulk line and blue spot. My max screw is more than I've ever had to use in a game. Better to have too much than not enough.