Snooker Tips: Performing the Screw Shot

It’s a shot that visually looks so simple on screen, yet when you approach the table with a cue in hand and attempt to bring the cue ball back following a strike, an amateur can become humbled quite quickly and appreciate the technical challenges the game of snooker poses. If you struggle with the screw shot, hopefully this Short will give some useful pointers to take into the next practice!

• Keep a level cue

When first practicing a screw-back shot, the instinct may be to raise the butt of the cue in order to generate more spin however, you should keep the cue as flat as possible in order to avoid any inadvertent swerve imparted on the cue ball. Having a low bridge hand will help with flat cueing.

A method of practicing flat and level cueing would be to place the rest/spider on the table and practice striking underneath it without making contact with the extension (credit to snookergames.co.uk for this tip).

• Focus on timing and follow-through, not power

Arguably the most important factor in playing a shot that isn’t plain ball is to ensure a smooth and consistent follow-through. In the case of a screw-back, less is more and when you take power out of the equation (particularly as an amateur learning to strike the ball), you’ll find that you’ll get a better action than if you focused on power.

• Practice soft screw shots

Try potting the blue off its spot from a close distance (preferably off straight), focusing on the point of the cue ball where you’re going to strike. Don’t worry too much about potting the blue, rather practice getting the desired backspin. You can gradually increase the distance between cue and object ball or practice screwing back further as you start getting the feel of how you should be delivering the cue.

• Confidence and cue acceleration

Easier said than done, but if you approached a screw shot in the same manner as you would a plain ball shot, you’d probably play the shot more confidently. Chances are if you’re not getting enough screw-back on the shot, there is a chance you’re decelerating (click here to read about how that works).

• Hitting the cue ball low enough

A lot of the time when the cue ball isn’t having the desired effect when screwing back, players just aren’t hitting low enough – almost to the point that it unintentionally turns into a stun shot. Practicing shots close to the object ball will help identify errors in your striking and delivery which will make for more effective practice going forward.

What are some of your best tips for generating backspin? Let me know in the comments!

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What is ‘Decelerating’ in Snooker?

Decelerating is a term you hear often used by the commentary box, mainly when a player misses a shot in a particular way. It can be a bit of a struggle to get one’s head around but I’m hoping to clear up the confusion about what decelerating is and how it applies in the context of a snooker shot. Believe it or not, it’s actually not that complicated to understand.

In the simplest terms, decelerating is when a player is delivering a shot, they ever so slightly slow down their stroke right as they’re about to make impact with the cue ball. So instead of delivering the stroke in a consistent start-to-finish speed, there’s a subtle drop in cue speed towards the end of the stroke, thus causing deceleration. It’s a very slight/difficult thing to notice which is probably why you only really hear Stephen Hendry calling it out on commentary when this event does happen.

What causes deceleration? It can be any number of factors, internal or external. Externally, there could be a twitch in a players arm as they’re playing the shot, an extra bit of tension in the arm or grip, all of which could affect delivery on the shot. Internally, which I feel is most common is when a player has second thoughts on their shot in the middle of playing it, causing them to not fully commit during shot delivery, also causing deceleration and affecting the outcome of the shot.

How does deceleration affect the pot? Snooker is a game of fractions as John Virgo so frequently says, and this applies to how a player delivers a shot. A slight change in speed upon impact with the cue ball will affect the amount of spin imparted on the cue ball and change the outcome of the pot from what the player originally intended, hence the object ball going offline and missing the pot.

Timing is a key element of playing a shot exactly as it was planned in your mind and perfecting your timing is the difference between regular players and professionals that make the game look frustratingly easy. Timing is probably more useful in a close quarter, break-building scenario as opposed to a long pot where deceleration is more often associated. However, timing plays its part in every shot and being able to accelerate the cue in a fluid, confident manner reduces the effects of deceleration.

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Snookers Mount Rushmore

Which four snooker players would feature on your Mount Rushmore? For you, which individuals have either had the most impact; are/were the best players; made the greatest contributions; or had the most significant effect on how you currently watch snooker? I think this poses an interesting topic because I think many would take a different perspective as to who belongs at their snooker mountaintop.

Ray Reardon

Six time World Champion Ray Reardon was one of the first, if not, the first player to really capture the hearts of viewers as the modern era of snooker was beginning to make some headway. A terrific tactician and a thirst for blood on the table, Reardon owned the 1970s, winning titles at an age most wouldn’t even fathom happening currently. Following the success of Pot Black, Reardon became the first No. 1 snooker player and inspired generations of players to want to pick up a cue.

Steve Davis

Transitioning from the 1970s came the golden age of snooker, for which there was one key figurehead that took technique and match-play to the next level. Steve Davis was a force to be reckoned with during the 1980s, creating and holding many of the records that have been broken by the prodigies that followed him. Following his success on the table, Davis has transitioned into an ambassadorial role mixing his duties of punditry, commentary and analysis in order to educate the masses.

Stephen Hendry

Considered by many as the greatest of all time, I don’t think you’ll find many Snooker Mount Rushmore’s that didn’t have Stephen Hendry as one of the faces. Hendry was quite possibly the most dominant player of all time, bringing an attacking style to the table which is emulated and practised to this day by players of the current crop. Clearing up and winning the frame wasn’t necessarily a significant part of snooker prior to Hendry’s appearance, and who knows what the current standard would be if it weren’t for the seven time champions involvement.

Ronnie O’Sullivan

There isn’t a single person that makes the game of snooker look as easy as Ronnie O’Sullivan does. O’Sullivan turns snooker into a true art form when he plays and he’s backed this with numerous titles over the course of his three decade (and counting) career, alongside running away with all records set by the aforementioned champions before him. There really isn’t enough time or space to list everything O’Sullivan has done for the sport but chances are if you’re reading this, then you know exactly who O’Sullivan is and why he belongs on Snookers Mount Rushmore.

You can see that my Mount Rushmore follows the natural path of the key players which dominated their respective eras. And it could be considered the more conventional selection for this snooker mountaintop. Which is why I’ll probably make a follow-up in the future with an alternate Mount Rushmore selection of snooker players.

This isn’t to diminish any other player or their contributions to the sport i.e. Joe Davis, Rex Williams etc. And my current selection may suffer a little from recency bias as a result of it, but I think it shows just how difficult it is to limit your choice to just four snooker players. Hence, why I think I’ll be following this up in the future perhaps with Snooker Mount Rushmore’s for break-building, long potting, entertainment etc.

But let me know! Which four players would be on your Snooker Mount Rushmore and why?

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How Stephen Hendry Changed The Game

Considered by many as The Greatest of All Time, Stephen Hendry altered the narrative of how snooker is played by the generations of competitors which followed. The most successful player of the modern era and holder of many ambitious records that players strive towards, Hendry introduced a style and attitude that made emergency rooms shiver due to how clinical he was.

The most notable shot that is associated with Hendry’s playstyle is the pack split, off the blue. Prior to this shot choice, players would more commonly split off the black or pick each red available before making the attempt. Hendry had an approach to break-building where he would prefer to get reds open as soon as possible as opposed to secure points where possible, then risking a canon to develop further reds.

The fear attached to a split off the blue is the chance of an in-off; whether it be from the cue ball going into either bottom corner, or a red possibly going into one of these pockets. Hendry excelled at this pivotal shot due to his ability to play a little lower on the cue ball, allowing it to stay near the pink just below the centre of the table. Meanwhile, as the reds scattered across the table he would clear up and win the frame.

Another shot that Hendry would often purposefully play is a high black to split into the pack. This isn’t something you would see professionals nowadays necessarily go for unless they had to. There is a little more certainty going into the pack off a low black as sometimes the arc of a high black shot can be tricky to predict. But with Hendry’s confidence, more often than not, he would get the perfect split.

Thanks to Hendry’s laser straight cue action, his long potting and aggressive approach brought a different perspective to snooker. Where most would normally play the ‘percentage’ shots and generally refuse long pots until an easier opportunity opened up, Hendry would rely on his exemplary long potting to create his own chances to get on the table. In a way, his long potting proficiency were his percentage shots and instilled with the confidence he built throughout the 1990s, was a key staple to his success and how the modern game is currently played.

Clearing the table and winning the frame in one-visit was something that Hendry pioneered and did more consistently than anyone before him. Centuries are far more sought after nowadays as players realise they would rather win a frame as quickly as possible instead of going back and forth with their opponent on the final colours.

A lot of Hendry’s skills on the snooker table can be attributed to the level of practice he did behind the scenes. He would often put 6-8 hours per day, 7 days a week into his practice; largely into the facets of his game which were his primary strengths, which is how he was able to consistently perform and win in the way that he did over the years. His dedication to practice is adopted by most professionals because they realise this is what they need to do if they want to come close to accomplishing what Hendry did.

Hendry impacted snooker in a way, not just through his achievements, but in the manner in which he accomplished this. Players follow a similar aggressive playstyle but incorporate a tighter safety skillset to try and minimise those that aim to long pot themselves into position. Many wonder how Hendry would have fared in today’s game. All you need to do is listen to him in commentary as he puts on his enchanted top hat and gloves while he perfectly predicts sequences of shots that players are going to perform before they have even gotten down to the table.

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