Questions to snooker Coach from Sheffield, Alan Trigg

[Alan]

Where do i start ,
first point, if you are left eye prominent, by this comment i have to presume that you are a right handed player, i have taught Sergey about lining shots up using diferent eyes, so i would ask you to go back to him to look at your walk in, this is one of the rare points that i cannot teach by email, someone has to physically look at you, Sergey has the experience.
The next point, after practising 6 days a week for at least 10 years my record for the blacks off the spot is 443, i didn't miss i just got bored and stopped.
The next point, the snap shot, as it is called is used to illiminate faults in cueing, it is definately not used on all shots, Dave Harold is a personal friend of mine, he has taken this to the extreme, which because of the incredible speed of the professional cloths he can do this on all shots with limited success, as soon as the cloth is slightly slower Dave cannot play at the same standard, this has been his problem with consistancy for a number of years.
Wrist action has to be taught to individuals, again this cannot be taught by email.
What do i think of when i am playing a shot, this is very simple, only the object ball entering the centre of the pocket, everything else is pre thought away from the table, if you fill your mind with too many things then it is impossible to play snooker at high levels, each discipline you should learn so it becomes second nature and you automatically acheive this without thinking about it.
When i am training professionals i spend hours upon hours on the very small movements of the cue action breaking it down to the smallest detail, so under pressure it becomes very reliable, if you look at the way you practise i would suggest that you practise cueing exercises much more than you are doing, the simple fact that you are asking this question suggests to me that your cue action is not yet pure, the more you do these exercises the less you have to worry about cueing.
I hope that i have answered all your queries, best wishes Alan.

[Виталий Велент]

Thank you, Alan. I appreciate your answers. 443 sounds really impressive!!! I will come up with more questions later.  One quick question though. Do you like and/or play golf? I know it is popular with many British people. Best regards. Vitaly

[Alan]

I am afraid that i do not have time to play, maybe one day i will start when my coaching is not as frantic as it is now, best wishes alan.

[Виталий Велент]

Hello, Alan! How are you? I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask.

Yesterday we had an amateur snooker tournament at a local club. In anticipation of my first game I decided to warm up a little bit by playing a couple of games of pool with a friend of mine. Tell me was it a wise thing to do?

What would you recommend I do to cope with fears when I know I will be playing versus a stronger opponent and, conversely, to get rid of complacency when my next opponent is known to play at a lower standard?

Why do many players twitch the middle finger of their bridge hand as they play? Is there any practical value behind this? Good for the firmness of the bridge?

I find your advice 'to treat practice as a match and a match as practice' very useful. What tips can you give to make my brain approach every practice session in the most serious way possible? How can one work on building concentration? 

Thanks in advance. Vitaly

[Koulmann]

 Good day, Alan!
 
 I am Alex from Minsk and i`ve got some questions to ask.
 
 But before i`d like to admit that it`s great to see you on our forum! Last weeks it became the main issue among our snooker fans.
 My first question appeared after the amateur snooker tournament mentioned by Vitaly. I don`t have serious tournament experience in snooker (just 6 participations before), so i found some things difficult to understand.
 During the frame i noticed that my stability level varies a lot. It might be fine at start, "not bad" in the middle and real disaster in decisive part. Or vice versa. And this situation happens in every frame. So, what will be your tips to keep stability on more or less appropriate level during the whole frame?
 And another question. Are there some execises to practice the smooth motion of the cue during the shot? Cause my current cueing has now more to do with fencing than with snooker technics.
 I hope you`ll able to understand what i mean in my questions. 
 Anyway thanks a lot for your answers and presence here.
 Best wishes. Alex         

[Alan]

Thank you for your kind words, firstly to practise a totally different game like pool before playing a tournament is a big no no, i teach top professional pool players as well as snooker players, when a player plays both a say that the two games are completely different and should be treat as such, the balls are a different size and weight, the proportions of the table is completely different, also a big factor is the cloths, as you probably know a pool cloth is synthetic, snooker cloths are made of natural wool and the angles change from one cloth to another, many players that play both games use the same cue, not after i coach them, they have a different cue for each game.
The next point is much more serious, i taught Paul Hunter, and when he turned professional he had exactly the same problem, he played the person rather than the table, after two seasons we taught him to ignore his opponent and just concentrate on the balls, many people have the same probem but it can be taught out of you.
The next point is called amongst snooker players as the piano players finger, this is caused by tention in the hand, this has no relevance to whether a player plays well or not.
As i have already said concentration is key to a players improvement,if one player plays only one hour per week but with absolute concentration and another player plays all week every day with no concentration, the player playing one hour will improve quicker.
very best wishes Alan.

[Alan]

  snooker shots like fencing, this is very funny, i have seen many old club members that play exactly like this, i dont know whether to play them or duck
On a more serious note, all your questions relate to the stable cueing action, despite popular belief that the top players dont have to practise their cue action, ALL players before they start hitting balls practise to make their delivery perfectly straight without any body movement, their are many many exercises to perfect before this becomes second nature. The best of them all is called the matchbox, because it involves using a matchbox, this is very easy to make:
take out the inside of the matchbox and make a hole 17mm wide in the middle, put the sleave of the matchbox back on, making sure that the hole is visible, then put this on the snooker table (or on a table at home that is the same height as the playing surface) then imagine this is the cueball you are hitting, put the tip at the hole and pause for aproximately 2 seconds, take the cue backward and forward through the hole in a single movement then stop when your back arm has hit your chest (without the cue touching the matchbox) and then pause for another 2 seconds, this is called muscle memory, you are training you cue arm to do a very acurate movement consistantly, all top players have been practising this since they where children and still do it now.
i hope that this answers your questions, very best wishes Alan.

[Alan]

Hello everyone, i am in Turkey at the moment coaching some businessmen, in a very nice hotel near Belek, because these gentlemen only want to play an hour per day this gives me alot of time to kill, so for the next 3 weeks while i am here please ask any questions you would like, they could be about anything, beginners, intermediate, advanced, professional, psychological, practise routines(general or specific),tactics, you can even ask me about players that you see on television that i either coach or know very well (this subject depends whether i reply on the content of the question).
Please ask away, best wishes Alan.

[Hacker 147]

In that case, I have a question.
What do you see forward for our country and how do you see the odds of us climbing up to the main tour standards? What is your opinion on how our players introduced themselves during the World Series?
Thanks for answering in advance.

[Alan]

As i have just said i have alot of time on my hands while i am here in Turkey, i have just translated Вопросы и ответы: Russian version  « 1 2 3 » , i didn't realise that i was giving English lessons as well, i will make sure that my spelling will be correct from now on, i tend to write on my laptop without thinking as most of my pupils are not as intellegent as you all are, as one of you said, most of them dont go to school they only play snooker, as for me, i am the odd one out because i have an honours degree in sports psychology, physiology and nutrition, so there is no exuse for me to spell incorrectly.

I have a mental block between the two words there and their, i know both meanings but still get them the wrong way round sorry!!!

[Alan]

This is a very easy question to answer, but a very long one.
Snooker in the uk has diminished over the last 10 years due to lack of sponsorship, finance has a big part to play in sport, the more money each country puts in the higher standard is achieved, you will find over the next few years as the currant players go out new players come in and will be from different countries. The way we coach is not only to give each player the support that he needs but also give him players to practise against, it takes foresight for a country to send one of there best players to the academy in sheffield not only to be taught but to also learn whilst they are playing top class players, this is to increase there level of concentration on each shot.
Coming back to your question, your country and many others are only just starting to get really interested in snooker, in the future there will probably major tournaments there, each time one of you plays a top player you will realise the level of concentration you need to achieve a higher standard, each time a player increases in standard all players that he plays against will improve as well.
As a coach that vists most countries i can say with absolute certainty that champions will eventually come out of your country as well as many other countries that are investing in snooker.
I hope that this answers your question, best wishes Alan.

[Ares-IG]

i have just translated Вопросы и ответы: Russian version  « 1 2 3 »

Thanks for your devotion. Your wish to help us, evident in your efforts to translate our threads in Russian, - it is really impressive and touching.

i didn't realise that i was giving English lessons as well,

To lead a conversation with a native English speaker is a valuable experience. Although our cooperation is about snooker, we also appreciate the possibility to improve our language skills. And we are grateful to you for such possibility. Please, don't feel, as if we are putting every word you write under spelling scrutine. We just analyzing the vivid language you use in order not to misinterprete something.

Eventually, the question.
You have been already asked about the warming up, and I'll dare to continue on this topic. During our amateur tournaments we usually have little time at the table before the match - around five minutes. What would you recommend to do during this five minutes to be better prepared for the coming game? I feel that kicking the balls chaotically around the table is not the best way to warm up prepare for the match, so I would like to make this stage more organized.

[Koulmann]

 Hi, Alan.
 Thanks for your "matchbox exercise" description. Tell u the truth - Sergey is recommending this exercise all the time as a basic one almost to everybody, so, i`m afraid, will soon face the matchbox deficit in the city. 
 Taking your free time let me ask you couple of questions.
 1. Recenty we had quite long discussion on this forum about "fair play" in snooker. What is your opinion about making snooker after a fluke or asking repeats after an unforseen snooker? How are english gentlemen dealing with this situation? Especially on amateur level where there are no serious earnings and prizes.
  2. One of my friends, who plays snooker is not good in potting, but when he makes/goes out of a snooker or plays double - he succeeds more often than even more experienced in snooker players. Is this just a natural vision of the geometry of the table? Is it intuition or experinece or may be it is possible to train the ability to use cushions of the table for your own good? If possible, then how?
  Enjoy your stay in Turkey and many thanks for your interest of what is going on here.
  Best regards, Alex.

[Alan]

5 minutes preparation before a match is quite normal, obviously the main practise should have been done before you get to the tournament.
Winning is what's called habit forming in psychological terms, this simply means when you are on a winning streak it is harder to lose a match than win one, unfortunately losing is the same, the reason i say this is because when you have the 5 minutes practise you should only take pots on that are certain, making sure that when you are doing this you concentrate as much as you possibly can, within the 5 minutes you are developing habit forming potting(basically getting used to not missing in your mind) this will help short term in your matches.
So in a nutshell no hard pots only very easy pots making sure that you dont miss a ball in the 5 minutes, i hope that this will help, best wishes Alan.

[Alan]

Ok this is probably the most asked question, i have strong beliefs in this, firstly the rules state that if a miss is called you can have the ball returned almost indefinately(until your opponent needs a snooker) because of the high level of snooker in the professional ranks this is very fair, but when you introduce this into the amateur ranks it becomes an absolute farce, the reason i say this is when i used to play league snooker in England one week i could be playing a top class amateur the next a bigginer, but the rules remain the same for both players which in my opinion is very unfair, i feel that this rule should be kept for the professionals only( this is only my opinion ).
As for myself and alot of other top players when a miss is called against one of our opponents its very rare that we take it even if we could win the match through this, all the good players are gentlemen.
Playing a snooker after a fluke is part of the game and should always be done.

Question 2, playing doubles in snooker is a very dangerous shot, the more you play snooker the more you will understand this, because the balls can go anywhere, because rank beginners dont know this they tend to play a high percentage of doubles in a frame, if you practise it you become good at it, i can honestly say that i have played maybe 10 doubles in the last 6 months, so probably your friend will be alot better than me at doubles just because of the practise.
I hope that this answers your question best wishes Alex, Alan.