Best Snooker Practices and Drills | Take Your Game To The Next Level

So I assume, since you are here after reading the title, you are an emerging snooker player trying to excel in this sport. People talk a lot about confidence, most of us believe that improving in snooker is all about confidence, which is true to some extent but not 100%.

The thing is, it takes time for a player to build confidence, and to do it, you must develop accuracy and great execution. Practice makes a man perfect. But how do you practice here, in snooker?

Like in all sports, there are a few drills and exercises in snooker, too, that can help you to grow as a player. The exercises I’m going to share will strengthen your technique and enable you to execute difficult pots. So without wasting any time, let’s get started.

Proven Snooker Practices & Drills To Improve Your Game

There are quite a few of such practices and drills available, so I’m going to walk you through all of them one by one.

Snooker‌ ‌Line‌ ‌Up‌

This is one of the famous, or probably the most famous, drill in snooker that is used by players to improve their cue action. It requires red, white, black, orange and yellow.

1. Set up a line up of balls in vertical fashion across the snooker table.
2. A black ball followed by two red balls, then five reds ahead of the black, then a yellow and four red balls, then a blue and three reds.
3. After setting up this line up, put three color balls ahead of them in horizontal fashion.
4. Now, you can aim on all of these balls in accordance with the traditional snooker rules. Hitting red first and then colour balls.
5. Because these balls are set up in a line up, it’d be difficult for you to execute shots but at the same time it’ll improve your game.

This is not as easy as it sounds to be, but if you’ve got the basics right, it’ll become fun. So let’s have a look at some of the drills that will help you to tweak the basics.

Using Cushion

This particular drill is quite an effective way to reach precision in complicated shots – it helps you in growing the ability to play straight. You can either practice on top cushion or baulk cushion.

1. Put two balls right beside the cushion, such that they are touching it. One behind another.
2. Now take an aim in a traditional way to pocket the front ball – in this scenario, you can only pocket the ball if your cue is dead straight and you execute the shot with precision.
3. For the first few shots, use little power behind the shot and focus more on accuracy.
4. Once you feel confident, gradually increase the power behind every shot you take.

This exercise helps you to develop accuracy to a high level, because you can’t pocket a ball even if you don’t execute a dead straight shot.

1 Ft Run Through In Off

This is a pretty basic yet useful drill to reach precision in your cue shots.

1. Place the red ball in the center and a cue ball behind it such that the red ball is right in the line of a pocket.
2. Now the point of practicing is hitting the cue ball in the center. If you hit it from the side, the red ball will sway away in another direction. If you hit it in the center, the red ball will go straight in the pocket.
3. Gradually increase the distance once you start feeling confident.
4. The more distance you increase, the more difficult it gets. So set up the balls accordingly.

Over The Spots

This is a fairly simple technique which will tell you how much precision you possess when it comes to hitting the cue straight.

1. Place the cue ball at one end of the table, preferably the longer one.
2. Now take different aims: Left, right and center.
3. When you hit center, the ball must come back straight.
4. And when you hit right, the ball must go right. And left for the left hit.

This will give you an idea if you are hitting the cue ball the right way. It’s very simple but a handy drill to practice regularly.

Cueing Off Cushions

This is one of the most difficult drills that you can practice to develop accuracy. You have to cue off the cushions with awkward angles to pocket the ball.

1. Keep the cue ball just down the cushion and aim the cue ball towards the middle pocket.
2. Once you have hit the cue ball in one middle pocket, try another.
3. And keep moving the cue ball alongside the cushion and hitting it in the middle pocket.
4. The more you move the cue ball alongside the cushion, the more difficult it’ll get. But keep trying.

Chances are if you follow this exercise religiously, you’ll experience great improvement in your gameplay in less time.

Double Kiss Stun Shots

This exercise is a great way to master routine stun shots. In order to practice it, you’ll have to use a red and white ball and keep them at the baulk line.

1. Hit the red ball with the cue ball, trying to hit it in the center so that it comes back.
2. When it comes back, it double kisses the red ball and both balls will go in different directions.
3. Play these shots at a firm pace because if you hit it too slow, the double kiss won’t make any significant difference.
4. Slow shots in these cases are not really useful, so even if you are new to it, hit it with decent power from the start unlike other techniques I have mentioned here.

Long Straight Pots

This technique has less to do with the precision but how long are you taking to cue the ball. It gives you an idea about your cue actions.

1. Keep the ball at one end of the table, and target any pocket.
2. Hit the ball in the same pocket at least four to fives times and note down the time it took you to do it in each turn.
3. Keep changing pockets and try this practice on all pockets.
4. The data you’ll collect from this practice will help you to learn more about your cue action to achieve perfection.

Playing Slightly Off Straight

This drill is associated with the improvement of timing. Just by playing slightly off straight, all you are trying to get here is pot the red and get back to the cushion.

1. Place the ball anywhere near the pocket, and hit the cue ball slightly off to send the red ball in the pocket.
2. Keep practicing it, one time a little hard and other times a little smooth.

Conclusion

To excel in pool or snooker, you must know what are the best drills to practice in order to achieve precision. By following the above mentioned drills and exercises you can improve your game in a systematic manner. These practices are designed to complement both timing and accuracy, so you can become a better performer at the billiard table.