acesinc wrote:chengdufan wrote:I've decided to enter.
Anyone who draws me is basically getting a warm-up for their next match. For reference, my 'par' is probably 3 10+ breaks in 9 frames.
Why am I willing to embarrass myself? Well, despite loving playing snooker, I don't play very often and this is going to give me an excuse to get out and play. It might also encourage me to try out a more attacking game. If I pot a red, I normally just try to secure the points of the colour and then play safe. But needing to go for breaks, I think I will make more of an effort to play position when potting the colour. If I end up getting more than 3 10+ breaks, I'll be quite pleased. And who knows, I might get that elusive 20+ break!
I actually did something of a study in my little club and came to the conclusion that this is exactly true for many, many low level players. In fact, worse than that, many players will pot Red and fail to have any sort of position on any colour and so will play a half-safe such as attempting a ridiculous long Blue off spot into a baulk corner which of course NEVER comes off and ALWAYS leaves the White in baulk where even if they had made the Blue pot, they could not have continued the break. And now the Blue is probably out of commision for most of the rest of the frame. Or after pot of Red, they may decide better off to just play straight safe off a baulk colour, leaving White against cushion but probably knocking the baulk colour out so it nestles in among the pack of Reds, again creating an impedance to the assembly of a decent break. These tactics are usually done in ignorance and are nearly always annoying to vain attempts to keep a tidy table.
It is actually a huge step to the improvement of your game for you to recognize this.
For purpose of this competition, I will need to be selective of my opponent because many players in my club do exactly what you describe so that it is difficult to run any sort of reasonable sized break against them. There are a few that will attempt to go for the larger breaks, which (in my opinion) is better snooker.....at first, it will cost you some frames because a lazy safety player will often win against a weak break-builder, but if you are patient and put in the work to learn a better game, you will become the stronger player in the long run.
As you already know, I can be pretty long winded with these posts. I do have a whole write up to explain this thought process if you are interested in it. With that said, my kid and I developed a whole handicap system and ultimately a different variation of Snooker based on this concept. If you are willing to be bored to tears by my musings, you can find those two write-ups here:
http://acesmachinery.com/site1/league/h ... epaper.pdfand here:
http://www.acesmachinery.com/league/club74_gen.pdfand a little bit more about the Club 74 variation here:
http://www.acesmachinery.com/Club74.htmUsing the information in these documents, my kid has become the most improved player in my club over the last three years. He has gone from a handicap of 28 plus 3 Provisional Colours (you need to read the stuff to understand that) to a straight 16 point handicap (zero PC) and I have a very tough time winning a match. His breaks have gone from 3 ball (Red, colour, Red) with a rare fourth ball potted to running multiple four ball breaks (usually 14's and 16's) just about every frame. He will generally run two or three breaks of 20+ in a session of 10 or 12 frames. High break of 39, reaches something in the 30+ range about once every four or five sessions. Take the info to heart, stick with it, and the 20+'s will start to come very natural to you.
By the way, my little club has just 10 members. 8 of us ALWAYS play the Club 74 variation for about the last year and a half, and I have seen fair improvement in all of their games. They simply make better decisions now. The other two guys are older (mid-70's), absolutely stuck in their ways, and will play nothing else but standard snooker. I have known one of them for well over thirty years now and his game is the same now as it was then, back in his 40's....very rare to clear the 20+break ceiling, probably about once every 20 to 25 frames. I should also add something about my kid, you know, I said "most improved player" up above? He HATES to put in any practice at all. He just wants to have fun, knock balls around the table. So he has seen all this improvement based solely on the system and learning what he should be doing in order to properly understand the game. He literally does ZERO practice routines or exercises. Not really looking to improve at all, just play the game.
That actually is a huge problem among lower level players.....everyone WANTS to play the game better, but very few are willing to WORK to learn to play the game better. This system finds a nice balance to help you improve to some degree but still have a lot of fun doing it.
Also, I am not suggesting this for the Snooker Island league; it is strictly to help you to improve your personal game and become more competitive. Good luck!