Snooker Helping Side | Do I Need It? | Potting Angles 

An elderly gentlemen taught me general billiards principles and he would always speak of "feeling the simple angles in your bones" before attempting to create what he called compound angles. He made it really clear to me right from the beginning that not just side, but even things like rolling a shot between roughly ¼ and ¾ ball rather than punching it in at medium pace(especially playing against the nap), or even a good dose of screw can cause significant throw. That really helped me set a solid baseline, because in reality throw is a complex blend of factors that can be difficult to unravel if you don't know exactly what the ball would have done on a plain ball, medium speed shot. And in the end, you just have to build your intuition as you said, because even the table conditions can complete throw off your calculations if you don't have a feel for how to compensate.

Great video again Barton, please keep em coming!

Clear and helpful as ever, thanks for the time you put into this Steve!

Very good video, perfectly explained as usual.

Great valuable advice on angles, speed and spin. Great video Barton snooker

Great sensible advice for begginers Steve👍👍

As usual, thank you for a fantastic video. I love the purity of the idea of no side and delivering straight, but even as a novice I'm finding it really hard not to use side to assist in ½ to ¼ ball pots. If I don't, then what I see as the potting angle, can see me miss countless more shots. In fact, this whole side/no side/throw and shot speed variability, really should makes us modern players truly appreciate those of the pre modern game, who without the science and slow motion cameras, still made century breaks!

Thank you very much! From Casablanca, Morocco 🇲🇦

Thank you Sir! One day I wunna come to watch snooker tournaments in UK and hope to meet you ❤🙏🙏

excellent advice, indeed

As always sir ❤

Hello Steve, thank you very much for your videos please. Can you make a video for us with exercises to no longer lower the elbow but I think a lot of players need it. Thank you so much

I was taught that if I think the ball will be thick or thin ,don’t adjust , play the shot and if you call it correct then it counts and if you’re wrong then you start again , the worse thing to do is adjust or overcompensate

Probably the best advice here, but I reckon the problem players have with learning angles is that the ghost ball method doesn’t work for all shots. The point on the object ball farthest from the pocket is not always the place to aim due to throw. Countering throw can be done with both aim (so not using ghost ball farthest point from pocket - and aiming thick or thin) or with countering outside spin or helping side, where you can aim for the ghost ball farthest point on object ball from pocket with the correct amount of side to counter the spin induced throw. I don’t think you can reduce aim to one method, as there are so many variables, but understanding when the side is working to counter throw is super important.

If I watch the cue ball really intently, all the way from my cue until it hits the object ball. I can usually tell why it missed. If the cue ball drifts off the line I expected it to go down, then it usually means my cue wasn't pointing in the same direction as my head (most common reason for missing for me). If the cue ball goes down the line perfectly, hits the object ball where I expected and then it misses, it usually means that I wasn't in the center of the cue ball and it's imparted some spin induced throw on the object ball (second most common reason for missing). Lastly if I follow the cue ball with my eyes, and it goes down the line perfectly, but then as it hits the object ball I suddenly think, oh that doesn't seem like the right contact point. Then it means I aimed wrong, i.e. the balls weren't correctly aligned (least likely reason for missing). For me the hardest thing about fixing aim, is that it's never aim in the first place. At least if you define "aim" purely as how the cue ball and object ball are visually aligned.

I heard from snooker coach saying "we see from brain and not from eyes in snooker"

hi, how to hold the grip on line of aim? while standing should the grip hand be already on line of aim above the right leg? seems that as i am getting down and my body turns my grip hand goes offline ??? tnx

Thanks Steve, I have to say though I still don’t get this concept of helping side, where it is played to ‘help’ the pot and not for position. For me playing with a trace of side is no problem for most shots but why overcomplicate it when it doesn’t help with position? I must be missing something 😂 thanks for the vid as always

If as a youngster, I'd had a tool like Barton Snooker, I could have been a contender. Having access to this, for free, is invaluable.

sorry I meant do you visualize the cue ball edge hitting the object aiming spot

Sir, Thanks for your kind reply. BUT I need to know you griping with your index finger or middle one?. I already watched your gripping video but particularly I wanna know your grip.

Thank you for another video but through this video I wanted to ask you one thing that you had told in your alignment video that your shoulder should not be visible during the address position but your shoulder is clearly visible in this video Actually I follow your videos completely so I thought it important to ask you. I have learned a lot from you and want to better myself through your videos and my practice. Love and blessings from India ❤

do you visualize the cue ball edge when aiming

One more thing wanna ask. 😂 Sorry to bothering you... Slow shorts I missed with your grip (middle finger grip) but long shorts I did well. Why?

Is the 'Helping Side' you refer to counteracting the throw? If not what's it's purpose? In America this is referred to as 'gearing outside english'. There's a certain amount of outside side that will result in no throw, so you can aim at the ghost ball position. You obviously need to be able to aim well with side and the amount of side required to cancel the throw with vary with cut angle and speed of the shot, so it is a bit complex. I tend to pot centre ball (unless side is needed when the cue ball hits a cushion) and adjust for throw in my aim, with knowledge of how much throw you'll get for a particular shot.

I’m chuffed if I get a 20 break. So I never really use side on pots but use it in safety. The theory being it’ll help me learn side but most the time you don’t need to be accurate.. saying that, that might be why I’m a bad player?

Please explain your index finger work.

Thanks for making a video clearly explaining why Michael Holt is just talking half-baked nonsense when he tries to be all clever claiming decel isn't a problem or helping side doesn't do anything etc. Holt really is the Alan Partridge of snooker, desperate for attention.

0:45 buy some paper reinforcers (white sticky rings). much better that drawing on your table

That’s the thing u won’t pot them all