10. Aiming in Snooker - The Dominant Eye

Barry talks about establishing your dominant eye and where you should hold your head relative to the cue when you aim. Barry Stark, World Snooker Coach, tutorial. #cueball #snookercoach #snookercoaching #worldsnooker #billiards

[bigron]

This simple video has completely changed my game. Thanks Barry.

[mohammedhadi]

i have left eye dominate!
i didn't know that till this moment.
thank you coach.

[richtubby]

This is a fascinating drill, Barry. I used to play leagues before leaving the UK over twenty years ago but have just started playing again. My cueing has just been off and I’ve tried loads of quick fixes to limited benefit. I have now watched a number of your videos and there are many useful tips that I have never heard before: chest to cue not the other way around, stance, even the grip unfurling. This tip; however has been a revelation as I always assumed I was right eye dominant being right handed but clearly come out left eye dominant on this ingenuous test. Funny, I have competed and coached tennis but never realised why I hit better with a closed stance on the forehand and an open on the backhand. The point is that it gives my left eye natural dominance. I am excited to apply this revelation to my snooker practice tomorrow.

Thank you Barry for the videos as I am now confident that I will get my game back with much better consistency than I ever had before.

[rob-lkud]

Very Interresting. I have found out that I am Left eye dominant, which makes sense because my eye sight is way better on my left eye than my right eye. This is amazing

[TheBumblebee]

Never heard of this before, just started playing again after 8 years without so cant wait to get back on a table again now and see if this helps. Very inconsistent potting today so fingers crossed

[usafleeds]

Hi Barry!

I want to start by saying that I am not a snooker player, but an American pool player who LOVED snooker and only plays recreationally and for fun. I only started playing about 3 years ago and found a love for snooker and they talented players in the game so learned all of my fundamentals watching snooker technique videos. I quite commonly get compliments of people telling me I have the best fundamentals of any pool player they've ever watched.

That being said, I've placed a lot of believe in the dominant eye theory and the importance of playing under the dominant eye....until recently. I am a right handed, right eye dominant player, and always shot under my dominant eye, and I played okay. However, I had a tendency to aim to the right of center, and cue across the ball, playing accidental left hand English. I became more and more frustrated trying to correct the issue, or figuring out WHY I was doing it to begin with, and an American player named Joe Tucker helped me.

He has a stroke trainer that I purchased, designed to find a players vision center and aid straight cueing (imagine a two pronged fork that goes on the end of your cue about 1/16th of an inch on either side of the cue ball).

I basically discovered that because of my extreme eye dominance, I needed to move my head farther to the right (cue under my left eye) to let my left eye see more of the picture in order for me to see center ball correctly.

Not arguing any of the theories or practices of this method, just wanted to share my experience with you.

Thank you for your videos, I do admire your lessons very much!

[sumuin]

hello barry,
your superb .Every video of yours is eye opener . just becoz of you i started loving snooker more and more... thanx a lot.. do keep doing what your doing

[shervinox]

That's something I needed to know for more than a decade!

[neilgriffiths]

Thanks Mr Stark, it's never even occurred to me to check! Will do tomorrow!

[deadepic]

Hi Barry, I've been watching lots of your videos lately as I want to improve my game and I think you're the guy who can help me with that.

I'm in a div2 club snooker team so I play once a week and would like to be more consistent with my potting. I scape wins out most weeks with tactics rather than scoring but when I play a decent potter they just about score more to get the win over my safety so need to learn to pot properly. My highest break in a friendly match is only 37 so I'm nothing special but I set that years ago and I rarely get over 20-30 anymore. I feel I could score so much more now though as I believe I have a good understanding of the game and which balls to go for and where to hit them etc. I'm reasonably happy with my cue ball control as I normally land on or near enough on the next ball to have a shot at it but I seem to be missing balls that I should be getting from time to time. My safety is alright too most of the time but when I create chances I don't always take advantage of them.

I've suspected I've had a problem with my cueing for a while but now seeing lots of other possible flaws in technique you've mentioned I can't be sure what I'm doing wrong. I've never really looked into it until recently but my cue doesn't exactly touch my chest when I play a shot and when I try to adjust it feels really weird as I've been doing it the wrong way for years! Do I need to keep forcing that position until i get used to it?

I did change my stance about a year ago to add some routine. I walk into the line of the shot with my right foot and keep that leg straight then bend my left and I have noticed some improvement in all round consistency this past season... but my potting still really let me down at times.

When I am in form I can pot a handful of really good shots and I have fairly good control of the white then I miss a sitting duck. I'll pot 3 or 4 balls then miss one which wasn't any harder than the others! Do you think that is my cueing I need to work on or possibly I'm not sighting/aiming the shot correctly? I never knew I was left eyed dominant so am interested to get down the club and experiment with that! I hardly ever practice apart from before my match in all honesty so I'm thinking maybe just a lack of practice but even after I spend 2 hours on the table, alone, potting balls, I'm still missing the odd one by the end of it so is suspect I'm doing something wrong when I play the shot. I sometimes line up 5 reds between pink and black and manage to clear them all occasionally so am capable of doing it but other times I can't pot the first one! What do you think I am doing wrong?

Sorry for the rant but any advice would be much appreciated. I don't know the top players in town so don't have anyone to ask for advice. Your tips are really clear and helpful so thank you. My goal is to get to a half century break and beat my personal best some day!

Many thanks,

Chris

[eduardosblog]

No sabia este metodo, , , , yo siempre ponia mi linea de tiro en medio de mis 2 ojos, ,,pero ahora con su metodo me he dado con la sorpresa que mi ojo dominante es el derecho, ,,, It's time to improve my skills, , thanks so much

[amadiftikhar]

Thanks a lot barry for your help and information i will definitely try it and will let u know how did i go again thanks for your experienced info 😊😊

[Uforiainfotech]

Hi Barry you are a very good coach, i watched all your videos. i have a problem that no one addressed, i am right handed player with left dominant eye, how will that change my stance or position of my head

[huzzi_cr]

Just for laziness sake, u don’t need the paper. I found making a hole with ur fingers and looking at any small object through it gave the same result

[sj]

This really is a super video barry. I am right handed and left eye dominant! I am very confused with the two methods at the moment. I saw another video about centre vision...where you find the point your cue should touch your chin. This video sets out to prove the dominant eye theory is wrong? Are you familiar with the opposing centre vision theory barry and please detail why you believe your dominant eye theory to be better.
I hope you dont mind me asking you but Im really stuck with this

[yasserel-amine]

Dear coach barry
According to the test im right eye dominant. Also i've been playing snooker and pool aiming with my right eye. thing is though is that its never natural, i always have to conciously place my right eye above line of aim. But when i aim with both eyes i feel its much easier sometimes and i dont have to pay attention aligning it and seeing the line of shot, while aiming with my right eye forces me to be concious about it and finding the line can be tricky
thank you

[theznooker]

can you make a video how to place the cue under the dominant eye! how far to the cue should be placed to under the dominant eye? recently i have figured out that i lineup with one eye and when im down i aim with my other eye which causes lots of problem to find angles of the shots.

i place the cue under the dominant eye ( right eyed) but i also tilt my head unintentionally plus i dont know the distance from the jaw

can you please make a very shorts video when you have time, i really appreciate your help
thank you

[Alotofmoney]

Hi Barry! First of all I want to thank you for all your helpful videos. I am a right handed player and right dominant eye. I used to play with my cue in between the eyes and touching the chin, and I've tried playing with the cue aligned to the left. Is there any possibility that after doing that I am less right eye dominant? Sometimes I hit the ball in dead center to perfection, even though I've done centuries, but sometimes I struggle. If I have my cue more in between the eyes I sometimes hit a bit of unintended left hand side. If I try to put the cue more to the right I have a tendency to put unintended right hand side. What could this mean? In case that I should aim under my right eye, how do I know how far to the right the cue should go under? Thanks a lot once again Barry, I am waiting for your answer. Kind Regards!

[jama]

These videos are incredible Barry, and I have the utmost respect for you. Just a thought, sometimes you say a sentence such as in this video where you said “occasionally we come across a person who is even sighted, in that case he will cue in the centre of his chin”. It’s not a criticism, just a suggestion, female players can find this language a little alienating. Perhaps if you’re referring to a player in the abstract, you could say “his or her”. Again, I’m not some stomping angry SJW, just thinking it could be a nice thing to add, but I’ll love your videos either way. Good on you Barry.

[giannistyrhs]

Hi Barry .First and foremost congratulations for your good work. I started watch your videos and i have learnt a lot by them. I m pool player that would love to play snooker in future because i dont have in my own town. But i have a question.
Im right hand with dominant left eye according to test.The thing is when i use it i feel uncomfortable. On the other hand i aim pretty well with my right and i have also good stance . I dont khow if i did right the test but it stills confuse me because if you move properly your eyes and the paper i can be with right dominant eye . Whats your opinion about this and what adaptation i have to do in my stance ? PS im 1.82 cm height and i preffer you old music in your videos. Keep up with the good work