Potting

Black off the Spot Routine

The black off its spot is the most-practised routine in snooker, and for good reason. Most big breaks are built around the black, and this drill trains exactly that: pot the black, keep the cue ball on the right side of it, and do it again. It is simple to set up and brutally honest about your consistency.

Snooker table top viewTop-down view of a full-size snooker table at 1mm = 1px scale.100 mmFull-size snooker table · 3569 × 1778 mm · 1 px = 1 mm
Table layout for the Black off the spot drill

Setup

  1. Place the black on its spot.
  2. Place the cue ball a little below and to one side of the black, giving a gentle angle into a top corner pocket (see the diagram).

Rules

  1. Pot the black into either top corner pocket.
  2. Re-spot the black after every pot and play the next one from wherever the cue ball stopped.
  3. The attempt ends when you miss, go in-off, or leave yourself no realistic pot on the black.
  4. Your score is the number of blacks potted in a row.

Targets by level

Beginner
5–10 in a row
Club player
25 in a row
Advanced
50+ in a row

Tips

  • Keep a slight angle on every pot. A dead-straight black leaves you nowhere to go for the next one, because the cue ball cannot get back to the other side of the ball.
  • Use stun and screw to control how far the cue ball travels after contact, rather than running the cue ball through and hoping.
  • Decide where you want the cue ball to stop before you get down on the shot, then play the pot at a pace that gets it there.

Common mistakes

  • Drifting into a straight line and having to play a difficult positional shot to get the angle back.
  • Hitting the pot too firmly, which makes the black rattle in the jaws of the pocket.
  • Losing concentration after a good run. Treat the 20th black exactly like the first.

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