Here we have a collection of tips from the best on the game to help in your game play. They are ideal for beginners through to the expert. We hope that you find this section useful in improving your game but remember that above all it will always take practice.


Franky's Tips - Aggressive Safety

The aim here is to play an aggressive safety by splitting the reds up and getting the white behind the baulk colours, preferably tight on the cushion. Figure 1 is an example of how to play the shot and Figure 2 is an idea of how you would like the balls to end up. The white is played off 3 (maybe 4) cushions and between the pink and blue. It is a risky shot to play as there’s a chance of leaving a red on. If your opponent is a defensive player, then you can use this shot to play the game on your terms and not his.


AggresiveSafety1

AggresiveSafety2
Franky's Tips - Defensive Safety

There will often be a situation where even by playing the object ball fairly thin, you will knock it over the opposite corner pocket. To prevent this from happening, you need to aim extremely thin on the red (Fig 1). This will allow for an extremely thin contact. This shot is only to be played if there is nothing between the object ball and the cushion. The reason being, that if you miss the red on the way down, you will also miss it on the way up again due to the heavy sidespin on the cue ball. Fig 2 shows where the white will end up if played correctly.

Fig 3 is the regular return to baulk safety. It is played with a hint of side. The white can go between the low colours but there is a risk of getting a kiss on the green or brown. Another way of playing the shot is hitting the red a bit thinner so that the white will miss the green and settle near the baulk cushion.

Fig 4 is my preferred return to baulk safety. The advantage of this shot is that the vast majority of the time you will miss the kiss on the baulk colours and thus have a good chance of getting a good snooker behind one of them.


DefensiveSafety1

DefensiveSafety2

DefensiveSafety3

DefensiveSafety4
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