Pot Gear - What's The Score?
If you're serious about improving your snooker, you'll know there's no substitute for hours spent on the practice table. But are you sure you're putting the effort into the right parts of your game? A new product, MySnookerStats, attempts to give you the answer - using a clever bit of technology which works with your own mobile phone.
The idea behind MySnookerStats is brilliantly simple: by using your phone to keep a detailed record of each match you play, you can pin down your own strengths and weaknesses and make every minute of practice count.
Global-snooker.com sent one of its readers, Jay Morris along to meet the guy behind the invention of MySnookerStats. Andy Guest is a keen club player, and we wanted to hear more about the possibilities and put MySnookerStats through its paces.
I met up with Andy at the Bush Hill Park club in Enfield. After a quick coffee, Andy showed me table three where the idea for MySn was developed nearly three years ago.
“I remember playing and practising regularly, but wondering whether I was actually improving or not. I couldn't really find a good way to assess it. Snooker has never had that fixed measurement system that golf has with its handicapping, simply by the nature of the game being all relative to your opponent's performance. At least with golf, you always get to hit your own ball and always from the place that you left it!
One day, after seeing the top pros on TV achieving over 90% potting success, I started wondering what my percentage might be. I knew I could work it out if I wrote down the outcome of every shot I played, but I couldn't face doing that! It occurred to me that my mobile phone was pretty much a mini-computer - if I could write a program to act like a scoreboard, it could keep all the counts for me. I had worked in computer programming for years, so once I had figured out what it was I needed, I set about developing the first version of MySn.
At the table, Andy hands me his mobile phone, loaded with the latest version of the application. He shows me how to use the buttons to record his break pot by pot. It's simple enough: I press 1 when he pots a red up to 7 when he pots a black; it's 9 if he plays safe and 0 when he misses. It feels a little odd at first, but it doesn't take long to get used to it, and the colour-coded break summary which appears on the screen reassures me that I'm getting it right.
As Andy points out, all I'm really doing is what I'd have been doing anyway - keeping score - and sure enough, as his break continues, I see the numbers tick up on his phone's screen. When his break comes to an end, I press the zero and it's my turn.
Andy takes over the phone to record my score. Sadly, I don't get position from my red and my subsequent attempt at a safety shot is less than impressive - Andy easily pots the red I've left on. As he explains, though, it's all part of exploring the strengths and weaknesses of my game. Sure enough, at the press of a button, his phone brings up the unflattering statistic - 0% success rates for both my position and my safety play so far.
But over the course of a match, he says, MySnookerStats' potting and safety success percentages provide both a quick analysis of my game and a target to aim for. "It doesn't matter whether you're playing a much stronger or much weaker opponent," he explains. "It's your own game you're trying to improve, and your own stats you're trying to beat."
I'd like to improve on my percentages, but I know when to call it a day, so we retire to the bar and Andy pulls out his laptop. It's a chance to look at the other side of MySnookerStats - the personalized website included as part of the annual subscription package.
I watch as Andy sends the result of our match from his phone to the website; reassuringly for a techno-phobe like me, it's all done over the airwaves, with no need to plug anything in. And sure enough, when Andy logs on to the site, our match is right there on his personal home page. If I signed up for MySnookerStats, he explains, I'd see the same match too.
I detect, perhaps, a touch of pride as Andy points out his high break - with each of the balls displayed in glorious colour. But the real meat of the site is contained in the graphs, which track how Andy's game's improved over time. I can see at once how motivating it could be to see your lines move upwards, and it's also clear that the detailed stats the website offers could be a valuable training aid.
Andy says MySnookerStats has already helped him improve his own game. For a long time, he tells me, he'd wondered why he always played below his best against a particular opponent, Steve. After using MySnookerStats for a few matches and comparing his statistics online, he found the answer.
"I was way more aggressive against Steve," he explains. "He makes more long pots, so I tried more long pots too, when I should really have played safe. And my shot time went right down - I wasn't taking the time I needed to settle at the table, but was copying his pace." They're hard habits to break, he admits, but at least now he knows what he needs to work on.
Our time's almost up, but before I head off Andy gives me a quick demo of the latest addition to MySnookerStats - the online virtual league. Sign up with a group of friends, he explains, and you can keep track of each other's progress and compete to achieve the best percentages. It's a neat idea, helping you measure yourself up even against people you don't get to play very often. There's more in the pipeline for the virtual league, Andy says, as more and more people sign up with the website.
Global Review:
MySnookerStats is a useful invention that helps bring snooker into the twenty-first century. Let’s be honest, there hasn’t been a whole lot of product development since Neville Chamberlain gave us the game in 1875.
You will quickly become addicted to punching in the information and seeing whether you have improved.
It is only like marking your scorecard in golf, but you do it electronically so there is always a record of how you played.
And you don’t need any new bits of equipment either, just download the software and away you go. You don’t have to be a techno-whizz to use MySn.
We did find one problem. We spoke to Katie Henrick, women’s world number four who is the resident professional at the prestigious Royal Automobile Club in London. She told us that club rules prevented members using their phones in the clubhouse.
But, as Andy pointed out to me, the application itself is silent, so as long as your phone is on silent, you won't be putting anyone else off, and most clubs will not object to that kind of use. If that's the case for you in your club, we suggest you get yourself signed up to MySnookerStats. [Click here…]
