The bigger difference you didn't bring up is that pool cue shafts are made of hard rock maple it dosent have the porosity and grain that ash snooker shafts do. Maple shafts get dirty and sticky faster so they have to be cleaned and conditioned more often to keep them feeling the the same. Players wear gloves so they can slack off on cleaning and still get a consistent feel. I prefer a regular cleaning and wax to a glove.
Spot On - We, in the UK, also generally speaking have never really had a climate where glove wearing was that much of a help to cueing - but by far the biggest reason, as pointed out, is cue care.
Watching from Chicago, Illinois, i use a glove when i play pool and i use an open bridge style, main reason why is to avoid sweat or sticky cue sticking to my hand.
Another thing to consider when deciding to use a glove is “touchy” shots. I play a lot of pool (8, 9, 10 ball etc.) and with my very first cue a few years back, i made the mistake of rubbing away the protective coating on the shaft and it soon became sticky. My hands do get pretty sweaty too specially considering i live in Houston which is really humid. My main problem became low speed and/or touch shots. The cue would become “stuck” to my skin and as i gave it a bit more of a push to break that stick it broke free and added unnecessary speed to the ball. The glove got rid of that. Now there are different gloves and i have so far gone through 6 of them, and I have not noticed a difference in performance in as to what you were saying about the cue vibrating etc. The materials are all the same, the only difference between a $5 glove and a $25-30 glove, lets say, Predator Second Skin, is the details. The predator has a breathable mesh in the palm as well as a leather patch in the fatter part of the palm that is in constant contact with the table. It also has a strap and nicer looks, but the cue slides the same as in any other.
I cant help but laugh at the people who wear these. It's not that I think the glove isn't useful. It just looks so ridiculous! I'm a pool player. Not sure if the same goes for snooker players, but I have an incredible sense of pride about my game. I dont want any outside influence. Good or bad. I'm responsible for everything that happens on that table. Even if it's my opponent defeating me. The great pool players of old didnt have a glove and they didnt need it. Neither do I.
@@Crxig3 to be honest, I think I'd have benefited from one before I bought my new cue. My old one was good but very sticky. The things I did to avoid a glove were so ridiculous i would have beenwat better off buying ove
I've used Predator Second Skin, Kamui and Molinari and they're all very nice to use. Predator Second Skin in particular is very comfortable and smooth. All of them are cut at the finger tips. There is a rougher surface on the bottom side of the glove, either rubber or some other fabric, which might cause more problems with the hand prints you mentioned (never really a huge problem with me from Kamui), but they would help with taking balls out of the pockets for sure. Expensive though!
Great video. I use a glove on humid days when playing American pool, but the open finger type. I just feel like a tosser when I wear one, so I only put it on when things get really sticky. Dayne in South Africa.
Great vid, but I find the idea of chalking my cue with my left hand (as a right-hander) alien. And it's something I realise I've never taken note of in other players.
Hi Nikhil from chennai, India. Recently began playing, and I see you have made a video on the dominant eye theory, after watching which my potting really improved and I won my first game. Great feeling. Thank you for doing what you do.
im from manchester, and up here it gets wet.. and a glove helps a lot. i wear a glove when i play 9 ball, but with my snooker cue, i don't. i couldn't tell you the reason behind this, i just don't 😂 lovely vid!
Well i used the glove before with my old cue, and it was very ok no issues i preferred it than using powder due to the fact it get messy at times. However recently and after getting a new cue i simply keep it clean and i stopped using it nor using powder ,tho i still have it. I used to use the loop bridge in my early days when i was playing the french style billiard i dont know if you know it or not, but there was no pockets on the table your mission is to hit 2 balls to get a point. But when i started playing snooker i shifted my bridge to the regular snooker one. Thanks man for the information and the amazing videos
Tuning in from Italy. Thanks for testing the glove on a snooker table. I think the biggest benefit is when bridging with a looped finger as you pointed out. I often used that method in pool (albeit with my trusty snooker cue), and "stickiness" was always a problem.
Not about the looped bridge mate. Most pool players with standard bridge also wear gloves. Main reason is larger shaft (more surface friction) and maple instead of ash...
I wouldn't say the pores and grain of ash have much of a difference on a closed bridge versus maple. The main difference would be the conical taper of a snooker cue versus the pro taper of an American pool cue.
The cuesoul gloves are the best ones I ve tried to date it’s strong well made and better quality material much more smoother to play with than the cheaper ones which I ve played with before
a lot of the issues you had gripping things with the glove are really non-issues. for starters, you can easily get a fingerless glove. but also, for someone who is right handed, they'll be using their left hand for bridging, leaving their dominant hand free. a lot of professional pool players also use a chalking technique wherein they hold the cue mid-shaft with their bridge hand, and use their dominant hand to chalk the tip, helping avoid dropping the chalk.
For me the main reason is consistency of delivery, as with all things snooker. Your skin is not the slick tar sealed road you think it is to slide something like a cue over. And conditions, especially when heating is excessive and nerves are poor etc can bring an amount of sweat. The glove material allows it to glide more smoothly which will explain your 4% difference- a slick tar sealed road provides greater efficiency than an unsealed one for the same drive. Reason it’s easier to cue over the ball is for the same reason. A scrunch raised hand means the cue gets a slightly bumpier road and it’s more important then to cue through smoothly. If anything I’d say the main reason players don’t use them is because most these days grew up without them and lose that feel of cue on hand with all its heightened sensitivity of feeling the connect with the cue. Sometimes it so smooth you can’t even feel it. So for that reason I see competitive advantage coming in in youngers players who will grow up with them.
Being right- handed I've always used my right hand to chalk. Just holding the cue in my left hand while chalking felt natural to me. So I never had the chalk dropping on the ground other than the rare occasional slip. The glove was a huge benefit over using talk powder or even putting chalk between my thumb and index finger. At the start it felt different, like less feedback of the cue through the skin, but the cueing was so much smoother and I never regretted switching to the glove.
I talked to a guy at my local club and he says he wears his in snooker because he was used to from playing 9ball and like you said higher cue power. Also said if he plays in different tournaments that has different air temperatures he’ll always have the same consistency. Deangelo from Windsor Ontario, Canada
Recently transistioned to snooker after playing pool in my youth. My first purchase included cue, case, chalk and a GLOVE! My hands get sticky often and a glove was essential when I played pool. I personally could not fathom playing a cue sport without a glove at least on stand by.
I cut the fingertips off my gloves, it helps with the chalk issue. Pretty sure you can buy them without tips also. The glove helps here in the Texas heat/humidity.
I'm one of those players who uses a glove, as I switch between a looped and standard bridge, at first it was to try and limit how dirty my sanded 9-ball cue was getting, Barry Stark has a good tip of using a crumpled up sheet of paper to take the worst of it off and smooth it out, but I noticed after a while my hands would get just a little sweaty also why I have a thread wrapped cue butt. Edit: One downside I did find, was bridging from the rail, with the glove covering my finger tips I tended to slip off the edge, but fixed that by snipping the ends off with some scissors leaving the thumb alone, also the glove needs cleaning/replacing regularly.
@01:55 BfL: You also have to consider the fact that the taper on the cue is more conical for a snooker than for a pool cue. For this fact, snooker player use the open bridge and not a closed one. Because of the conical taper, the cue slightly elevates when cueing aka cue-ing and needs some friction to stay on the open bridge. With the chin on the cue, and the cue to the check with the friction on the open bridge all stabilizes the cue when driven through the stroke.
I play with gloves it makes cue glide with ease and stopping friction however the only trouble with it can cause u to lose control more by over cueing as it is so smooth and it makes it really slick and smooth for cueing as long as u can control the cue well whilst wearing gloves it does help when playing but in other ways it can be a bad thing when cones to control as it’s harder to control by then again it’s hard to control a cue in a sticky situation and like rubbing the bridge hand with a piece of rubber there’s pros and cons to consider either way
It's simple, it will always be better for it to be very slippery than for it to be sticky, because if it is sticky, it produces jerks, braking, and acceleration.
as American pool balls are so much heavier a closed loop bridge is needed to get more cue power for draw/follow shots so the gloves help with cueing accuracy and draw accuracy. I shoot open bridge on my snooker table at home. south west Michigan usa here
I've just taken up snooker again after many years away from the game and the club i go to is quite warm; I regularly wipe down my cue and dry my hands with a towel however after a few hours of practice the other day, the skin on my thumb split and it was painful to cue; it's the first time it's ever happened and although I don't like the thought of wearing one, i'm considering a glove. Having said that, maybe it's just a case of the more I play the tougher my skin will get.
Tbh I started using a glove some time ago (mostly because my local club has poor AC and my hands sweat immensely) and I can safely say that they work wonderful, I feel much smoother cue delivery
trouble with that is, if you ever wanted to get your cue worked on, maybe refinished, after time...it will be almost impossible to do a good finish job on. I used to be a wood finisher, and the silicone in furniture polish seeps through lacquers and embeds in the wood and is almost impossible to neutralise, which is a problem because it reacts with most types of finishes, so if its an expensive cue you intend to keep for life, its a really bad idea
I'm Kevin from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On the subject of gloves, snooker clubs here are very prone to humidity problems due to tropical weather. My theory is that most pool players wear gloves because pool cues are generally made from maple wood, whereas majority snooker players use ash wood cues. I've been playing snooker for nearly 20 years and I have been using a maple shaft cue for 4 years before switching back to an ash shaft cue 2 years ago. Speaking from experience, the maple shaft tends to get much stickier due to humidity as compared to an ash shaft cue. Maple wood is much more sensitive to humidity than ash wood.
As a regular pool player (9ball & straight; not snooker), I can say that it really depends on the shaft material as well. My ultralight playing cue has a fibreglass shaft, wich for some reason feels like sandpaper after an hour of play, a glove is an absolute must! However my breaking cue has a maple shaft and it plays like crap with the glove, though that might be due to me using cuesilk on it before starting a session wich gets sticky with glove use. On topic: I havent found differences in cheap or expensive gloves, so I just stick to the cheap ones (though they do wear out quicker).
My experience: I mainly play pool and a long time I couldn't imagine to use a glove because I was frightened to loose control of feeling. One year ago I gave it a try because someone on my club gave me a cheap glove. It was no big difference, it felt nearly the same like without a glove. Very natural and I didn't loose control. The benifit: no matter how munch my cue was dirty or how munch I sweated (in the summer my hands sweat a lot, always had to wash them or clean the cue a lot), the feeling on the stroke was always the same! The sliding is perfectly consisting no matter if you play in summer and sweat or forgot to clean your cue! It is always the same sliding. Still using the cheap gloves,, even if I go to the snoooker table. Consistancy is what we are all looking for I think. It helped me a lot and I would recommend every snooker player to try it!!!! Some of our pool players are more comfortable with gloves without finger tipps to "feel" the cloth. If you need to feel it, buy gloves without fingertipps. @breakfromlife watching you from Schwerin, Germany, thumbs up
Thanks for all your vids these have really helped me and thanks to you I got my first 40 break, btw I'm commenting from Windsor UK come down for some frames!
Glad you’ve made this video mate. I’ve used a variety of different cues over the years and have always loved playing with my 1pc jp ultimate which is super smooth along the bridge. However for convenience sake I purchased a cheap Chinese 3/4 cue and even though I managed to knock a 53 break in with it, it was like playing with a kids cue covered in sticky sweats residue lol. I kept having to wipe it down. My advice is ditch the glove and ditch the cheap nasty cues and go pay the extra. Think of how many years it takes to become good at the game therefor the price doesn’t matter if you are getting better value from playing well. That being said wear the glove if it helps you for now until you can upgrade to a more suitable cue.
I agree with you on that. The problem is that well, I don't know, maybe it's just me who watches this channel. I'm a pool player and I don't know if it would be right to watch snooker stuff. What I'm getting at is that it should be clearly stated that the V-bridge is more suitable for snooker players than for pool players. If you are young and have time to progress, it doesn't matter that you start with a V bridge, which is more complicated if you are going to dedicate yourself to pool, but it will take you much longer, years, to shoot well with V than with the ring. Of course, for snooker you have no choice but to use V. The problem is that if pool players watch this video they may mistakenly understand that they have to start with the V bridge, which is a mistake. I'm telling you from experience since I'm 52 years old and I've played with V all my life and I've changed to a ring and I've improved 200 percent. It's also true that I know what I'm doing and I didn't before. But the best is brutal, but brutal.
Awesome videos brother. You've improved my snooker and pool game with all your videos. Watching you from Santa Barbara California. Keep up the great content. Cheers
In the US, gloves are very common. It has nothing to do with the bridge you use, but the climate you are in. If you are in a humid area and/or you have sweaty hands, a glove simply makes playing easier. There is nothing more annoying than a sticky cue. I keep a glove in my case and use it when necessary. As for the issues you were having... I have never seen anyone else have them. I can easily pick up 3 balls in a gloved hand. I have never seen a glove leave a mark on a table. And I have never seen anyone drop chalk in a gloved hand. Granted, you said your chalk was no longer cubed, so that might be the issue. They do make gloves without fingertips, but I never saw the point in them... but that might help you and your round chalk. In all reality, gloves do help. You dont have to constantly wipe down your cue to get rid of the sweat and grime, not do you need messy talcum powder.
The other fingers are not covered, it is to avoid several things, first the heat in the hand, second tugging on the glove, and third to let you feel the fabric of the table, just as the tips of the other fingers are also cut for the same. A quality glove has to be breathable, soft and comfortable, and it doesn't have to give you heat, pull, or be too big or too small.
Played a lot of 9 ball and used a Molinari glove after much trial and error with different gloves. It’s much pricier but finger tips cut out so you got your finger tips instead of glove for grip. It lasted me a year or more where as cheap ones just wouldn’t. Molinari gloves are just the best in my opinion. After years, it’s weird for me not to wear a glove.
The first thing I had to do when I started playing is getting a billiards glove. Right away for my first time playing I noticed that after just 15 minutes my hands started to get sweaty which made the cue litteraly stick to my fingers. It not just decreased my accuracy and cue power, but it started rubbing off my skin, so it was painful after a while as well. By the time I didn't think about using a powder, so I chose the most rational solution, I bought a glove. It made my whole game a lot more comfortable and honestly, wearing glove made me being able to concentrate more on executing the shot rather than the feeling of the cue rubbing against my fingers.
Ive been playing english pool for about 4 years now, and didnt try a glove until October. Best decision ive made, i suffer from slightly clammy hands so the cue tends to grip my bridge a bit. Having it feels so smooth with cue delivery
I use a predator glove in pool because my hands get sweaty in the summer or under pressure like watching Alex Honnold doing his thing. I used to practice some snooker too but gave it up partly due to the friction issues. I played snooker without a glove since I didn't feel so comfortable with the open bridge draw, smaller cue ball and lighter cue together with the glove.
I use a glove to play snooker. I always get clammy hands and I used to use talc but I was literally applying it every 5 minutes. The thing is, for modern players in America, it's just the norm to wear gloves, whereas in England it's not. Therefore some people are embarrassed to wear one in case people take the piss - fine example, might have been Ross Muir or another player but one was wearing one in the snooker shoot-out the other month, and the same audience member kept making Michael Jackson noises thinking he was funny (nobody laughed). re: the chalking thing, I'd hazard a guess that most players chalk with their dominant i.e. non-gloved hand anyway. Some don't, but most I see do.
I make it a point to chalk with the non-bridge hand. The main reason is so that chalk doesn't get on my bridge hand. I didn't originally do it that way, but common sense made me realize that chalk residue falling from the chalk into my hand could cause friction.
@@johnhoush4366 so then don't you mean you chalk with your bridge hand? If - as you suggest, which makes sense, residue falls onto the hand you are holding the cue with then you would not want that to be your bridge hand.
I'm not going to deny that at first I was embarrassed, but because I thought that people were going to think that I would be a pro player and then they would see me missing balls. But that's my nonsense. If someone told me why you use the glove, I would take it off and tell them, just put it on and play and then tell me.
I like at lahore, Pakistan which gets humid sometimes. I have played snooker without glove for 22 years but since I shifted on using a glove, it has made things better for the game plus comfort level has improved. We have two basic quality gloves available One for 0.5$ and other for 2.5$ ( after conversion) The later one is made of a material which is less slippery and makes you even forget that you are wearing one
A lot of it comes down to the difference in tapers of pool cues vs snooker cues. Snooker cues have always traditionally been conical in taper, so a closed loop bridge provides little benefit since a conical tapered cue tends to push your fingers further apart as you stroke through the shot and can cause inconsistent and inaccurate shots. Pool cues are often, though not always, made with "pro" tapers in which the diameter of the shaft changes very little between the tip of the shaft up to a few inches away from the joint of the cue. This kind of taper lends itself to the closed loop bridge where you don't have to worry about a changing diameter of the shaft pushing your fingers apart, whereas a conical taper does not.
That's what I was thinking. If the cue is conical and we make the ring, there comes a time when the space between the cue and the ring is different in a section of the cue, so this will make it fit loose and move. This is the simple reason why snooker players use the V-bridge. But there is no reason not to use a glove XD.
I’m 15 and kind of new to snooker I love the vids and find them to help me with all the new things to do, do u recommend and cues for beginners not to expensive. Watching the vids from Preston keep up the work
the close bridge is a strong reason to use a glove but in the states the difference in humidity from las vagas vs say mississippi is hugh. If your trying to be competitive but having to mess around with a sticky stick a glove solves this with 99% effectiveness. the last 1% being a dirty cue with high humidity wil still drag a little with a glove.
I’ll play with or without one. I currently use one. Could care less if didn’t have it. I’ll also use any fancy shaft and chalk or a club cue off the wall and simple master chalk. If your fundamentals are solid with your stroke, you can do what’s needed.
I play a fair bit of snooker and never had the need for a glove. I regularly clean my cue shaft with a hot (hot as you can stand it) wet cloth rung out so it’s just damp and giving the shaft a real good rub down - you’ll see all the grime on the cloth once you’ve finished. The fact the cloth is hot means that the moisture you put on to the cue will mostly evaporate off and be nice and smooth. From there you can put some cue slick on which makes it feel brand new. I always make sure I wash my hand and dry them properly before I play as well.
I make my own gloves. Definitely the fabric and custom fit is a major factor. Living in a humid area really count. But the reason as to why I prefer a glove. Is that it doesn’t leave a dirty table like power does. I saw some amateur putting so much power on their hands that the table and the balls where totally gross and not only it was distracting but would affect the roll of the balls. On that note, could you touch a bit on how to maintain and clean your table as well as your balls. And the importance of playing on a dirty table vs a clean one? -love your video from sunny Florida
If a person had a tight fitting glove with small rubber pads on the finger pads you might be able to get a noticeable improvement on the stability of the bridge. I play a lot of pool also and find aiming with the loop bridge to be very detrimental. I use the snooker bridge for that.
I switched to a predator second skin glove and I have never looked back. I live in a dry climate and I don’t really have sweaty hands, overall it’s just more constant feel.
I play English pool where the cues are actually thinner at the tip end normally between 7.8 and 9mm I use more of a snooker cue at 9.6mm I use a glove and an open bridge the reason I use it is because of the consistency of shot feel ie no matter how sweaty your hands get cueing the cue ball feels the same every time which to me is a positive
2 recommendations for you real quick. The best gloves to use for feel are Molinari, Predator and Kamui (they all have the finger tips and thumb tip cut off) and maybe use master chalk as well, your chalk wont roll away from you when you drop it yeah?
I always hold my stick with my bridge hand and chalk with my other hand, whether using cloves or not, did have same problem trying to pick up to many balls at a time, solved that by picking up less balls, the humidity is always up and down where I play so my stick was dry one wet the next, got tired of getting powder all over me and the table, so just use glove all the time now.
I play my snooker in Spain and always play in a glove because in the summer the temperature can be 45 degrees plus ....I also have my own outdoor pool table and believe me it's virtually impossible to play without a glove😊
Also something to be said about plastic shafts in pool vs finished wooden shafts in snooker. I hate playing with bar pool cues and my friends' because they get dirty and sticky with every touch. A clean wood finish makes a massive difference.
@@toziassmitt You'd be surprised how many semi pros/good amateurs would have somewhat cheap cues. It's hard to switch cues after you played with them for a few years. Stephen Hendry played with a garbage broomstick for most of his career because that's what he got as a child.
@@simmerke1111 wrong. Hendry played with a maple Riley cue that he got at 14 years old, that cost £40 at the time. £40 back then is equivalent to about £200 today, and Riley used to be a good maker. Sure, it’s not a £2,000 Parris cue, but definitely not trash lol
I use one for pocket-billiards, but I've never tried it with snooker, because the nearest snooker table to me in Central Maryland is over an hour's drive away. I'd really like to play snooker someday though. I like the mechanics of the game much more than any other game except for straight-pool.
re: feeling slightly wobbly/unstable there's an idea in barbell lifting that gloves shouldn't be used because they limit the proprioceptive feedback from your hands (so your brain won't let them grip as hard) this could be something similar - your hand doesn't get the same feeling it usually does telling it to hold the bridging pose (and it'll be subtly different for each glove you put on..not to mention "untrainable")
I'm sorry, but it's not true. A glove now is like a condom now, it feels almost real. Saying these things does nothing for a beginner. The glove improves your game, whether you want it or not.
Though this vid was made 4yrs ago, I'm just going thru some vids I didn't watch coz it was not related at that time. But recently bought a snooker glove to help with my cueing mainly due to the place being humid making my cue sticky. I use to clean it with snooker oil, but if the weather in the club is not cool enough, the cue gets sticky often. This is what I feel. Snooker glove is a go for me. And yeah, don't really care if other guys laugh if I wear the glove! 😂
Anyone from india or pakistan that just plays at local clubs with whatever cue they can find. Please buy this glove because those cues are extremely cheap ones with no care whatsoever and by using this glove i was able to bypass that quite successfully.
It also looked like you were more consistent screwing back the ball with the glove. You stopped more of the bare handed shots early when it was clear they wouldn't exceed the existing shot.
I use gloves in Summer time when playing Snooker here in Australia. At my club its very humid, Cue gets sticky very quickly. A glove negates that issue. Winter time however, I don't need a glove at all.
@@Breakfromlife Alan Mcmanus used one over in China at one point as well. I think a lot of pro players would opt to use one if they thought about it ahead of time. I remember years ago seeing the great Stephen Lee wipe his cue down dozens of times during a match he had in China, I bet he would of loved one. Very muggy over there. I keep a high quality Kamui glove rolled up in my case at all times. I think the main reason we don't see them using them is the conditions in which they play most of the time simply don't call for them.
the problem with with loop bridge is snooker is the taper: snooker shafts are conical, whereas pool shaft are more cylindrical, so loop bridge is easier with pool cues.
Another important reason to not use a glove is because whether you realize it or not that little friction of the cue feathering running across your skin really helps tune your cue speed based on friction feedback. For most people this feedback is likely subconscious because once you reach a certain skill level you almost never think about it. Obviously with a glove this skin sensory feedback is almost eliminated. Also with a glove I find it more difficult to have a slow controlled start to my delivery so starting out your cue action timing might be a little off.
chalk actually creates more friction (it's conceived for that reason) and you get your shaft dirty, so it's a very dumb decision. Try talcum powder instead, which reduce the friction.
Look for the Poison or Predator gloves. They have a rubber coating on the table side of the palm that will help grip on the cloth. I have a feeling you're seeing more hand marks because the material of the glove wants to grab the nap of the snooker felt. Oh, and for the pinboard map, Reno, Nevada USA. Love your videos. I haven't played pool in almost two years due to the pandemic and getting hurt working, but I can't wait to take some of what I learned from your videos to the table :)
Maybe it would be an idea to use a loop bridge for snooker too if wearing the glove, which might stop any lateral movement when cueing. I don't wear a glove and neither do I use a loop grip but what I sometimes do is chalk fully around the part of the cue where my bridge hand makes contact with it.
Loop bridges don’t work in snooker....you actually have to hit the ball in the pocket in this game, not a couple of inches either side like 9 ball! Accuracy means you need a traditional snooker bridge.
@@mrb018538 Not sure why why hitting the ball in the pocket makes a difference when using a loop bridge and Alex Higgins didn't do tell badly when using it.
amazed66 It’s just an accuracy thing. Have the ‘V’ traditional snooker bridge is much more repeatable than with a loop bridge. Much more scope for movement in loop bridges, and with snooker having much higher accuracy required, it’s no good.....hence why no players use it.
@@mrb018538 I would say the V bridge is just more the way it has always been in snooker and so will be why any new players taking up the game will use that because it's just the traditional method and what they have seen players used to. Even to the extent that snooker players use the V bridge in pool too and some initially even used their snooker cues to play pool. I suppose though the purpose of this video was with regards to using a glove when playing snooker and my comments about using the loop bridge when doing so was only in response to the cue possibly moving a little from side to side when cueing, although personally I use neither a glove nor a loop bridge anyway.
I was thinking of trying to add a thin coating of flexible rubber spray on the inside of the gloves. If that solves the problem of slipping when taking balls out of the pocket and slipping of the chalk, then I'm never going back :) I need gloves in both hands because for me it doesn't matter if I play left or right handed.
I've always been curious why snooker players use open bridge instead of closed bridge. Closed bridge just gives you so much more control of the stick. Anyways that's why I use a glove. Portsmouth, Va in the states here.
snooker players play much lower on the shot and the balls are smaller. closed bridges can impede your vision. I also never felt closed bridges gave me more control to be honest. Only on very specific shots, which is where I will use them. Open bridges also force you into a straighter and smoother cue-action which can only improve your game.
@@Breakfromlife I also believe that it would be more difficult to use a closed bridge with a snooker cue because of the difference in taper from an american pool cue. The pro taper on an american cue means that the portion of the shaft that slides through the bridge remains the same diameter throughout the stroke, where I do not believe that is the case with a snooker cue. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, though. It's been years since I've had a chance to play snooker, with it not being very popular here, and even when I did, it was always with an american style cue.
I used a glove for years - and while I am in no way a pro, I found it really helped... Why? I seem to have naturally clammy skin, and the result of that was a cue action that did not always feel the same. Add the glove and suddenly you have removed one variable from the equation, which genuinely improved my cue action, as well as mindset. My coach/mentor hated it, but couldn't really refute the result on both the smoothness of cue action and of course confidence. Not to mention all my highest breaks were with the glove. As for the alternatives, well cleaning one's cue was a bit of a weekly ritual anyway (few things better than that high pitched screech you generate really cleaning it), so it was no factor (and honestly it should be part of everyone's pre/post practice 'rituals' - just like cleaning balls, brushing the table, damp cloth and ironing, etc). And talc eventually gets gummy and then the shaft of your cue also ends up nasty (and I run a John Parris, so we don't want to be messing that up!). The other alternative I saw (and was used by a few guys in my team/club) was some sort of barrier cream that when applied, seemed to 'dry' to an invisible very dry finish (and was later removed with soap and water) - for the life of me I cant remember the name of it. Hand marks - absolutely no issue in my experience. At this time as well, I was working in a club, and the hand marks were basically no factor (especially compared to chalk) - It may have been the material of the glove too? For a short while I was also making gloves (my mother was an excellent seamstress, so I picked up more than a few things), and quickly found plain old spandex to be just about perfect!
As an American pool player I feel like I come from snooker in a way. I didn’t like the loop bridge and I watched way more snooker than Billiards. So I shoot every shot with the smoker flat hand and thumb bridge. I also put my chin right on the cue and with the thumb bridge I aim so much better than the loop bridge.
ash has grain that the dirt n sweat get into so doesn't feel as sticky as maple. if your cue is clean you likely won't need one. professional players will have well maintained cues. clean your cue with a damp cloth, buff dry. simple as that.
One negative I noticed is feeling that my hand is detached from the cue. I like to feel my cue sliding on my hand. Get's me the feeling of more control though it probably doesn't help. But a pool player there are many benefits and I got used to it.
Watching from Regina,Sk. Canada... nice video... i myself own a glove but only use it if the pool hall is humid. the last tourney i played in i had the issue the next day i bought a glove lol Vapor Cool Edge Pool and Billiard Glove- the glove i bought. i like it cuz it gives good feel of the cue through the glove
The bigger difference you didn't bring up is that pool cue shafts are made of hard rock maple it dosent have the porosity and grain that ash snooker shafts do.
Maple shafts get dirty and sticky faster so they have to be cleaned and conditioned more often to keep them feeling the the same. Players wear gloves so they can slack off on cleaning and still get a consistent feel. I prefer a regular cleaning and wax to a glove.
Spot On - We, in the UK, also generally speaking have never really had a climate where glove wearing was that much of a help to cueing - but by far the biggest reason, as pointed out, is cue care.
Watching from Chicago, Illinois, i use a glove when i play pool and i use an open bridge style, main reason why is to avoid sweat or sticky cue sticking to my hand.
rodrigo delgado shout out chicago ✊️😎
@@wombra8314 to
Another thing to consider when deciding to use a glove is “touchy” shots. I play a lot of pool (8, 9, 10 ball etc.) and with my very first cue a few years back, i made the mistake of rubbing away the protective coating on the shaft and it soon became sticky. My hands do get pretty sweaty too specially considering i live in Houston which is really humid. My main problem became low speed and/or touch shots. The cue would become “stuck” to my skin and as i gave it a bit more of a push to break that stick it broke free and added unnecessary speed to the ball. The glove got rid of that. Now there are different gloves and i have so far gone through 6 of them, and I have not noticed a difference in performance in as to what you were saying about the cue vibrating etc. The materials are all the same, the only difference between a $5 glove and a $25-30 glove, lets say, Predator Second Skin, is the details. The predator has a breathable mesh in the palm as well as a leather patch in the fatter part of the palm that is in constant contact with the table. It also has a strap and nicer looks, but the cue slides the same as in any other.
I've never bought one because I already look like a div when I play, and I don't need to give the guys at the club something new to laugh at
To be truthful that was a big reason for me not wearing one as well
I cant help but laugh at the people who wear these. It's not that I think the glove isn't useful. It just looks so ridiculous! I'm a pool player. Not sure if the same goes for snooker players, but I have an incredible sense of pride about my game. I dont want any outside influence. Good or bad. I'm responsible for everything that happens on that table. Even if it's my opponent defeating me. The great pool players of old didnt have a glove and they didnt need it. Neither do I.
@@Crxig3 to be honest, I think I'd have benefited from one before I bought my new cue. My old one was good but very sticky. The things I did to avoid a glove were so ridiculous i would have beenwat better off buying ove
@@Crxig3 aren't you great
@@eddieruddy4995 well id like to think so. Was this supposed to be a dig towards me? All I did was share my opinion
I've used Predator Second Skin, Kamui and Molinari and they're all very nice to use. Predator Second Skin in particular is very comfortable and smooth. All of them are cut at the finger tips. There is a rougher surface on the bottom side of the glove, either rubber or some other fabric, which might cause more problems with the hand prints you mentioned (never really a huge problem with me from Kamui), but they would help with taking balls out of the pockets for sure. Expensive though!
Great video. I use a glove on humid days when playing American pool, but the open finger type. I just feel like a tosser when I wear one, so I only put it on when things get really sticky. Dayne in South Africa.
Great vid, but I find the idea of chalking my cue with my left hand (as a right-hander) alien. And it's something I realise I've never taken note of in other players.
Hi Nikhil from chennai, India. Recently began playing, and I see you have made a video on the dominant eye theory, after watching which my potting really improved and I won my first game. Great feeling. Thank you for doing what you do.
im from manchester, and up here it gets wet.. and a glove helps a lot. i wear a glove when i play 9 ball, but with my snooker cue, i don't. i couldn't tell you the reason behind this, i just don't 😂
lovely vid!
I use one because the Californian heat makes me sweat a bit when playing for hours at a time. The glove just eliminates any annoyance there.
Well i used the glove before with my old cue, and it was very ok no issues i preferred it than using powder due to the fact it get messy at times. However recently and after getting a new cue i simply keep it clean and i stopped using it nor using powder ,tho i still have it. I used to use the loop bridge in my early days when i was playing the french style billiard i dont know if you know it or not, but there was no pockets on the table your mission is to hit 2 balls to get a point. But when i started playing snooker i shifted my bridge to the regular snooker one. Thanks man for the information and the amazing videos
Tuning in from Italy. Thanks for testing the glove on a snooker table. I think the biggest benefit is when bridging with a looped finger as you pointed out. I often used that method in pool (albeit with my trusty snooker cue), and "stickiness" was always a problem.
Not about the looped bridge mate. Most pool players with standard bridge also wear gloves. Main reason is larger shaft (more surface friction) and maple instead of ash...
I wouldn't say the pores and grain of ash have much of a difference on a closed bridge versus maple. The main difference would be the conical taper of a snooker cue versus the pro taper of an American pool cue.
The cuesoul gloves are the best ones I ve tried to date it’s strong well made and better quality material much more smoother to play with than the cheaper ones which I ve played with before
a lot of the issues you had gripping things with the glove are really non-issues. for starters, you can easily get a fingerless glove. but also, for someone who is right handed, they'll be using their left hand for bridging, leaving their dominant hand free. a lot of professional pool players also use a chalking technique wherein they hold the cue mid-shaft with their bridge hand, and use their dominant hand to chalk the tip, helping avoid dropping the chalk.
For me the main reason is consistency of delivery, as with all things snooker. Your skin is not the slick tar sealed road you think it is to slide something like a cue over. And conditions, especially when heating is excessive and nerves are poor etc can bring an amount of sweat. The glove material allows it to glide more smoothly which will explain your 4% difference- a slick tar sealed road provides greater efficiency than an unsealed one for the same drive. Reason it’s easier to cue over the ball is for the same reason. A scrunch raised hand means the cue gets a slightly bumpier road and it’s more important then to cue through smoothly. If anything I’d say the main reason players don’t use them is because most these days grew up without them and lose that feel of cue on hand with all its heightened sensitivity of feeling the connect with the cue. Sometimes it so smooth you can’t even feel it. So for that reason I see competitive advantage coming in in youngers players who will grow up with them.
I love the arrangement of the glove's fingers at the end.
Being right- handed I've always used my right hand to chalk. Just holding the cue in my left hand while chalking felt natural to me. So I never had the chalk dropping on the ground other than the rare occasional slip. The glove was a huge benefit over using talk powder or even putting chalk between my thumb and index finger. At the start it felt different, like less feedback of the cue through the skin, but the cueing was so much smoother and I never regretted switching to the glove.
I talked to a guy at my local club and he says he wears his in snooker because he was used to from playing 9ball and like you said higher cue power. Also said if he plays in different tournaments that has different air temperatures he’ll always have the same consistency. Deangelo from Windsor Ontario, Canada
I have rubbed cue chalk on my bridge,its worked well for me.
Thanks for your great vids.
Recently transistioned to snooker after playing pool in my youth. My first purchase included cue, case, chalk and a GLOVE! My hands get sticky often and a glove was essential when I played pool. I personally could not fathom playing a cue sport without a glove at least on stand by.
I cut the fingertips off my gloves, it helps with the chalk issue. Pretty sure you can buy them without tips also. The glove helps here in the Texas heat/humidity.
Ann Malone Sulsar same lol
I'm one of those players who uses a glove, as I switch between a looped and standard bridge, at first it was to try and limit how dirty my sanded 9-ball cue was getting, Barry Stark has a good tip of using a crumpled up sheet of paper to take the worst of it off and smooth it out, but I noticed after a while my hands would get just a little sweaty also why I have a thread wrapped cue butt.
Edit: One downside I did find, was bridging from the rail, with the glove covering my finger tips I tended to slip off the edge, but fixed that by snipping the ends off with some scissors leaving the thumb alone, also the glove needs cleaning/replacing regularly.
@01:55 BfL: You also have to consider the fact that the taper on the cue is more conical for a snooker than for a pool cue. For this fact, snooker player use the open bridge and not a closed one. Because of the conical taper, the cue slightly elevates when cueing aka cue-ing and needs some friction to stay on the open bridge. With the chin on the cue, and the cue to the check with the friction on the open bridge all stabilizes the cue when driven through the stroke.
Aha, I mean that's the reason, the conical shape. What if we put a conical arrow on a pool cue?
I play with gloves it makes cue glide with ease and stopping friction however the only trouble with it can cause u to lose control more by over cueing as it is so smooth and it makes it really slick and smooth for cueing as long as u can control the cue well whilst wearing gloves it does help when playing but in other ways it can be a bad thing when cones to control as it’s harder to control by then again it’s hard to control a cue in a sticky situation and like rubbing the bridge hand with a piece of rubber there’s pros and cons to consider either way
It's simple, it will always be better for it to be very slippery than for it to be sticky, because if it is sticky, it produces jerks, braking, and acceleration.
as American pool balls are so much heavier a closed loop bridge is needed to get more cue power for draw/follow shots so the gloves help with cueing accuracy and draw accuracy. I shoot open bridge on my snooker table at home. south west Michigan usa here
At 8:08, why the cue-ing is easier in the spider position is that the glove covers most of the loose skin at the thumb, hence removing much friction.
I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the fiction or lack of though
Yes, but the problem is that it moves more and it is more difficult to avoid that.
Hi from Vancouver Canada, huge Chinese population here and I’ve seen a lot playing snooker with a glove.
My hands sweat like you would not believe. I haven't tried a glove yet, though I should, but I do use a lot of talcom powder.
Loving the videos !! They have helped me improve me all round snooker playing! And hello from porepunkah, VICTORIA, Australia 🇦🇺
been watching htese videos for a few weeks. Im from Derby/Nottingham and these have helped me improve a few differnt ways
I've just taken up snooker again after many years away from the game and the club i go to is quite warm; I regularly wipe down my cue and dry my hands with a towel however after a few hours of practice the other day, the skin on my thumb split and it was painful to cue; it's the first time it's ever happened and although I don't like the thought of wearing one, i'm considering a glove. Having said that, maybe it's just a case of the more I play the tougher my skin will get.
Tbh I started using a glove some time ago (mostly because my local club has poor AC and my hands sweat immensely) and I can safely say that they work wonderful, I feel much smoother cue delivery
I use Pledge furniture polish on the shaft on humid days...works like a dream.
trouble with that is, if you ever wanted to get your cue worked on, maybe refinished, after time...it will be almost impossible to do a good finish job on. I used to be a wood finisher, and the silicone in furniture polish seeps through lacquers and embeds in the wood and is almost impossible to neutralise, which is a problem because it reacts with most types of finishes, so if its an expensive cue you intend to keep for life, its a really bad idea
I'm Kevin from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On the subject of gloves, snooker clubs here are very prone to humidity problems due to tropical weather. My theory is that most pool players wear gloves because pool cues are generally made from maple wood, whereas majority snooker players use ash wood cues. I've been playing snooker for nearly 20 years and I have been using a maple shaft cue for 4 years before switching back to an ash shaft cue 2 years ago. Speaking from experience, the maple shaft tends to get much stickier due to humidity as compared to an ash shaft cue. Maple wood is much more sensitive to humidity than ash wood.
A few players with maple cues have told me before how much they struggled with damp conditions
As a regular pool player (9ball & straight; not snooker), I can say that it really depends on the shaft material as well. My ultralight playing cue has a fibreglass shaft, wich for some reason feels like sandpaper after an hour of play, a glove is an absolute must! However my breaking cue has a maple shaft and it plays like crap with the glove, though that might be due to me using cuesilk on it before starting a session wich gets sticky with glove use.
On topic: I havent found differences in cheap or expensive gloves, so I just stick to the cheap ones (though they do wear out quicker).
My experience: I mainly play pool and a long time I couldn't imagine to use a glove because I was frightened to loose control of feeling. One year ago I gave it a try because someone on my club gave me a cheap glove. It was no big difference, it felt nearly the same like without a glove. Very natural and I didn't loose control. The benifit: no matter how munch my cue was dirty or how munch I sweated (in the summer my hands sweat a lot, always had to wash them or clean the cue a lot), the feeling on the stroke was always the same! The sliding is perfectly consisting no matter if you play in summer and sweat or forgot to clean your cue! It is always the same sliding. Still using the cheap gloves,, even if I go to the snoooker table. Consistancy is what we are all looking for I think. It helped me a lot and I would recommend every snooker player to try it!!!! Some of our pool players are more comfortable with gloves without finger tipps to "feel" the cloth. If you need to feel it, buy gloves without fingertipps.
@breakfromlife watching you from Schwerin, Germany, thumbs up
Thanks for all your vids these have really helped me and thanks to you I got my first 40 break, btw I'm commenting from Windsor UK come down for some frames!
Glad you’ve made this video mate. I’ve used a variety of different cues over the years and have always loved playing with my 1pc jp ultimate which is super smooth along the bridge. However for convenience sake I purchased a cheap Chinese 3/4 cue and even though I managed to knock a 53 break in with it, it was like playing with a kids cue covered in sticky sweats residue lol. I kept having to wipe it down. My advice is ditch the glove and ditch the cheap nasty cues and go pay the extra. Think of how many years it takes to become good at the game therefor the price doesn’t matter if you are getting better value from playing well. That being said wear the glove if it helps you for now until you can upgrade to a more suitable cue.
I agree with you on that. The problem is that well, I don't know, maybe it's just me who watches this channel. I'm a pool player and I don't know if it would be right to watch snooker stuff. What I'm getting at is that it should be clearly stated that the V-bridge is more suitable for snooker players than for pool players. If you are young and have time to progress, it doesn't matter that you start with a V bridge, which is more complicated if you are going to dedicate yourself to pool, but it will take you much longer, years, to shoot well with V than with the ring. Of course, for snooker you have no choice but to use V. The problem is that if pool players watch this video they may mistakenly understand that they have to start with the V bridge, which is a mistake. I'm telling you from experience since I'm 52 years old and I've played with V all my life and I've changed to a ring and I've improved 200 percent. It's also true that I know what I'm doing and I didn't before. But the best is brutal, but brutal.
Awesome videos brother. You've improved my snooker and pool game with all your videos. Watching you from Santa Barbara California. Keep up the great content. Cheers
Interesting to know you have snooker there
@@Breakfromlife I'm lucky that there's one table in the town I live.
In the US, gloves are very common. It has nothing to do with the bridge you use, but the climate you are in. If you are in a humid area and/or you have sweaty hands, a glove simply makes playing easier. There is nothing more annoying than a sticky cue. I keep a glove in my case and use it when necessary. As for the issues you were having... I have never seen anyone else have them. I can easily pick up 3 balls in a gloved hand. I have never seen a glove leave a mark on a table. And I have never seen anyone drop chalk in a gloved hand. Granted, you said your chalk was no longer cubed, so that might be the issue. They do make gloves without fingertips, but I never saw the point in them... but that might help you and your round chalk. In all reality, gloves do help. You dont have to constantly wipe down your cue to get rid of the sweat and grime, not do you need messy talcum powder.
The other fingers are not covered, it is to avoid several things, first the heat in the hand, second tugging on the glove, and third to let you feel the fabric of the table, just as the tips of the other fingers are also cut for the same. A quality glove has to be breathable, soft and comfortable, and it doesn't have to give you heat, pull, or be too big or too small.
Played a lot of 9 ball and used a Molinari glove after much trial and error with different gloves. It’s much pricier but finger tips cut out so you got your finger tips instead of glove for grip. It lasted me a year or more where as cheap ones just wouldn’t. Molinari gloves are just the best in my opinion. After years, it’s weird for me not to wear a glove.
The first thing I had to do when I started playing is getting a billiards glove. Right away for my first time playing I noticed that after just 15 minutes my hands started to get sweaty which made the cue litteraly stick to my fingers. It not just decreased my accuracy and cue power, but it started rubbing off my skin, so it was painful after a while as well. By the time I didn't think about using a powder, so I chose the most rational solution, I bought a glove. It made my whole game a lot more comfortable and honestly, wearing glove made me being able to concentrate more on executing the shot rather than the feeling of the cue rubbing against my fingers.
Also ash isn’t as sticky as maple shafts is another reason.
Ive been playing english pool for about 4 years now, and didnt try a glove until October. Best decision ive made, i suffer from slightly clammy hands so the cue tends to grip my bridge a bit. Having it feels so smooth with cue delivery
I use a predator glove in pool because my hands get sweaty in the summer or under pressure like watching Alex Honnold doing his thing. I used to practice some snooker too but gave it up partly due to the friction issues. I played snooker without a glove since I didn't feel so comfortable with the open bridge draw, smaller cue ball and lighter cue together with the glove.
Why are you playing pool while watching Alex Honnold? Or is it a form of pressure training :D
@@Draugo You bet 😄 You know that 9 ball on the spot shooting from the rail. Do or die shots. So easy with the relaxed state of mind.
I use a glove to play snooker. I always get clammy hands and I used to use talc but I was literally applying it every 5 minutes. The thing is, for modern players in America, it's just the norm to wear gloves, whereas in England it's not. Therefore some people are embarrassed to wear one in case people take the piss - fine example, might have been Ross Muir or another player but one was wearing one in the snooker shoot-out the other month, and the same audience member kept making Michael Jackson noises thinking he was funny (nobody laughed).
re: the chalking thing, I'd hazard a guess that most players chalk with their dominant i.e. non-gloved hand anyway. Some don't, but most I see do.
I make it a point to chalk with the non-bridge hand. The main reason is so that chalk doesn't get on my bridge hand. I didn't originally do it that way, but common sense made me realize that chalk residue falling from the chalk into my hand could cause friction.
@@johnhoush4366 so then don't you mean you chalk with your bridge hand? If - as you suggest, which makes sense, residue falls onto the hand you are holding the cue with then you would not want that to be your bridge hand.
I'm not going to deny that at first I was embarrassed, but because I thought that people were going to think that I would be a pro player and then they would see me missing balls. But that's my nonsense. If someone told me why you use the glove, I would take it off and tell them, just put it on and play and then tell me.
I like at lahore, Pakistan which gets humid sometimes. I have played snooker without glove for 22 years but since I shifted on using a glove, it has made things better for the game plus comfort level has improved.
We have two basic quality gloves available
One for 0.5$ and other for 2.5$ ( after conversion)
The later one is made of a material which is less slippery and makes you even forget that you are wearing one
A lot of it comes down to the difference in tapers of pool cues vs snooker cues. Snooker cues have always traditionally been conical in taper, so a closed loop bridge provides little benefit since a conical tapered cue tends to push your fingers further apart as you stroke through the shot and can cause inconsistent and inaccurate shots. Pool cues are often, though not always, made with "pro" tapers in which the diameter of the shaft changes very little between the tip of the shaft up to a few inches away from the joint of the cue. This kind of taper lends itself to the closed loop bridge where you don't have to worry about a changing diameter of the shaft pushing your fingers apart, whereas a conical taper does not.
That's what I was thinking. If the cue is conical and we make the ring, there comes a time when the space between the cue and the ring is different in a section of the cue, so this will make it fit loose and move.
This is the simple reason why snooker players use the V-bridge. But there is no reason not to use a glove XD.
I’m 15 and kind of new to snooker I love the vids and find them to help me with all the new things to do, do u recommend and cues for beginners not to expensive. Watching the vids from Preston keep up the work
the close bridge is a strong reason to use a glove but in the states the difference in humidity from las vagas vs say mississippi is hugh. If your trying to be competitive but having to mess around with a sticky stick a glove solves this with 99% effectiveness. the last 1% being a dirty cue with high humidity wil still drag a little with a glove.
Really enjoyed these videos over the years. Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated
Nobody is watching your videos from Spain and it looks very emty on your map. I'm watching you from Malaga, Spain.
Love ur videos
Had a lot of comments from Spain but only in the last few days. RUclips must be showing my videos there all of a sudden
@@Breakfromlife I'm following u about one month and a half
Interesting video. I used to use talcom powder. Thought the table grip would be reduced.
ive got one of those gloves, more for the humid days tho, havent used it in ages. 30p to me in china, yay!
I’ll play with or without one. I currently use one. Could care less if didn’t have it. I’ll also use any fancy shaft and chalk or a club cue off the wall and simple master chalk. If your fundamentals are solid with your stroke, you can do what’s needed.
Great! I've actually got two billiard gloves lying around from when I was playing pool a lot. Will from Monmouth, Wales
Give your experiment another try with closed bridge! That’s why many caroom played with closed bridge for more power and control.
I play a fair bit of snooker and never had the need for a glove. I regularly clean my cue shaft with a hot (hot as you can stand it) wet cloth rung out so it’s just damp and giving the shaft a real good rub down - you’ll see all the grime on the cloth once you’ve finished. The fact the cloth is hot means that the moisture you put on to the cue will mostly evaporate off and be nice and smooth. From there you can put some cue slick on which makes it feel brand new. I always make sure I wash my hand and dry them properly before I play as well.
It doesn't matter in 15 minutes my hands are wet. I can't be every 15 meters washing my hands and washing a taco, friend.
I make my own gloves. Definitely the fabric and custom fit is a major factor.
Living in a humid area really count. But the reason as to why I prefer a glove. Is that it doesn’t leave a dirty table like power does. I saw some amateur putting so much power on their hands that the table and the balls where totally gross and not only it was distracting but would affect the roll of the balls.
On that note, could you touch a bit on how to maintain and clean your table as well as your balls. And the importance of playing on a dirty table vs a clean one?
-love your video from sunny Florida
I can think about working it in somehow
If a person had a tight fitting glove with small rubber pads on the finger pads you might be able to get a noticeable improvement on the stability of the bridge. I play a lot of pool also and find aiming with the loop bridge to be very detrimental. I use the snooker bridge for that.
1:26 I seem to remember that occasionally Alex Higgins would use the loop bridge as opposed to the standard one
I switched to a predator second skin glove and I have never looked back. I live in a dry climate and I don’t really have sweaty hands, overall it’s just more constant feel.
I play English pool where the cues are actually thinner at the tip end normally between 7.8 and 9mm
I use more of a snooker cue at 9.6mm
I use a glove and an open bridge the reason I use it is because of the consistency of shot feel ie no matter how sweaty your hands get cueing the cue ball feels the same every time which to me is a positive
I used gloves both in snooker and pool, but its not common for snooker players to wear gloves here either. Watching from Singapore.
Iv got a black cue it use to stick all the time got a glove that helped. But now got a new cue and don't get the problem
2 recommendations for you real quick. The best gloves to use for feel are Molinari, Predator and Kamui (they all have the finger tips and thumb tip cut off) and maybe use master chalk as well, your chalk wont roll away from you when you drop it yeah?
There used to be two lower-ranked snooker professionals - Ian Graham and Nigel Gilbert - who both usually played in gloves.
Alex Higgins used the looped bridge for some screw shots. Joe Davis claimed to have done the same in his book
I always hold my stick with my bridge hand and chalk with my other hand, whether using cloves or not, did have same problem trying to pick up to many balls at a time, solved that by picking up less balls, the humidity is always up and down where I play so my stick was dry one wet the next, got tired of getting powder all over me and the table, so just use glove all the time now.
Cue.
I play my snooker in Spain and always play in a glove because in the summer the temperature can be 45 degrees plus ....I also have my own outdoor pool table and believe me it's virtually impossible to play without a glove😊
Try chalking cue with right hand, I'm left handed and I swap hands to hold cue when chalking my cue.
Don’t know why but I can’t see me being able to do that
Also something to be said about plastic shafts in pool vs finished wooden shafts in snooker. I hate playing with bar pool cues and my friends' because they get dirty and sticky with every touch. A clean wood finish makes a massive difference.
Professional pool players don’t use plastic cues…. Lol
@@toziassmitt You'd be surprised how many semi pros/good amateurs would have somewhat cheap cues. It's hard to switch cues after you played with them for a few years. Stephen Hendry played with a garbage broomstick for most of his career because that's what he got as a child.
@@simmerke1111 wrong. Hendry played with a maple Riley cue that he got at 14 years old, that cost £40 at the time. £40 back then is equivalent to about £200 today, and Riley used to be a good maker. Sure, it’s not a £2,000 Parris cue, but definitely not trash lol
I use one for pocket-billiards, but I've never tried it with snooker, because the nearest snooker table to me in Central Maryland is over an hour's drive away. I'd really like to play snooker someday though. I like the mechanics of the game much more than any other game except for straight-pool.
Great video. Thanks. Have been asking this question for years without a satisfactory answer. Might even subscribe.
re: feeling slightly wobbly/unstable
there's an idea in barbell lifting that gloves shouldn't be used because they limit the proprioceptive feedback from your hands (so your brain won't let them grip as hard)
this could be something similar - your hand doesn't get the same feeling it usually does telling it to hold the bridging pose
(and it'll be subtly different for each glove you put on..not to mention "untrainable")
That’s basically it felt like a lack of feedback
I'm sorry, but it's not true. A glove now is like a condom now, it feels almost real. Saying these things does nothing for a beginner. The glove improves your game, whether you want it or not.
Though this vid was made 4yrs ago, I'm just going thru some vids I didn't watch coz it was not related at that time. But recently bought a snooker glove to help with my cueing mainly due to the place being humid making my cue sticky. I use to clean it with snooker oil, but if the weather in the club is not cool enough, the cue gets sticky often. This is what I feel. Snooker glove is a go for me. And yeah, don't really care if other guys laugh if I wear the glove! 😂
Anyone from india or pakistan that just plays at local clubs with whatever cue they can find.
Please buy this glove because those cues are extremely cheap ones with no care whatsoever and by using this glove i was able to bypass that quite successfully.
It also looked like you were more consistent screwing back the ball with the glove. You stopped more of the bare handed shots early when it was clear they wouldn't exceed the existing shot.
I use gloves in Summer time when playing Snooker here in Australia. At my club its very humid, Cue gets sticky very quickly. A glove negates that issue. Winter time however, I don't need a glove at all.
I think someone said Mark Selby used one in an Asian event at some point for the same reason
@@Breakfromlife Alan Mcmanus used one over in China at one point as well. I think a lot of pro players would opt to use one if they thought about it ahead of time. I remember years ago seeing the great Stephen Lee wipe his cue down dozens of times during a match he had in China, I bet he would of loved one. Very muggy over there. I keep a high quality Kamui glove rolled up in my case at all times. I think the main reason we don't see them using them is the conditions in which they play most of the time simply don't call for them.
Mark Williams did use a glove some years ago in China.
This is Adam. An English expat watching from Osaka, Japan. Only one place with a snooker table here :(
Surprised there’s 1 actually
Noticed there were some players in the World Championship qualifiers playing with a glove, Luo Honghao even made it to the Crucible
I've seen Mark Williams use a looped bridge as t times but that might only be on shots near the cushion.
He probably has at some point
the problem with with loop bridge is snooker is the taper: snooker shafts are conical, whereas pool shaft are more cylindrical, so loop bridge is easier with pool cues.
Hi Shane from Cambridge United kingdom here I just use talc it's just as good especially in the summer
Another important reason to not use a glove is because whether you realize it or not that little friction of the cue feathering running across your skin really helps tune your cue speed based on friction feedback. For most people this feedback is likely subconscious because once you reach a certain skill level you almost never think about it. Obviously with a glove this skin sensory feedback is almost eliminated. Also with a glove I find it more difficult to have a slow controlled start to my delivery so starting out your cue action timing might be a little off.
It definitely seemed like I lost some ability to feel the shot
If i have a sticky cue/hand I just put the chalk on my hand where the cue is rubbing.
Plus I play with an unlacquered cue.
Me too,never liked a "sticky" over varnished cue
chalk actually creates more friction (it's conceived for that reason) and you get your shaft dirty, so it's a very dumb decision. Try talcum powder instead, which reduce the friction.
@@AngrierGorilla nowt wrong with a dirty shaft lol
Look for the Poison or Predator gloves. They have a rubber coating on the table side of the palm that will help grip on the cloth.
I have a feeling you're seeing more hand marks because the material of the glove wants to grab the nap of the snooker felt.
Oh, and for the pinboard map, Reno, Nevada USA. Love your videos. I haven't played pool in almost two years due to the pandemic and getting hurt working, but I can't wait to take some of what I learned from your videos to the table :)
Having fingerless (tips) gloves helps me with some of the issues, easier to pick up the balls and chalk. But I started with gloves for the most part.
Maybe it would be an idea to use a loop bridge for snooker too if wearing the glove, which might stop any lateral movement when cueing.
I don't wear a glove and neither do I use a loop grip but what I sometimes do is chalk fully around the part of the cue where my bridge hand makes contact with it.
Loop bridges don’t work in snooker....you actually have to hit the ball in the pocket in this game, not a couple of inches either side like 9 ball! Accuracy means you need a traditional snooker bridge.
Yeah you wouldn’t be to successful playing Snooker with a closed bridge
@@mrb018538 Not sure why why hitting the ball in the pocket makes a difference when using a loop bridge and Alex Higgins didn't do tell badly when using it.
amazed66 It’s just an accuracy thing. Have the ‘V’ traditional snooker bridge is much more repeatable than with a loop bridge. Much more scope for movement in loop bridges, and with snooker having much higher accuracy required, it’s no good.....hence why no players use it.
@@mrb018538 I would say the V bridge is just more the way it has always been in snooker and so will be why any new players taking up the game will use that because it's just the traditional method and what they have seen players used to. Even to the extent that snooker players use the V bridge in pool too and some initially even used their snooker cues to play pool.
I suppose though the purpose of this video was with regards to using a glove when playing snooker and my comments about using the loop bridge when doing so was only in response to the cue possibly moving a little from side to side when cueing, although personally I use neither a glove nor a loop bridge anyway.
I was thinking of trying to add a thin coating of flexible rubber spray on the inside of the gloves. If that solves the problem of slipping when taking balls out of the pocket and slipping of the chalk, then I'm never going back :)
I need gloves in both hands because for me it doesn't matter if I play left or right handed.
I've always been curious why snooker players use open bridge instead of closed bridge. Closed bridge just gives you so much more control of the stick. Anyways that's why I use a glove. Portsmouth, Va in the states here.
snooker players play much lower on the shot and the balls are smaller. closed bridges can impede your vision. I also never felt closed bridges gave me more control to be honest. Only on very specific shots, which is where I will use them. Open bridges also force you into a straighter and smoother cue-action which can only improve your game.
Even if it is any better Snooker players would probably use the bridge that is traditionally use in the game
@@Breakfromlife I also believe that it would be more difficult to use a closed bridge with a snooker cue because of the difference in taper from an american pool cue. The pro taper on an american cue means that the portion of the shaft that slides through the bridge remains the same diameter throughout the stroke, where I do not believe that is the case with a snooker cue. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, though. It's been years since I've had a chance to play snooker, with it not being very popular here, and even when I did, it was always with an american style cue.
I used a glove for years - and while I am in no way a pro, I found it really helped... Why? I seem to have naturally clammy skin, and the result of that was a cue action that did not always feel the same. Add the glove and suddenly you have removed one variable from the equation, which genuinely improved my cue action, as well as mindset. My coach/mentor hated it, but couldn't really refute the result on both the smoothness of cue action and of course confidence. Not to mention all my highest breaks were with the glove.
As for the alternatives, well cleaning one's cue was a bit of a weekly ritual anyway (few things better than that high pitched screech you generate really cleaning it), so it was no factor (and honestly it should be part of everyone's pre/post practice 'rituals' - just like cleaning balls, brushing the table, damp cloth and ironing, etc). And talc eventually gets gummy and then the shaft of your cue also ends up nasty (and I run a John Parris, so we don't want to be messing that up!).
The other alternative I saw (and was used by a few guys in my team/club) was some sort of barrier cream that when applied, seemed to 'dry' to an invisible very dry finish (and was later removed with soap and water) - for the life of me I cant remember the name of it.
Hand marks - absolutely no issue in my experience. At this time as well, I was working in a club, and the hand marks were basically no factor (especially compared to chalk) - It may have been the material of the glove too? For a short while I was also making gloves (my mother was an excellent seamstress, so I picked up more than a few things), and quickly found plain old spandex to be just about perfect!
Here from Edmonton, Alberta - thanks for the videos! Love the bridging stuff
As an American pool player I feel like I come from snooker in a way. I didn’t like the loop bridge and I watched way more snooker than Billiards. So I shoot every shot with the smoker flat hand and thumb bridge. I also put my chin right on the cue and with the thumb bridge I aim so much better than the loop bridge.
ash has grain that the dirt n sweat get into so doesn't feel as sticky as maple. if your cue is clean you likely won't need one. professional players will have well maintained cues. clean your cue with a damp cloth, buff dry. simple as that.
One negative I noticed is feeling that my hand is detached from the cue. I like to feel my cue sliding on my hand. Get's me the feeling of more control though it probably doesn't help. But a pool player there are many benefits and I got used to it.
Predator pool gloves are very good
Watching from Regina,Sk. Canada... nice video... i myself own a glove but only use it if the pool hall is humid. the last tourney i played in i had the issue the next day i bought a glove lol
Vapor Cool Edge Pool and Billiard Glove- the glove i bought. i like it cuz it gives good feel of the cue through the glove
After watching this I improved much ....love from shah jee
A good way of cleaning a cue is using plain paper rubbed up and down the cue and clean your hands often this will give u a smooth cuing as well