One of the things I have mentioned here times before is the importance of a pre-shot routine, and this is another example of why this shot exemplifies this in this video and pic clip below.

Context of shot. The red is over the pocket, and he is looking to play on the black. He gets down and because he hasn’t thought properly about the position of the white after, he ends up being well out of position and doesn’t even have a proper shot on the brown!

If he had taken an extra few seconds to compose and think about the table positions, he would have seen a few more options, including:

1. Putting a tiny bit of side on the cue ball, and he could have ended up in the middle of the table on the pink and possibly the brown.
2. If he wanted to just trickle the red in, he could have gone for the brown and with right hand side, he could have swung the white around for the red in the middle.
3. Less pace and he could have been on the black – and had the red up in the middle.

The moral of the story. Don’t just get down on the shot and not think about the options. We all do it from time to time, some more than others – but he could have made a few points there and been well back in the frame.