Thirty-One Tips: 16. Practice Opposite Handed

Practice with your non-dominant hand.

You just never know when a critical shot might come up in a game that would be so much easier to shoot left handed.Â You could make the shot with your natural right had form, but reaching it is just impossible.Â A mechanical bridge might to the trick, but sometimes your accuracy or speed control suffers when you use the rake. Times like these are when you wish you’d spent a little time tuning up opposite handed.

Snooker god Ronnie O’Sullivan sets the bar for ambidextrous prowess. You could spend hours watching incredible clips of his snooker highlights. One of his best moments, I saw live via the internet.

A little more than a year ago, I woke up at 6 am (no jokes please!) to watch his finals match in the Shanghai Masters Snooker. In frame (game) eleven, O’Sullivan plays Liang and he does another remarkable thing. He makes a break (run) of 109 points in 33 shots without a miss.

What I find amazing is the run consists of 19 right handed shots and 14 left handed shots. He’s naturally right handed, but plays better than most players with his left hand. He shoots his first left handed shot on the blue which brings his break to 14 points. As the run progresses, he mixes in his left hand more and more often. He is so natural and smooth, you might not notice it if you don’t pay attention. Truly amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s39faklrowg

Shot #	Hand	Color	Pocket	Score	Break	Time Code
1	Right	Red	Middle	1	1	1:10
2	Right	Black	Corner	7	8
3	Right	Red	Middle	1	9
4	Left	Blue	Middle	5	14
5	Right	Red	Corner	1	15
6	Right	Blue	Middle	5	20
7	Right	Red	Corner	1	21
8	Right	Blue	Middle	5	26
9	Right	Red	Corner	1	27	3:37
10	Right	Blue	Middle	5	32
11	Left	Red	Corner	1	33
12	Right	Black	Corner	7	40
13	Right	Red	Corner	1	41
14	Right	Black	Corner	7	48
15	Right	Red	Corner	1	49
16	Right	Blue	Middle	5	54
17	Right	Red	Middle	1	55
18	Right	Black	Corner	7	62	5:55
19	Right	Red	Middle	1	63
20	Left	Brown	Corner	4	67
21	Right	Red	Middle	1	68
22	Left	Blue	Middle	5	73
23	Left	Red	Corner	1	74
24	Left	Blue	Middle	5	79
25	Left	Red	Corner	1	80
26	Left	Black	Corner	7	87
27	Right	Red	Corner	1	88
28	Left	Blue	Middle	5	93
29	Left	Red	Corner	1	94	7:54
30	Left	Pink	Middle	6	100
31	Left	Yellow	Corner	2	102
32	Left	Green	Corner	3	105
33	Left	Brown	Corner	4	109
34	Left	Blue	Corner	MISS

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