Topic: Need help with snake shot

[dpnaylor]

I practice a few times a week for probably 2 hours at a time. When I have friends over or parties at the house we play for like 7hrs at a time. I've only had my table since May. Work has been overly busy this week so my walking snake practice has been put to the side the last few days. As far as moving the ball short or long when your trying to walk it, I can only say what I have seen the pro's do. Tony Spree..... Can move that ball a good distance in one move... I would say 1 to 2 inches, with very little lifting of the mans foot off the ball. Almost un-noticeable. (It happens so quick it is very hard to see on the tournament DVD's) Other times he will move the ball in small amounts. But one thing I notice is how loud the tapping is when he comes back down on the ball after moving it. He must come down pretty hard on the ball. I have only practiced it for about an hour total, and the thing that happens to me is that the ball seems to bounce ever so slightly every time I move and come back down on it, and after about 6 moves it pops out from under the man. Usually backwards. Which means I have the ball to far back when I pin it. Maybe I need to try coming down harder on it. I have some work to do on it for sure. Walking it is probably just as hard as learning the shot if not harder.

[SumnerH]

be good at the snake in a month? how many hours do you have to practice each day to be ok at it in that short period?

It depends.  The most important thing is to do *valuable* practice--get a good shooter to show you how to practice.  Practicing usefully for an hour is much more valuable than flailing about doing not-so-useful stuff for weeks.

And you're not going to have a pro-level shot in a month, but it's _much_ easier (and faster) on Tornado to learn an effective snake than an effective front-pin.

i'd say the biggest advantage that the euro shot has over the snake is the walking. It's so much easier. Walking the snake with your wrist on the rod is so hard.

Yes, walking the ball is easier with the front-pin.  Scoring points is easier with the snake (again, on Tornado).  Pick which one you want. 

Almost no top-level snake shooters walk the ball around.  Billy Pappas and Tony Spredeman are the only 2 I can think of; Terry Moore, Rob Mares, Tommy Adkisson, Steve Mohs, Louis Cartwright, Trevor Park, Bob Diaz, and other top masters all shoot a normal stationary/rocking snake.

I wouldn't be surprised if Billy and Tony are the only pro-masters (out of over 100) who walk the snake around.  You don't have to walk it to score effectively, and it can get a lot harder to read the defense if you're walking the ball around.

[Chase Pennell]

not true.....Rob Mares does walk the snake just not all the time, this year at worlds he shot it on billy ...and there are some more...Ron Olson, is another....

Chase

[SumnerH]

not true.....Rob Mares does walk the snake just not all the time, this year at worlds he shot it on billy ...and there are some more...Ron Olson, is another....

Chase

Hmm.  I've not seen Mares walk the ball before, probably a recent addition?

At any rate, the basic point remains: learn to shoot the snake effectively from a standing/rocking setup before you try to walk it.  Most top pro snake shooters are very effective without ever walking it around.

[Chase Pennell]

yea your point was correct....sorry i didnt mean to make it sound like you were wrong about how to learn the shot.....LOL sorry about that....

[VRViperII]

I'll see...I may be giving up on the snake because I don't feel like I am improving on it anymore.  In fact, my shot seems to have gotten worse.  My push snake is stuck at its leve and my pull snake NEVER scores now.  Hell it doesn't even have a chance to score because I keep spraying the ball to the post when I do a pull snake.  Weird thing is, I barely move the ball already and I am still spraying.  The sound of the ball hitting the post is really loud so it's not the issue of not shooting hard enough causing the ball to spray.  My guy is shooting straight when I spin so I am not "brushing" the ball towards the outside of the goal.