Systematic Snooker Skills Test to Analyze Player Performance

Abstract

The process of rigorous training and coaching is one that is essential to any sports player aiming to develop their abilities further. From the novice player through to professional athletes, it is vital to maintain and assess their level of performance in order to progress to a higher standard. However, traditional practice routines can often be non-strategic and devised with an “ad-hoc” approach. In order for a training regime to be beneficial to a player, methods to examine a player's performance are desirable and can offer quantifiable feedback that will help the player to understand their current weaknesses and provide a benchmark to improve upon. This article focuses on the introduction of a systematic skills test. We assess the fundamental physics of snooker and from this we identify a set of key skills that characterises the basis of all snooker shots. We present 5 snooker tests that can be used to quantify the performance of these key skills. This allows us to analyse snooker players in an objective manner based on their level of ability for each key skill. The article concludes with a user study that assesses the performance of novice, intermediate and professional players when performing our proposed snooker skills test, which demonstrates the ability to make accurate comparison between players of different ability.

Development of new 9-ball test protocols for assessing expertise in cue sports

“…By measuring the error distances from pre-set targets, three out of the five skill tests were effective in discriminating among participants at varied expertise levels in 9-ball. This finding is in line with a previous study on snooker which used skill tests to differentiate players of varied abilities [ 3 ]. Since the five skill tests developed are simple to administer and only require one video camera, it is plausible for cue sports coaches and researchers to adopt our protocols.…”

“…This study adopted a cross-sectional comparative design. Participants of various playing levels were required to complete a 15-ball performance test as well as five skill tests specific to 9-ball which were developed based on a previous study on snooker [ 3 ]. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were tested for the data extracted from the videotapes.…”

“…To test participants’ specific skills, five tests were developed to cover the key skill components of the 9-ball game. These tests were modified from previous study on snooker [ 3 ], including: 1) power control, 2) cue alignment, 3) angle, 4) back spin, and 5) top spin tests. Participants performed 10 valid trials for each test [ 3 ].…”

“…1 ‘Power control test’ b). While we did not directly measure the power in this ‘power control test’, as previously done by Chung and co-workers [ 3 ], we associated the power with the end distance of the ball from the target. If ‘too much’ power is used, the ball would have touched the top cushion and then bounced back, resulting in a positive error distance.…”

“…Similarly, Talts and colleagues [ 2 ] reported the muscle activation of 20 elite novus (closely related to pocket billiards) players during the cueing movement. In another study on snooker players [ 3 ], participants were divided into groups based on their maximum break (scores accumulated in one consecutive visit). This study used various tests to evaluate essential skill elements of snooker, including power control, angle, top spin, back spin, side spin, and cue alignment.…”