Physics in Sport: Snooker: Understand the Real Science Amongst the Balls with Simple Explanations and Practical Advice for Bigger Breaks and Higher Scores

By Andy John

Stop blaming the table. Start reading it.

Every shot you play obeys laws that have never once made an exception. Yet most players spend years guessing, blaming the cloth, the cue, the lighting, or their own nerve, when the real explanation lies in friction, momentum, and restitution.
This book treats the snooker table as what it truly is: an enclosed mechanical laboratory in which nothing happens by accident. From the instant the tip meets the cue ball to the moment the object ball drops, every outcome can be traced to measurable forces. Understand them and the guesswork ends.

Inside you will learn:
Why a cue tip must strike within millimetres of a precise point, and what happens when it does not.
Why side spin sends the cue ball somewhere other than where you aimed, how professionals compensate without thinking.
Why two balls of equal mass always separate at ninety degrees, and how natural roll bends that rule.
Why kicks happen, what the science says about chalk and static, and why they are not bad luck.
Why a cushion returns an angle that flatters nobody, and how running side rewrites the rebound.
How to build breaks by working with cloth friction instead of fighting it,
How the game's finest tacticians turn distance itself into a weapon.

Alongside the mechanics stand the players who mastered them, from Joe Davis codifying the modern stance in the 1920s to Ronnie O'Sullivan's five minute maximum, John Higgins's effortless positional control, and Mark Selby's patient safety warfare.

Who it is for: club players who have plateaued, aspiring young players who want to train with purpose, and coaches who need better answers than "you lifted your head".
No mathematical background is required, and you will never be asked to calculate before a shot. The aim is to calibrate your instincts against the immutable rules of the baize, so that accurate diagnosis replaces superstition and every hour of practice finally builds on solid ground.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HKMYD1GS
• ISBN13: 9798175966061
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"