I find it very interesting how Mosconis grip is so far forward. I mean the slip is a fairly significant one, not at all minor like Lou is suggesting. Maybe he had something figured out on the stroke that modern players have not yet caught up with. Of course, dropping the elbow would be a very natural thing to do, with a grip postion such as this.
Speaking stricklty from my own experience, I've noticed that my accuracy suffers more when my arm is behind perpendicular, rather than forward of perpendicular as it strikes the cueball, and the slightly forward position seems to be favoured by a lot of good players. Maybe there is something to be gained by experimenting with that a bit.
Well, for what it's worth, he is my take on it. It may be correct, it may be out in left field. But, I watched your first clip (actually the whole video) and wherever he shot I had it full screen and .5-.25 speed.
In Willies little red book, he states to grip the cue about a handswidth behind the balance point. (subject for a different matter) Watch where he is actually gripping the cue...at or very near the balance point. I believe that he just like carrying the cue at the balance point. That would enable him to move around the table with a almost non-existent grip on the cue and thereby help enable him to stay loose at all times.
When he got down on the shot, he is still holding the cue at that point on most shots I watched. And continues to hold it there for his warmup strokes. Notice his warmup strokes only go back to where his arm is perpendicular to the floor.
On his final warmup, he does a little pause at the cb, ensuring his tip is going to hit the cb exactly where he wants it to, then he lets his back hand slip back to the same spot his warmup strokes ended at. At that point, he adds a slight amount of tension to his grip to enable the cue to ride with his hand the rest of the way back. Notice the tip stays right at the cb until his grip tightens to bring the cue back.
At that point, he then comes back further than his warmup strokes, and then propels the cue forward with a very loose grip. (You can see his hand opening up) I noticed his elbow barely moved until he made contact with the cb. (thereby enabling the cue to come back to contact exactly where it was just before his final pullback stroke) Just slightly after contact, his elbow drops along with his followthrough.
Does the slipstroke add anything to the stroke? I don't believe it does one iota.(and the science of the stroke says it doesn't) I think it is nothing more than he liked to hold the cue at or near the balance point.
