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How important is it? If you were instructing a student would you make it a point to get them to incorporate more air stroking into their psr? If so, why? What’s the significance?
The reason I ask is because of a tournament I recently played in. I got beat by a pro player and, after the match, I thought I’d pick his brain a bit. I told him how I admire how he and other pros have the ability to control the flow of a match, hoping to glean some insight into his thought process during a match...he told me I need to air stroke more.
Not an incredibly insightful response, IMO. I don’t pay much attention to air stroking. Sometimes I do a lot of it, sometimes hardly any. It’s not something I think about though. I focus a lot more on alignment and moving into the shot on the correct line with my vision center in the right place than anything else.
Am I missing something?
How important is it? If you were instructing a student would you make it a point to get them to incorporate more air stroking into their psr? If so, why? What’s the significance?
The reason I ask is because of a tournament I recently played in. I got beat by a pro player and, after the match, I thought I’d pick his brain a bit. I told him how I admire how he and other pros have the ability to control the flow of a match, hoping to glean some insight into his thought process during a match...he told me I need to air stroke more.
Not an incredibly insightful response, IMO. I don’t pay much attention to air stroking. Sometimes I do a lot of it, sometimes hardly any. It’s not something I think about though. I focus a lot more on alignment and moving into the shot on the correct line with my vision center in the right place than anything else.
Am I missing something?
Why does a runner jog in place just as he's about to set himself in the starting line? Is he trying to get a feel for running? Nope. It helps keep the body loose, keeps the blood circulating, which means oxygen sufficiently traveling throughout the body and to the brain, and relieves tension.
So, essentially, you all would teach it to stay loose, relaxed, use it as some form of mental trigger to move from looking/decision making/chalking into the shooting portion of a psr, get a feel for the grip and balance of the cue before shooting, etc...or something along those lines. Am I close?
All of that makes sense to me. The player recommended I take a minimum of 3-5 air strokes on every shot to improve speed control. That really doesn’t make sense to me. I view speed control as something that’s developed in training. If a person is lacking in that area, air stroking isn’t a magic fix.
I certainly wasn’t going to debate it with this player though. He is obviously much better than I am and if he believes it helps him in that respect...it probably does. The first thing that came to mind for me was the laundry list of European players who don’t air stroke at all...mostly professional snooker players, but I’ve also noticed a decent number of European pool players who don’t incorporate air strokes into their psr either.
Do you all feel my thought process is sound? I just really want other knowledgeable points of view on the subject in case I’m dismissing the idea too quickly. Thanks for the responses, btw! :thumbup:
Well, this is from Friday morning before I got ready for work. The camera is zoomed in pretty close on the table but you can still kind of see some of my psr.
https://youtu.be/zlEWVZqQL1E
This is very interesting...movement rhythm. That’s something I’ve never really considered but I completely believe you are correct. When I’m at the table, be it a tournament, gambling, whatever...nothing irks me more than having to stop and wait for someone that’s in my way on another table. Every time I have to stop and restart I feel like I’m getting up out of my chair for my first shot all over again and I’ve noticed I’m much more prone to make errors after I’ve stopped because someone is in the way.
I know this is kind of off topic but what’s a good way to deal with that? I get distracted easily and the only thing that seems to work for me is just starting my whole sequence over from the start like I just got out of the chair (which can take me a minute on my initial visit to the table); assess the table, decide what to do, stand on the shot line and chalk, align my body and vision center, then I switch to the shooting portion of my psr as I step into the line of the shot. I’ve been known to REALLY slow my pace of play down if I’m being interrupted a lot...simply because that’s the only way I know how to deal with it. If there’s a quicker or more effective way, I’m interested.
Thanks, Fran. I learned something new today and I’m definitely going to experiment with this. What you said here makes so much sense I don’t know why no one else has ever said it to me. My wife is a player and she has told me things like, “You didn’t play like yourself in that match.” Or, “You looked like you were thinking too much.” But she never could really elaborate or recommend a course of action.
Being a slow starter is something I’ve delt with since I started playing. Generally, I don’t play my best in tournaments, especially shorter races, and this could very well be why. My best game comes out playing multiple sets back-to-back, long races, or ahead sets. It’s not uncommon for me to lose the first couple of sets badly or get 7-8 games behind in an ahead set right out of the gate before I loosen up and just do what I do.
Again, thanks Fran. And thanks to everyone else that responded as well. I appreciate it!
So, essentially, you all would teach it to stay loose, relaxed, use it as some form of mental trigger to move from looking/decision making/chalking into the shooting portion of a psr, get a feel for the grip and balance of the cue before shooting, etc...or something along those lines. Am I close?
All of that makes sense to me. The player recommended I take a minimum of 3-5 air strokes on every shot to improve speed control. That really doesn’t make sense to me. I view speed control as something that’s developed in training. If a person is lacking in that area, air stroking isn’t a magic fix.
I certainly wasn’t going to debate it with this player though. He is obviously much better than I am and if he believes it helps him in that respect...it probably does. The first thing that came to mind for me was the laundry list of European players who don’t air stroke at all...mostly professional snooker players, but I’ve also noticed a decent number of European pool players who don’t incorporate air strokes into their psr either.
Do you all feel my thought process is sound? I just really want other knowledgeable points of view on the subject in case I’m dismissing the idea too quickly. Thanks for the responses, btw! :thumbup:
A good player is always on the move, stalking the table, inspecting it from different angles.