...........................
Last edited:
Drag Shots
- Thread starter peppersauce
- Start date
About 8:10 in the video.
Well part of the reason it helps to stay lower even when you need follow is because when you hit in the upper half of the CB and your cue is not as level as possible, even a millimeter of accidental side will make your CB want to curve slightly. If you have the gift to cue dead level and without ANY unintentional side you can be just as accurate rolling it high ball which has its uses. I try not to over use drag if it doesn't have a major advantage
usually at middle range. You can also get really nasty effects if the ball passes over a table flaw as it's starting to pick up is forward roll, it will snag on dirt or a run in the cloth much worse than a hard stun or natural roll.
I disagree with two points here. First, unintentional side will have a larger effect with draw than with follow, usually. Second, no one plays with a "dead level" cue because knuckles and rails prevent the cue from being level on nearly all shots. In my opinion if you have a problem with adding unintentional side a stop-gap partial fix is to avoid drag shots and play most shots that allow it with follow.
"Walk up the ladder" for follow. Aim at center or below center and strike above center (or at center) with an upward angle cue stick - adjust on the final forward stroke, like backhand english. Ensures you strike using the bottom half of the tip. Enhanced control of speed, less miscues/mis-english than with "follow". Try it! 
............................
Last edited:
I think that in a beginner it would be important to fix this. I think it is much better to hit the cue ball where you address it. I think that especially when your are learning to play and to spin the ball, you need to make a solid connection between where you hit the cue ball and what it does.
For someone who has been playing a long time, such stroke defects are very difficult to fix. If you want to try, I think you have to address the cue ball closely and as high as you are going to hit it. Dropping the elbow will then be punished by a miscue.
I think this is really bad advice."Walk up the ladder" for follow. Aim at center or below center and strike above center (or at center) with an upward angle cue stick - adjust on the final forward stroke, like backhand english. Ensures you strike using the bottom half of the tip. Enhanced control of speed, less miscues/mis-english than with "follow". Try it!
An experienced elbow-dropper will adjust his back hand as the cue moves through to keep it level, thus avoiding a miscue.
If you check out his 3 examples of swerve shots, (I think it starts at about 9:30 in the video,) hitting the cb high right, center right and low right, he says that the ball swerves latest with low right than with the other two.
But with the first shot, his cue stick angle of attack is the most severe, and then decreases with center right and then decreases even more with low right. I thought that was an important variable that should be considered.
Last edited:
.............................
Last edited:
If you have good enough speed control on follow and draw shots, then I suppose it is not important. Also, I assume you don't miscue too often when following, which would be another reason to work on it. For the follow control, judge by shots where the cue ball is close to the object ball so that it is not the table that is giving you the follow.
Perhaps. You may have noticed some pros cueing low and striking high to roll the ball into shape, though.
"Walk up the ladder" for follow. Aim at center or below center and strike above center (or at center) with an upward angle cue stick - adjust on the final forward stroke, like backhand english. Ensures you strike using the bottom half of the tip. Enhanced control of speed, less miscues/mis-english than with "follow". Try it!
CJ uses to say the same thing. Please explain just how one goes about hitting the cb with anything other than the bottom portion of the tip when using follow? Same question for hitting draw with anything other than the top part of the tip.
"Walk up the ladder" for follow. Aim at center or below center and strike above center (or at center) with an upward angle cue stick - adjust on the final forward stroke, like backhand english. Ensures you strike using the bottom half of the tip. Enhanced control of speed, less miscues/mis-english than with "follow". Try it!
Nice post Matt. That's exactly what happens. I have seen SVB and Efren use this many times.
Your thought should be "just roll the QB". Works real well. The stroke is like pitching a softball underhanded on the final stroke.
Thanks for the reminder.
John
Last edited:
If it's good advice to aim somewhere other than where you're going to strike the ball, why not just aim 3 inches to the right of the cue ball and adjust on the final stroke? Or instead of aiming low why not aim a few inches above the cue ball and adjust lower on the final stroke? If that sounds absurd then maybe aiming at the actual place you're going to hit may be best.
Nice post Matt. That's exactly what happens. I have seen SVB and Efren use this many times.
Your thought should be "just roll the QB". Works real well. The stroke is like pitching a softball underhanded on the final stroke.
Thanks for the reminder.
John
The thing I noticed about those pros is that they already have their bridge hands set to the height for the strike shot. It's something they just do automatically. When they practice-stroke low on the ball for a better view, they aren't flattening their bridge hands as if they were going to strike the ball there. So when the tip raises up as they get ready to hit, the final stroke isn't an upward stroke as one would think.
............................
Last edited:
With a lovely shaped, rounded tip, there should be little problem, as you suggest. However, my bridge hand is in the cueing position for center ball. Using this technique, I'm all but guaranteed good contact. When someone does the traditional raise-the-fingers-high-for-follow bridge and cues to strike the cue ball with a level or slightly descending cue stick angle . . .
Your logic is good here if one has a razor's width of space between the cue tip and the cue ball at address (or if one is actually touching the cue ball with the tip). However, most players reading this thread "aim" at the cue ball from some distance away with the cue tip. So that 1) we all adjust with a final stroke somehow/some way 2) why not get the benefits of a backhand adjustment stroke (if you like and can apply those benefits)?
Last edited: