Stroke straightness and Digicue blue

lvlss42190

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Recently became much more serious about my game after a string of mistakes that cost me matches I should have never lost.

Purchased a Digicue blue to help analyze my stroke and any faults I consistently have. One of which appears as "straightness" in the app. It's the one thing that I cannot figure out how to fix. I have my ups and downs, however this is more like bad and worse.

I've attached 2 screenshots. One of my stats on a recent shot tonight while doing for Lowry stroke drill. The second is the in app description of what it measures.

Can someone better explain it to me or provide an explanation of how to fix It? Now that I'm aware of the issue I've tried different things I know of and nothing really seems to change that one particular issue.
 

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iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If you use a pendulum stroke it will always have a bad score for straightness. Try dropping your elbow.

That straightness measure will only get a high score if the stick moves in a perfectly straight line, INCLUDING up and down.

I was one of the beta testers. I ended up customizing the settings, and removing the straightness component entirely. I kept the tip steer instead.
 

lvlss42190

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If you use a pendulum stroke it will always have a bad score for straightness. Try dropping your elbow.

That straightness measure will only get a high score if the stick moves in a perfectly straight line, INCLUDING up and down.

I was one of the beta testers. I ended up customizing the settings, and removing the straightness component entirely. I kept the tip steer instead.

I understand that much but still feel like I should be better than 2.0 consistently
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Experiment with your elbow in order to get a perfect piston stroke, and a high score. If you don’t like how that feels, then delete the straightness from the tracker:)

I also had to delete the finish tracker on mine. It wants you to stay still for an eternity.

Ymmv:) Good luck.
 

Hinekanman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I understand that much but still feel like I should be better than 2.0 consistently



I have the same problem. Can’t fix it. I tried laying the cue flat on the table and hitting the cue ball like that. Straightness is fine then. I think you really have to keep that cue level. It’s annoying and frustrating.


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
 

nataddrho

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have the same problem. Can’t fix it. I tried laying the cue flat on the table and hitting the cue ball like that. Straightness is fine then. I think you really have to keep that cue level. It’s annoying and frustrating.


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums

Straightness measures how close your forward stroke is to a perfect piston stroke. You will score low if the cue moves in any direction other than straight along the stroke line. If there is a significant amount of vertical movement in your forward stroke, most commonly caused by a pendulum-type stroke, you will score low.

I don't want you to be annoyed and frustrated. It is OK to not have a high score in some areas, as long as you are aware of why that is. If you want to improve in those areas, you can. If you don't, then its OK to ignore it or turn it off. Use the values from the device as a characterization for your cue action rather than than a pass/fail judgement.

Note: Since the DigiCue BLUE measures straightness and tip steer only right before impact, it could be argued that a perfect pendulum stroke is traveling perfectly straight (with zero vertical force applied) at this time... and thus is possible to score high on straightness with a pendulum stroke. To do this you need to make sure your upward swing occurs after impact with a good follow through (not punchy).
 

FranCrimi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What does 'straight' have to do with 'level'? They are unrelated. Sounds to me like a flaw in the program.
 

nataddrho

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What does 'straight' have to do with 'level'? They are unrelated. Sounds to me like a flaw in the program.

Fran,

They are unrelated, and there is not any flaw in the program. The DigiCue BLUE does not measure any parameter in relation to elevation angle, or what you are referring to as level. The device will perform the same regardless of cue elevation (unless very large elevations are used, >45 degrees).

The DigiCue BLUE does measure parameters in relation to the stroke line (but not the shot line).

Straightness measures the deviation from the three-dimensional vector path of the stroke line.

Regards.
 

PoolCat

Registered
Digicue Blue and the Pure Pendulum Stroke

The blue has been valuable to me in identifying stroke error. I also have a pendulum stroke. I changed to a piston stroke and progressed through the Advanced level. But it bothered me that I had to leave the pendulum behind.

Well it turns out that there seems to be one move that allows the pendulum stroke to move through the advanced. On my stroke there is a raising of the wrist on my follow through which drives the tip down towards the cloth. This raising occurs before ball contact (slightly) and continues into my follow through. This ruins the statistics.

So, I worked on this arching of the wrist so that my stroke was more parallel with the cloth before contact and after contact.

For me this is a better stroke. And the Digicue Blue is happy !
 

FranCrimi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Fran,

They are unrelated, and there is not any flaw in the program. The DigiCue BLUE does not measure any parameter in relation to elevation angle, or what you are referring to as level. The device will perform the same regardless of cue elevation (unless very large elevations are used, >45 degrees).

The DigiCue BLUE does measure parameters in relation to the stroke line (but not the shot line).

Straightness measures the deviation from the three-dimensional vector path of the stroke line.

Regards.

Then I guess I must have misunderstood an earlier comment by you (see below). It seemed to me that you were saying that cue elevation did have an impact on straightness score:

Your comment: "Note: Since the DigiCue BLUE measures straightness and tip steer only right before impact, it could be argued that a perfect pendulum stroke is traveling perfectly straight (with zero vertical force applied) at this time... and thus is possible to score high on straightness with a pendulum stroke. To do this you need to make sure your upward swing occurs after impact with a good follow through (not punchy)."
 

tableroll

Rolling Thunder
Silver Member
Straightness measures how close your forward stroke is to a perfect piston stroke. You will score low if the cue moves in any direction other than straight along the stroke line. If there is a significant amount of vertical movement in your forward stroke, most commonly caused by a pendulum-type stroke, you will score low.

I don't want you to be annoyed and frustrated. It is OK to not have a high score in some areas, as long as you are aware of why that is. If you want to improve in those areas, you can. If you don't, then its OK to ignore it or turn it off. Use the values from the device as a characterization for your cue action rather than than a pass/fail judgement.

Note: Since the DigiCue BLUE measures straightness and tip steer only right before impact, it could be argued that a perfect pendulum stroke is traveling perfectly straight (with zero vertical force applied) at this time... and thus is possible to score high on straightness with a pendulum stroke. To do this you need to make sure your upward swing occurs after impact with a good follow through (not punchy).
What is an upward swing? I know of only backswing and foreswing.
 

nataddrho

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What is an upward swing? I know of only backswing and foreswing.

A pendulum stroke moves along a vertical plane. I am calling an upward swing the end of the foreswing in which the butt of the cue has both vertical and forward velocity.
 

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FranCrimi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Based on your diagram and comments: In effect, aren't you saying that if the back hand is past the base of the pendulum at impact, then it's possible that the straightness score will not be high. Doesn't that mean that cue elevation affects the player's straightness score?
 

nataddrho

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Based on your diagram and comments: In effect, aren't you saying that if the back hand is past the base of the pendulum at impact, then it's possible that the straightness score will not be high. Doesn't that mean that cue elevation affects the player's straightness score?

I was referring to static elevation.

You are using the word elevation to describe in a dynamic sense. In this case, yes it does affect the player's straightness score, because in order to put the cue into a different "elevation" during the forward stroke, a vertical force is applied by the hand to the but of the cue.

The DigiCue BLUE only measures a fraction of a second before impact. For a proper pendulum or piston stroke, there should be no vertical force applied by the hand at this time. After impact is when you want to finish your pendulum stroke by swinging your forearm upwards into your chest.

In other words, dive-bombing the cue ball with the tip is not good practice.
 

Hinekanman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I tried it today with my arm swinging up and down ( raising my elbow and shoulder) and then delivering the cue. Then did it as level as i could looking in a mirror also and got a better score moving my arm everywhere. That straightness stat really does kill me. I did take it off for practice today which may be best but in my opinion in order to deliver great english to the ball shouldn't you have a level cue which straightness is where you need to score high???.... Im so confused lol.
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
I tried it today with my arm swinging up and down ( raising my elbow and shoulder) and then delivering the cue. Then did it as level as i could looking in a mirror also and got a better score moving my arm everywhere. That straightness stat really does kill me. I did take it off for practice today which may be best but in my opinion in order to deliver great english to the ball shouldn't you have a level cue which straightness is where you need to score high???.... Im so confused lol.

The cue is never actually level or parallel to the table unless we are hitting high on the CB. I mean, the rail height prevents a perfectly level cue, and on shots where your cue is fully inside the rails, your knuckles would rub the cloth if you tried a level draw shot or even a level center cb hit. So that's not a realistic stroke goal.

I believe any stroke, be it pendulum or piston (which is so rare I don't think I've ever seen a true one), can produce a good straightness result with digicue. The key probably lies in the grip hand on that final stroke through the CB. You want to strive for sending the cue tip into the cb at the exact spot you intend to hit within 1mm, letting the cue stick do the work. That's a tight target, but a very worthy goal. Anyway, to me it feels like my grip hand is allowing the cue to flow correctly into the cb, rather than making it flow correctly, if that makes any sense.
 

nataddrho

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The cue is never actually level or parallel to the table unless we are hitting high on the CB. I mean, the rail height prevents a perfectly level cue, and on shots where your cue is fully inside the rails, your knuckles would rub the cloth if you tried a level draw shot or even a level center cb hit. So that's not a realistic stroke goal.

I believe any stroke, be it pendulum or piston (which is so rare I don't think I've ever seen a true one), can produce a good straightness result with digicue. The key probably lies in the grip hand on that final stroke through the CB. You want to strive for sending the cue tip into the cb at the exact spot you intend to hit within 1mm, letting the cue stick do the work. That's a tight target, but a very worthy goal. Anyway, to me it feels like my grip hand is allowing the cue to flow correctly into the cb, rather than making it flow correctly, if that makes any sense.

This is all correct.

Don't worry about level or elevation. As long as your hand is not applying radial forces to the butt of the cue at the moment of impact, you should get a high score.
 
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