Unwanted left english

Hinekanman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have been playing pool for about 15 years. My skill level has gone up a lot in the last few years from me practicing more. I had always assumed that my stroke isn't straight even after trying to perfect it. I started to rattle a lot more shots so i figured i was off just by a little. I then started with straight in stop shots and noticed the ball spinning in place with left spin. So i looked more at my stroke and it finishes to the left. I felt like i was moving out of the way of my body so i slid my body over more and it helped but i still do it i say about 60% of the time. Does anyone have any suggestions how to straighten it out. Any help will be appreciated.
wanted to add I'm right handed and right eye dominant.
 
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FranCrimi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have been playing pool for about 15 years. My skill level has gone up a lot in the last few years from me practicing more. I had always assumed that my stroke isn't straight even after trying to perfect it. I started to rattle a lot more shots so i figured i was off just by a little. I then started with straight in stop shots and noticed the ball spinning in place with left spin. So i looked more at my stroke and it finishes to the left. I felt like i was moving out of the way of my body so i slid my body over more and it helped but i still do it i say about 60% of the time. Does anyone have any suggestions how to straighten it out. Any help will be appreciated.
wanted to add I'm right handed and right eye dominant.

I'm sure you've heard the expression, 'Old habits die hard.'

Usually it takes more than one adjustment to fix a problem. You moved farther left, so that's good. But your arm is still trained to move at an angle. You will now have to learn what 'straight' feels like. Get someone to stand behind you and tell you when you're stroking straight. You can even have them take your arm and do it for you so you will know what it feels like. Then keep repeating that same feel with that person watching you.

It will take some time, and remember --- you will want to subconsciously go back to your old way because that's what you trained your sub conscious mind to do. You will have to keep checking yourself.
 

mfinkelstein3

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Unwanted Left Spin

Fran hit the nail on the head. You have to retrain your eye, brain and arm to what straight looks like.

One thing you can try is to line up two balls about a diamond apart and a diamond from the side pocket. Use a stripe as the cue ball. The object is to have the stripe stay vertical, and follow the object ball into the pocket with the striped cue ball.

That's a lot of words, but what you are doing here is relearning straight. Like Fran suggested if you can find someone to help that would be ideal.
 

BilliardsAbout

BondFanEvents.com
Silver Member
You have received very fine advice already, but I wonder if your remark about being right-eye dominant means you stand with your right eye directly over the cue and whether that is where your right eye should be. Sometimes a stroke is off to the side on a straight shot because your head and eyes are misaligned and you perceive center ball incorrectly.

1. Set up a perfectly straight shot using the cue or even a ruler or laser as your guide.

2. Try raising and lowering your head a bit, allowing the right eye to come off the cue from the normal position as you do so. Often, a vertical adjustment also adjusts the head position until you see the straight shot as perfectly straight (because instead of rigidly going up and down with the head you allow the head to move left and right as it will for most stances when you move it vertically).

This vertical alignment to correct horizontal alignment was developed by Tom Simpson as a great contribution to his students. If you still have trouble finding your correct visual alignment after this, let me know and I'd be happy to walk you through this and other repairs in more detail--at no cost to you.
 

mfinkelstein3

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Unwanted Left English

Following up with what Matt said, over the years teaching people I have found that finding your vision center, or where you see a straight line as straight, is the first step. Next is finding the vertical axis of the cue ball, and finally learning how to point straight.

This is a process and what you usually find is going back to the beginning like Matt suggested is the quickest way to untangle this sort of cueing error.
 

mfinkelstein3

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Unwanted Left English

I'm just curious, and don't mean to pry, but how did you learn to play? Family, friends, self taught? Thanks in advance!
 

FrankieD

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Take your cellphone and film yourself from a couple different angles. It helped me understand that feeling aligned properly and being aligned properly are not the same thing.
 

Hinekanman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The video taping helped immediately. I raising and pulling the cue in slightly on the final backstroke. All my practice strokes are level until the final one and I deliver the cue steeper so trying to keep my elbow and shoulder/chest from rising before the shot.
 

mfinkelstein3

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Unwanted sidespin

You might also want to experiment with your grip to see if you are adding something to the swing that is extra.
 

BilliardsAbout

BondFanEvents.com
Silver Member
Folks here, me included, would be happy to see video of you--shoot from straight on and perpendicular to you at 90-degree angles--as straight on as you can--and we will respond.
 

Hinekanman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ok i will do that. tough to position the camera but i will figure it out.. i have been working at this and can't get it, its frustrating to be a decent player with a bad stroke flaw you can't fix. to the person who asked i was self taught for the most part. lots of vhs tapes and practice.
 

RWOJO

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Unwanted Left English

My 2 cents would be this (based on if your right handed):

Do practice strokes over the rail (where the felt meets the wood) using this as a straight line. Do full strokes following through and watch your tip. During this does your tip go left of the line during the follow through?

If the tip is going left then your arm/elbow could be a little too close to your body and naturally it is swinging away from your body during the stroke - with your bridge hand a pivot - your tip will go the opposite direction (left). You can move your elbow away from your body and try again to see if it helps.

This little drill can be done every day or week or so to make sure your stroke is straight and it takes less than a minute to do.
 

BeiberLvr

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My 2 cents would be this (based on if your right handed):

Do practice strokes over the rail (where the felt meets the wood) using this as a straight line. Do full strokes following through and watch your tip. During this does your tip go left of the line during the follow through?

If the tip is going left then your arm/elbow could be a little too close to your body and naturally it is swinging away from your body during the stroke - with your bridge hand a pivot - your tip will go the opposite direction (left). You can move your elbow away from your body and try again to see if it helps.

This little drill can be done every day or week or so to make sure your stroke is straight and it takes less than a minute to do.

I disagree.

It's very easy for the eyes to play tricks with this little "drill" I've done it many times in the past, and everything always looked good. Yet I still could never do the CB up and down the table in a straight line, and would always get a little unwanted right english.

I had tried adjusting my arm, my head position, turning my torso this way and that way. No luck.

Finally I started paying more attention to my left/front foot (I'm right handed).

I realized that I was stepping towards the shot line. This was turning my body in such a way that the back of my cue was being brought to the left. Thus turning the tip to the right and giving me that dreaded unwanted spin. I simply began stepping my front foot away from the shot line. A few minor adjustments had to be made to my back foot, but everything is perfectly aligned now.
 
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