golf?

Hi hobokenapa,

Thanks for the questions and for looking me up. To answer your questions on my golf background. I started playing golf when I was about 9 years old. I played for a couple of years and showed alot of promise. I was breaking 100 at a young age. The only problem was that I found pool and absolutely fell in love with it. I didn't have the same love for golf at the time. I quit until about 3 years ago. I don't play as often as I would like and I definitely don't play as well as I would like (last time I played I shot around 110).

I definitely think that golf and pool are similar. They both involve hand-eye coordination along with the same general ideas. The drills and amount of discipline are very similar. The pre-shot routine, the swing for golf...stroke for pool, concentration, and aim are all about the same in both games. Golf swings are often used when describing a proper pool stroke.

Your one handed golf drill is very similar to a one handed pool drill that is used by some top instructors. When I went to visit Jerry Briesath last (about 6 years ago) he used a one handed drill. It was used to pretty much "burn" the proper fundamentals into your brain. It involved the proper practice strokes, pause, finish and follow through.

Hopefully this answered some of your questions. If not let me know and I will try to elaborate more.

Take care,
Sarah

sarahrousey said:

When I went to visit Jerry Briesath last (about 6 years ago) he used a one handed drill. It was used to pretty much "burn" the proper fundamentals into your brain. It involved the proper practice strokes, pause, finish and follow through.

Take care,
Sarah

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Sarah,

Is the purpose of this drill to help with proper stroke technique or control over tip movement? This might help explain how Mike Massey does his "one handed jacked-up jump shots.

Terry

Terry,

The main goal of the drill was stroke technique. To describe it best is this: Your cue is set on the end rail, you are taking your set amount of practice strokes, pausing, then taking your stroke, striking a ball and checking to make sure that you followed through. Last time I visited Jerry I did this drill for about 6 hours....my arm has never been so sore!

Sarah

Thanx,
I can do that at home.

Terry

Good luck Terry. Let me know if it helps. It helps to have someone there to tell you what you are doing wrong or if something moves. But if you get everything down correctly and practice that way it will help.

Sarah

sarahrousey said:

Good luck Terry. Let me know if it helps. It helps to have someone there to tell you what you are doing wrong or if something moves. But if you get everything down correctly and practice that way it will help.

Sarah

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With me it's mostly a matter of overcoming a bad habit of a hand twist(kinda like some of the Phillipino players). I picked it up compensating for a bad back that had me shootin' upright sidewinder style like McCready. Backs feeling better now (some) so maybe I can get back down over my shots. But it's been awhile .....soon I'll see just how bad i'm shootin' an figure out what needs work.

Terry

Thanks again for your kind words. I guess you and I are both not crazy for seeing the similarity between pool in golf (in some aspects).

That part of my dedication to the game was a long time ago. I am trying to get that dedication back. I can only hope to one day be as successful as Vijay.

Terry,
Keep in mind that not everyone looks the same or has the same style when they play. It is whatever is comfortable. Just because one person says something you do is wrong, another may feel that it is right. As long as you execute well, that is all that matters.

Take care,
Sarah

sarahrousey said:

Terry,
Keep in mind that not everyone looks the same or has the same style when they play. It is whatever is comfortable. Just because one person says something you do is wrong, another may feel that it is right. As long as you execute well, that is all that matters.

Take care,
Sarah

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LOL,

That's the problem! (LOL) I never shot that way when I was younger.When the back went and I was forced upright I had to spin my wrist on the forward stroke just to get the ball to go where I wanted ( actually it was bad back,broke neck and diabetic eyesight) and it worked sometimes. Just hope those bad habits aren't lingering around.
When I was younger and played regular I'd get low over cue,shot right or left,behind the back sometimes if near a rail and used pretty near any bridge I needed to use.
If I think I have a problem to overcome I'll work your drill...either (1) to overcome a bad habit or (2)to get comfortable with the effects of "old age".

Terry

Terry...You have just made adjustments to accomodate. It sounds like you have had a lot of problems to try to get around. You are lucky that you have kept your drive to want to continue playing. I don't know how the bad back and broken neck go, but I do know about the diabetes part. I hope you can get over your bad habits and don't worry...the affects of old age hit us all eventually.

Take care,
Sarah

I can see where darts can be somewhat compared to pool. Golf, pool and darts all involve hand-eye coordination.

Good excuse to not practice pool....I will keep that in mind next time I don't want to practice but I want to go do something else.

Sarah

Tbeaux said:

Sarah,

Is the purpose of this drill to help with proper stroke technique or control over tip movement? This might help explain how Mike Massey does his "one handed jacked-up jump shots.

Terry

Click to expand...

Terry,
Just some additional clarification of Jerry's one-handed drill. In my discussions with Jerry, he described this drill as the best and quickest way to give a new player (or an older one with bad habits like me) the feel of a proper stroke - smooth acceleration, let the cue do the work, move the arm only from the elbow down, long and PERFECTLY STRAIGHT follow through, TENSION-FREE grip throughout the stroke (drill can even be done with the cue just resting lightly on one finger of your grip hand - helpful if your stroke is a complete mess like mine). It is not a drill to learn jacked-up or jump shots. It is a great drill to learn to move the cue stick without tension and jerking from your grip hand.

To set up the drill, line some balls up along the short rail, 3-5 inches off the rail. You will then shoot these balls the length of the table into a corner pocket. Set up to shoot the ball as you normally would (I'm assuming you are right handed). Then without moving the cue (cue is resting on the rail), remove your left hand, and rest your left hand on your left thigh (you can use your left arm to stabilize and support your body). This will leave your body position a little higher than you usually shoot. Make sure that your right hand is behind the plane of your body (if not, then move your right hand position further back than usual). From this position make your one-handed stroke using the SAME pre-shot routine that you would if shooting normally. A typical example is slow but rhythmic back swing (eyes on target), bring cue tip back to ball (eyes on cue tip and cue ball as tip comes forward), a second slow but rhythmic backswing (eyes on target), bring cue tip back to ball (eyes again switch back to cue tip and cue ball as tip comes forward). Pause at this point, decide if aim and stroke feel correct (if not, then reposition slightly and repeat the 2 warm-up strokes), if correct then SAME slow but rhythmic backswing, stroke through the ball with a smooth stroke, dead straight follow through, moving right arm only from the elbow down (tip dropping to touch the cloth). You judge your stroke by the quality of the stroke and the tip position at the end - NOT by the pocketing of the ball. This will really give you the feel of letting the cue do the work, and of getting the tension out of your right hand grip (if you have had trouble trying to "steer" the ball during the stroke).

I hope this helps. If Sarah thinks this is wrong, then ignore this post.

Don,

Thanks for explaining that in further detail. It has been a long time since I have seen Jerry and gone through the joys of the one handed drill. Your explanation is perfect and I'm sure you and the others at the clinic this past weekend may have gotten a taste of this drill.

Take care,
Sarah

Recently I took a lesson from a teaching pro, and the only thing I asked him to do was to straighten out my stroke. First he had me shoot a rack of balls, to see how I went about that. Then he had me set up to shoot a striped ball from the head string up table to the short cushion and back, trying to get the cue ball to go up and down table perfectly straight. He had an electronic device he put on the short rail that gave me a tiny green pinpoint to shoot at, and if the cue ball hit either right or left an arrow would flash. I was continually hitting a tad right of center. Then he showed me how to ROLL the cueball, that is roll it up table, not shoot it uptable. He detectec a slight twist in my right hand as I did this, and adjusted how I held the cue -- VERY lightly. It got a bit better, then he had me do the one handed drill as mentioned above. Exactly the same as is described, but one handed, rolling the cue ball. Within FIVE minutes he had me rolling the cue ball perfectly up table, hitting the little pinpoint of green light, and having the cue ball rebound straight back downtable to land on the tip of the cue. Then he had me do it two handed. Voila, he fixed my stroke.

He told me that every day I should shoot that drill over and over, with varying speeds of shot, including using draw. In his opinion, within a month my stroke would be working like a charm, like a hinge he said. Guess what? It is....

That one handed drill will help groove the stroke and instill incredible confidence in your ability to shoot where you aim. Top notch stuff.

Flex

Flex,

It's good to hear that things are working well for you. I have heard of that laser device but I have yet to see it in action. It sounds like it is working well for you. Keep up the good work and practice.

Sarah

sarahrousey said:

Flex,

... I have heard of that laser device but I have yet to see it in action.

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I achieve the same effect by putting 2 balls on the short about 2 1/2" apart. I have heard it called the "goal-post drill".


I have also found that one-handed drill to be very effective.