Techniques for helping a player stay down on the shot

> I jumped up real bad on a ball one time and it cost me the set. Billy Teeter was sitting there with Alex Brick and saw it. He caught my dejection and told me the reason I missed was because of the jump,so naturally I asked what I could do to ensure that it NEVER happens again.

He said "what we'll do is tie a piece of parachute cord around your neck,and take one of those eagle-claw fish hooks and hook it to your nuts. TRUST ME, you'll only do it once more :p." Tommy D.
 
Make sure you are steady and balanced. Otherwise there is a greater tendency to move on the final stroke.

Put more weight on your front leg.

Ensure that you are completely still during your warm up strokes, if your not you will almost certainly be unstable on the final stroke.

Interestingly in snooker Mark Selby is wobbling all over the place during his warm up strokes, and then the moment he begins his final stroke, everything freezes except for his right arm.
 
Not just for golf anymore!
 

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selftaut said:
I have shown this to a few with some success. Put the cueball on the spot, using center ball shoot straight down table across the other spot into the cushion with freezing your cue tip in position when it went through the cueball and "also" freeze your head in position, you want the cueball to come back and hit the cuetip exactly where it left before you move a muscle, stopping the cueball against the tip of your cue. Do this repeatedly using different speeds. This is the old "shooting straight" check of your stroke method, but also helps the jumping issue because you have to "not" jump to have the cueball go straight.
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Good drill for several reasons, including staying down.
 
A shock collar around the neck and a mercury switch taped to your shoulder.

This also works well with dropping your elbow.
 
akaTrigger said:
My goal for the year is to stay down - so please keep the posts coming!
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This is perfect. I was just explaining to my teen daughter that she needs to establish some goals and they must be written down or they have no power. You not only wrote it down but published it for the world to see, which makes you accountable.

I saved your site to show her I'm not the only one who writes down my goals.
 
I was told long ago to treat each shot like it is a movie. You must stay until the end of the end credits. Getting up is like leaving the theatre early. You don't want to do that, now do you? :wink:
 
The easiest thing to do is take a section of yarn and tie it around your neck. Tie a small loop in the other end and only have about a foot of total length. Then run your cue through the small loop when shooting. If you try to raise up then it'll about pull the cue out of your hands. It makes you very aware & is a simple fix. You can go one step further and place a thick rubberband around your wrist. Everytime you lift early then pull the rubberband back and give yourself a nice pop on the wrist. It really only takes a couple practice sessions doing this to cure it.:wink:
 
Voodoo Daddy said:
I have helped a number of people how to play from the league duffer to seasoned players, the stand up drill goes like this.

I stand behind them with a house cue and hold it over them, after the standup process starts they raise up, hitting their head on the shaft end of the house cue. I normally let them do this several times. Then I turn the cue around, changing the impact to their heads. The weight of the butt clunks them a couple of times and normally helps them believe that every time they raise their head, they will get clunked ala Pavlov's <thanks Dave, HAHAHA> Dog theory.

If that doesnt work I go to extreme...I stand behind them as their down and swing the house cue over their head baseball style, making an unmistable sound and tell them "stand up again and I'll take you @#$ %^&* head off" I have never had a student stand up after that <only had to hit one and he was a friend, LOL>
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I know for a fact that Troyroy78 had that technique used on him. He was being trained by one of the top players in China. Every time his head came up his trainer whacked him on the head with a cue. Apparently none to lightly either.

Seemed to work for Roy. Of course the thought of having to put an ice pack on my head after a session of pool would be enough to get me to keep my head down. :eek::)
 
I watched the pro players at Valley Forge (thanks to AZB) with this topic in mind. I noticed that the pro players leave their bridge hand on the table on most of the shots.

Over the last few days I have tried to consciously leave my bridge hand on the table with the stick extended (re Jack K). Surprisingly, it is comfortable technique and it helps me keep my eye on the ball. A close observation of the pros leads to the idea that they usually leave their hand on the table until the OB enters the pocket. This may mean that they are usually watching the OB not the CB position.
 
JoeW said:
I watched the pro players at Valley Forge (thanks to AZB) with this topic in mind. I noticed that the pro players leave their bridge hand on the table on most of the shots.

Over the last few days I have tried to consciously leave my bridge hand on the table with the stick extended (re Jack K). Surprisingly, it is comfortable technique and it helps me keep my eye on the ball. A close observation of the pros leads to the idea that they usually leave their hand on the table until the OB enters the pocket. This may mean that they are usually watching the OB not the CB position.
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One of my first instructors believed this and used a poolcue technique that didn't involve head-whacking. He simply put the cue on the back of my bridge hand, pressed down, and kept it there until the shot was over. That helped me a lot.

Jeff Livingston
 
chefjeff said:
One of my first instructors believed this and used a poolcue technique that didn't involve head-whacking. He simply put the cue on the back of my bridge hand, pressed down, and kept it there until the shot was over. That helped me a lot.

Jeff Livingston
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Jeff, it occurred to me as I read the post of JoeW and your post that there sure are a LOT of techniques for helping the player stay down on the shot. There have been so many good ideas in this thread that anyone with this problem should surely find a technique that will help them.
 
Relaxing your feet.

I think it was Joe W that mentioned not curling up your toes. I notice that if I relax my feet and don't tense up my toes that it relaxes me and helps to keep me from moving during my shots. When your feet relax it seems to follow that your legs do also. It keeps me from jumping up. Wiggle your toes. It may sound stupid but I think it helps. :)
 
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