Stance and posture issues

Hooper840

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hello all. Long time reader first time poster. I was told that I don't get down on the ball enough in my stance. On top of that I always seem to pop my head up before completing my stroke. Any suggestions on how to break the habit?
 
My opinion is to put your chin on the shaft when shooting. Do this in practice at first and practice staying down in that position to a silent count of 3 after you strike the CB.
 
If your not confident of your aim you will try to adjust during the stroke. Many players will say : You missed the shot because you jumped up.........

I say you didn't quite feel right about your aim and subconciously jumped or twisted to try and correct. This totally sabatages the shot.

You have a dominant eye and a non dominant eye. Your right eye does the aiming when you cut to the right and your left eye does the aiming when you cut to the left.

Your dominant eye and your non dominant eye shoot totally different. Unless you know how each eye aims it's hard to correct your aim on a shot that just doesn't look right.

So you keep on jumping and twisting and keep on missing the same type of shots.
 
I wouldn't worry about head height for now. Some players are nearly erect when shooting, some with their chin on the cue and most are somewhere in between.

Without seeing you shoot its impossible to advise. But just a guess there's something else that's causing the jump. Geno gave you one. How fast is your back stroke. Should be deadly slow. Then smooth acceleration through the CB. Where is the tip landing after the CB is on its way?

The only way to get rid of a bad habit is practice and repetition. Practice your stroke forgetting about whether balls drop or not. The SPF method will bring you a long way to your goal.
 
bobble head

practice,

or don't get your head down on the shot as much.
 
Gene, your Perfect Aim information can be huge for any player. Although I do not teach Perfect Aim in CTE/ PRO ONE, one's eyes during ball address, are in optimal position to do just what you prescribe with Perfect Aim. Thank you, Gene, for the important work that you have put forth!
Stan Shuffett
 
Post a video of you shooting your normal/current stroke. I am sure you will get some feedback or advice.
 
Have someone hold a cue over your head when you shoot, and not remove it until the cue ball has stopped rolling. :D
 
I think I might have someone start beating me over the head with a cue, maybe that'll help? :rolleyes: :p :D

Actually, Scaramouche was tongue-in-cheekin' about Steve Davis, the snooker champion, on that one. Steve once mentioned he had a habit of popping up on his shots as well, and relayed the story of how his dad would hold a snooker cue over his head while shooting, so that if he (little Steve) jumped up, he'd hit his head on the cue. This taught Steve to stay down on the shot, and he credits his Dad for ingraining this into him.

That approach requires two people and is a little extreme, of course, but one can break him/herself out of the popping-up habit. It could be as simple as when after you deliver the cue through the cue ball, make it a point to watch the cue ball (or the object ball, your choice) travel to its destination *while down on the shot*. If you shoot down low ("chinning" the cue, a la snooker), make it a point to feel your grip hand strike your chest as it finishes the cue delivery stroke. If you shoot up high (a la Rudolph Wanderone [Minnesota Fats]), make it a point to "feel" your arm bend until the cue comes to a natural stop. Basically, make it a point to "feel" any part of your cue delivery, and not focus on the results of the shot itself -- this will take your mind away from the "omigod omigod omigod -- did I make the shot?!?" tendency to pop-up.

Hope this helps,
-Sean
 
I'm more old-fashioned in my approach..

Just stop it.

Or stand so erect that you just can't hop up.

Again, we'll review what we just went over. :grin:

Stop it.

Or:

Stand tall so you can't hop.

...

You're being overly anxious about your shot.. be patient and watch from your normal stance what happens after the shot.

Patience, grasshoppa.

(Yeah, yeah, patience... how long will that take?)
 
Actually, Scaramouche was tongue-in-cheekin' about Steve Davis, the snooker champion, on that one. Steve once mentioned he had a habit of popping up on his shots as well, and relayed the story of how his dad would hold a snooker cue over his head while shooting, so that if he (little Steve) jumped up, he'd hit his head on the cue. This taught Steve to stay down on the shot, and he credits his Dad for ingraining this into him.

-Sean

I was merely suggesting that if someone knocked me in the head enough, something might sink in. :p I wasn't making fun of the technique, rather I actually expect that it would help someone like myself quite a bit.
 
Gene, your Perfect Aim information can be huge for any player. Although I do not teach Perfect Aim in CTE/ PRO ONE, one's eyes during ball address, are in optimal position to do just what you prescribe with Perfect Aim. Thank you, Gene, for the important work that you have put forth!
Stan Shuffett

Stan, you are an instructor of acclaim, but the fact that you feel "Perfect Aim" is "huge", confounds me. I bought the first two Perfect Aim DVD's, hoping that some of the hype was true. All I came away with was an understanding that Perfect Aim was no more than a requirement to center the cue between your eyes. I've asked Gene whether that is true in numerous posts over the past year and one half, or however long Gene's DVD has been out, but Gene has repeatedly avoided answering that question, despite his promise to all his customers he would do otherwise.

My question is quite simple: If we center the cue between our eyes, are our eyes then within 1/8 inch of that perfect spot Gene keeps alluding to? If this ansere is "YES", that would be valuable information to the multitude of customers bamboozled by Gene's DVD's.

Perhaps it could even help the original poster in this thread. Gene's post seemed like spam to me; but, assuming Gene truly felt his post was relevant, how much more relevant would it have been to simply state the solution to the original poster's problem? Gene could have simply said "Center the cue between your eyes." - rather than rambling on about eye dominance etc and giving no fix -seemingly just trying to bait in another customer.

In the past, when it became apparent that Gene was going to continue to sidestep my question, I invited any of his supporters to answer the question. (Many were raving about how great Perfect Aim was; so, obviously, they understood it, I reasoned.) Surprisingly, none of them answered the question either. And it is such a simple question.

Since you say Perfect Aim is huge, and you are highly respected on this forum, I am asking you to answer this question once and for all. Thanks in advance for an unequivocal reply.
 
I do not profess to be an expert concerning Perfect Aim. I have not worked personally with Gene. From my experiences I regularly observe students with various cue locations. I can say that in Pro1 one's left eye and right eye can be favored during the aiming process and successfully so. As far as centering the cue between the eyes during full stance, it's individual. I do believe that positioning of one's eyes correctly is extremely important whether it's during ball address or while in full stance.
Stan
 
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I was told that I don't get down on the ball enough in my stance. On top of that I always seem to pop my head up before completing my stroke. Any suggestions on how to break the habit?

As to how low in your stance--that is for you to ultimately decide. Me, I'm 58 and can't get down far enough to have my chin anywhere near the cue.

As to movement durring the stroke--just stop it. One easy way to accomplish this is to tke all the power necessary out of the stroke until you can make a perfect stroke and not have the cue arm move the body.

There are lots of ways the cue arm moves the body: a) you move the sholder in order to put more power into the stroke, b) you change your aim in mid-stroke, c) you want to watch the CB impact the OB or the OB drop in the pocket.

On this last point, you will find that you can see the CB roll towards teh OB better if the head stays where it was. And you can then see the CB-OB impact watching for cling,... And then you can watch the OB roll down the line towards thepocket. And you can do all of this watching BETTER with your head at the same spot you aimed the shot originally. Whe you move your head, you cannot also be watching the CB roll, the CB-OB contact or the OB roll. Any movement of the head prevents you from seeing the minute details that will enable you to aim better and stroke better. You HAVE to quit moving the head.

Once you get the hang of not moving the head, you will find the sholder leading the shot will have fixed itself, and find yo need/want to change the aim a whole lot less often--simply because you an see what you are doing.
 
I do profess to be an expert concerning Perfect Aim. . . . . .Stan

When hitting center ball, which Perfect Aim contemplates, how can one see along the left side of the cueball with the left eye, and along the right side of the cueball with the right eye, to see the fractional ball aim necessary for a shot, if the cue is not centered beneath the eyes (within 1/8 inch). This is so because our eyespan is equal to the cueball diameter (within 1/8 inch). Agreed?
 
I do not profess to be an expert concerning Perfect Aim. I have not worked personally with Gene. From my experiences I regularly observe students with various cue locations. I can say that in Pro1 one's left eye and right eye can be favored during the aiming process and successfully so. As far as centering the cue between the eyes during full stance, it's individual. I do believe that positioning of one's eyes correctly is extremely important whether it's during ball address or while in full stance.
Stan

Shankster8,

I corrected my first sentence with a "not". I am not an expert with Perfect Aim.
I made a couple of other ajustsments as well in my post.

I regularly make mistakes when on my iphone. I apologize.

Stan
 
Stan, you are an instructor of acclaim, but the fact that you feel "Perfect Aim" is "huge", confounds me. I bought the first two Perfect Aim DVD's, hoping that some of the hype was true. All I came away with was an understanding that Perfect Aim was no more than a requirement to center the cue between your eyes. I've asked Gene whether that is true in numerous posts over the past year and one half, or however long Gene's DVD has been out, but Gene has repeatedly avoided answering that question, despite his promise to all his customers he would do otherwise.

My question is quite simple: If we center the cue between our eyes, are our eyes then within 1/8 inch of that perfect spot Gene keeps alluding to? If this ansere is "YES", that would be valuable information to the multitude of customers bamboozled by Gene's DVD's.

Perhaps it could even help the original poster in this thread. Gene's post seemed like spam to me; but, assuming Gene truly felt his post was relevant, how much more relevant would it have been to simply state the solution to the original poster's problem? Gene could have simply said "Center the cue between your eyes." - rather than rambling on about eye dominance etc and giving no fix -seemingly just trying to bait in another customer.

In the past, when it became apparent that Gene was going to continue to sidestep my question, I invited any of his supporters to answer the question. (Many were raving about how great Perfect Aim was; so, obviously, they understood it, I reasoned.) Surprisingly, none of them answered the question either. And it is such a simple question.

Since you say Perfect Aim is huge, and you are highly respected on this forum, I am asking you to answer this question once and for all. Thanks in advance for an unequivocal reply.

I stated that Perfect Aim "can be huge". I have worked with players that have improved their aim by following principles that Gene teaches. I have worked with others that do not connect.. However, in PRO ONE, one's right eye can lead the aim and at other times the left eye will lead the aim. It happens naturally as part of the system.......

Stan
 
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When hitting center ball, which Perfect Aim contemplates, how can one see along the left side of the cueball with the left eye, and along the right side of the cueball with the right eye, to see the fractional ball aim necessary for a shot, if the cue is not centered beneath the eyes (within 1/8 inch). This is so because our eyespan is equal to the cueball diameter (within 1/8 inch). Agreed?

Stan, do you agree with this? Thanks
 
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