Just got my own table and getting back into the game after not playing consistently since high school. My stroke is getting there but i am noticing my follow thru is not as long as some of the pros. i notice a lot of guys drop their elbow on a lot od shots after contact amd really extend their stroke. It is very obvious in this Corey Deuel video.
http://vimeo.com/19354477
Is this something one should emulate?
i love this video. So smooth.
My high run is around 12. Never made it through a whole rack and mostly it is ball pocketing so i am spending a lot of time on my stroke an pocketing drills.
Makey98:
(I fixed your URL tags for ya, in my quote of your post above.)
First, welcome to the 14.1 forum! I'm sure you noticed there's a lot of very helpful and more importantly -- supportive -- people here, so like the Olive Garden restaurant commercial on TV, "when you're here, you're family."
Second, about your question of elbow drop. DON'T "WORRY" ABOUT IT. Working on fundamentals is always good, but the topic of elbow drop is a non-finisher. Some of the best players in the world -- pool, snooker, carom, Russian Pyramid, just about any cue sport -- drop their elbow. In fact, I'm surprised you picked Corey to ask this question about, as his elbow drop is slight compared to others. How about Mike Sigel? Now *there* is an elbow drop! (Mike's grip hand elbow drops down and almost touches the cue itself on some of his really long follow-throughs.) There are others as well. Name any pro with a recognizable name, and you'll see elbow drop to varying degrees. The only pros I know who really pin that elbow, are the ex-snooker players that converted to pool (e.g. Allison Fisher, Karen Corr). But even the best snooker players drop their elbow a bit. Watch Ronnie O'Sullivan or Judd Trump. It has a lot to do with the subconscious effort of "wanting to deliver straight-through the cue ball" -- in other words, it's an after-effect.
Again, working on your fundamentals is good. Worry about delivering the cue straight and to a committed finish, yes. Worry about how your head/eyes are aligned over the cue. Worry about your stance -- whether you're planted solidly and accurately on the line of the shot, without have to lean one way or the other to get back on line. But I wouldn't "worry" about the elbow drop (I put "worry" in quotes, because I wanted to point out it shouldn't be a focal point). However, if the elbow drop is not straight down (i.e. your arm is on an angle, not perpendicular to the floor) and it's causing your cue delivery to have some yaw or wobble to it, then yes, you need to correct it. A stroke instructor (e.g. Randy G., Scott Lee) can diagnose this for you, and is money well-spent (you'll have "before" and "after" videos to refer to).
Hope this is helpful,
-Sean
P.S.: you might want to post your question to the "
Ask the Instructor" forum, as the aforementioned stroke instructors "live" there.
