What if the cue is in a position where the butt end doesn't reach the rail behind you on your backstroke? Then there's no need to elevate, yes?
You can also avoid the "natural" dip in the stroke with a very low bridge and a back hand that touches the cloth and moves along its surface.
And what about that trick shot where you lay the, resting them on the
cloth? The butt is struck with the heel of the hand.
You'd be perfectly correct if you say that a level draw stroke is RARELY possible...I know I'm being picky here, but my point is there's an exception to pretty much every rule in pool...
Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
Donny:
Ok, I give up on trying to help people past these "technicality" games. I actually was trying to stick up for the instructors, like you, who advocate a "level cue" with the notion that "level" is merely used to denote the difference from jacking up. But you want to be "technical," so here, I'll play along:
1. "Level" means it passes a bubble level test on the non-tapered section of the cue (i.e. the butt).
2. With the rails still attached to the table, it is impossible to have a perfectly level cue for a draw stroke, if a normal-sized playing cue (not a "stubby" or short cue like that which Cuebuddy sells) is gripped in the area that would extend near or over the rail.
3. Even *if* one were to move the cue ball and object ball close together near a corner pocket, such that the object ball would be pocketed by the cue ball, one can still not achieve a "level cue draw shot" with his/her grip hand gripping the cue and resting the hand on the table surface. REASON: the cue has a somewhat conical taper shape from tip to butt, and your grip hand is gripping more or less the widest circumference of the cue. Therefore, the cue will *always* be slightly angled downward, even if the cue and the grip hand itself were resting on the table surface (cloth). Additionally, to avoid getting a burn on your knuckles from the cloth when you delivered the cue -- you have to angle the cue slightly downwards a bit more to give your grip hand clearance from the cloth.
Forgetting the draw stroke for a moment, you *might* be able to execute a perfect center ball hit with a level cue if you gripped the butt in "tea cup" fashion (i.e. tips of fingers on the sides of the cue, with no fingers wrapping underneath the cue), and the bottom-most surface of the cue nearly dragging on the cloth. You'd need the absolute centerline of the cue, perfectly parallel with the floor, to be exactly 1.125 inch from the surface of the table, which is "pushing it" as far as one's ability to grip the cue in any "normal" sense of the word and deliver it.
But a draw stroke? No. Impossible. The centerline of a tapered instrument like a cue forbids keeping the cue "level" on a draw stroke (remember, we're being "technical" and that means it must pass a bubble level test).
There. I hope that's technical enough for ya. You wanted to go there, not me. :grin-devilish:
-Sean