Raising up a tiny bit when shooting, normal?

[hang-the-9]

http://youtu.be/W6KKnuZWiWE

I'm going though a few shots I have issues making, backward long cuts and on the rail shots with >45 degree angle. Plus a few racks of 9 ball.

Is that lift-up you guys will see on the first practice shot normal or needs to be removed? I really can't feel the lift I do, but can see it in video.

Edit.. the angle I shot this at is not very good to see the first shots, most of the time my head and body is out of the frame, but I was not really doing the recording for outside viewing, wanted to see what I was doing when I missed.

 

[Neil]

You have the video set on "private", we can't see it.

 

[hang-the-9]

You have the video set on "private", we can't see it.

Sorry, changed it.

 

[Neil]

Forget the first part of the video, casn only see a very small part of your head. Fast forward to 11:10, where you are shooting the 6 ball in the corner. Do a lot of freeze frame (pause button). You will see that with the tip near the cb, your back hand is way forward of 90 degrees. That is a big part of your problem.

You use an elbow drop stroke. That's all well and good, but, when you drop your elbow, and your not at 90 degrees at address, to keep the cue level you have to lift your body a little bit. Which is what you are doing. You can detect it best in seeing your head lifting, but your whole upper body is lifting.

Now, if you can do that repeatedly, fine. But, as you can see in the video, you have a little trouble moving your upper body the exact same way every time. Try just moving your back hand back a little. It will feel awkward at first, but try it for a while and see if it doesn't improve things a little.

 

[hang-the-9]

Forget the first part of the video, casn only see a very small part of your head. Fast forward to 11:10, where you are shooting the 6 ball in the corner. Do a lot of freeze frame (pause button). You will see that with the tip near the cb, your back hand is way forward of 90 degrees. That is a big part of your problem.

You use an elbow drop stroke. That's all well and good, but, when you drop your elbow, and your not at 90 degrees at address, to keep the cue level you have to lift your body a little bit. Which is what you are doing. You can detect it best in seeing your head lifting, but your whole upper body is lifting.

Now, if you can do that repeatedly, fine. But, as you can see in the video, you have a little trouble moving your upper body the exact same way every time. Try just moving your back hand back a little. It will feel awkward at first, but try it for a while and see if it doesn't improve things a little.

Thanks for the comments. I do move my back hand around a bit on the cue, to where it feels comfortable or "right" for the shot, at times holding it near the butt past the wrap. I did notice the elbow drop also, but it's also something I don't feel happening when I'm shooting. Funny part is that my son drops his elbow a lot, especially on shots he misses, and I tell him to stop it. Looks like he got it from me.

I see what you mean on that 6 ball shot, I extended the arm a lot on the follow-through, will try to keep that angle in mind next time I practice.

Should have done a recording a bit ago hehe. Like 20 years back

 

[BilliardsAbout]

A "good" elbow drop stroke (where the elbow drops before impact) has an equivocating amount of elbow raise and elbow drop (like Mike Massey crushing a draw stroke).

Practice staying down after the final stroke until both the cue ball and the object ball have come to rest. You'll begin to develop feel until you understand the elbow drop and having more conscious control against it.

 

[hang-the-9]

A "good" elbow drop stroke (where the elbow drops before impact) has an equivocating amount of elbow raise and elbow drop (like Mike Massey crushing a draw stroke).

Practice staying down after the final stroke until both the cue ball and the object ball have come to rest. You'll begin to develop feel until you understand the elbow drop and having more conscious control against it.

I don't think I stand up on most shots, but during longer shots where I need to add power I look to raise up about 1 inch on the last stroke. It's too bad I was out of camera angle for the most part during the first 4-5 minutes, but that longer backwards cut where I draw to the rail and to the opposite rail shows in some frames that I lift up during the shot.

 

[nrhoades]

Did you ever whack yourself in the chin with the cue?

I used to, and developed a flinch (stand-up-flinch) on power shots to prevent future whacks.

Takes conscious practice to overcome this. I'm still working on it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Did you ever whack yourself in the chin with the cue?

I used to, and developed a flinch (stand-up-flinch) on power shots to prevent future whacks.

Takes conscious practice to overcome this. I'm still working on it.

No hehe, but my arm does hit my chest at times. I from what I can tell, I only lift up a bit when I use over half a full power stoke, maybe starting at 60%, with 100% being a full power break shot. Maybe it's a side-effect of raising up a bit on a good break shot to put more body weight behind the shot, so I do that on all of the hard shots.