Its how it forces the body to be positioned. You effectively don't hit the chest as soon as you do with a locked elbow.
Why Do Snooker Players Bend Their Elbow?
- Thread starter Pidge
- Start date
Remember most snooker cues are shorter and thus with your bridge hand fully extended you don't have a lot of cue to work with. Your hand and elbow become to stable contact points which also helps with your stability over the table....or at least that is the way I was taught.
Snooker cues are the same length. They just don't have a rubber bumper so when they are upright on the floor they look slightly smaller by an inch or so.
You can have a straight bridge arm without locking the elbow and it's very comfortable and not stressful at all.
I like my vision on the cue ball at approximately arm's length. If you bend your elbow you must increase your bridge length significantly to have that same visual distance from the cue ball.
A bent elbow does allow the player to face the shot more, however, it is the position of the feet that allow for a lean forward or back in weight distribution. Since the top half of the torso is bending forward, countering it with a lean back of the bottom-half puts the body in balance. I'm not a fan of an all-lean-forward type of stance.
Snooker is different from pool and I appreciate the differences. Pool players prefer more swing room between their hip and shooting arm -- heavier balls and all that. A straight, relaxed bridge arm works nicely for that.
Just different methodologies, I guess, but don't knock us pool players when it comes to fundamentals. We know more than you think.
I like my vision on the cue ball at approximately arm's length. If you bend your elbow you must increase your bridge length significantly to have that same visual distance from the cue ball.
A bent elbow does allow the player to face the shot more, however, it is the position of the feet that allow for a lean forward or back in weight distribution. Since the top half of the torso is bending forward, countering it with a lean back of the bottom-half puts the body in balance. I'm not a fan of an all-lean-forward type of stance.
Snooker is different from pool and I appreciate the differences. Pool players prefer more swing room between their hip and shooting arm -- heavier balls and all that. A straight, relaxed bridge arm works nicely for that.
Just different methodologies, I guess, but don't knock us pool players when it comes to fundamentals. We know more than you think.
Hi Fran,
I really don't think the idea of needing "more swing room" for power shots in pool is that relevant in today's game considering how fast modern tables play.
Of course, I wouldn't recommend a snooker stance on something like a break shot, but it's fine for everything else.
Okay, eliminate the swing room and you still have several issues regarding the bent elbow, such as vision, bridge length, balance and stance.
I play with a bent elbow and have no issues with clearance.
Vision? No problems for me there.
Bridge Length? That can easily be altered by how near or far you stand from the CB at address, and where you grip the cue. I grip my cue so my pinkie is where the wrap ends. This gives me a bridge length of about 10"
Balance and Stance? I feel like I'm well balanced in my stance. Whether or not that's due to the bent elbow I can't say. I don't think it hurts though.
I like using a straight bridge arm, especially on longer straighter power shots, but my rotator cuff flares up so when I'm playing a lot, raising my elbow takes most of this strain away.
Colin
Colin
With a locked elbow I grip my pool cue at the very back of the butt, not ten on the grip. With a bent elbow I grip at the very bottom of the grip. Shifting about a hand further up the cue so you just have to choke up a little.
Again, with vision, you just make minor adjustments and anyone who has played the game a fair amount will naturally set up their vision centre the same distance from the cue ball when the table allows it.
With such a square stance most snooker players employ, shifting the weight forward which a lot of players like to do means most of the weight being on the toes making it out a lot of pressure on the straight arm. The bent elbow relieves this strain.
Like I said, most pool players stand very side on. A bent elbow isn't ideal for such a side on stance. The weight can be distributed in such a stance by favouring one foot. In a snooker stance such as mine this isn't the case.
Ron Swanson
Banned
Then why is it the way you were brought up and, presumably, how you continue to teach, so outdated and discredited?
No one in the rest of the world are copying your fundamentals.
Yes, we all know you're a snooker player, and I give them a lot of credit. I studied a lot of snooker books which helped me a great deal in working out my playing and teaching methodology for pool. But pool is not snooker.
I'm not taking your mean-spirited nonsensical bait. But if you decide to post like an adult, I'm all ears (or rather -- eyes), otherwise we're done here.
The greatest snooker player elbow bender was a Canadian, Bill Werbeniuk.
Singlehandedly he was the cause of the players open bar at pro tournaments being eliminated.
Bending his elbow was a necessity.
His booze expense was ruled a deduction for tax purposes.
Alcohol consumption
Werbeniuk was noted for the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed before and during matches – at least six pints before a match and then one pint for each frame. In total, he drank between 30 and 50 pints of lager per day.[2][4] Doctors advised Werbeniuk to drink alcohol to counteract a familial benign essential tremor.[5] Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker, to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.[6]
Some of Werbeniuk's most famous feats of drinking include: 76 cans of lager during a game with John Spencer in Australia in the 1970s;[2] 43 pints of lager in a snooker match/drinking contest against Scotsman Eddie Sinclair in which, after Sinclair had passed out following his 42nd pint, Werbeniuk was reported to say "I'm away to the bar now for a proper drink";[7] 28 pints of lager and 16 whiskies over the course of 11 frames during a match against Nigel Bond, in January 1990 – after which Werbeniuk then consumed an entire bottle of Scotch to "drown his sorrows" after losing the match.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Werbeniuk
http://www.drunkard.com/issues/59/59--top-drunks-bill-webeniuk.html
Haven't read this thread, only glanced at parts of it.
Seemed to have gotten off topic into some arcane aiming/stance/stroke discussion.
Just trying to get it back on track. :grin:
Singlehandedly he was the cause of the players open bar at pro tournaments being eliminated.
Bending his elbow was a necessity.
His booze expense was ruled a deduction for tax purposes.
Alcohol consumption
Werbeniuk was noted for the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed before and during matches – at least six pints before a match and then one pint for each frame. In total, he drank between 30 and 50 pints of lager per day.[2][4] Doctors advised Werbeniuk to drink alcohol to counteract a familial benign essential tremor.[5] Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker, to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.[6]
Some of Werbeniuk's most famous feats of drinking include: 76 cans of lager during a game with John Spencer in Australia in the 1970s;[2] 43 pints of lager in a snooker match/drinking contest against Scotsman Eddie Sinclair in which, after Sinclair had passed out following his 42nd pint, Werbeniuk was reported to say "I'm away to the bar now for a proper drink";[7] 28 pints of lager and 16 whiskies over the course of 11 frames during a match against Nigel Bond, in January 1990 – after which Werbeniuk then consumed an entire bottle of Scotch to "drown his sorrows" after losing the match.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Werbeniuk
http://www.drunkard.com/issues/59/59--top-drunks-bill-webeniuk.html
Haven't read this thread, only glanced at parts of it.
Seemed to have gotten off topic into some arcane aiming/stance/stroke discussion.
Just trying to get it back on track. :grin:
Ron Swanson
Banned
What i say is the truth. You can either accept it and change, or you can bury your head in the sand. Your choice.
And I'm not a snooker player, never have been.
It is, or should be, a matter of alignment.
I am right handed and extremely right eye dominant. More's the pity. To get the shaft under
my right eye, I need to bend my left elbow. Since Snooker players tend to use a stance,'
and everything else that is much more "standard" than do pool players, perhaps that is why you see more bend of the elbow.
Dale
Pidge, do you ever use your torso to stabilize the cue on your stroke? I was messing around with it yesterday, and I think it might be helpful in snooker since the table is a bit taller. I personally can't find the traditional squared up snooker stance comfortable at all, but I would like to consider changing my stance for when I'm at the snooker table. Bending the elbow seems to bring my upper body a bit lower, and this was an interesting effect.
Last edited:
The cue runs along my chest of that's what you mean, and yes the bent elbow does lower the torso especially the chest a little. This could also be a reason for the bent elbow... To get as low as possible with comfort in mind.
that bend in the elbow lets the shoulder joint roll out a little as it opens up, putting less tension on the rotator.