Tip Distance From CB At Final Address

nataddrho

www.digicue.net
Silver Member
For "A" players and above, what are your thoughts?

(Please don't respond if you are a "B" or below)
 
I think, overall, about an inch. You might want to lengthen this a little if you're breaking or hitting the ball hard. If you're hitting it soft, you could probably get closer but I don't know if there's going to be much benefit within an inch. You should be close enough that the variance of where you'll contact the cue ball is minimal without putting yourself at risk of accidentally hitting the cue ball.

There are also plenty of videos on Youtube where you can get a sense of how close they're getting and usually, you'll see it's about half the width of the cue ball.

I know Neil said 1/4" earlier and although I do respect his opinion, I think that's too close. You're practically touching the ball at that point and I don't entirely agree with that.
 
Many players of all skill levels don't realize the benefit to keeping the tip close for accuracy. Pros can do anything they like...some are very close (> 1/2") and others are a couple inches away or more. We definitely teach players to get close, why it's important, and how to achieve getting close without fouling (hint: it takes practice, requires an eye pattern, and you can't practice it while you play).

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Curious to see how important it is to other players.
 
For "A" players and above, what are your thoughts?

(Please don't respond if you are a "B" or below)


lol... We will know Fargo Ratings have "made it" when AZ members are admonished to not respond if their Fargo Rating is below XXX... ;-)

What we've seen from our students is that many players, even pretty experienced players, have a poor perception of what this distance is for them. It's hard to see from where your eyes are.

We liken it to a driver's poor perception of exactly where the front bumper of a car is. It is a good idea with a new car to find out in a controlled setting exactly how far the front bumper sticks out. Ease up to something until you kiss it, and pay attention to what that looks like...

When we first do the stroke drill that reinforces the set position, we have students slowly move the tip to the cueball until it actually touches--and then come back a smidge. Then when they start doing the stroke drills, we actually encourage them to get so close that one of every five or ten attempts they inadvertently touch the cueball. This is all in a effort to get them to understand where the cueball really is...

Another point to not be overlooked is if a big-gap player makes an effort to be a small-gap player, say by going from 1.5 inches to 0.5 inches, or from 1.25 inches to 0.25 inches, he needs to move his whole body (i.e., his feet) forward an inch.
 
Many players of all skill levels don't realize the benefit to keeping the tip close for accuracy. Pros can do anything they like...some are very close (> 1/2") and others are a couple inches away or more. We definitely teach players to get close, why it's important, and how to achieve getting close without fouling (hint: it takes practice, requires an eye pattern, and you can't practice it while you play).

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

My thought is that this is one of the rare pieces of advice in pool that can yield an instant improvement.
 
I just measured mine and it's 3/8". I consider myself to pause further back compared to some players. I don't want to foul, so I keep a safe distance.
 
I just measured mine and it's 3/8". I consider myself to pause further back compared to some players. I don't want to foul, so I keep a safe distance.

When I was fixing this issue for myself, I don't want to remember how many times I accidentally poked the cue ball. Definitely don't want to enter competition too soon after working on you tip distance.
 
what Neil said

Should be within 1/2". Preferably 1/4" or less.

To give you an idea how close my set position is...when I get a new tip I prefer to have it cut down about half way because I will occasionally bump the cue ball inadvertently while I'm trying to adjust to the size of a brand new tip. I know crazy but that's how close I set.
 
Tip distance

Sean 'tony' azares brought the tip soooooo close that it was mesmerizing. It was not the thickness of 2 or 3 $1 bills.

And I never saw him foul on the cueball.

This was early 1990's

Mark Griffin
 
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