And amazingly, the longer you pause on the cueball on the final stroke makes it easier to pause on the back stroke.
Stroke improvement question for instructors and non instructors
- Thread starter tableroll
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And amazingly, the longer you pause on the cueball on the final stroke makes it easier to pause on the back stroke.
Then I think it's safe to say that you are not a feel player. Players who play by feel don't take long pauses. It's not natural to their rhythm and timing. You probably also aren't the type to trust your unconscious mind to take over your stroke.
I think that is true. After 40 years of playing the wrong way and forming a lot of bad habits, I am progressing into an orthodox stroke routine but it is a challenge. I am getting there. I think by the end of the year i will be near where I want to be. Now I have these forums, U-Tube videos and i have done some instruction with Randy and I must say I have improved a lot in the last two years. I have moved out of thinking about every "correct way" to stroke which was somewhat robotic. The one second pause may not be that long but the pause is quite an improvement. The last two details of my "perfect stroke" routine is the zero head and body movement and the elbow only moving. My stroke is moving out of the mechanical and robotic "think about every "perfect stroke" step and on to the stroke being more natural and I do not have to think about every step very much except the body movement and elbow only. Hoping to have this incorporated into my routine in a month or two. I forgot, I also have to work on my "smooth transition" I am a slow learner.
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Yes, but it's possible to pause for so slight a time that there is no feel or sense of pause.
It's possible to have an utterly silky, smooth stroke, without a perceptible pause.
The same concept comes up in golf, where some muscles are moving/changing direction while the club pauses at the top of the backswing. Some golf pros have a discernible pause, some do not.
Not all pros use the same stroke and we recognize at AZ piston, J- and pendulum strokes.
I'll say it again...……..Aint that the truth!
I've watched tons of pool over the years. ESPN, Accu-Stats videos, live and in person, etc, etc. About the only top level player that I have ever seen that has a big time pause is Buddy Hall. Back in his prime, of course.
r/DCP
And if you study some of the Filipino players, you'll find that they don't pause at all because they have a loop stroke which is continuous.
True for non-loop strokes too. An automobile piston travels back and forth in a straight line while driving a driveshaft in a perfectly circular motion with no pauses.
pj
chgo
I'm not challenging the wisdom of a pause - I do it myself (taught by Scott Lee). Just commenting on the physics of "everybody pauses".
pj
chgo
Patrick, I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of something moving in a straight line, driving something that's circular and there being no pause. Are you saying that the circular movement is continuous, therefore the straight line movement must also be continuous? Are you 100% sure about that?
Yes - for the piston example.
Our arm muscles may not act exactly like a continuous-motion piston/connecting rod - but that doesn't mean any straightline motion must pause (for a measurable amount of time) when it changes direction.
Anyway, not particularly important - just an observation.
pj
chgo
Well, it's important to me because I don't think that's correct. If the arm that's moving in a straight line is attached to the circular piece, then it's part of the circular piece and not moving back and forth in a straight line. If it's separate, then it has to pause, even if the pause is insignificant to you, technically, it's a pause and you shouldn't equate that with something like a loop stroke that doesn't pause at all because it's continuously moving in one direction. And BTW, I was the one who introduced the idea of a Filipino loop stroke here on AZ. I created that term. Up until then, you guys were all calling it a piston stroke.
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A true pause where both the speed of the arm and the force from the hand go to zero at the same time is a very, very different physical situation from where the force from the hand goes to zero during the backstroke and is actually already pushing the cue forward when the cue comes to a rest.
I'm surprised by how many don't see those two situations as very different.
I'm surprised by how many don't see those two situations as very different.
A piston does move back and forth in a straight line despite being connected to the crankshaft moving in a continuous circular motion. If the crankshaft's circular motion doesn't pause, neither does the piston.
But, like I said, a piston, connecting rod and crankshaft aren't a pool player's arm and cue, so this is just a comment on whether or not reversing a straightline direction must always involve a pause - not on whether or not it happens in a pool stroke.
pj
chgo
Amen Bob. Not just different but very different as far as I am concerned.
Now I will wait for Scott Lee to respond to this post and tell me that I just don't get it - again.
r/DCP
You can call it insignificant, miniscule or whatever name you want to give it and you can even put it into all kinds of categories such as cue and hand pausing together vs. cue pausing and hand moving ---- etc. Call it what you like but a change in direction is a change in direction and when a change in direction occurs, you can never call it continuous motion.
If you want to say long pause vs. short pause, vs minuscule pause, that's fine. I'll agree with that, but don't say it's continuous when there's a change of direction because it's flat-out misleading.