This is exactly as I remember it as well - I almost never saw anyone low on the cue in the 60s - Seems like the 80s advent of the 9 ball popularity brought in a new wave of low on the cue pool stances - Mike Zuglan taught me low on the cue as he liked to have his eyes on the same plane as the aiming point on the balls with less of a sight angle from eyes to OB contact point.Back in the old days when straight pool was king and most of the game was played 1/2 table it's easier to see angles and the clearance between balls by standing more upright.
The closer the cue ball is to the object ball the more upright I stand.
As the shot gets longer I get lower.
It's just the way I do it.
I grew up playing mostly straight pool in the early '60's.
Yeah I'm that old.
Back in the old days when straight pool was king and most of the game was played 1/2 table it's easier to see angles and the clearance between balls by standing more upright.
The closer the cue ball is to the object ball the more upright I stand.
As the shot gets longer I get lower.
It's just the way I do it.
I grew up playing mostly straight pool in the early '60's.
Yeah I'm that old.
Switching to pool glasses helped me a whole lot...This is exactly as I remember it as well - I almost never saw anyone low on the cue in the 60s - Seems like the 80s advent of the 9 ball popularity brought in a new wave of low on the cue pool stances - Mike Zuglan taught me low on the cue as he liked to have his eyes on the same plane as the aiming point on the balls with less of a sight angle from eyes to OB contact point.
Guys with glasses did not like the low on the cue stance because their eye sight picture as always above where their eyeglass lenses sat on their nose bridge If you stood upright to shoot - you could look down more through your eyeglass lenses - so I transitioned to contact lenses and a low on the cue stance. People started selling "pool" eyeglasses and they still do today. The idea is to keep your eyesight to the cue behind the eyeglass lenses while in your shooting stance with oversize lenses.
I’m curious if pro snooker players got lower on the cue 50+ years ago, before most pro pool players started getting low on the cue?It seems the greats of old stood much more upright over the cue ball. When did this change, with modern players sighting almost like down a rifle? Was there some great that did this and everyone copied it? Does any modern pro stand pretty upright?
If it was the better way to do it, I'll almost guarentee that it happened in snooker first...lolI’m curious if pro snooker players got lower on the cue 50+ years ago, before most pro pool players started getting low on the cue?
Note all those open bridges.... just sayingHere is what Edwin Kentfield thought was a good stance. His book on billiards was printed from 1839 into the 1880s, and was the standard. He knew about squirt and swerve and pivot point.
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Here is John Roberts, Jr. from 1902. Like Kentfield, his game was English billiards, which doesn't require as much accurate pocketing as snooker.
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Here is Joe Davis from his 1929 book. It was about billiards rather than snooker, but he was already a pretty good snooker player. He was also more or less blind in his right eye. He was the snooker champion for a few decades.
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Here is the suggestion on stance from a basic US how-to-play booklet from 1948. It was published by the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America. Quite a ways behind Joe.
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FWIW, I was no pro but in 1970 I had just started playing pool and snooker at college. No instructor or books, just watched the better guys and most of them were low on the cue so that is how I started and still shoot most shots.I’m curious if pro snooker players got lower on the cue 50+ years ago, before most pro pool players started getting low on the cue?
I remember reading a book from the local library back in the mid 70’s by a famous Aussie Snooker player named Horace Lindrum, and from what I remember that “Gun sight aim technique” was standard operating procedure for those guys. It made sense to a young Kentucky boy who loved firing rifles.Snooker:
Almost a century apart. World’s best billiard player ‘back then’ and world’s best male and female billiard players today. It’s the only way I’ve ever played for 52 years.
I came here looking for this post! I remember reading that it was around the turn of the century is when most young professionals in English Billiards had their chin on or near the cue for most shots. I want to say around 1905 or 1910.Here is what Edwin Kentfield thought was a good stance. His book on billiards was printed from 1839 into the 1880s, and was the standard. He knew about squirt and swerve and pivot point.
View attachment 579957
Here is John Roberts, Jr. from 1902. Like Kentfield, his game was English billiards, which doesn't require as much accurate pocketing as snooker.
View attachment 579960
Here is Joe Davis from his 1929 book. It was about billiards rather than snooker, but he was already a pretty good snooker player. He was also more or less blind in his right eye. He was the snooker champion for a few decades.
View attachment 579958
Here is the suggestion on stance from a basic US how-to-play booklet from 1948. It was published by the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America. Quite a ways behind Joe.
View attachment 579959
What a family of cuesman? Horace, Walter and I think there were a couple of others in the family that were awesome as well.Walter Lindrum...possibly the finest cuesman that ever lived, varied his stance depending on the shot.
He stood almost straight up for nursery cannons.
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