Cue Chalking Crutch

[TheJackal]

Your reply doesn't help to understand why players chalk unnecessarily, for example, after chalking and going down to shoot, a player gets up to reconsider his shot, but before going down again, he or she chalks the cue again. This process might repeat a few times, each time chalking just before going down to shoot. Can you explain why most players do that?

I have a routine. I follow that routine on every shot. It has nothing to do with whether my cue has chalk on it, or not. If anything interupts me, or I need to rethink about the shot, I start over. I go through the exact same routine. The only thing that changes is my speed. The more intense the thought, the slower I go through my routine.
I've been bowling since I was 10...I'm almost 56. I have a routine there also, which includes wiping off the ball. If someone, or something, interupts me, I start over and do the exact same routine, including wiping off the ball. One could ask me, why wipe off the ball again? My answer is....it's part of my routine

 

[KissedOut]

OK, I give up. I realize now that I should have been asking, "Why do most players include chalking in their PSR, when all they need to do is chalk once before starting their PSR?"

Has having a pre-shot routine that does not include chalking made you a better player? If not, why are you wasting everybody's time with this silliness?

 

[bbb]

Has having a pre-shot routine that does not include chalking made you a better player? If not, why are you wasting everybody's time with this silliness?

Read this post 100 times
or more until you get it
please answer this
cany you beat the 3 ball ghost?
answer honestly
just curious

 

[Willowbrook Wolfy]

They do it because it is an integral part of their PSR.

Which means they are using chalking to get body parts in the same starting position to execute the motion they use to get into shooting position. I think it was Allen Hopkins who would, religiously, switch hands to chalk, then return the cue to his other hand to descend into shooting position. Each and every shot.

It is done to achieve repeatable precision and for some guys this is an essential part of shooting well. Others, maybe not, but for many.

Lou Figueroa

I just saw this and realized I chalk with my shooting hand. That’s not normal?

 

[ChrisinNC]

Do they believe it is important to chalk their cue as a last step in their pre-shot routine?

Just the opposite, for many of us it is the first step to trigger our pre-shot routine.

 

[boogieman]

People, you are arguing about something silly. As Lou's post somewhat addresses, whatever chalking does for your routine is a conditioned response. You can choose what it does or doesn't do in your preshot routine. I made it part of my preshot routine for a short period but to me it seemed silly to chalk before shots that didn't need it so I deliberately moved chalking outside of my preshot routine.

Our choice what chalking is or isn't so no answer is wrong when we are talking about ourselves.

Hu

I removed it from mine too. It makes more sense for me personally to get as perfect to textbook as my back pain level at the time will allow me. Sometimes it takes extra, maybe even the minute amount of expenditure chalking would take. Not to mention increased focus without having to fumble with chalk or search it down.

 

[boogieman]

OK, I give up. I realize now that I should have been asking, "Why do most players include chalking in their PSR, when all they need to do is chalk once before starting their PSR?"

That chalk clicking sound turns thinking time into performing time. Pavlovian conditioning at it's finest.

 

[Wolven]

I just saw this and realized I chalk with my shooting hand. That’s not normal?

I do too, and worse I rest the butt on the ground.

 

[tomatoshooter]

And still only chalking once before each game and guess what not a single mis cue

I think Dr. Dave tested chalks and got about 5-6 shots, before a miscue, hitting maximum sidespin with the same part of the cue tip. So yeah you could easily go an entire game without chalking. The danger is when you take one shot too many before chalking, but it sounds like you have it under control.

 

[Willowbrook Wolfy]

I do too, and worse I rest the butt on the ground.

Me too. I almost never wipe mine off either. Just goes right in the case when finished playing.

 

[Wolven]

Me too. I almost never wipe mine off either. Just goes right in the case when finished playing.

Haha, same here.

 

[cjr3559]

I just saw this and realized I chalk with my shooting hand. That’s not normal?

Now that I think about it, I’m a wrong handed chalker too. I’m right handed, hold the chalk in my right hand. Seems to be common chalking method used by Snooker and English Billiards players.

 

[lfigueroa]

I just saw this and realized I chalk with my shooting hand. That’s not normal?

I think you'd be in the minority.

Lou Figueroa
no data

 

[The_JV]

Now that I think about it, I’m a wrong handed chalker too. I’m right handed, hold the chalk in my right hand. Seems to be common chalking method used by Snooker and English Billiards players.

Nailed it... Every snooker player I know chalked with their shooting hand. The bulk of pool players I've paid attention to use their bridge hand.

Snooker players tend to hold their cue close to the ferrule (<12"), let the butt either sit on the floor, and spin the cue while swiping chalk on a singular motion with maybe 2 to 3 swipes. Pool players tend to choke up with their grip hand to around the balance point and grind the chalk on with the bridge hand. I have seen some spin the cue as well and use a singular swiping motion while holding the cue in this fashion, but those are less common.

I noticed SVB in the worlds looked like he was trying to bang the chalk into his tip with his swiping motion. Entertained me... That said, when he was running through patterns he'd use his bridge hand, but when he was pondering or bearing down on something key. It was his shooting hand he chalked with.

 

[Willowbrook Wolfy]

I think you'd be in the minority.

Lou Figueroa
no data

Ok so it’s normal in my case.

 

[ShootingArts]

Me too. I almost never wipe mine off either. Just goes right in the case when finished playing.

Haha, same here.

I wipe my tip off, often with a damp paper towel or napkin. If these aren't handy I put a foot on a chair or other convenient surface, flip the bottom of my blue jeans leg up to form a cuff, and clean away. Many an old time player even today gives the tip a good swipe or two on the carpet when they are through playing then jams the shaft into the case. I think of all of the things in that carpet and never clean a tip or at least change the layers of chalk out for layers of snot, dip, old food and drink, maybe a little barnyard soil even. I used to get in a little pool time after spending three or four hours working horses. A little barnyard odor never bothered me being born on a farm but it was a fine sharking move if unintentional and helped keep the railbirds pushed back a little from the table! That carpet seems like a fine place to incubate covid too.

Aside from all of the other reasons not to do it, a long swipe on the carpet can generate a lot of heat and tips come off frequently enough to make it a nonpractice for me even without the grime in the carpet. Also one of those habits that could be hazardous to your health if you happen to be playing in somebody's home and do it without thinking when the woman of the house is watching!

Hu

 

[tim913]

It’s a focus thing for me. Helps block out the music and obnoxious person on the next table. Great habit to get into.
As for wasting chalk? Sometimes I take a dozen or so to the skeet range and throw one up in the air for a fellow shotgunner. Makes a pretty little blue cloud when hit with a 12 gauge

 

[Grimper]

I realize everyone has habits or routines. But some of them are just plain bad for the game.

No doubt many players chalk excessively and incorrectly. Just look at the snooker players. Never more than a couple of swipes ( not drilling) holding the cue away from the table (keeping chalk off the table) . Keeping the shaft at angle as to not let all the chalk go down on the shaft.

All that excessive chalking just ends up on your hands, on the cue, on the table, on the cue ball and eventually on the object balls, possibly adding to more skids.

It's folks like you who are destroying the game of pool.

 

[Pushout]

This is almost as good as the thread by the guy who bitched about players chalking up after missing!

 

[KissedOut]

I just saw this and realized I chalk with my shooting hand. That’s not normal?

I use both my hands to shoot so I don't know what this means.

It does seem as if pool is the outlier on chalk etiquette and technique. 3C and snooker players bring their own chalk, don't leave it on the rail, and for the most part are strokers, not drillers.