I ordered this device from Seyberts and it should help me with my stroke accuracy, and hopefully acceleration. I think acceleration is something you want to keep consistent and smooth.
Improve your stroke by developing muscle memory. This simple aid will help you keep your stroke straight, your arm and cue working as one unit. The rotating rear foot gives you four different angles to practice your stroke. Use the Cue Guide in the privacy of your own home on a pool table, or...
www.muellers.com
Buddy is a monster player and somebody I haven't heard anything criminal about unlike some of the grand gentlemen of the game. However stroking in a tube is bad practice. The reason is simple, it takes a very contrived stroke to take the vertical out and to no purpose. Form a vertical slot, with two hardcover books for example, put a target where you can see it and stroke away. The vertical component at each end of your stroke does no harm. Only a few inches at the cue ball matters. Most of us wasted time and harmed our stroke practicing with longnecked bottles trying to stroke perfectly straight.
Responding to a handful of posts, coasting with a pool cue is evil! Looking at coasting alone, our stroke needs the support of contracting muscles. We get this by trying to accelerate through the cue ball.
Accelerate, transition, coast. That state between accelerating and coasting is a huge issue. How many sports and activities advocate follow through? Follow through after contact does only one thing, prevents transition before contact.
There are many muscles in the arm although we often only consider the primary muscles. These muscles never transition perfectly evenly and this is where our comparison to a robot breaks down. A machine has support and can be easily adjusted if need be. We don't have these same luxuries with our muscles.
Using an open bridge, shoot a medium speed shot of moderate difficulty and stop two inches past the cue ball. A machine can easily do this ten thousand times remaining straight within thousandths of an inch from start to stop. Did anyone try this only ten times without obvious errors? We are vastly superior to machines but we also have issues they don't have.
Until we can transition perfectly and provide directional support while coasting remaining in a steady state is better. Since all strokes start with acceleration, going through the cue ball with acceleration seems best. I once experimented with an early burst of acceleration and maintaining a steady speed but was unable to do so. I can't say if the muscles provide adequate support in this state or not. Still a transition involved though not as great of one.
Hu