The Pause

dquarasr said:
Where da heck did you find a 20-lb bowling ball?

At least when I bowled (early 70s until the late 90s), 16 lbs was maximum allowed.
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One man at the alley I bowled at had a 26 pound ball.

A twenty pound ball wasn't available in plastic but no problem in rubber. This would have been in about 70-72. Since I wasn't bowling league or any formal competition, I could use anything that didn't damage the alley equipment. I bought the ball from the alley's pro shop. It was special order but only took a few weeks or months to get. The reason I bought a twenty was because the bowling alley had at least two on the public racks.

Hu
 
Paul Bell said:
You are contending Shortstop's theory on the muscle battle fails. In Shortstop's defense, he agrees with you that it is entirely normal and efficient to have the swinging action when swinging an ax, punching a body and, probably, bowling. Maybe Shortstop can explain better how that natural swinging doesn't work with a billiard stroke.

Generally, would most players have less luck dealing with stress by pausing before the last stroke than not pausing? Is this moment of silence helpful?

Instead of thinking what works for the pros, what may work for the poor players? The rapid swinging motion of some new players is random and imprecise. With that group, instituting a pause after the last backstroke and before hitting the cue ball could do wonders to the poor player's stroke. Still, telling them you can only stroke back and forth twice after pausing at the cue ball---like Efren---might work, too.
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Paul,

I haven't read or listened to Shortstop so I don't know what he is saying. The first question is if the player's issue is mental or physical. Then we will need to explore what is happening. There is no one size fits all thing.

If the player isn't a top pro there are improvements to be made, probably mental and physical. To make things more interesting, fixing one issue may create or reveal another!

The thing about the pursuit of perfection, none of us are ever going to get there!

Hu
 
Paul, I tried a real pause for a while and it just made me freeze up and overthink it. Now I keep it short, just long enough to check I'm lined up on the cue ball, then go. Works better for me at End Pocket when I'm already tight on a shot.
 
I tried to use it some just to keep the slipstroke alive. I was practicing one day when a local shortstop came up and started talking. One thing the slipstroke is great for is seeming to extend a short stroke. Table length shots on a nine footer with the cue ball frozen or near frozen on the rail seem easy. We were drilling them one behind the other. He said you can't miss this shot using a slipstroke. A slight exaggeration but it is probably the easiest way to make these shots.

I can't remember the name of a man that shot a slipstroke like there was magic in the air! Seemed like he either had a rubber forearm or an extra joint in his arm.

You are right that a well controlled big slip takes a lot of practice to stay in tune. While Willie Mosconi didn't use it full time it was a stroke in his bag of tricks. He used one on an open table in video on youtube, just warming up.

I sometimes just cock my wrist while slipping to get about a one inch slipstroke in tight quarters.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
Paul,

I take it that we should pause after each step when walking to avoid wasting energy with the conflicting tension in our legs and the conflicting tension in our arms? This gets even worse when running, particularly sprinting. Putting a micro pause in at the beginning and end of each motion should let new records be established in many of the track and field events!

OK, I was ragging you a bit! Debatable that muscles and connecting tissue are competing with each other at the ends of the stroke. We draw in two dimensions, often try to compare how our body works to how a machine works. Muscles are of course composed of many fibers and there are many muscles in our arms.

If we pause, particularly an extended pause, the muscles and fibers that are guiding and stabilizing our arms can relax and then we have a genuine issue.

I have played pool with a twelve ounce cue, no pause at the end of the backstroke. I bowled with a twenty pound ball, no pause at the end of the backstroke.

If the soft tissue of the arm conflicts, nothing good would happen. If we consider it to coordinate in a pool stroke going backwards and forwards we would get much closer to the truth I believe.

Hu
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Are you changing directions 180 degrees when walking or running??
 
ShootingArts said:
One man at the alley I bowled at had a 26 pound ball.

A twenty pound ball wasn't available in plastic but no problem in rubber. This would have been in about 70-72. Since I wasn't bowling league or any formal competition, I could use anything that didn't damage the alley equipment. I bought the ball from the alley's pro shop. It was special order but only took a few weeks or months to get. The reason I bought a twenty was because the bowling alley had at least two on the public racks.

Hu
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Its hard to believe that any manufacturer made a ball heavier than 16 pounds since the 16 pound maximum weight rule was established sometime between 1895 and 1913, at either rate it has been in effect for over a century.
 
fastone371 said:
Your legs change direction when walking or running????
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Our arms and legs change direction walking every bit as much as your arm does at the transition in a pool stroke. One reason I maintain a transition without pause is more natural than a transition with one.

To avoid additional clutter in the thread, I will post this here. I was unaware there was anything special about a twenty pound ball. I asked the man running the pro shop what weight balls he could get me and he mentioned sixteen and twenty as heavy balls. The twenty pound ball wasn't more expensive or significantly more expensive than lighter balls. Best I recall it cost about thirty dollars at the time.

Hu
 
Bob Jewett said:
So... To characterize a player's use of a pause at the end of the backstroke, we need to say:
  1. how long the cue stick is completely motionless -- instantaneous, a tenth of a second, three seconds (I'm looking at you, Melling)
  2. what is the spread of pause times -- always the same, a little variation, from zero to a second, ...
  3. what shots tend to have more pause -- difficult shot, difficult position, power stroke, ...
  4. (some other stuff?) ...
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Here is a video with some good views of Gareth Potts, who is a champion on the Chinese 9-foot tables. He has an interesting stroke timing. There are lots of good views in this video where you can see the timing pretty clearly. Check out some of his shots where you have a good view and note in how many consecutive frames ("<" and ">" keys in YouTube for single step) is the stick perfectly motionless? What is the length of his "true pause"?


He also discusses at about 18:30 how to adjust your eight ball break to make the second-row balls in the sides.
 
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