'umph is more force or speed. Sorry I didn't answer sooner, didn't think anyone would respond, they seem to just like to fight. Anyway with the middle and ring finger grip I am more accurate at longer shots but need more force(speed) to move the CB around, I think that is due to the lack of wrist action. With the index finger and thumb I move the ball around with no problems, even long distances if needed, with what feels like very little effort at all, probably due to the wrist action. I just switch back and forth and don't fight it anymore and my game is solid, just must be a mental thing! Thanks!
Grip question for Dr. Dave
- Thread starter longhorns2
- Start date
'umph is more force or speed. Sorry I didn't answer sooner, didn't think anyone would respond, they seem to just like to fight. Anyway with the middle and ring finger grip I am more accurate at longer shots but need more force(speed) to move the CB around, I think that is due to the lack of wrist action. With the index finger and thumb I move the ball around with no problems, even long distances if needed, with what feels like very little effort at all, probably due to the wrist action. I just switch back and forth and don't fight it anymore and my game is solid, just must be a mental thing! Thanks!
I don't have any of the problems you describe.
Grip questions have been hashed out for years on this forum and I've been here for a good while. Its hard for me to take written advice on grip pressure. Instructors and players will say something like "grip the cue like you're holding a baby bird" Advice like "not too tight but not too loose" didn't do much for me.
Since I don't have any baby birds to practice on, I did some experimenting between an Iron Grip to no grip at all. I just stuck out my index finger. Pretty amazing what happens there. I then played around with allowing the cue to slip - throwing the cue so to speak. That was another eye opener. A few times the cue did leave my hand. So I went back to a rubber grip, a really soft sticky one.
I'm not recommending anything here, I'm just saying I think I've done the work that helped me figure this out for me. Not you or anyone else. At least for the moment this is what's working and its showing up in competition.
What I'm speculating is this light of a grip is helping to minimize some unknown hitch in my swing and or its simply "allowing the cue to do the work" as they also say.
I keep forgetting that point. I don't know why tension and forcing keep creeping back into my stroke. The stroke just feels right and good when I allow the cue stick to do its thing.
I'm not a BCA certified instructor, I did run the program for the BCA when it first moved to Colorado.
I taught about 20 hrs a week for 10 years, and did it my own way and learned allot from the BCA program, I got better as time went on.
I remember CLEARLY....I was at Reds in Houston I'm guessing 83/82?
The grip I had since 60's worked, but only if I was playing 40 hours a week, like I had been from years of play, but now I was playing less hours and working.
So here I am at Reds, got the right game, with the right, right table but I couldn't close the door....to make a long story short I knew my grip cost me....that Score (7K) and I knew I had to change my grip. What did I do?
The rest of the week I just watched EVERY pro's grip in match play. What year?....83 0r 82 not sure anywho.....this might of been the yr Effie showed up, (I was there) when he drilled everyone, cept Buddy, who waited till Effie was worn down then he took em off..... also that year Benny Conway and Fat Randy gambled on the Bar table (chemical warfare we called it) for about 50 hours straight, the Goose got the Gander.
Sigel, Rempe, Hall, Medina, Mizerak and on and on....all the HOF er's were there. I wathed em for days, and I found a similarity within all their grips, and forced myself to change. To try it out, I played a guy a set for a couple hundred and won. But my grip then took 3 months to incorporate.
Here's my explanation of the proper grip in simple terms.
When your holding the butt of a cue, your grip (like Varner said yrs ago). It's like grabbing a can of soda, w/o bending it or letting it slip at all while your ''swingin' it''.
Your actually cradling the butt of the cue with the bottom of your closed grip hand, and giving it a slight side to side....pinch' to make sure it won't slip when swinging. The butt should never be up against the top of your hand when your ''swingin' it''.... if so, YOUR ''grabbing, not gripping the cue'' If your borne with short fat fingers and wanna become a pro, the you might choose another sport. Shaq would of been NO good at Soccer
.
I'm not a BCA certified instructor, I did run the program for the BCA when it first moved to Colorado.
I taught about 20 hrs a week for 10 years, and did it my own way and learned allot from the BCA program, I got better as time went on.
I remember CLEARLY....I was at Reds in Houston I'm guessing 83/82?
The grip I had since 60's worked, but only if I was playing 40 hours a week, like I had been from years of play, but now I was playing less hours and working.
So here I am at Reds, got the right game, with the right, right table but I couldn't close the door....to make a long story short I knew my grip cost me....that Score (7K) and I knew I had to change my grip. What did I do?
The rest of the week I just watched EVERY pro's grip in match play. What year?....83 0r 82 not sure anywho.....this might of been the yr Effie showed up, (I was there) when he drilled everyone, cept Buddy, who waited till Effie was worn down then he took em off..... also that year Benny Conway and Fat Randy gambled on the Bar table (chemical warfare we called it) for about 50 hours straight, the Goose got the Gander.
Sigel, Rempe, Hall, Medina, Mizerak and on and on....all the HOF er's were there. I wathed em for days, and I found a similarity within all their grips, and forced myself to change. To try it out, I played a guy a set for a couple hundred and won. But my grip then took 3 months to incorporate.
Here's my explanation of the proper grip in simple terms.
When your holding the butt of a cue, your grip (like Varner said yrs ago). It's like grabbing a can of soda, w/o bending it or letting it slip at all while your ''swingin' it''.
Your actually cradling the butt of the cue with the bottom of your closed grip hand, and giving it a slight side to side....pinch' to make sure it won't slip when swinging. The butt should never be up against the top of your hand when your ''swingin' it''.... if so, YOUR ''grabbing, not gripping the cue'' If your borne with short fat fingers and wanna become a pro, the you might choose another sport. Shaq would of been NO good at Soccer
Do you remember Dennis's grip/storke? Carbondale days.
Even so he was tough to beat.
When your holding the butt of a cue, your grip (like Varner said yrs ago). It's like grabbing a can of soda, w/o bending it or letting it slip at all while your ''swingin' it''.
Your actually cradling the butt of the cue with the bottom of your closed grip hand, and giving it a slight side to side....pinch' to make sure it won't slip when swinging. The butt should never be up against the top of your hand when your ''swingin' it''.... if so, YOUR ''grabbing, not gripping the cue'' If your borne with short fat fingers and wanna become a pro, the you might choose another sport. Shaq would of been NO good at Soccer
I’ve never heard the soda can analogy before. It’s perfect. An empty soda can