Chris...Well then you've never seen Buddy shoot. He has a VERY defined pause at the end of the backswing...often 2-3 seconds. Allison and Karen's is about 1 second. Mine is about 2/10's of a second (very brief). The key is not how long the pause on the backswing is...but more about how smooth the transition is, from backswing to forward accerated stroke. BTW, the pause at the CB is at least as important, if not more important, as this is where we consciously/subconsciously "decide" if we're going to strike the CB on the next swing...or not. Almost all really good players pause at the CB...most also pause on the backswing...even if it's brief, like mine. You can't go backwards and then forwards without some kind of stop in between. Well, you can...but you will very likely jerk the cue forward, along with the associated problems of tight grip and involving the shoulder...all of which tend to exaggerate and exacerbate small errors in how and where the tip strikes the CB.
One thing to remember, above all...SPF is about TRAINING. When it's get 'grooved in' or ingrained, the process becomes very smooth...as noted by Scottycoyote. In training we advise the student to deliberately slow everything down, and exaggerate all three stops.
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com