Why do Teachers insist on the Pendulum?

FranCrimi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
To help me (and hopefully others) visualize things, here's a diagrammed comparison of the arm/stick motions for "idealized" pendulum and piston strokes.

The pendulum stroke keeps the elbow still and lets the cue's butt rise and fall. The piston stroke keeps the cue level by dropping and raising the elbow in a coordinated motion.

In both cases the forearm is vertical at address and at tip/ball contact, the backswing is 45 degrees (~10 inches, the length of the bridge) and the follow through is 30 degrees (~6 inches, where the tip hits the cloth with the pendulum stroke).

The physical shot results are practically indentical - the tip contacts the CB at the same point with the cue traveling horizontally. The only significant difference in tip motion is well after contact, when the pendulum stroke's tip dips sharply to the cloth at the end of the follow through.

pj
chgo

As you show in your diagram, with the piston stroke where the elbow drops before contact, the cue is moving on a level plane as opposed to the pendulum where it reaches level at just one point. Because we're human, most players who use the pendulum stroke are not perfectly level at contact at all times. In most cases, it's not all that important for the cue to be perfectly level at contact.

However, the piston stroke, when done correctly, pretty much insures a level cue at contact --- which is why I use that stroke for certain shots where I want to insure a level cue at contact.

All this talk about dropping the elbow after contact is useless. That's not what the piston stroke is designed to do. Dropping after contact has no use and is meaningless. It does not insure anything about the stroke prior to contact. So when people say, it's ok to drop your elbow after contact, I disagree. It's not okay to do something that serves no purpose. This game is already tough enough.
 
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