Slight Right To Left Movement

Sounds like you might be turning your wrist ever so slightly.

The "V" of your hand should be pointing straight down.

randyg

strokd drills

.Sorry, after nine years on AZ, I still don't know how to eliminate a double post!

stroke drill

DrCue'sProtege said:

One of the stroke drills that was recommended to me was to stroke on the rails where the cloth and wood meet. That gives you a visual aid to determine if you are stroking straight.

Anyway, as per my other post, I am sort of getting back into this hobby since retirement is March 31st. I started doing this tonight and noticed I had a slight outside to inside, right to left, movement in the stroke. Not a lot, but a little.

So, instructors, any tips on how to correct this? It felt I was going straight up and down but there it was, right in front of my eyes, the slight movement off of center.

r/Mike

Click to expand...

Even better than stroking on top of the rails...

Freeze an object ball on the short rail a few inches from the pocket. Place the cue ball a few inches behind it. Shoot the ball in and draw the cue ball back, keeping the CB on the rail. It's fairly easy. But as you increase distances between the object and the pocket, and the object ball and the cue ball, it quickly becomes rather difficult to keep the CB on the rail...because of minor flaws in your stroke.

Practice this exercise gradually increasing these distances. When you get pretty good, try increasing the force of the stroke. This is a much more demanding exercise than stroking on top of the rail with no balls involved.

Donny Lutz said:

Even better than stroking on top of the rails...

Freeze an object ball on the short rail a few inches from the pocket. Place the cue ball a few inches behind it. Shoot the ball in and draw the cue ball back, keeping the CB on the rail. It's fairly easy. But as you increase distances between the object and the pocket, and the object ball and the cue ball, it quickly becomes rather difficult to keep the CB on the rail...because of minor flaws in your stroke.

Practice this exercise gradually increasing these distances. When you get pretty good, try increasing the force of the stroke. This is a much more demanding exercise than stroking on top of the rail with no balls involved.

Click to expand...

I concur Mr. Lutz.

Ooooops, Mr. Donnie,

Ahhh Hell, Donnie,:wink:

That is what I did to check my stroke when a bit of inadvertent right hand english popped up not too long ago.

I worked on fixing it with what I thought was the cause & had thought that I had fixed it but when I sensed that it had returned I quickly did what you suggest here to check it out & it revealed itself. I used the long rail with about two diamonds of separation.

Good tip & exercise. Good on You for putting it out.

Best 2 You & All,
Rick

DrCue'sProtege said:

One of the stroke drills that was recommended to me was to stroke on the rails where the cloth and wood meet. That gives you a visual aid to determine if you are stroking straight.

Anyway, as per my other post, I am sort of getting back into this hobby since retirement is March 31st. I started doing this tonight and noticed I had a slight outside to inside, right to left, movement in the stroke. Not a lot, but a little.

So, instructors, any tips on how to correct this? It felt I was going straight up and down but there it was, right in front of my eyes, the slight movement off of center.

r/Mike

Click to expand...

One possibility is that your hip may be in the way of your stroke - this can happen unconsciously so you don't realize you're "steering" your back hand out and around your hip to avoid brushing it. Try simply holding your elbow a little farther from your body, maybe doing that while "closing" your stance a little (facing the stick a little more).

This angles your stick across your body a little more, so you'll probably have to turn your head a little more to your left (if you're right handed) so you'll still be looking where your stick is pointing.

pj
chgo

Is the inside to outside movement on the final stroke or on the final back swing also?

If it is on just the final forward stroke then the most probable reason would be turning of the wrist. The most common causes are because to the grip either tightening or loosening through the final stroke and it could be down to allowing the wrist to do too much moving. Making the wrist more firm and stiffer and making sure the grip pressure remains as constant as possible throughout the stroke.

If it is on both the back swing and front swing then it could be a mixture of the above and poor alignment. Its usually seen in players that have their elbow closer to their torso than the grip hand (reverse chicken wing as I call it). If you have the means to look straight on into a mirror then do. Try get the elbow, grip and bridge all on the same line, it really does help with cueing straight. Other reasons could include (and especially if you are cross dominant) is being too cooped up in your stance in order to get the opposite eye closer to the cue. If you have the cue touching the chest or any of the torso it can help with cueing straight but if done wrong can create a sweep from on side to the other in a persons stroke. This is because the hip is too close to the lone of aim your grip is on and the grip has to move slightly to pull the cue back without hitting it. Try pushing the hip out of the way when down in the stance. For a right handed this would be cocking the hips outwards to the left to make clearance for the grip to move unobstructed. It could be that the backstroke is just too long. Shortening it could help keep things nice and straight.

Generally speaking, the final forward stroke is a mirror image of the backstroke. So trying to keep the backstroke very slow, pulling it all the way back as slow as possible along a straight line, pausing, then letting rip in practice will give you a good feel of how a straight backstroke should feel.

But we are just clutching at straws without really seeing you hit a few balls. Putting a video up that shows a few angles of you hitting a couple of balls will be beneficial to you and help everyone trying to cure your sweep out massively.

Donny Lutz said:

Even better than stroking on top of the rails...

Freeze an object ball on the short rail a few inches from the pocket. Place the cue ball a few inches behind it. Shoot the ball in and draw the cue ball back, keeping the CB on the rail. It's fairly easy. But as you increase distances between the object and the pocket, and the object ball and the cue ball, it quickly becomes rather difficult to keep the CB on the rail...because of minor flaws in your stroke.

Practice this exercise gradually increasing these distances. When you get pretty good, try increasing the force of the stroke. This is a much more demanding exercise than stroking on top of the rail with no balls involved.

Click to expand...

Because the cue is almost always angled downward at least a little, the CB hops a little on most shots, a little higher on harder shots. This can create a problem when the CB is frozen to the rail when you're trying to shoot straight at another ball frozen to the same rail - because the rail overhangs the CB's edge a little, the CB can hop up into the overhanging rail nose and "bank" away from the rail, especially on harder shots (like shots with draw). This is the reason for the frequent advice to shoot such shots with a little low rail-side spin, so the CB squirts away from the rail and then swerves back to it.

pj
chgo

DrCue'sProtege said:

And what exactly is the "V" of the hand?

Click to expand...

dont you think you should have asked that FIVE YEARS AGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this thread is 5 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Larry, I suspect this was resurrected to break Randy's balls. Or maybe Scott's. Anyway it's a troll.

DrCue'sProtege said:

What is the V of the hand?

Click to expand...

The upside down V formed by the grip hand's thumb and front edge of palm when gripping the cue without clenching it.

pj
chgo