I have been playing for about 25 years now and only found this secret a few days ago. I suspect it is a secret because many others do it without thinking and perhaps some others do not know how to articulate the concept. It is the kind of thing that I have only heard others speak of in a tangential sort of way. It is not emphasized in the instructional literature that I have read though it may have been there and I just passed over it without really understanding or appreciating the concept.
In some instructional materials the student is told to “freeze” when they are ready to shoot. But what does that mean? When we are setting up for a shot we need to be stable and flexible. You have to have a good platform from which to shoot but you also have to be able to move the cue a little bit to get the exact line for your aim. That is you have to be flexible so you can line up the shot perfectly.
A few days ago I found that when you are ready to shoot you have to literally freeze all other parts of your body that you had been using to make adjustments for the shot. There needs to be a little tension across your neck and shoulders, in your hips and especially your legs. It is difficult to put into words but what it comes down to is the idea that your whole body, except for your swing arm and elbow, have to be held rigid. That is you have to literally freeze in position.
I have found it best to move my body back just a little because this helps me to stay down on a shot. After two warm up strokes I freeze (make rigid) everything else for the third and last warm up stroke. In this context “freeze” means to make everything else tight, or locked in place. If everything looks and feels right my next stroke is used to strike the cue ball and nothing moves until the cue ball strikes the object ball.
I wonder how many others have been playing like this for years and simply figured that everybody else does the same. I remember that a friend told me several years ago to lock my legs but I only half listened as it seemed that such things made the game uncomfortable. Now I find that once learned "freezing" becomes a natural way to play. It is somewhat like setting your hips when shooting a pistol or a rifle.
I think the freeze is important because for many shots the margin of error is small and any slight movement contributes to a miss. While there is a larger margin of error for easy shots one must have the freeze as part of every shot for long term consistency.
Have other highly consistent shooters found other ways to use this idea? I have started writing a book on the mental aspects of the game and would like any other ideas along this line that others might have. Perhaps there are better ways to explain this idea.
In some instructional materials the student is told to “freeze” when they are ready to shoot. But what does that mean? When we are setting up for a shot we need to be stable and flexible. You have to have a good platform from which to shoot but you also have to be able to move the cue a little bit to get the exact line for your aim. That is you have to be flexible so you can line up the shot perfectly.
A few days ago I found that when you are ready to shoot you have to literally freeze all other parts of your body that you had been using to make adjustments for the shot. There needs to be a little tension across your neck and shoulders, in your hips and especially your legs. It is difficult to put into words but what it comes down to is the idea that your whole body, except for your swing arm and elbow, have to be held rigid. That is you have to literally freeze in position.
I have found it best to move my body back just a little because this helps me to stay down on a shot. After two warm up strokes I freeze (make rigid) everything else for the third and last warm up stroke. In this context “freeze” means to make everything else tight, or locked in place. If everything looks and feels right my next stroke is used to strike the cue ball and nothing moves until the cue ball strikes the object ball.
I wonder how many others have been playing like this for years and simply figured that everybody else does the same. I remember that a friend told me several years ago to lock my legs but I only half listened as it seemed that such things made the game uncomfortable. Now I find that once learned "freezing" becomes a natural way to play. It is somewhat like setting your hips when shooting a pistol or a rifle.
I think the freeze is important because for many shots the margin of error is small and any slight movement contributes to a miss. While there is a larger margin of error for easy shots one must have the freeze as part of every shot for long term consistency.
Have other highly consistent shooters found other ways to use this idea? I have started writing a book on the mental aspects of the game and would like any other ideas along this line that others might have. Perhaps there are better ways to explain this idea.
I've found the "margin of error" has as much to do with the pressure as the difficulty of the shot, they can be the same, or vastly different.
