If you have that kind of a stroke, remember, there are always adjustments. You would have the tip dip downward on a shot taken over a rail or interfering ball, for example, and can feel it coming down, but it wouldn't typically meet the cloth...
Pendulum Stroke
- Thread starter BeiberLvr
- Start date
I still can't see how that wold be possible with a stroke that results in a good shot. Sounds like the arm just goes up after contact instead of following straight though. Maybe if the guy is over 6' tall and is standing up a foot over the cue where he HAS to shoot down. From what I can see, the shot would result in the ferrule scraping over the top of the cueball after the hit, unless the shot is totally perfect, which is a bad thing to count on in this game. I'll have to poke around the videos I have of matches and instructional videos and see if this happens anywhere.
I hear what you're saying and it does sound logical, however, with a closed loop bridge as the stroke hand comes up, the cue stick comes down and vice versa, right? Check out your backswing--the cue tip tends to come away from wherever (say, center ball) and up into the hand, right?
The cue begins on an inclined plane not level to the table on most shots. There's almost always rail to lean over. When the butt end moves higher still, the tip end moves lower still. A "pendulum stroker" bring the tip down toward the cloth. Just yesterday I had a student who was a strong player for only two years in and I asked if he was trying to consciously hold his cue tip to finish level and high above the cloth. He hit a few balls with a dipping tip and it made a big difference in his smoothness and straightness.
The cue begins on an inclined plane not level to the table on most shots. There's almost always rail to lean over. When the butt end moves higher still, the tip end moves lower still. A "pendulum stroker" bring the tip down toward the cloth. Just yesterday I had a student who was a strong player for only two years in and I asked if he was trying to consciously hold his cue tip to finish level and high above the cloth. He hit a few balls with a dipping tip and it made a big difference in his smoothness and straightness.
I was going to record a video and post it, but this will have to do for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RomFcvSAsmI
It appears to me that he's aiming slightly above center, and you can see that after contact, the tip dips down towards the cloth.
Not every single player will stroke the ball this way, but I found for me it works really well.
The pool/billiard stroke has fairly simple mechanics from a simple linkage/motion perspective. Here is an explanation that may clear things up for you:
http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/2004-02.pdf
and here is a follow-up article with observations about real strokes of real players:
http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/2004-03.pdf
Nice articles. Sounds like "orthodox simple stroke" = "pure pendulum stroke" and "standard power stroke" = "J stroke" ?
Similar to what you said in your article, I see most experienced players use pure pendulum on soft shots and J on harder shots.
For myself, starting with my forearm 90 degrees perpendicular to the shaft, pure pendulum on soft shots and J on harder shots feels very natural. Seems to be a result of the stroke length and acceleration.
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I am not a sports kinesiologist but I suspect that the J develops naturally on power strokes because the biceps complains a lot if it is not relieved by a little rotation at the shoulder.