--> Critique needed for my fundamentals <--

Neil said:

What you and Tony both said.



As to your arm alignment, you won't be consistent shooting that way if you aren't already. Too many things you have to co-ordinate to keep the cue straight. And, the fact that you aren't doing it after two years, means that you won't do it. Time to change things up some.



Notice your elbow is way inside towards your body, and your forearm has to be angled out to be over the cue. Also, notice, that because you are trying to not drop your elbow, your cue will not go down the line you want it to naturally. What you are doing subconsciously, is moving your wrist to try and keep the cue straight. It's not working for you.



I suggest, since you seem to be in a pool room where a mirror is not likely to be present, to get the friend you had filming you to help you out. Start out with just putting the cue on the line that you want it to go down. Then, put your bridge hand in place without moving the angle of the cue. Then, while bent down, without grabbing the butt of the cue yet, get your shoulder over the cue. Then raise your back arm to get your elbow over the cue. When just hanging there, your hand should be right over the cue.



Now, shift your body around, or your feet around, to where you feel somewhat comfortable while keeping your arm alignment correct. Let your arm swing freely back and forth while your friend checks that you are staying right over the cue. If you aren't, time to adjust again.



When you get to where you can see the line correctly, and have your arm swing freely over the cue, then it is time to actually pick up the cue with your back hand and practice stroking the cue. You should be staying on the straight line you chose. If you are, freeze your body, while turning just your head just enough to see exactly how your feet are lined up with the cue. That is where you want your feet on every standard shot.



Your first video wasn't viewable. The second video, don't know if you had the cb and ob in the exact same place every time, but notice that your feet where in a different position each shot,



On the position video, not sure what you wanted us to see there. The cb ended up in a different place each shot. So, either you weren't going for the same position each shot, or you weren't hitting the cb the same each shot. ??



On the Dr. Dave drill, notice you did not hit the same spot on the rail each time. You did have very little to no spin on the cb. That means that you were not aligned properly. What appears to be happening, is that you are steering your cue due to poor alignment. Thereby not shooting down the line you are actually looking down.



There is also a problem of not starting out the same distance from the cb each time. When you were farther back than you intended to be, you didn't adjust your feet at all, just pushed the cue farther forward without adjusting anything else. That throws off your timing of the hit, and causes you to not hit the cb where you intended to. As shown in the shots where you were drawing the cb. Your setup was the same on most of the shots, but your draw varied greatly. That is also a problem with not having your forearm straight down at address as Tony mentioned.



Congrats on not being too proud to ask for help! Being too proud holds a lot of people back from improving. You are off to a good start, but need to tweak a few things. Keep on striving for your best! It will pay off.



Also, you seem to place a lot of importance on exactly where your back hand is on the cue. Worry more about your distance to the cb, which you can easily measure by just holding your cue over the spot you want it to be and then getting down. Your backhand actually needs to be farther forward than it is.



Don't overlook what Tony stated. Eye patterns are very important, as is slowing pulling the cue back, slight pause, then accelerate going forward. Your goal is not to hit the cb, but to stroke right through it. Look at it as the cb is just getting in the way of your complete stroke.

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CJ Wiley said:

You are doing a lot of things right. Try to get the feeling that you are hitting the cue ball with your elbow. Just like in many sports, the elbow is what leads the forward motion. You want to feel like all your acceleration is focussed precisely at impact. Releasing too soon is the plague of many players with potential.....yours could use improvement.

Play Well, the game is our teacher

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FranCrimi said:

Hi Shaun,

I would like to see you actually shooting pool.

I would find it most helpful if you can record yourself doing the following: Throw out 9 balls and take ball in hand on the one ball and try to run them in order --- or if you're not comfortable doing that, just throw them all out on to the table and try to run the table in any order.

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