How Do You Grip Your Cue?

Mine mostly resembles choice #4. I find that I am less likely to twist the cue upon delivery if I let the cue slip by relaxing my grip just before impact. I wouldn't characterize is as a "slip stroke" as there is no slip during the backstroke and only a little bit of slip after the foreward stroke. For most shots there is none to very little slip as I only focus on relaxing the grip on long shots.

back hand control so important

cuetechasaurus said:

Is it in contact with the webbing between your thumb and forefinger, or is there space? Or do you hold it flush with that area (in contact), and on the final stroke, let it drop down into your fingers like Efren Reyes?

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#1 for me.

I have found that this, together with the positions of all the other fingers and how these change during the stroke, is a very important part of my game.

Can have a big effect on both consistently hitting the ball well and on delivering the cue absolutely straight.

My cue rests on my middle 3 fingers and my thumb comes to the edge of my fore finger and keeps the cue from rolling off.

Never more pressure than it would take to keep the cue from rolling off my fingers.

Tom In Cincy said:

My cue rests on my middle 3 fingers and my thumb comes to the edge of my fore finger and keeps the cue from rolling off.

Never more pressure than it would take to keep the cue from rolling off my fingers.

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That is what I strive for, can't say I always achieve it.

cuetechasaurus said:

Is it in contact with the webbing between your thumb and forefinger, or is there space? Or do you hold it flush with that area (in contact), and on the final stroke, let it drop down into your fingers like Efren Reyes?

Click to expand...

Like Ronnie O'Sullivan, Jim Rempe, and a couple others, I hold the cue with my back three fingers (middle/ring/pinkie); the thumb and forefinger are "just along for the ride." At perihelion (when my forearm is completely perpendicular to the floor, with my cue tip almost in contact with the cue-ball), the webbing between my index finger and thumb is in contact with the top of the cue for the last time. As I follow-through and the cue pivots on my back three fingers (sometimes just the last two -- the ring/pinkie), the webbing of my index finger and thumb "lifts away" the cue rests solely on these last two fingers as a "fulcrum."

I developed this stroke many years ago after watching Jim Rempe, and later, Ronnie O'Sullivan, and I liked how level the cue stayed throughout their stroke, with no "tilting upwards" of the butt of the cue at the end of the stroke (i.e. the cue tip didn't "seek the cloth"). Studying the physics and anatomy of my grip hand, I found out why. As my grip hand goes past perihelion in the stroke -- my forearm is now forward of the 90-degree angle -- the angle of the grip hand changes in relationship to the cue. The cue seeks to go forward like a spear, but the grip hand is now "turning upwards" as it finishes through the stroke, and the main/forward fingers (i.e. index/middle) start to rise in relationship to the others. (Or, shall I more correctly say, all things being equal and the shape of the hand staying the same, the main/forward fingers are now at a higher elevation than the other fingers.) "If the cue were balanced on those fingers," I thought, "the butt of the cue would rise as well, and I'd like to keep the 'straight spear' momentum going as much as I can." So I switched my main grip fingers to be the ring/pinkie fingers. (The ring/pinkie fingers tend to stay more "level" with the cue and not rise as much at the completion phase of the stroke, compared with the cue being balanced on the first two fingers.) It does take a significant "getting used to," but the reward, for me at least, is a very level cue throughout most of my stroke.

A positive side effect of this grip is the accuracy with shots that require jacking-up. The cue follows the natural grip angle of the hand -- just like the angled handgrip on a German Luger pistol. Whereas many players fear jacking-up on shots (e.g. cue-ball against the rail, and you need a stun, not follow, shot), I blast these with little to no fear, because the angle is actually quite natural to my hand.

Anyways, that's what works for me. It's not quite like the [very accurate] Efren description (whose stroke I studied for a time) in choice number 4, but my webbing indeed is in contact during 50% of my stroke, and "lifts away" after perihelion, during the latter phase of my stroke.

Hope this was a helpful description!
-Sean