accelerating through the ball??

[Tom M]

"Simply slapping or punching the ball" feels exactly the same to the ball as any other kind of hit. The key is where you hit the ball, and the key to that is how you stroke. The nature of the hit (slap, punch, "accelerating through", or what-have-you) is irrelevant except for its effect on tip/ball accuracy. I can build a robot (if you have the money) that will hit the cue ball with no followthrough and get precisely the same action you can with any kind of human stroke.

pj
chgo

For most of us mortals (my mechanics happen to suck), I agree that follow through seems to be critical to a straight stroke and hitting the cueball in the right spot. However, I would argue that if your mechanics are EXTREMELY good, the follow-through will not affect the contact point on the cue ball that much. What WILL be dramatically affected will be your ability to hit with the same speed time after time and this is almost as important.

You're right, a robot could be programmed to hit exactly the same without follow through (i.e. no deceleration at the point of contact). Humans cannot be that accurate, not even close! If a human tried to decelerate just after contact, he would end up slowing down before the hit at least half the time (trying to nail that 1/1000 sec). Only a real freak could pull that off consistently, but why bother? Follow-through is a relatively easy way to accomplish a consistent hit.

Now, speaking strictly from the world of the mathematics of physics, it doesn't matter whether you are actually accelerating, at constant speed or decelerating at the point of impact. The only parameter that affects the hit is the instantaneous speed of the cue at the instant of impact (assuming the same cue and cue ball). THe duration of contact is essentially neglible, which makes acceleration or deceleration irrelevant. However, if you are decelerating, it's likely that you're going to hit much softer that you intend. Following through will prevent this.

Back to the real world of pool, you're fine accelerating or at even speed as long as you don't slow down.

Well, I entertained myself with this post! I hope I didn't bore everyone!

Tom

 

[Ken Barlow]

i have to ask. I"m a fairly good player but i have a sub par stroke. I've noticed that great players seem to continuely push through cue ball while shooting. I mean if you really pay attention, the sound of pocketed balls is different. You can tell the difference between players sometimes just by the sound of the pocketed balls. Does anybody know what i'm talking about? Is it simply the pros follow through longer and smoother than the regular players? Is there any tips that the forum has or can they explain what i'm talking about.

About 15 years ago, I was fortunate enough to get coached by a guy called Frank Calan (A Snooker Coach). He was the guy responsible for Steve Davis and the success's that he had during the 1980's and 90's.

The first thing that he got me working on was my stroke and what you're talking about here is very true in terms of the sound the cue / balls make when you hit them with a good stroke v's an ok or poor stroke.

The sound is a really nice 'Click' and it's generated by getting the timing of the downswing in your stroke and the tightening of the grip coming together at the precise moment the cue tip strikes the CB. You really can tell the difference by the sound alone. Steve Davis has mastered this.

As for the follow through, Frank had me increase my follow through from a 2" past CB to 6" past CB and in a single coaching session (1 hr session) I went from drawing the cue ball 24" (on a snooker table this is nothing), to being able to draw it the lentgh of the table (12ft).

I don't want to challenge the other threads here that comment on the lentgh of time the cue and CB are in contact for but I do know that increasing the amount of follow through for me worked miracles. To this day, i still amaze other players at the amount of english I can get on a CB by simply applying the things I learnt in my coaching sessions with Frank Calan.

 

[Snoogi]

Okay, just confusing to some that are not "UP" on all the physics as some. (Like me)...

But, shouldn't you mention somewhere in the discussion that when this is happening and I would assume that it happens to all players that aren't aware of it, that this can be corrected by moving their backhand forward or back on the end of the cue to correct it?

Otherwise, people that aren't up on the "segments" of the stroke as you are can benefit by it. JMO

thanks for the info

Well, maybe not all..I suppose many players are aware of it one way or another. But the problem could be that it takes a lot of effort to correct it. And some even end up perfecting the mistake, well it can be understood. Of course when I'm saying this I'm looking at a player's comfortability..While we can try to get as close, human beings are not born to be perfect..just my thoughts..

 

[GG11]

As for the follow through, Frank had me increase my follow through from a 2" past CB to 6" past CB and in a single coaching session (1 hr session) I went from drawing the cue ball 24" (on a snooker table this is nothing), to being able to draw it the lentgh of the table (12ft)..

I experienced this same kind of success by focusing on follow through length. Once I focused on that detail, my stroke and cue ball movement improved exponentially.