I like everyone else am always trying to improve my stroke. On the backstroke your hand is back and ready to swing forward. My question is should you just let your arm relax and let it swing freely or should you force it with some power? I have found that if I just let it swing after relaxing my arm the cueball will travel from the head string to the end rail and back to the foot rail using a 8 inch bridge. If I want to have more speed (power) I use a longer bridge resulting in a larger pendulum. Is this the proper method or should you put some muscle into it?
Another Stroke Question
- Thread starter TheBook
- Start date
that varies ...
On a normal shot, you should just relax your arm and
let it swing from elbow down. On draw shots, especially
long ones you have to power stroke a little. This is something
that belongs to the 'feel' category, and improves the more you
play. Something I find hard on a long shot is just to draw the
cue ball 1 or 2" back. On some top english shots you have to
power it up some to get around the table 3-4 rails.
On a normal shot, you should just relax your arm and
let it swing from elbow down. On draw shots, especially
long ones you have to power stroke a little. This is something
that belongs to the 'feel' category, and improves the more you
play. Something I find hard on a long shot is just to draw the
cue ball 1 or 2" back. On some top english shots you have to
power it up some to get around the table 3-4 rails.
Good answer Scott, I agree. Different strokes for different shots. One shot that requires a relaxed arm is hitting the ball center-ball and having it float forward an inch or two. As for drawing the ball an inch or two from a long distance, I usually use a modified stun. I basically elevate the cue slightly and hit down into the ball a bit below center. This requires the right "feel" and a bit of a power-stroke, but it works fairly well once you get it down.
I'm just a streetplayer, but when I need to float a shot 1-2", I usually hammer the cueball 100mph and hit it a little bit above center. When I need to draw 1-2" on a long shot, I hammer it 100mph and hit it a bit below center.
henho said:
I hammer the shot to draw it too. There are two ways to float the ball forward: one is to hit it like you described, hard and above center, and it will skid forward a bit after hitting the ob. The other way is to hit it center and float through the ball with a relaxed grip and stroke, and the ball will roll forward a bit. I advantage to the soft hit is you can use it on shots that are not straight and get the ball to roll forward almost as thought it was a straight in.
henho said:
Perhaps a third .... I tend to use 'drag' shots quite often, and find that these types of shots work well for that long shot with 2" of draw or 2" of follow. The idea in my mind is to know the 'drag' stop shot, then adjust by pretending the OB is a bit farther away (to get a touch of bottom when at the collision point) or a bit closer (to get a touch of follow). This is just what I do, I am not a pro.
Dave
For all strokes, keep you arm loose. Tensing your arm is not advisable, imho, for any shot. The greater the speed or velocity that the cue hits the cb, the greater the spin. You don't need power as much as you need speed. You can't put a lot of speed on the stroke when you tense up your arm. One way to verify this is to shoot the cb into a rail at a 90% angle. First shoot the ball with a loose arm and moderate speed with right-hand english and see how wide the ball goes. Then try the same shot and hit the shot hard and see how short the angle is. I know there is another variable involved here such as pushing in on the rubber but it still is amazing what a difference there is. Try shooting with speed vs power on shots that you set up and I think you'll see that with speed and a loose arm, you'll get more action than with power. Power tends to kill the action of the cue.
drivermaker
Banned
Rickw said:
Does all of the above qualify for "FEEL" pool or is it more along the lines of "THINKING" pool?
drivermaker
Banned
Rickw said:
Not if you're David Blaine...then the coin will already be in MY hand.
(that guy is awesome)
The Weight
Let the weight of the cue do the work... hold the cue soft.. and that doesn't mean with 2 fingers ... just add cue speedTheBook said:
drivermaker said:Not if you're David Blaine...then the coin will already be in MY hand.
(that guy is awesome)
That makes me wonder how a guy with that kind of talent, slight of hand, would play pool? I'm sure they're so dedicated to their art that they would never dream of spending the time to play pool. They must have some amazing dexterity though huh?