any tricks or tips on reigning in your stroke?

well yeah thats the struggle.......that smooth flowing stroke....i can move the cueball around and it all feels great but it seems like i lose some accuracy ......i guess im trying to find the middle ground. The set pause stuff does sometimes make me feel like my muscles are locking up or stiff...i guess i just need to do it enough to where im just really grooved in.....i know my game is much better for it. Well i will play with some of the suggestions here until randy and steve can get ahold of me, supposed to get a couple hours with scott lee end of this month so looking foward to that as well.
 
The stroke is like a throwing motion and, just like tossing something, your follow through should be proportional to the speed of the shot and your backswing.
 
zeeder said:
The stroke is like a throwing motion and, just like tossing something, your follow through should be proportional to the speed of the shot and your backswing.
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Well said!
 
One problem ...

I have seen similiar to yours was because the player had a long bridge (12-14") and when he made contact with the cue ball, his butt arm was not perpendicular to the ground, it was more forward. Now, if you ponder that a minute, you will realize that if his butt arm was too far forward when hitting the cueball, it would extra hard to slow it down then.

I have found that people with extra long bridges often have problems with consistency even though their stroke can look so pretty on some shots.

It would be like a baseball player trying to stop his swing right after contact with the baseball.

When I started playing, right after the Ice Age, it was recommended for a 6 to 8" bridge, today, the normal bridge range is 6 to 9". Anything over a 9" bridge, I would call a long bridge.
 
Andrew Manning said:
Well, you probably won't want to take this advice, because you're being trained otherwise by very highly qualified instructors, but I think set pause finish freeze is part of the problem. I agree with the finish and freeze part of that technique, but I truly believe the set and the pause make it more difficult to deliver the final stroke smoothly and with "touch".

For me, too much stillness immediately prior to the final stroke (the set and the pause) cause my muscles to tense a little, especially when I'm nervous. Overcoming this tension makes the stroke jerky, and makes the cue speed at contact less predictable. If I concentrate on very smooth practice strokes with very little pause (like a free-swinging pendulum), I find my arm muscles can deliver the cue in a more relaxed, smooth, and much more predictable way. This helps on all speed control, but especially those soft touch shots.

Anyway, now that I've said that, you probably still want to listen to your pool school instructors, who are vastly more experienced and knowledgeable than I am. I'm only offering a differing point of view.

-Andrew
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TAP TAP, great post Andrew. When i use to pause at the back swing it did really good for me when i started to do it now, i feel like it messes me up. But i do pause in my practice strokes the i take at least one more then after that i stroke. Someone mention'ed they saw Efren doing this and i like it, from there its a go.
 
Another thing that helps is to make sure that you are accelerating through the cue ball this helps your stroke maitain its fluidity.

Set up drills that require a soft hit.

Willie Mosconi said there are two ways you should hit the ball in straight pool: soft and softer.
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned or not in this thread. (Don't have time to read all of it.)
But you might want to try making your practice strokes the same speed as your final stroke will be.
I've watched players do 3-5 lightning quick practice strokes, and then use a slow final stroke for a soft shot and vice versa.
I don't know how they can do that.
Maybe I'm just weird like that.

Jon~*~ Flame on!
 
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