Tin Man,
You are right about the forward stroke...in my view.
One thing that might be causing some of the angst in this thread with "Pausers" and "slow-back-strokers", is that both of those techniques, or one of those techniques, may have really helped some people here in sparking significant improvement, and now they attach and outsized significance to those techniques. Just a thought.
You have probably seen Mark Wilson's 3-part youtube seminar, but at least Mark Wilson (who may not be perfect, but is pretty smart with this stuff), says that a pause is not required, but a slow back swing is. If I could be an advocate for the slow backswing's place in this discussion, I would say that our goal of a SMOOTH acceleration from 0 - final stroke speed, becomes exponentially harder to achieve where at the back of our stroke we are slowing down a fast backstroke and starting a forward stroke. Accordingly, I view a slow back swing as rightfully part of any discussion in how to achieve a smooth forward swing.
If there is any "secret sauce" to becoming a great pool player, in my humble opinion, an essential and heavy ingredient is a smooth and gradual forward swing...as you have outlined in this thread. For whatever reason, many players find his difficult to achieve (me included). I think the pause and the slow backswing are techniques that many people find helpful to create conditions that are friendly to a smooth forward stroke. Personally, I am a slow backswing no-pause guy.
I always appreciate your insights on here.
kollegedave
Thanks Kollegedave!
I agree that all three parts of the stroke are important. 1) The relaxed backswing (whether it is in slow-motion or just unhurried), 2) the relaxed transition (whether there is a pronounced pause or just letting the cue come to a stop naturally before starting a forward swing), and 3( a smooth and slow start to the forward swing that accelerates through the cue ball. I'm not taking away the importance of 1 and 2.
What I am saying is that the vast, vast majority of pool players I've trained (keep in mind these are players between 500-700 Fargorate that have seen all the videos, trained with Mark Wilson or Jerry Brieseth or the beloved late Scott Lee, and who have all worked on their stroke for many, many hours) don't get it right. They have a picture perfect back swing and transition, then they jam their cue forward. So the point of this thread is to call attention to this. Doing 1 and 2 does not make a great stroke if you don't do 3 as well. 1 and 2 can help, but you don't get to start with a pretty choreographed routine that ends with a lurch.
When I try to focus these people on the forward swing and try to get them to slow down the start of their stroke they constantly default to the wrong part. They slow down their pause at the cue ball, their back swing, their pause at the end of the back swing, then they still jam forward. It's like they think if they slow down everything else that fixes the problem. But there is this one specific area where almost everyone continues to miss, and it's frustrating because it is the only part that really matters. All of those other parts are to prepare for step 3.
So if 1 and 2 help with step 3, great! But if fixation on 1 and 2 distracts from step 3, so they fly their 'Mission Accomplished' banner over the ship and celebrate their technique while they lunch at the cue ball, well, that's a problem.
I've trained with over 30 students this year in extended sessions and I think ALL of them had to slow down their forward swing. I thought that was worthy of a post. People can do what they want to do, and if they want to continue to focus on other aspects of their stroke I'm not going to fight them. I just find it sad that the majority of pool players spend their lives playing this game and never learn what a calm soft cue with good timing can accomplish. It improves your aim, your tip accuracy, and your swing speed control, and unlocks a higher level of pool. I'm not even a fundamentals guy, this is almost the only thing I really feel matters and it's a little tragic to me most people never get to feel it.