Bridge Length, Stroke Length, Pivot Point, Etc.

[HawaiianEye]

Aloha,

I think "consistency" is one of the major obstacles that keep players from improving their game. Lots of people can play at pretty high levels, but their game is all over the place when it comes to shot making, position playing, and fundamentals.

I watch lots of players every week and I see them scratch their heads when they get out of line after shooting several shots perfectly. Most of the time it is because of bad fundamentals and not thinking out the next shot before shooting the ball they are on.

What I mean is they are constantly having to use the bridge, stand on one leg, or put themselves into a contortionist's position in order to play the next shot.

One way to stay as consistent as possible is to use the same stroke length, bridge length, and hand positioning on the cue for the majority of your shots. The way the balls are laid out on the table will sometimes dictate that you do otherwise, but for the most part, it isn't too hard to do.

I know my bridge length for my cue pivot point is around 8-10" and I know I hold the handle approximately 3" down on the wrap, due to my short arm span. Therefore, I try to position the cue ball somewhere on the table (hopefully in line) where I can use that same configuration on all my shots. That enables me to keep my stance, alignment, and shots pretty much all the same. I'd rather be on line and a foot or two further from the object ball than closer to the object ball and having to stand on one leg to reach it or use the bridge. Like I said earlier, it can't always be helped because of the table layout, but it helps me out a lot.

When you play position for the next ball, you should not only look what line you should be on, you should look where on the line that will allow you to use your same shot, over and over.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[336Robin]

Good post

HE,
Good post.

It would be nice if all of our shots could be from comfortable positions, that is true. The major one thing I see in most people is 1 a stance issue and 2 a speed control issue. Mostly speed control. How many people really work on it? Few that Ive seen. I was having a some problems in One Pocket overrunning my needed position and it took a friend showing me a speed drill. I generally haven't been one to do drills and me doing it to realize that Speed Control is as much a fundamental aiming and planning out a cue ball route.

If someone isn't coming up right a lot of the time. A week working on a speed drill will fix a lot of that. It also depends on the drill. The drill I do is a Jerry Briesath drill for speeds 1 through 5, works great. I see shots and immediately know about what speed to give it and know those 1 through 5 speeds well enough that I'm getting real close knowing how much object ball I'll be hitting and taking the distance off by that.

Aloha,

I think "consistency" is one of the major obstacles that keep players from improving their game. Lots of people can play at pretty high levels, but their game is all over the place when it comes to shot making, position playing, and fundamentals.

I watch lots of players every week and I see them scratch their heads when they get out of line after shooting several shots perfectly. Most of the time it is because of bad fundamentals and not thinking out the next shot before shooting the ball they are on.

What I mean is they are constantly having to use the bridge, stand on one leg, or put themselves into a contortionist's position in order to play the next shot.

One way to stay as consistent as possible is to use the same stroke length, bridge length, and hand positioning on the cue for the majority of your shots. The way the balls are laid out on the table will sometimes dictate that you do otherwise, but for the most part, it isn't too hard to do.

I know my bridge length for my cue pivot point is around 8-10" and I know I hold the handle approximately 3' down on the wrap, due to my short arm span. Therefore, I try to position the cue ball somewhere on the table (hopefully in line) where I can use that same configuration on all my shots. That enables me to keep my stance, alignment, and shots pretty much all the same. I'd rather be on line and a foot or two further from the object ball than closer to the object ball and having to stand on one leg to reach it or use the bridge. Like I said earlier, it can't always be helped because of the table layout, but it helps me out a lot.

When you play position for the next ball, you should not only look what line you should be on, you should look where on the line that will allow you to use your same shot, over and over.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[HawaiianEye]

Mostly speed control. SIZE]

I agree that speed control is a major part of playing.

Speed control is a lot easier if you are doing everything else consistently. That is one of the reasons I like to keep all my shots similar, then all I have to do is adjust the speed of my stroke.

 

[ronscuba]

How often do you use tip position as part of speed control ?

For example increasing tips of follow for more roll, inside english to slow the CB off the rail, running english with a soft stroke vs no english harder stroke ?

 

[HawaiianEye]

How often do you use tip position as part of speed control ?

For example increasing tips of follow for more roll, inside english to slow the CB off the rail, running english with a soft stroke vs no english harder stroke ?

That also depends upon the layout of the table and the shot at hand.

I play mostly TOI and depend upon the angle of the shot to maneuver the cue ball around the table. I don't like to put spin on the ball unless I have to, but I'm not afraid of spin.

I try to position the cue ball so that I have constant angles where most of the shots seem to be repeated over and over. The angles allow me to send the cue ball along the natural line from the angle I select (and hopefully hit) without having to add too much "helping" spin.

I tend to hit the cue ball more towards the horizontal center and float the cue ball, rather than spin it. If you need to add some "helper", you can go quite a distance with just a tip of top, or side, without having to muscle the ball as much as some people do. FWIW, I prefer to play two or three rail position rather than one rail, unless the one rail is a no brainer.

It is kind of hard to explain how I play because I'm not usually thinking about it so much as doing it.

Aloha.

In edit: When using TOI you have to hit the ball a bit firmer than you normally would without it. It takes a bit of practice to get used to, but I think it makes the game a lot simpler (for me, anyway).

 

[Donny Lutz]

consistency

Aloha,

I think "consistency" is one of the major obstacles that keep players from improving their game. Lots of people can play at pretty high levels, but their game is all over the place when it comes to shot making, position playing, and fundamentals.

I watch lots of players every week and I see them scratch their heads when they get out of line after shooting several shots perfectly. Most of the time it is because of bad fundamentals and not thinking out the next shot before shooting the ball they are on.

What I mean is they are constantly having to use the bridge, stand on one leg, or put themselves into a contortionist's position in order to play the next shot.

One way to stay as consistent as possible is to use the same stroke length, bridge length, and hand positioning on the cue for the majority of your shots. The way the balls are laid out on the table will sometimes dictate that you do otherwise, but for the most part, it isn't too hard to do.

I know my bridge length for my cue pivot point is around 8-10" and I know I hold the handle approximately 3" down on the wrap, due to my short arm span. Therefore, I try to position the cue ball somewhere on the table (hopefully in line) where I can use that same configuration on all my shots. That enables me to keep my stance, alignment, and shots pretty much all the same. I'd rather be on line and a foot or two further from the object ball than closer to the object ball and having to stand on one leg to reach it or use the bridge. Like I said earlier, it can't always be helped because of the table layout, but it helps me out a lot.

When you play position for the next ball, you should not only look what line you should be on, you should look where on the line that will allow you to use your same shot, over and over.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I've taught for many years that the keys (or foundation) to become successful at poo are: SIMPLICITY, CONSISTENCY and IMAGINATION.