Do you hit the ball too hard?

[Ghosst]

I've only recently started playing again and much the same as everyone, found I was trying to hit a little too hard when it wasn't warranted. Thankfully (and I question the method, not the result) I managed to break my index finger one night and now my grip has to be loose for fear of the numbing pain. I play much better and am happily back on track.

After 5 years of not playing it's easy to slip into bad habits, like strangling my poor cue. If it weren't for that drunken break with a house cue I might still just be a banger ready to give up. Now I can proudly look down at my swollen digit and see there is a reason for everything.

 

[sasman]

I played some friendly set with a friend of mine in the DCC and he told me I was hitting the ball too hard. Another friend of mine also told me the same thing before and she was also a pretty decent player. So, I started to pay attention to how hard the pros hit the balls.

I cannot believe how soft they are stroking the ball sometimes. They are not rolling the ball but they are stroking it so smoothly that the cue ball just moves! I was sitting in my chair watching Efren making balls after balls for more than an hour and it seems like the guy has never even used a single muscle during the whole time.

Once I started to pay attention to this, I have begun to see perhaps one of the biggest difference between the stroke of a pro and an amateur.

I have since tried to stroke the ball softer with a looser grip, I think this new way of hitting the balls is definitely working for me.

Does anyone here feel the same way?

Richard

same here... by watching Efren and other big guys storke at DCC, I finally reliazed how much unnecessary actions I used to give my cue ball

 

[sasman]

I hit hard making loud sound when I want pretty girls in pool hall take notice of me and also when I want all the rail birds to think that I am an idiot.
i do really hit them hard.

try jump the balls off the table, it works REALLY WELL!!