If you start to teach or instruct, you will follow a concept-- where "you" think that it makes sense to follow and execute it. I just can speak for myself- but the journey of learning to instruct is also that you have to learn always something new- especially oyu have to work on your communication skills-- without that you will not be able to transfer knowledge. Every human is individual- so the need of communication-skills are necessary.
If we just take this thread: There are (imo) really strong comments- but do i have to agree with everyone? - sure not. But everyone here knows *some big names*-- and it is useful to make your thoughts about this or that philosophy.
Let me take C.J. Wiley-- an excellent professional in his days. A real champion. If you have a look at his postings since he joined AZB you can easily see, that ALSO HE has earned knowledge from everywhere- from everywhere where he thought- well, that seems useful to me. He has many followers- and these guys will benefit from it, because THEY BELIEVE it.
A player who would not agree with C.J. s philosphy of the game would be a bad student for him and there would be no success finally.
Pendulum, Piston, slip etc etc. --
i am also a believer to use the pendulum principle/concept. But that would be just one point from the concept-- "i say" if i (means the student) follows the complete concept where the aligning is the most important (imo) we ll have this result at the end.
"He or She" will do most of all shots without elbow-drop. And if a shot comes up, which needs a very very high acceleration, his elbow will move..at the end. And it will doesn t matter, because he is perfectly aligned. The upper-arm incl elbow will follow the direction of movement (of the forearm). And then i m satisfied.
Mike Page made a brilliant posting about the "Elbow Drop" (imo one of the best i ever read).
_____________________________________________________________
from Mike Page:
If you were to install webcams in a hundred poolrooms throughout the world and view 1000 random elbow drops on pool strokes, those 1000 strokes might be divvied up as follows:
990 strokes: category A elbow drops
9 strokes: category B elbow drops
1 stroke: category C elbow drop
category A elbow drops--
the vast majority of them--are plainly and simply bad mechanics. This person's elbow is moving during the stroke, as perhaps is his or her head, making strokes inconsistent, making strokes rely on carefully choreographed timing of different motions, and encouraging the addition of other compensating motions. These people absolutely will benefit from learning good mechanics like those Randy and Scott and Steve and others advocate so well. These people should heed the advice of instructors like those I just mentioned and practice it until one nipple is as calloused as the bottom of a foot, imo.
category B elbow drops--
These are solid players whose elbow is still at the time of contact. The stroke is a simple pendulum stroke until after the cueball is gone. The impetus for dropping the elbow in the follow through perhaps comes from the desire to have a long, exaggerated follow through, or perhaps it comes from wanting a level, horizontal follow through (instead of the tip approaching the cloth as in the pendulum stroke). These people don't necessarily need to change anything. The biggest problem they cause is for others. They embolden the category A folk--who don't recognize the difference--thus providing a disincentive for the category A folk learning good mechanics.
Category C elbow drops--
This is, for example Mike Massey. These people are capable of a good pendulum stroke and perhaps employ a pendulum stroke on most of their shots. However, on power strokes, e.g., a break shot or a power draw shot, you will see an elbow drop. These players' elbows are moving at contact because the point is to add some speed by pivoting about the shoulder. In fact focusing on the elbow drop is like focusing on the thunder instead of the lightning. The lightning here is the elbow raise on the backstroke. Then pivoting about both the shoulder and elbow on the forward stroke increases speed. Most players, imo, should never do this for, say, a draw shot. The reason is that while the speed increases a bit, the bigger effect is our precision in where we contact the cueball goes down by a more significant amount. So I would say if you can't consistently draw one and a half table lengths with a pendulum stroke, then there's no way you should be futzing with this stuff. And if you CAN consistently draw one and a half table lengths with a pendulum stroke, then...well...you're more or less good to go!
________________________________________________________
the topic "Elbow Drop" can be discussed endless- but it s imo sometimes sad, that adults are not able to discuss in a civil way.
About instructors: It helps for sure, if you have been- or are a strong player. I avoid the topic *professional*- because i personally see the word *professional* as a job. you can find also so called *amateurs* who have the same skills (technically!!).
There are enough examples, where instructors, trainers or coaches never reached a high level of the game- i know also examples where a coach/trainer never really played the game-and working as *professional coaches* (several sports).
It is all about the passion and the knowledge- and how to transfer it to the individual student. Nothing else.
What is a fact also: if oyu have played as a professional in big tournaments- and has been also a great champion-then you can learn things from this person, that (imo) noone else can teach you. But that would be more on the psychological part of the game.
Sry if i went a bit off-topic- and hope also it was readable enough for you guys
have a smooth stroke.
