I have to disagree with you here, buddy. The forward grip is because she has her bridge arm bent, and a small stature. I'm sure that if you were to look at her from the side, you would see that her back forearm is straight up and down. And, I'm sure that when she shoots the shot, you will barely see her elbow move.
In a piston stroke, the elbow drops, pendulum stroke it doesn't. Allison rarely ever drops her elbow.
What do you mean by "closing your elbow"?
What in the world is elbow drop?I never heard of such a thing.
When my shoulder comes into the stroke it happens when I am trying to stroke hard and I grip the cue too hard and hike my shoulder. This does of course create a downward plane that I am hitting on, and my elbow certainly comes out of position. I think that I also have some basic elbow drop with other more routine shots that is affecting my accuracy regarding where I strike the CB. I will have to use a mirror and maybe video tape myself too see if my initial shoulder positioning is also affecting on those shots. Thanks.
Attached is an image of wrist movement. And JohnnyP does have Ulnar Deviation...
View attachment 198130
It is very slight at setup and begins to additionally deviate at impact. If you look closely the arm is not quite parallel to the floor and it is slightly ahead of the 90 degree position if measured to the horizontal plane of the table.
The 90 degree angle should be measured to the plane of the cue at impact if you are attempting a neutral wrist. So the arm is even further forward when taking this into consideration.
Basically the issue is that the wrist was designed to move in more than one direction and the internal structure may not be completely consistent in resistance when Ulnar Deviation occurs. This leads to rolling the wrist. Actually flexing, extending, pronating and supinating can all be in response to a lack in range of range of motion during the ulnar deviation.
JohnnyP has a very good stroke in the video but I might suggest trying to move the grip hand back slightly to adjust the forearm to cue angle to 90 and I would suggest moving slightly closer to the cueball with the tip during setup to make sure that the 90 degree arm/cue angle is at contact and not occurring before. These 2 changes will provide a more neutral wrist at impact....
I am in no way saying that you HAVE to hit the ball with a neutral wrist...
Many professionals have very active wrist actions and they perform at world class levels... I am only offering a suggestion that will allow JohnnyP to try it out and see if it helps.....
I agree that the wrist should be neutral at impact, but kinematically it has to ulnar deviate in proportion to elbow flexion past the vertical line to maintain the cue on the same plane.
I agree with a lot of what has been said so far. For me it isn't really a question of whether or not to drop, because I know my shots suffer if my elbow drops. Grip strength and shoulder movement certainly have an adverse affect on it, and of course it occurs more when I ramp my stroke up. I would like to find some ways to work on this with all levels of stroke from soft to hard so it can become more automatic with all shots. The challenge is being able to tell if it dropped, and having some sort of specific feedback or technique that helps you work on keeping it still through contact.
You welcome, hate to see someone going through this type of pain.
Without seeing you play it is hard to say but here is my theory based on limited data available.
I’m going to assume you are shooting right handed. So, if you are left handed opposite applies.
One day you decided (or it just happened) to come into the shot straight in as much as possible and eliminate moving your ass out of the way.
This type of approach seems to work for short players but not for tall.
Anyway, this gave you a compact stance and security on small and medium distance shots, especially on straight in shoots.
Later you discovered that the power went away.
I would propose moving your bridge hand to the right.
Don’t worry about the stance just come into the shot in such a way that you can get your bridge hand to a point where your unobstructed shoulder can move up and down dropping the elbow without jumping off the stroking line.
The cue should be moving straight through the bridge all the way to the cue joint.
If you find this place you will be close to the proper shooting plane.
You want to be leaning to the right without leaning, if you bend at the waist it can be done.
If you can get Max Eberle’s – ‘Powerful Pool’, you will have 6 hours of great instruction for about $50-$60, worth every penny.
To eliminate elbow drop, I once put a 1" wide strip of self-sticking velcro on my elbow and another piece on the belly of a small hamster. If I could keep him from falling while shooting power draw shots, I knew I had my elbow drop under control. I went through several hamsters before I finally got it under control.