Fedor is an elbow dropper

[JoeyInCali]

These guys clearly are doing it all wrong. Look how bad they play…….my friend in league at the bar, he’s got perfect fundamentals and can play good…….

They all need BCA lessons

 

[Zerksies]

Nobody drops it like Bustamante .
Smoothest elbow dropper of all time imo .

It's almost painful to look at. It's a purpose drop with the kiddies.

 

[SmoothStroke]

Another major issue with an elbow drop is it stretches out your long sleeve shirts and exposes the shoulder. You can always tell a dropper by the neckline of their shirt.

 

[Vahmurka]

Fedor has worked under Johan Ruysink supervision a lot in the past. And this brilliant Dutchman is a proponent of such a stroke I recall. In order to achieve a full-length follow-through for a proper draw shot (which would be also smooth), you simply can not do without the elbow drop.

Of course just another moving joint added to the stroke is not going to provide any benefits to a player if his stroking motion has any, even little, flaw. Great fundamentals is a must, and everyone who has worked with Mr Ruysink knows that.

All of a sudden I found a picture of myself during one of the European events. Now that is an elbow drop (and a resulting jaw drop of an occasional lurker ). Even I myself was impressed, lol: the follow-through past the cue joint!

 

[WobblyStroke]

Check out his video, showing how Mike drops his elbow well after the hit, almost as an after-thought. When I showed him the slow motion footage, he was very surprised. He had always thought he was dropping his elbow durning the stroke into the ball.

While Mike doesn't drop his elbow beyond the starting point, by raising it in the backswing he does indeed drop it (back to where it started) coming into the ball. It pauses there as he counters the drop from the top (kind of like cracking a whip with a little energy in the opposite direction to get that big snap) and then the momentum of the shot creates the secondary elbow drop just to smooth out the stoppage of the stroke rather than have a stationary elbow eat up all that energy.

FWIW, in slow mo, Fedor also begins the drops before contact.

 

[bbb]

is the drop necessary?

 

[WobblyStroke]

is the drop necessary?

Clearly not necessary for the draw, BUT compare how much harder the guy in the vid works compared to Massey's drop n stop snap. Massey's is absolutely effortless in comparison. Also, the finish for the stationary elbow is so violent. Try that a buncha times without getting a sore elbow. Massey's secondary drop after contact really smoothes out the slowing down and stoppage of the cue and drastically reduces internalized forces... so it feels better too.

 

[straightline]

is the drop necessary?

It's a structural/mechanical thing. Theoretically (guessing in this case) a 7 footer might be able to produce the required cue speed with a stationary arm, squirting the cue with his fingers. An air ram could do it in a couple inches of travel.
There are far less issues dropping than not. The drop is in fact a natural run off of high energy shots.
There's also a linear component that's easy to demonstrate to yourself. Get into shooting stance with a cue. Squeeze the bridge or just grab the cue so it won't budge. Let the cue otherwise rest on the table. Now slide your backhand back and forth along the butt as far as you can.

The backhand (elbow) will have to drop but it will also track a perfect stroke.

There's also that Melling effect. Behold my superior technique yadda yadda... BUT pride is indeed an element in consistency of execution. Whatever dials you in...

 

[OldOrvis]

Yea but whats his pivot point..? You cant be good if you dont have a good pivot point and whats the balance point of his cue .......these are things that need to be investigated since I always see post with what has to be secret pros talking about this ....they have to just run rack after rack with that kinda knowledge

 

[Fatboy]

There’s no chance to play good pool and drop your elbow. What do guys like Mike and Earl know?