hand and wrist

Grap the stick. Hold your arm and the stick straight out in front of you. (Stick verticle.) That is a straight wrist. A mirror works wonders to see this, observe it at an angle.
Now get in a shooting position where you can see that same angle in the mirror.
 
Get into your shooting position. Have someone hold a cue next to your arm, straight up and down and touching your elbow. Your wrist and knuckles should both be touching the cue as well.
Steve
 
i recommend the mirror its a must have i think it helps all over you can see everything going on and knuckles should be pointing up at your finish point and flat at set position.randyg taught me this and its worked wounders now!he also has some good drills at his school for this.you should check it out.

Matt
 
I used to have a chimney (covered in plaster) going up through my house. I would take a stance near it with my right leg on the right side of the chimney. I'd go into a mock stance with my stroking arm parallel and rubbing on the front side of the chimney. I could make a stroke and if everthing was in line, I'd feel my whole arm/hand/wrist rubbing against the chimney as I stroked. This really helped to train me to keep everthing in line.

Hope that made sense.

Jeff Livingston
 
try this

Use a video camera from various angle, on a tripod. I have done that to check my stroke as well as all of my techniques. I corrected myself from jumping up prematurely while breaking after i saw myself doing that. You will see things by pausing and slo-motion that even someone trying to watch you will have difficulty detecting.
 
pooltchr said:
Get into your shooting position. Have someone hold a cue next to your arm, straight up and down and touching your elbow. Your wrist and knuckles should both be touching the cue as well.
Steve


If I do this my wrist is cocked inward.
 
chefjeff said:
I used to have a chimney (covered in plaster) going up through my house. I would take a stance near it with my right leg on the right side of the chimney. I'd go into a mock stance with my stroking arm parallel and rubbing on the front side of the chimney. I could make a stroke and if everthing was in line, I'd feel my whole arm/hand/wrist rubbing against the chimney as I stroked. This really helped to train me to keep everthing in line.

Hope that made sense.

Jeff Livingston

I used to use a wall in my apartment for the same purpose. I held my cue flat against the short stretch of wall, pointing across the room at a perpendicular wall, so I could find a point on that wall to look at for a line of aim perfectly parallel the short stretch. Then I got into my stance with my right shoulder against the wall, sighting down the cue at the point I found on the opposite wall. Then I'd take practice strokes, making sure my elbow, wrist, and knuckles stayed in contact with the wall. No way for any part of your arm to be out of alignment doing that.

-Andrew
 
pooltchr said:
Get into your shooting position. Have someone hold a cue next to your arm, straight up and down and touching your elbow. Your wrist and knuckles should both be touching the cue as well.
Steve

Unless I misunderstand what you are saying, this is not what I've been taught. If your elbow, wrist, and knuckles all touched the stick that the other person was holding, the stick in your hand would be inside your forearm. I don't think the key is having your wrist and hand straight. I've been taught to make my stick hang directly below my forearm bones. To do this my wrist is tilted slightly away from me. I seem to be able to tell when the stick is right under my forearm bones. Now if I can just get it to stay there through the completion of every stroke.
 
Andrew Manning said:
I used to use a wall in my apartment for the same purpose. I held my cue flat against the short stretch of wall, pointing across the room at a perpendicular wall, so I could find a point on that wall to look at for a line of aim perfectly parallel the short stretch. Then I got into my stance with my right shoulder against the wall, sighting down the cue at the point I found on the opposite wall. Then I'd take practice strokes, making sure my elbow, wrist, and knuckles stayed in contact with the wall. No way for any part of your arm to be out of alignment doing that.

-Andrew

I basically did the same thing by standing a bench on end next to the table in line with a straight in side pocket shot. I then placed a mirror on the wall in front and in back and one on the floor. Found out after a while that the bench was getting in the way and was cocking my wrist, but it did help keeping me from winging my arm.

Another way to find wrist position is to hold the cue in both hands shoulder wide a apart, hands in the natural cup position facing toward you body. Then bend over at the waist and relax. Your hands and grip will basically be how you should be holding the cue.
 
Do you want to have your wrist and forearm on the same plane as your upper arm? It doesn't feel natural to me. I have a bit of a 'monkey' wrist, and a 'tea-cup' grip. That seem to put the cue in the same plane as my upper arm, although my forearm is kinda inward. I believe a lot of the Philo's use the same grip also. I try to find a pics of Buste', and Alex to check.
 
CaptainJR said:
Unless I misunderstand what you are saying, this is not what I've been taught. If your elbow, wrist, and knuckles all touched the stick that the other person was holding, the stick in your hand would be inside your forearm. I don't think the key is having your wrist and hand straight. I've been taught to make my stick hang directly below my forearm bones. To do this my wrist is tilted slightly away from me. I seem to be able to tell when the stick is right under my forearm bones. Now if I can just get it to stay there through the completion of every stroke.

When I do this, the cue is actually directly under the inside of my arm. I think what is important is that your hand is just naturally hanging under the elbow, as opposed to cocking it in or out. If the hand is hanging naturally, you aren't going to be tensing up the muscles in your forearm, and you will still be producing a straight forward motion with the cue.

When I look at a video of a student from behind the grip, I am looking to see if the general alignment of the elbow, forearm, hand and the butt of the cue is straight, and also to see if during the back stroke and forward stroke, if there is any sideways movement of the butt of the cue. Again, I think the important thing to consider is the consistancy of the stroke. Whether it is directly under the elbow, or lined up to the inside edge, isn't as important as whether is follows the same path every time.


Steve
 
PROG8R said:
Do you want to have your wrist and forearm on the same plane as your upper arm? It doesn't feel natural to me. I have a bit of a 'monkey' wrist, and a 'tea-cup' grip. That seem to put the cue in the same plane as my upper arm, although my forearm is kinda inward. I believe a lot of the Philo's use the same grip also. I try to find a pics of Buste', and Alex to check.

I think the answer to the question in your first sentence is yes. I believe it makes for the most natural and simple pendulum stroke, with no part of your body necessarily moving except your elbow joint. See Allison Fisher's alignment for a great example of how simple and pure the shooting arm movement can be when the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and cue are all in the same vertical plane.

Bustamante doesn't have his upper arm in line with the shot. His shoulder is over the cue, but his elbow is way inside the line. His forearm angles back out away from his body to where he grips the cue, with a slight bend of his wrist back inward, so the back of his hand is roughly vertical. That stroke works for him, but I wouldn't recommend trying to copy it, sounds like it would be very difficult to make that motion repeatable (even though django has obviously learned how).

-Andrew
 
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A word of caution when using a mirror...Years ago, I was using a little mirror on my kitchen table and---der!---I followed through a little too far and boom!, no more mirror! That's when I went to using the wall as a guide.

Jeff Livingston
 
I have been taught much like CaptainJR, but I think I can help those who have the top of the wrist even with the forearm. If one puts on a watch or bracelet then slip a "stick" (chopsticks, tongue depressor, etc...) underneath it so it stays even with the forearm it will be hard not to notice if your not inline.

I hope this helps.

james
 
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