Help With Stance Please

[Scottster]

"Advanced Fundamentals" Instructor: Bert Kinister

To find you body alignment follow these steps and set up a shot down the rail with the object ball and cue ball down the long rail in a straight line about a 1/4th a diamond from the rail.

Step 1. Stand comfortably, and find balance point of cue (using your back hand, find where you can hold the cue and it is balanced in your hand, will more than likely be in front of the wrap).

Step 2. Relax your arm that is holding the cue at the balance point of the cue. As you relax the cue will come to rest pointing across your waist. This is your body's natural alignment.

Step 3. Move your feet and body until your natural body alignment has the cue in line with the shot. The cue tip should be about 6 inches past the cue ball at this time.

Step 4. Take a step back with your back foot, this will bring the cue behind the cue ball, now bend at the waist, STRAIGHT FORWARD! DO NOT TWIST YOUR BODY! ( if you have to twist your waist you are not properly aligned.) and address the cue ball.

Step 5. Without using your bridge hand ( I usually rest my bridge hand on my front knee/thigh) shoot the shot into the corner pocket as smooth as possible.

This will be extremely difficult at first. If you have the mental toughness to stick with it till you can make 8-10 of these shots in a row ( "one handed, jacked up") you will have a rock solid stance, a strong feeling of your weight distribution and a notch added to the mental aspect of your game.

 

[pooltchr]

I beg to disagree with you on this, and its 60% of your weight on the
back leg, and you should know that being an instructor. How to you teach your students how much is 60% of their weight? Although slight
variations from a normal recommended stance are okay, I'm glad to hear that. Allison Fisher's stance doesn't look anything like Buddy Halls, but both seem to be quite effective.many people
when starting out make all kinds of mistakes on how to stand, how they
should aim, position of their arms and hands. I agree, and as an instructor, you need to help them find what is correct for them. I will not even begin to tell every student that their stance should look like this player or that player. I don't try to stamp out stances like a cookie cutter. I help my students find their own best stance That's like saying at
baseball school to just get up there, get comfortable, and swing away.
Learning the basics of any sports involve basic recommended stances, forms,
and techniques, ones that are recognized to help you excel at a sport.There are guidelines that I try to conform with when working with students, but experience still tells me that I can not say there is one way you must do it. My job is to help the students develop their own individual "style".
I am not a BCA approved instructor, but I have instructed quite a few
people during my 44 years of playing, including kids starting out (7-12
year olds), and have always had good success. Although your advice is
good from a general overview point of view, it lacks the mechanics of the
details needed to prevent 'problems' down the line with an improper
stance or form. If it's comfortable, stable and balanced, chances are, it's not "improper". Any good player that has gambled much can tell you
that nuances given off by a player with improper form, stance, or stroke
is a telltale sign of just how good that player is or is not. Yes, we are all
different sizes, center of gravity differences are only because of sex or
whether someone is overweight, which is why the 'slight' variations of
stance, but it is also why a standard is developed in the first place, so
someone new will learn what is suppose to be the right way to begin
with. A lot of problems that pop up for players is the result of having
a quirk in their stance for form that they didn't know they had. Evidently,
you have never been in the military, because when they tell you to drop
down and give them 50 pushups, if you don't do them right, you have
to keep doing them until you do. A proud Viet Nam vet, and I have done my share of push-ups, thank you. When you teach someone to make a
shot, and they miss, do you just say aim a little more left, or do you show
them how to aim for themselves where they know at what point they
need to hit the object ball?I teach them how to know where to aim.

The following is a quote from the manual developed by RandyG, Master instructor at Cue Tech:

"Since different people have different bone structures, muscle tone, habits, etc., there is no style of play that will be perfect for everyone. Each style is dependent upon the individual.
By establishing a set of definitions and outlining the purpose of each individual skill, we allow each student to develop their own "style". As long as they satisfy the definition, it does not matter how they do it. Naturally, there may be "better" or "worse" ways of doing each...which can be discussed with the student."

Description of stance also quoted from the same manual:
"A good stance is balanced and comfortable with little or no movement. Eyes should be positioned vertically over the line of stroke, such that what is perceived is accurate. As long as the student is comfortable, balanced, and can sight along the line of the cue accurately, the stance is "good"."

There is no way anyone can tell someone they have never seen how they should stand on an internet forum. My answer gave him the basics I use with my students to help them find the proper stance for them. I provided the only information that I can say with any degree of certainty would address his specific needs. If I am working personally with a student, I may have them try many different stances until we find one that works best for them. I would never try to tell Allison that she is standing wrong, although she certainly isn't at a 45 degree angle, nor would I tell Earl his head isn't positioned directly over the cue, or Buddy that he isn't getting down low enough on his shots. There is no "one size fits all" for pool mechanics.
Steve

 

[Rickw]

Most people say that when it comes to weight distribution in your stance, there shouldn't be much weight on your bridge arm. I can't seem to do this without leaning backwards, shifting my weight too far back. If I try to shift it forward slightly then I again have too much weight on my bridge hand, and it doesnt feel stable, because it makes my body lurch forward if I have to hit the ball above a soft speed. Does anyone have a method of finding and keeping yourself balanced properly when you are in the process of getting down on the shot? It's either I'm leaning too far back, too far foward, or too much to the left or the right. I can't seem to find the center lol.

Stand up straight behind the cb with your stick pointing down the line of the shot behind the cb. Have your grip on the cue where it should be when you shoot. The tip of the cue should be right behind the cb. Stand squared up looking down the line with the stick on the line behind the cb. Step forward with your forward leg (do not turn your foot at all). Once your forward leg is set, turn the toe of your back foot out away from you but leave your leg where it is. The heels of both feet should feel like they are slightly pointing to each other. This stance was shown to me by Buddy Hall. I'm slightly over 6' with long legs and Buddy is pretty tall too. This is one of the lessons he taught me and it is really different than what I did before. I used to pivot both feet at a 45 degree angle.

 

[Skeezicks]

Each part involved as a base (feet and bridge hand/arm) should bear an amount of weight to be balanced.

the quick and dirty-
three players in shooting stance with a scale under each support point-
the sum on the scales add up to players weight-
numbers are the % supported by bridge hand, front foot, back foot
A....4 (3)....52....44
B....5 (4)....48....47
C..10 (6)....52....39
The numbers in parentheses are the % body weight supported by the bridge hand over and above the weight of their extended relaxed arms.

Incidentally, we found what the kid in "Jerry Maguire" said was true. The human head does weigh 8 pounds.

A word to the thread starter- This was just for kicks. Don't go nuts with this stuff. It will make you crazy.

 

[Josh Palmer]

this makes me laugh that I was in here looking. I have always felt like a good coach to myself, and good at fixing things in my game by evaluation. Now that I am not on crutches anymore, but probably should be- I am finding it difficult to find that sweet spot where you just settle over the ball and feel sooooooo comfortable that you could go to sleep. Hopefully things will change, but it's because I still can't put all my weight on my back right foot, and it means a lot to even your weight on your feet. As you make a bridge in the air, and come down on the shot, you will automatically (unless you are really stretching) lean forward a tiny bit, and put a little more weight on your front foot and bridge hand.. it's automatic. If you play all day, whatever gets tired first will tell you what you are putting too much weight on. (bridge shoulder, front quads, back hip)