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.
Help With Stance Please
- Thread starter LowEnglish
- Start date
I'll try to help, but need some info first.
How tall are you?
How much to you weigh?
What size shoes to you wear?
What is the table height?
For the most part, you'll probably need to sprawl out more. Yes, your legs will scream at you at first since your not used to the new stance.
I'll stop there. Work on that a while, till your confortable.
How tall are you?
How much to you weigh?
What size shoes to you wear?
What is the table height?
For the most part, you'll probably need to sprawl out more. Yes, your legs will scream at you at first since your not used to the new stance.
I'll stop there. Work on that a while, till your confortable.
Ronoh said:
I'm 5"8, 151 lbs, shoe size 10 1/2. By sprawling do you mean spreading out my feet more? I've tried that, and putting them closer together, but neither seems to work well. I've watched many pros that are my same height and build, and they dont have their legs spread out far. In fact I've noticed that about 90% of them don't spread their feet apart more than 3-4 feet.
A lot of things came to mind.
One drill I'd like you to do before I elaborate further...
This is a long one, so bear with me.
Put a ball at each dimond frozen to the rails, exclude one short rail.
You'll have 3 balls on each rail, 1 short rail and 6 per long rail.
I need you to pick a ball, aim at pocket, and shoot it into the pocket you picked.
Bring the ball you just sank back to its spot, and pick a different pocket to sink it, until all options for that ball is exhausted. Once you've pocket the ball in all the pockets it could go in, it finally stays down. [repeat]
_________________
{Critria for shot}
The butt of your cue is NO HIGHER than 4 inches above the plane of the playing surface of the table.
ALWAYS notice where the cue ball is left before reseting.
_________________
The whole time while you're doing this drill, you should be working on figuring out what your center of balance is for your stance.
The way some folks find theirs is by either; keeping their feet in one spot and using their knees to lower/raise their center of gravity, sprawling (yes, I ment by spreading your feet apart more), or a combination of the two.
Do this drill at least twice.
If you feel yourself leaning on your bridge arm, then you need to get your body closer to the table by adjusting your feet/knees. Do the opposit if the stick is feeling heavy.
Always stay down! Get used to that sight angle. Stay down till the ball falls in the pocket.
I'll check back later to check your progress.
One drill I'd like you to do before I elaborate further...
This is a long one, so bear with me.
Put a ball at each dimond frozen to the rails, exclude one short rail.
You'll have 3 balls on each rail, 1 short rail and 6 per long rail.
I need you to pick a ball, aim at pocket, and shoot it into the pocket you picked.
Bring the ball you just sank back to its spot, and pick a different pocket to sink it, until all options for that ball is exhausted. Once you've pocket the ball in all the pockets it could go in, it finally stays down. [repeat]
_________________
{Critria for shot}
The butt of your cue is NO HIGHER than 4 inches above the plane of the playing surface of the table.
ALWAYS notice where the cue ball is left before reseting.
_________________
The whole time while you're doing this drill, you should be working on figuring out what your center of balance is for your stance.
The way some folks find theirs is by either; keeping their feet in one spot and using their knees to lower/raise their center of gravity, sprawling (yes, I ment by spreading your feet apart more), or a combination of the two.
Do this drill at least twice.
If you feel yourself leaning on your bridge arm, then you need to get your body closer to the table by adjusting your feet/knees. Do the opposit if the stick is feeling heavy.
Always stay down! Get used to that sight angle. Stay down till the ball falls in the pocket.
I'll check back later to check your progress.
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Myself use the snooker stance i stand very square to the table, my girlfriend and i play alot and she can't stand right with the normal pool player stance one foot in front and the other in back so i placed her or told her to walk into the shot stand with both feet together and place the other foot to the right and she said it felt more comfortable for her to stand this way rather then the other way. What you describe is how i feel when my stance is like a normal pool player stance what is the correct way of saying that? But when with a snooker stance my weight feels right on both feet and bridge arm. Ronoh tips sound great to correct what feels wrong, report back to us and let us know how it works out i would love to hear.
Stance
1) Your stand at a 45 degree angle to your stick.
2) Your legs are just slightly more than shoulder width apart.
3) Your front leg foot turns slightly forward (towards the tip of cue).
4) Back leg is locked with 60% of your weight.
5) Front leg is slightly bent with 40% of your weight.
6) You bend over keeping your back 'straight'.
7) Your chin should be directly over your cue. If overhang, then
back up a little from stick. You will end up sighting similiar to
sighting a rifle only in down position.
added note: You will never have a problem with the cue rubbing, while
a snooker stance often (straighter stance) presents this problem, and f
various stroke problems.
1) Your stand at a 45 degree angle to your stick.
2) Your legs are just slightly more than shoulder width apart.
3) Your front leg foot turns slightly forward (towards the tip of cue).
4) Back leg is locked with 60% of your weight.
5) Front leg is slightly bent with 40% of your weight.
6) You bend over keeping your back 'straight'.
7) Your chin should be directly over your cue. If overhang, then
back up a little from stick. You will end up sighting similiar to
sighting a rifle only in down position.
added note: You will never have a problem with the cue rubbing, while
a snooker stance often (straighter stance) presents this problem, and f
various stroke problems.
Balance
Trying thinking about what your doing in this manner, and lets forget pool for a moment, lets just think about being in balance and not falling down. If your standing on two feet and your upright I am assuming your not tetering, leaning left or right or forward or back, therefore you're balanced. Now, keep your feet where they are and lean forward bending at your trunk, almost like a hinge trying to become a 90 degree angle with you butt the corner. As you bend/without moving your feet you fall forward, and the only way you can eliminte falling is ???? Sticking you butt out, it off sets the forward weight of you upper body. Have you ever been on a ladder painting and you had to reach way out to paint that last spot, and you didn't want to get off the ladder and walk back down, reposition it and walk back up, too much work, so what did you do to get to that last spot without falling off the ladder, you stuck your butt out the exact oppisite direction to offset your forward weight. Forward weight and rearward offsetting weight give you balance. Hope this concept helps you out.
LowEnglish said:
Trying thinking about what your doing in this manner, and lets forget pool for a moment, lets just think about being in balance and not falling down. If your standing on two feet and your upright I am assuming your not tetering, leaning left or right or forward or back, therefore you're balanced. Now, keep your feet where they are and lean forward bending at your trunk, almost like a hinge trying to become a 90 degree angle with you butt the corner. As you bend/without moving your feet you fall forward, and the only way you can eliminte falling is ???? Sticking you butt out, it off sets the forward weight of you upper body. Have you ever been on a ladder painting and you had to reach way out to paint that last spot, and you didn't want to get off the ladder and walk back down, reposition it and walk back up, too much work, so what did you do to get to that last spot without falling off the ladder, you stuck your butt out the exact oppisite direction to offset your forward weight. Forward weight and rearward offsetting weight give you balance. Hope this concept helps you out.
LowEnglish said:
Most people are full of doggy doo, or say things that are easily misinterpreted. Even by the advice giver.
You have to put weight on your bridge hand. You should be so balanced that if you were to magically pull your hand away, you absolutely will fall over on your face. That's what being balanced is all about. Each part involved as a base (feet and bridge hand/arm) should bear an amount of weight to be balanced.
Fred
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pooltchr said:
Wow, you must be the cream of the crop when it comes to being an instructor.
The question was comparable to someone asking a question in a automotive repair forum: Help, my car was making a grinding noise and sputtering, and it was leaking oil before it broke down. What's the best way to get that fixed?
Your advice was comparable to: When car is fixed car go vroom!
Brilliant!
cuetechasaurus said:
I think your analogy is way off base. The original poster was asking a question on some advice he's been given. Pooltchr gave an answer that both answers the question and gives better advice.
The proper analogy could be:
Car owner: "Most people tell me that putting gas additives is necessary to clean up my engine."
Mechanic: "Use normal gas and get a tune up when your car is supposed to."
I think pooltchr's response was very proper, as in this case, the original advice is a bunch of hooey.
Fred
Cornerman said:
Pooltchr's response was 'be comfortable, stable, and balanced'. It's quite obvious that the thread starter was asking HOW to be comfortable, stable and balanced. It sounded more like a smartass comment than helpful advice to me.
It was not meant to be a smartass answer. The facts are that if you are balanced, stable and comfortable, you most likely have a good stance. Telling someone their feet need to be at a 45 degree angle, or that 30 percent of their weight should be on the back foot, or whatever just doesn't work. We are all built differently, different center of gravity, different sizes, and your stance needs to be as individual as you and still allow proper movement of the cue. I stand by my original statement.
pooltchr said:
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. Although slight
variations from a normal recommended stance are okay, many people
when starting out make all kinds of mistakes on how to stand, how they
should aim, position of their arms and hands. 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.
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. 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. 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?
Steve,
I cannot feel comfortable with my stance no matter what I do, what should I do then?
I have tried to stand sideway, square, bend both legs, keep the back leg straight, and even keep both legs straight; I have tried to keep my bridge arm straight, bend it, keep it on the table, keep it off the table; I have tried a long stroke, short stroke; I have tried a long bridge, a short bridge, an open bridge, a close bridge; I have tried to put my weight on both legs, only on the back, more on the back and less on the front and vice versa; I have tried to lock my hip, keep it relaxed; I have tried to have a very loose shoulder, a very "lock" kind of position; I have try to keep the cue real close to my body, keep it very far away; I have tried to pause and freeze and keep my elbow up, I have tried to just shoot away...etc.
I know it is a good piece of advice to just try to make myself feel comfortable. But I can honestly tell you I have never really felt comfortable no matter what I have tried. The only time I feel comfortable is when I am breaking or jumping. As far as shooting is concerned, I have not felt comfortable.
Richard
I cannot feel comfortable with my stance no matter what I do, what should I do then?
I have tried to stand sideway, square, bend both legs, keep the back leg straight, and even keep both legs straight; I have tried to keep my bridge arm straight, bend it, keep it on the table, keep it off the table; I have tried a long stroke, short stroke; I have tried a long bridge, a short bridge, an open bridge, a close bridge; I have tried to put my weight on both legs, only on the back, more on the back and less on the front and vice versa; I have tried to lock my hip, keep it relaxed; I have tried to have a very loose shoulder, a very "lock" kind of position; I have try to keep the cue real close to my body, keep it very far away; I have tried to pause and freeze and keep my elbow up, I have tried to just shoot away...etc.
I know it is a good piece of advice to just try to make myself feel comfortable. But I can honestly tell you I have never really felt comfortable no matter what I have tried. The only time I feel comfortable is when I am breaking or jumping. As far as shooting is concerned, I have not felt comfortable.
Richard
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First of all, this question cannot be answered over the internet. A qualified instructor should evaluate your stance and your balance points and make the required adjustments. Everybody is different and your balance should be individualized to your body's natural weight distribution. If you choose not to follow my advice, then seriously consider following the advice Fred gave earlier in this thread.
Sometimes things are so simple that our minds find a way to complicate it so we can brag about it being more difficult than it actually is. That's ego in action. - Anonymous (ok.. .it was me that wrote that)
Sometimes things are so simple that our minds find a way to complicate it so we can brag about it being more difficult than it actually is. That's ego in action. - Anonymous (ok.. .it was me that wrote that)
Richard,nipponbilliards said:
Have you tried playing 6 hours a day, most days for a month?
I find when your put the hard hours in, everything starts to feel comfortable.
Then, after time of, it feels unnatural.
I've seen so many stances that work for players, but you cannot simply copy them and feel comfortable. Players get used to them after years of hard work.
I feel the classical snooker stance is very strong, but it puts a lot of strain on the body to get down low and twist the hip and upper body to allow room for the cuing arm. For some it is easier than others, but most can make it feel normal with a lot of work.
Still other are more straight on, just beding over forwards with their elbow more chicken winged out to the side, and this can be comfortable but is harder to cue straight.
Just some ideas to toss about.
Col
cuetechasaurus said:
What is obvious is that you misread the original poster's question. He was quite specific questioning how to put less weight on the front hand without leaning too far backwards. He was not asking how one gets a comfortable stance.
Fred
Snapshot9 said:
Personally, I think this is nonsense. The three major classes of billiard (snooker, billiards, and pool) have all independently developed stances that are quite different from each other.
I think each person's stance could use tweaking if necessary, but to suggest that there's one central stance to start with is, IMNSHO, very short-sighted.
Fred