Holding the cue.... Help...

Realizm

Realizm

I love cocobolo cues.
Silver Member
Holding a cue at the very end does it give more cantrol ?
I see a lot of pro's hold it there .
I hold it 4' below the a joint ..

So how do you hold your cue and how does it work for you and does it give better cb cantrol ?

Ps i'm 6 feet with very wide sholders..
 
Great question!

If you are striving for Mechanical perfection and are using the pendelum stroke then:

1. Set a cue ball on the table and address it in your normal playing body position.

2. Set your cue tip very close to the cue ball (1/4 inch).

3. Now let your back arm drop straight down under your elbow. Where ever you back hand touches the cue stick is where you should be holding it. The cue stick and your lower arm should be at 90 degrees.


Where we cradle the cue stick is a by product of our body not the cue stick.

randyg
 
hold the cue?

I agree w/ Randy but another often overlooked aspect is how one actually holds the cue, from wrapped in the fist w/ a death grip to in the fingertips of the thumb & ONE finger & everything in between. What I have found works best, @ least for me, is to place the cue between the soft pads of the thumb & fingers below the hand / finger knuckle joint. You can leave your fingers open or gently close them. I've found this helps the stroke stay comfortably straight, as well as, allows wrist action that is 'straight'.
Wrist action helps when you don't want a long follow thru. It allows you to make legal single hits & draw the ball a little in tight situations. Just my 2 cents that I hope helps someone.
 
How long is your cue?

Realizm said:
Holding a cue at the very end does it give more cantrol ?
I see a lot of pro's hold it there .
I hold it 4' below the a joint ..

So how do you hold your cue and how does it work for you and does it give better cb cantrol ?

Ps i'm 6 feet with very wide sholders..
Click to expand...

Wow! Four feet below the joint is pretty radical!

Seriously, Randy has the answer...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
For me, I have found that I simply cannot change the way I hold a cue. The reason is that if you change the way you hold the cue in a standing position, but use the same Pre-Shot Routine to "get down" on a shot, then your grip on the cue may be only slightly altered or not even altered at all, as your body will naturally use a grip that is facilitated by a certain head, foot, and torso position.

If I want to change my grip, I will start by changing the position of my feet. For a long time, I was all twisted up, and it was hurting my game. lfigueroa from this board noticed it when we played, and he made a suggestion about changing how I addressed the shot...I took his advice...my game took off.

I think we make a mistake when we try and talk and think about grips, head positions, elbows, etc. like they are parts unrelated to each other.

Also, I think holding the cue towards the back can help with power. Some say it detracts from control. I am not one of those. I hold the cue about 5 or six inches from the back. Something to consider is that most cues with wraps are developed from the model started in the 50's, 60's, etc. with Mosconi, Crane, and that crew. A lot of those guys played in a more upright position than modern players. I am not saying one is better than the other, just if someone is upright, their back arm will be further up the cue. Conversely, if they are low their back arm will be further back on the cue.

Hope this helps.

Kollegedave
 
A while back I was told by a top pro a few tips to improve my stroke. One of the things he told me was to grip my cue about 3/4 of the way up the wrap. This would make me feel choked up for a long time until I had hit about 1000 shots but in the end would give me better control.

At the time I thought that in order to have the perfect speed you have to be able to control every aspect of your stroke and just modify one. Some people do this by lengthening the distance of the stroke and some do it by increasing the velocity.

After doing this and using this grip for about 2 months I realized something that goes beyond what he told me and I have started applying it to great effect.

Once you are good enough at stroking the cue straight (which many of us have a VERY hard time with even if we dont know it) the place you grip the cue doesnt change how much control you have on a shot. As long as your stroke is straight it doesnt matter.

Once you have that straight stroke I believe gripping the cue at different points can generate more speed or less speed depending on what you are looking for in a given shot.

For a while I was controlling the speed of my cueball by increasing the velocity of the cue but now I realize that another more exacting way of doing this is to always stroke with the same velocity and grip the cue at different parts of the wrap.

In other words, my back arm is always moving at the same speed. If I want to hit the cueball harder and get more action I now hold the cue farther back- conversely, if I want to hit softer I hold the cue farther up the wrap.

Obviously this particular technique doesnt apply to all shots as sometimes it is necessary to get more action or hit harder on the cueball than a normal velocity stroke can apply. So you need to adapt to whatever the shot needs.
 
Just goes to show ya that even some "top pros" don't know what the heck they're talking about. Unless you're 4 feet tall, that's the wrong place to hold your cue.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

zpele said:
A while back I was told by a top pro a few tips to improve my stroke. One of the things he told me was to grip my cue about 3/4 of the way up the wrap. This would make me feel choked up for a long time until I had hit about 1000 shots but in the end would give me better control.
Click to expand...
 
When I started playing about a year ago I gripped the cue at the butt sleeve with a tight fully wrapped grip. My mom saw this and told me I needed to choke up and loosen my grip. I now hold the cue where my pinky is at the middle of the wrap area and a very loose grip. After working on that for a while I feel my stroke is alot more consistent. I feel my control is alot better. On shots where I have to reach and grip farther back I don't feel nearly as comfortable and have a hard time getting the same action. I am 6'2" with relatively short arms so it works for me. I think like others have said it varies from player to player based on body make up, stance, etc.
 
Realizm said:
Holding a cue at the very end does it give more cantrol ?
I see a lot of pro's hold it there .
I hold it 4' below the a joint ..

So how do you hold your cue and how does it work for you and does it give better cb cantrol ?

Ps i'm 6 feet with very wide sholders..
Click to expand...

I always grip a little forward of six oclock dead bottom. Grabbing forward of dead bottom helps with your finish or follow thru as you you hit whitey thru the shot. Also, this type of grip on the butt plate, there's nothing wrong with in in rotation games, unless you want to be world class 14.1 player then you better make some changes.

There's one concept in pool that is Always there....''As you increase'' distance, speed and spin with bridge length distance, everything changes. The more shaft past the bridge fingers the more one loses control but the more one is able to apply whiteys ability to control the cue ball movement like efren. If your able to control whitey with a normal 12'' bridge your able to do more with the transfer/steering of the object ball than if you were a 6'' bridge distance. My thinking has been, to vary the bridge distance to the shot....always. The ''Less in More'' concept is rock solid in our sport. Because we are always dealing with such infanamatesimal differences as we evolve into ''picky'' pool players that are always dealing with a ''little more here a little more there''.
 
Last edited:
Realizm said:
Holding a cue at the very end does it give more cantrol ?
I see a lot of pro's hold it there .
I hold it 4' below the a joint ..
So how do you hold your cue and how does it work for you and does it give better cb cantrol ?
Ps i'm 6 feet with very wide sholders..
Click to expand...

1) There is no one perfect place for everyone to hold the cue.
2) Listen to the instructors who have a method to determine where "YOU" should hold the cue.
3) I would bet lots of money that 4 inches below the joint is NOT the right place for someone of your size!
 
Island Drive said:
I always grip a little forward of six oclock dead bottom. Grabbing forward of dead bottom helps with you finish or follow thru as you you hit whitey thru the shot. Also, this type of grip on the butt plate, there's nothing wrong with in in rotation games, unless you want to be world class 14.1 player then you better make some changes.

There's one concept in pool that is Always there....''As you increase'' distance, speed and spin with bridge length distance, everything changes. The more shaft past the bridge fingers the more one loses control but the more one is able to apply whiteys ability to control the cue ball movement like efren. If your able to control whitey with a normal 12'' bridge your able to do more with the transfer/steering of the object ball than if you were a 6'' bridge distance. My thinking has been, to vary the bridge distance to the shot....always. The ''Less in More'' concept is rock solid in our sport. Because we are always dealing with such infanamatesimal differences as we evolve into ''picky'' pool players that are always dealing with a ''little more here a little more there''.
Click to expand...

This is the best advice I've seen all year.
 
I just grip it where it feels comfortable to me.
I went to college on a golf scholarship and gave lessons for a few years and I was always ask what is the proper grip,stance and swing.It all depends on the person.
What might work for you may not work for me.Some people interlock their fingers some overlap.some have a wide stance some a narrow and some have a flat swing some have a upright.
I would say experiment with several grip distances and see which one works best for you.
 
foxcues said:
I just grip it where it feels comfortable to me.
I went to college on a golf scholarship and gave lessons for a few years and I was always ask what is the proper grip,stance and swing.It all depends on the person.
What might work for you may not work for me.Some people interlock their fingers some overlap.some have a wide stance some a narrow and some have a flat swing some have a upright.
I would say experiment with several grip distances and see which one works best for you.
Click to expand...

True, but swing distances as related to practice swings when putting shorts medium and long putts are relative.
 
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