how do you stand?

12310bch

12310bch

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had a bad left knee for a long time and could put very little weight on it.
When I shot pool I would put most of my weight on my right( Back) leg and hold my bad, left leg straight out towards the table.

I got my knee fixed and thought all was taken care of. But I recently saw a picture of me shooting and there I was in that stance I had gotten used to when I had the bad knee.

I knew it was wrong so I had a higher level player to check me out and he agreed I was screwed up. He suggested pulling my left leg back to put more weight on it and straightening my right, back leg more to shift the weight to my front leg. ( Try 70 to 30 per cent to see how it feels.)

It seems to be working as I can get lower on the ball, aim better , and it
has reduced my coming up too early which is a bad habit I have.

It has awaken old muscles and created new pains to change my stance
but it seems to be improving my game.

I would like some opinions and advice from you folks on the stance subject. :yeah:
 
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I truly think the stance only has 2 jobs... to be comfortable and be stable. They have the old saw about "if your buddy walked up to you and shoved you on your shoulder, would you be in any danger of budging or falling over?"

People are built differently so there's no way I can say "well this works for me so that's what you should do". It really doesn't translate from one person to the next.

Comfort first, above all. Spread a little more or a little less. Let the feet point wherever they want. Bend the knees a little more or a little less. Just let things fall wherever they naturally want to and force nothing. Your whole lower body is just a shelf to put your shooting equipment on. If you feel off balance, change something... but if you focus on comfort and there's no sign of bad balance, you're all set.
 
consistent and effective

Excellent post by Creedo!

Your stance should be consistent and effective. The best way I know to test a stance is to stay in it too long. What starts bothering you first? Keep adjusting until you can stay in your stance a comparatively long time and you begin to feel mild discomfort when you stay in it too long, not something starting to really hurt.

Try to find a stance that doesn't impede your stroke and that is balanced for your body. Only you can find your stance but you might see if Max Eberle has written about it on his site or maybe put something up on YouTube. I like his advice.

As a general statement I like a stance that is more open and square to the table than one that is closer to one foot inline in front of the other. Aside from balance, I can use the open stance without modification for many more shots.

Hu
 
Comfort plays heavily into whether a person is stable or not in their stance. I'm a bit tall, so my stand is usually a bit wider than most and I bend me knees. This helps me get lower on the table. If I kept my legs straight and bend at the waist, I would still be hovering over the table too high and definitely wouldn't be comfortable. I also arch my back a bit, this helps me retain a posture where I don't put all my weight onto my lower back. It is something you are going to have to work out on your own as other have stated. Somethings will work for you, some won't, but hearing what works for others will allow you to try them out to see if it helps thus giving the opportunity for improvements if there needs to be any. Helps to watch the shooter sometimes rather than just the table too.
 
It has always been my policy to take a firm stance on stances.
Now when it comes to sitting, however, I can pretty much go either way, but stances, that's an entirely different matter.
Knealing, on the other hand, is a rather vulgar exercise and should not be talked about in public. I had an Uncle once, who was a knealer.
Now what was your question? :confused:
 
12310bch said:
I had a bad left knee for a long time and could put very little weight on it.
When I shot pool I would put most of my weight on my right( Back) leg and hold my bad, left leg straight out towards the table.

I got my knee fixed and thought all was taken care of. But I recently saw a picture of me shooting and there I was in that stance I had gotten used to when I had the bad knee.

I knew it was wrong so I had a higher level player to check me out and he agreed I was screwed up. He suggested pulling my left leg back to put more weight on it and straightening my right, back leg more to shift the weight to my front leg. ( Try 70 to 30 per cent to see how it feels.)

It seems to be working as I can get lower on the ball, aim better , and it
has reduced my coming up too early which is a bad habit I have.

It has awaken old muscles and created new pains to change my stance
but it seems to be improving my game.

I would like some opinions and advice from you folks on the stance subject. :yeah:
Click to expand...


Seems to me that you have had the luck to find a person who showed you seriously something good- and it has definitley serious background.
It will get normal for you after a short time :o) As long as you can still accelerate through the ball, your stance is good for you.

Glad for you, that your leg is ok again-start shooting again now^^

lg
Ingo
 
Everybody , even the Snooker instruction, seem to agree with Creedo. I widened my stance to balance better. I shifted more weight forward. As I'm 6'2" I bent my knees more to take the pressure on my lower back. I shuffled around a bit until I felt comfortable.

My God! This must be how I stood when I was younger, before my bad knee!
I can't believe how good it feels. And I seem to be stroking with more confidence as my arm can swing freely. This is for real. I think this has been holding up my progress for years. I'm really excited about this.

----------------Thank you , guys!
 
I am a right hander.

In Snooker, my lead leg is the right leg. My right foot will be standing in the line of shot. I have a somewhat both feet parallel stance in snooker.

In pool my lead leg is Left leg. why is that? It just occur naturally. I dunno why I do that.

Recently i have been trying to keep my right leg in line of the shot. Seems to be better. But feels a little unnatural for now. But better in terms of the consistency in my playing.

Can anyone help me understand me? I know you are suppose to just feel comfortable. Is there a right and wrong way?
 
Master class, this quote is from the snooker instructions link provided by
Gilbis:

"If you play with one leg twisted round the other and knock in century breaks then that's good enough for me!"

Very enlightening. Click this link;
http://www.snookercoaching.limewebs.com/
 
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I recently tweaked my stance somewhat and imo it has improved my game a bit. I used to stand with a slight "closed" stance with my left foot (I'm right-handed) about 18" (center-to-center) in front of my right foot, weight evenly distributed. I recently began the experiment of standing with a more "open" stance, similar to a snooker stance but with my left foot slightly in front of (about 6" or so) my right foot, feet a shoulders width apart, weight evenly distributed, knees slightly bent, and my left foot slightly pigeon-toed. This stance allows me (and my chronically tight back) to get down a little lower on the cuestick which in turn helps me to pendulum my stroke smoother and better. It prevents me from dropping my elbow too. It obviously ain't for everybody, but it works for me!!!

Maniac
 
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