How Straight is Your Stroke?

[nobcitypool]

Just curious. My first drill every day, which also serves as a great warm up, is the straight stroke drill where you put the cb on the button, stroke it to the other end rail and bring it back over the button. I also combine this with a speed drill similar to the mother drill taught to me by Scott Lee. For discussion purposes, let's call cb to other end rail 1 speed, a lag shot 2 speed, lag plus one table length 3 speed and back and forth over the button twice 4 speed.

The first 3 are fairly easy. After a couple of warm up strokes, I am successful 80 to 100% with accuracy and speed. My acceptable tolerance level is plus minus one diamond in speed, any part of the cb passing over the button for accuracy.

Going to 4 speed seems to separate the men from the boys. I'm lucky to get 2 to 4 successes out of 10. The good news for me is the deviation on the misses has tightened considerably.

I'm curious if other people who do this have similar experiences? What did you personally do to tighten up the accuracy at the higher speed?

Just as an aside (names will be withheld to protect the innocent), one of the people I take lessons from told me about a reasonably decent Pro he was working with who was doing this drill and was knocking the ball all over the table at 4 speed. Perhaps he was exaggerating to make me feel better. Lol

 

[victorl]

Nearly all players (even very good ones) have the same issue with loss of accuracy as they increase the shot speed. I think many players don't spend enough time doing drills like that to refine their stroke (myself included), and it can be very surprising and humbling to see how bad your stroke really is. I play at an A level, but I'd say I'm only about 50% (probably less) to get within a spot's width at 4 speed.

Good post and thanks for reminding me to hit the practice table!

 

[ddadams]

My stroke's as straight as an arrow.

err... a bow, really.

You know, the curved thing that shoots the arrow.

Sucks, really.

 

[Neil]

Most people tend to tighten their grip when they hit harder. Try keeping a real loose grip and see if that doesn't fix your problem.

I do that drill quite often.

 

[buckshotshoey]

I set up strait in shots. It tells more then just bouncing the CB off a rail. If you can set up a strait in shot with the object ball center table, CB within one diamond of corner pocket, make object ball in corner and follow cue ball in behind OB, your stroke is pretty strait. Do that 5 times in a row and you are a monster! Much more fun then just hitting cue ball.
My best is 3 in a row on an 8 footer.

 

[nobcitypool]

I set up strait in shots. It tells more then just bouncing the CB off a rail. If you can set up a strait in shot with the object ball center table, CB within one diamond of corner pocket, make object ball in corner and follow cue ball in behind OB, your stroke is pretty strait. Do that 5 times in a row and you are a monster! Much more fun then just hitting cue ball.
My best is 3 in a row on an 8 footer.

Hitting straight shots diagonally across a 9 foot diamond, from varying positions, is my next drill. I practice stop, draw back 1 diamond, draw back 2 diamonds, ball replacement, go forward 1 diamond with force follow then by slow roll, then the grand finale at each position is to follow it into the pocket. I have it laid out with hole protectors at 5 different OB positions. If you saw my table, there is an X worn into it from doing this drill.

 

[(((Satori)))]

If I remember right the advanced straight stroke exercise in P.A.T. requires you to execute what you call a 4 speed while going between the balls every time the cue ball passes them. This requires speed plus straightness.

Here is an example of the beginners version which requires a 2 speed by your definition. http://youtu.be/YBqsF76Vs0Q

 

[Busboy]

Mine gets the job done

 

[TommyT]

This drill from Joe Tucker is one of my favorites and will tell you right away if the swerve is right or left.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=209556

 

[StraightPoolIU]

When I first got Mark's book and started doing the drill you describe I was putting so much unintentional left english on the cue ball that sometimes it would almost scratch using 2 rails of speed. I've put in a lot of work and now the 2 rails of speed is pretty easy to execute. I started doing the 4 rails of speed version and it was gawd awful at first, but it still needs work but I'm reigning it in. I feel like I'm setting up the center of the cue ball with much better alignment now. I will add that some of the tables I play on make it tough to hit 4 rails because of slow conditions.

 

[Aaron_S]

Whenever I am around a snooker table I like to shoot the corner-to-corner shot a few dozen times. Just throw the blue out on his spot and put the cueball near a corner pocket. It usually starts out pretty atrocious, but after a while you find yourself really focusing on delivering the straightest stroke possible, and this translates great to a pool table.

When I do the drill on a pool table, I will vary the shot by trying to follow or draw the cueball a precise amount while making the shot. When you just shoot to make the ball, you will find yourself shooting the same speed every shot, but when you try to follow one diamond or draw two diamonds, etc., you force yourself to vary your speed.

Aaron

 

[DAVE_M]

On the XY axis, it's pretty straight. On the Z axis, it's far from straight.

 

[DaveK]

I have been using a "drill" that came to me while playing one day. I noticed that when shooting a straight in shot where both the object ball and cue ball are very close to the long rail (the "right" handed long rail) you can see the cushion and the cue close together in your field of view. Since the rail is straight and not moving while the cue is straight and moving, there is excellent visual feedback and you can easily see wobbles in your stroke that you cannot see when stroking in mid-table (the gap between your cue and the rail varies).

Dave

 

[naji]

Just curious. My first drill every day, which also serves as a great warm up, is the straight stroke drill where you put the cb on the button, stroke it to the other end rail and bring it back over the button. I also combine this with a speed drill similar to the mother drill taught to me by Scott Lee. For discussion purposes, let's call cb to other end rail 1 speed, a lag shot 2 speed, lag plus one table length 3 speed and back and forth over the button twice 4 speed.

The first 3 are fairly easy. After a couple of warm up strokes, I am successful 80 to 100% with accuracy and speed. My acceptable tolerance level is plus minus one diamond in speed, any part of the cb passing over the button for accuracy.

Going to 4 speed seems to separate the men from the boys. I'm lucky to get 2 to 4 successes out of 10. The good news for me is the deviation on the misses has tightened considerably.

I'm curious if other people who do this have similar experiences? What did you personally do to tighten up the accuracy at the higher speed?

Just as an aside (names will be withheld to protect the innocent), one of the people I take lessons from told me about a reasonably decent Pro he was working with who was doing this drill and was knocking the ball all over the table at 4 speed. Perhaps he was exaggerating to make me feel better. Lol

Shoot the fast speed shot 10 times, of those 10 times CB must have gone say 5 or 6 times in same direction; note that, and every time you shoot hard offset your aim accordingly , for more accuracy shoot 50 shots and see where the CB direction.
IMO all pros change their aim at higher speed especially the break.

 

[nobcitypool]

Thanks, I'm quite satisfied with the Instructors I have now. You apparently missed the point of the OP.

Shoot the fast speed shot 10 times, of those 10 times CB must have gone say 5 or 6 times in same direction; note that, and every time you shoot hard offset your aim accordingly , for more accuracy shoot 50 shots and see where the CB direction.
IMO all pros change their aim at higher speed especially the break.

 

[NitPicker]

Just curious. My first drill every day, which also serves as a great warm up, is the straight stroke drill where you put the cb on the button, stroke it to the other end rail and bring it back over the button. I also combine this with a speed drill similar to the mother drill taught to me by Scott Lee. For discussion purposes, let's call cb to other end rail 1 speed, a lag shot 2 speed, lag plus one table length 3 speed and back and forth over the button twice 4 speed.

The first 3 are fairly easy. After a couple of warm up strokes, I am successful 80 to 100% with accuracy and speed. My acceptable tolerance level is plus minus one diamond in speed, any part of the cb passing over the button for accuracy.

Going to 4 speed seems to separate the men from the boys. I'm lucky to get 2 to 4 successes out of 10. The good news for me is the deviation on the misses has tightened considerably.

I'm curious if other people who do this have similar experiences? What did you personally do to tighten up the accuracy at the higher speed?

Just as an aside (names will be withheld to protect the innocent), one of the people I take lessons from told me about a reasonably decent Pro he was working with who was doing this drill and was knocking the ball all over the table at 4 speed. Perhaps he was exaggerating to make me feel better. Lol

Sounds like we do mostly the same things. In addition to the CB drill coming back on the spot, I also put the CB on the spot and OB center table. Stop shot, and have the OB come back on the same center line and hit the CB. I can make contact over 90% of the time and leave both balls sitting on the center line about 20-30%. These drills and other mother drills (thx Scott) have probably had the biggest impact on shooting straight and accuracy with speed.

I also adjust my eye pattern on break shots so that I have more focus on where my cue is making contact with the CB, where as on normal shots I'm focused on the OB contact point. I also play snooker on a 6x12 at least once a week and regularly practice on a Brunswick 10' Anniversary.

 

[MitchAlsup]

There are 2 (3) harder versions of the OP drill.

The first harder one has an OB on head-spot. The CB hits OB, OB hits rail, OB hits CB CB comes back to land on still extended cue tip. If you can make this one 80% of the time, your stroke is pretty straight.

The second harder version has two OBs on center-spot and head-spot. CB->OB->OB->rail; OB->OB->CB_>cue. If you can shoot this one 30% of the time, your stroke is essentially perfect.

There is one even better version, where the CB is drawn back to other end rail and runs forward to hit second OB coming back.

 

[scottjen26]

Hitting straight shots diagonally across a 9 foot diamond, from varying positions, is my next drill. I practice stop, draw back 1 diamond, draw back 2 diamonds, ball replacement, go forward 1 diamond with force follow then by slow roll, then the grand finale at each position is to follow it into the pocket. I have it laid out with hole protectors at 5 different OB positions. If you saw my table, there is an X worn into it from doing this drill.

Just a quick note on this - I used to do the same thing, and while I would still notice if I was hitting the ball straight into the pocket or a little to one side or the other, that feeling of a big pocket always helped my confidence, but sometimes falsely. I now prefer to line up the shot from about 1 diamond away on a line into either pocket, that way I'm shooting into more like 2/3 of a pocket and really have to concentrate on speed and pay attention to the true center of the pocket opening, especially on power draw type shots.

The other alternative is the Ralph Eckert version, lining up all 15 balls across the middle of the table, start at one end with BIH on the head string and do the stop, follow, draw, replacement, etc exercises. Even if you just do 15 of each, that's a lot of balls to really work on stroke and consistency.

Hope your game is continuing to improve, sounds like it is!!!
Scott

 

[Catahula]

Just for the hell of it...

I started shooting straight in shots with my eyes closed.
Set up as I normally would. Position the tip (yes, using CTE), then three practice strokes, pause, close my eyes and stroke.
Keep my eyes closed until I hear the ball drop or a rail rebound. Started with the object ball at mid-table and the cue ball a couple of diamonds away. All straight in. Very disconcerting at first but then I began to gain a much better feel for the cue in my hand. A much better feel for the sense of my arm swinging. A much better feel for the hit itself.
I have since moved to more distance (four diamonds) between the cue ball and object ball. I move into involving cut shots. Just this evening I began using this technique to shot stop shots (more speed).
Is this for everyone? Who knows but I will say that for me practicing some with my eyes closed has become a very eye opening experience.
Just a thought.
Tommy

 

[bbb]

have you ever tried you drill using draw??
even 2 speed is very difficult for me
try it
you will like it....