I finally decided to prop my phone up, and film myself shooting. I dont like what I see. My stroke is wobbly and looks terrible. I had no idea how bad it was. I feel good shooting, and do get good results. I have been playing for 18 years, and am the 2nd/3rd best player on my league out of 40 plus people, and there are some very decent players on it. I just feel sort of stalled out in my game, like I am not improving at all. I came across this video of thorsten and mike massey explaining how to do a simple pre shot routine to get yourself properly aligned for the shot. I have never seen/been taught anything like this. I am pretty certain I am not properly positioned when getting down on the shot and stroking. One thing I know is that the cue is firmly planted against my side while stroking. Not sure if this is good or bad. If you havent filmed yourself shooting, try it. Even if you think you have a great stroke and or play pretty good, you may be surprised at what you see. I am going to make it a point to use this method when approaching every shot, and see how it goes.
I was lucky to have a mentor early in my pool journey that took seriously his method of getting down onto a shot. Hereinafter called PSR or Pre-Shot Routine. Early on, I was really screwed up, and my mentor helped straighten me out. Since then, I have embarked on my own experience of finding good, better, and flawed PSRs for me. I don't claim to know everything, but I do think I have some gifts from my early coach that I can pass on to you, and some hard won knowledge. Please, take what you like or don't.
1. Consider a repeatable set of steps that has your bridge hand reaching for the cue shaft, as you drop onto the shot. Full disclosure, I opt to not use this now. However, I find something about this to be intuitive and comfortable even when I am not used to it. One good player that uses something akin to this (at times) is Jayson Shaw. Initially, the idea of reaching for the cue shaft helped to move my body out of a tangled uncomfortable mess to something more conventional.
2. Many very good and great players have a backhand grip that has their backhand thumb pointed directly down. The next most common grip is exactly the same except the first knuckle on the back hand thumb is bent slightly, but it is otherwise pointed down. The advantage of this grip (I think) is that it minimizes stresses or pressures on the cue as it moves, and it makes a repeatable stroke easier, more comfortable, and secure. However, creating a PSR where your grip always gets into this position at cue ball address isn't as easy as you might think.
3. I am a fan of Mark Wilson as a person. However, his pre-shot routine isn't for me. I do think his idea that a back swing should be between 1.2 and 1.8 seconds is a new and important observation. People will say "Joe Champion" has a quick back swing, so I don't need a slow one. Maybe, if they want to practice as much as Joe Champion. The other option is to just pick a superior method of playing. A slow back swing is important because a pool stroke is very vulnerable to inaccuracy at the transition from back to forward. It is so vulnerable that some players choose to start their forward swing with an exaggerated "creep" to ensure a controlled beginning--see Francisco Bustamante or Cicero Murphy. Of course, Francisco Bustemante is able to accomplish his great forward stroke after a series of wild back swings. Imitate him at your peril is my 0.02 on that. Other players favor a distinct pause at the back swing--Buddy Hall and Chris Melling. However you accomplish it, you need to produce a forward swing that is straight, repeatable, and GRADUALLY accelerating. The PSR you choose, in my opinion, would be wise to employ a controlled back swing and a method to ensure a gradual and "un-rushed" beginning to your forward stroke. Maybe, a controlled back swing isn't always required for the gradual and unrushed forward swing, but I do think it creates the conditions where the better forward swing is easier to execute.
4. Many European players employ a PSR where they stand at approximately 45 degrees to the shot line, behind the shot, and simply step forward sliding their bridge hand down the shaft--Fedor Gorst, Max Lechner, and Thorsten Hohmann are several players that use a version of this. However, I think this is popular, so if you look for it, you will see a lot of players using some version of this now.
5. You need to consider how far away you will be at cue ball address. Personally, I think I benefited from moving closer to the cue ball. However, I am not very tall (5'9") and for a very long time I held the cue at the very back. This is suboptimal (for me), in my view. I think it limits my ability to accelerate THROUGH the cue ball. Some players that are noticeably closer to the cue ball than most, ( they naturally tend to be shorter)--Carlo B, Jeffrey Ignacio, and Dennis Orcollo.
6. Understand that repeating the same movement into a shot is not as easy as you think. Sometimes small innocuous movements create different ending results at cue ball address. Keep a journal to help you understand what you actually do, what you want to do, and what you don't want to do.
7. I found some value in Lee Brett's book on this topic. It is short and cheap; you might want to pick it up.
8. Once you find a PSR you think is good enough, DO NOT MESS WITH IT. I learned this the hard way.
kollegedave
