alstl said:
I notice that right handed snooker players all have the same stance, they keep their right leg straight and bend their left leg. They also all have their chin either on the cue or just above it. Why not the other way around, bend the right leg and keep the left leg stiff? I find that I can get lower doing it that way.
I think the issue here is stability. Take a moment and make a pool-like stance on your desk/table what have you. Now I'm assuming the stance is textbook, which means your back foot is about a 90 degree angle with your cue position, and your lead foot is pointing towards the table.
Lock your back leg and bend your lead leg. Notice that the bend of your knee is pointing in the direction of your weight shift, which is forward. It's not incredibly easy to get a lot of side-to-side movement with your hips. Now if you need to get lower, you'd just take a small step backwards, reposition and bend your lead knee a bit more. Either that or bend further down to the table, but you might end up being a bit closer to your bridge hand than you'd be comfortable with.
Now do the opposite, locking your lead leg and bending your back leg. When I do this, the first thing I notice are my hips. I can move my hips a lot more in this position. This stance feels like I can fall in on myself, like my stroking shoulder wants to turn to the ground. It feels a lot less balanced.
If you want to think of your body as a tripod when you shoot, you've got your three "legs" : your two legs and your bridge hand. The two "legs" that give you the most stability with the least strain (they're the furthest away from your center of gravity) are your back leg and your bridge arm. Your lead leg in this situation just serves to make sure you don't fall side to side. With the other stance, your back leg has a degree of freedom that would allow your center of gravity to fall with your knee bending.
I just thought about it another way while writing this, too. Make your stance, but keep your lead foot just a few inches off (above) the ground with your back leg locked. You could virtually shoot this way without much correction. Now if you try to stay steady while bending your back leg, you have to put much more effort into keeping your whole stance straight.
I'm sure someone could explain this a bit better than my drivel. Maybe Pat Johnson should ring in here?
/rant
EDIT: You know, I always thought that snooker players had a very wide, almost spread-eagle stance in which both of their legs are locked and they're bending at the waist more. I think their stance resembles an actual tripod a lot more than a pool player's stance.
Oh, and I saw my stance in an old book by Nick Varner, so I must be doing it right.
FWIW I don't think it is a stupid question I just don't have the answer.
