Is your 'normal' stroke firm/medium/soft?

My typical speed I hit the ball is in the middle. That way it is easier to hit harder or softer. Look at it like it is a three speed shift on a car. I you stay in the middle the movement in either direction is only one gear.

That's the way I think.
 
randyg said:
Speed is about cueball not object ball.

In 8-ball or 9-ball I shoot 70% of my shots with stroke speed (3-speed) on the SPF scale.

Pocket speed is about worthless when trying to contol the cueball.....SPF=randyg
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It appears from the responses above that I have always understood pocket speed a bit differently.

When I was first starting out I was told that a medium stroke stroke will get you where need to go when your inline, and it also gives you a good margin for error when pocketing the object ball.

Ray Reardon would say that if you hit the ball hard, it means you've done something wrong. Either on the shot you just played or on a previous shot to leave yourself in that position.
 
When my game is working, I try to hit them with just enough energy to get the job done. Getting the job done means potting the object ball and getting position. This sometimes means rolling the ball with as little engery as possible, other times using excess energy to direct the Cue ball after impact.

When my game is not working, I generally get frustrated and use much more energy than necessary--with concomit results.
 
Hello

My potting percentage is rather low.

I hit slightly harder when playing 9 ball. But not more than neccessary to get shape. But I will still prefer to take a longer distance shot compared to running multiple rails to get perfect shape.

When playing 8ball or 14.1, I will hit slightly softer.
 
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