whats needed is to SLOW DOWN
To add to what Craig and Steve said...the cue weighs appx. 3x what the CB weighs. That's PLENTY to allow the cue to do all the work of the shot, regardless how soft or hard you wish to shoot. The key is, as Steve said, learn to relax your bicep and grip hand muscles, so that you're using only the weight of the cue and timing, to create the speed of the shot. Easier said than done, but it starts with becoming aware of what you're doing. I can't fix what I don't know about...and I can't fix what I can't measure.
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott you bring up some good points that would be good to extrapolate on
What is the biggest problem or one of IMOP is of course inaccurate tip placement on the CB. The problem is usually the Backhands grip or Cradle used to hold the cue, along with an uneven and not smoothly enough forward delivery of the stroke.
Now if a player has the correct lightness of grip (and can make accurate tip placement on pretty much any S.O.P. shot and still has this problem then IMOP i would say the frequency of the warmup/aim/delivery strokes is too fast and broken for a lightly gripped cue to stay accurately in the "CENTER" of the grip, what it does is IT DANCES AROUND IN THE GRIP........
many players try the light grip and give up on it as they can't seem to control the cuestick b/c as I stated IT DANCES IN THE GRIP. Its bouncing and getting jarred as you stroke, so the cue never sits stable at the center its bobbling 1,2,3,4 etc millimeters left/right/up/down.........
Because the grip is light one must remember that the Cue is not "ATTACHED" to the hand like it would be if you gripped it tight/firm.
This is why the pause is so important especially if the Cuestick is very lightly gripped. From the pause the hand and cue are stable and in the right position, with STEADILY INCREASING,SMOOTH, CONSISTENT delivery the cue stick will be centered and stable at the start of the delivery and the properly accelerated from a gentle start stroke will have all the momentum necessary and provide an accurate hit.
You can't have a fast jerkey stroke using a super light grip.
The proper way is DEFINITIVE AND RYTHMIC.........its not unlike what you see a fly fisherman do. If they don't rock the wrist in the correct tempo the rod movement and the movement of the fly on the end of the string will CLASH and nothing but chaos will ensue.
If you jerk back and forth, or just plain try to start the stroke off at the very start of the delivery at a high rate the hand will move forward and the cue will be moving backwards at too equal a rate so no momentum in the cue......same thing happens if the cue is wobbling or bouncing as it will slip the opposite direction the hand is going (hand forward/cue back, cue forward/hand back)
All the non smooth movement is doing is creating something like a forward and backward non intended slip stroke at the start of the forward delivery and the start of the backswing.
Light GRIP (CRADLE), forward delivery and backstroke are STARTED at 0 velocity and then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc it increases in speed upon the delivery in a constant and consistent fashion.
When done correctly the cue will basically be attached to the hand at the beginning and towards the end of the stroke but will be for a lack of better wording "free/airborne" during the middle and contact, thus giving the cuestick ALL the momentum and letting it do ALL the work.
You want to start at A and end at Z and we should control these.......parts B-Y the cuestick should be the one in charge. We deliver it, and then we stop it, we don't steer and force it.
hope that is helpful,
-Grey Ghost-