More accurate when doing ZERO warm-up strokes. What might be going on?

[BlueRaider]

A few months ago, I started testing my initial alignment on shots by doing zero warm-up strokes.

I just get down on the shot, allow my tip to naturally fall into place at the cue ball, freeze for about two seconds, then pull the trigger. Sometimes I look at the cue ball and my tip during this, and sometimes I never take my eyes off the object ball during the entire process from standing to down on the table. Either way, my cue doesn't move once I'm fully down on the shot until I begin my actual backstroke.

To my surprise, I was far more accurate in both general potting and tip accuracy than when I actually do warm-up strokes. No unintentional spin except on shots where I came down onto the cue ball severely misaligned.

Interestingly, on some shots, my tip doesn't look centered at all when I look at it, but when I pull the trigger, the cue ball obviously behaves as if it was struck dead center. Even the shots where I put unintentional spin on the cue ball tend to go straighter than many where I do warm-up strokes. The cue ball will have massive spin on it after contact but the object ball goes pretty damn straight. But again, by far most shots are struck pure, dead center.

I wrote this phenomenon off as a fluke/novelty at first, but it has persisted. Every time I do zero warm-up strokes, my accuracy improves. What's the likely culprit that's causing less accuracy WITH warm-up strokes?

 

[FranCrimi]

My friend Gene Nagy, the best at that style I'd ever seen, named that process, drop and shoot. It doesn't hold up under pressure though, because it requires basically blind trust. That's hard when you're competing.

However, in practice, it is very informative. Here are two possibilities based on what you described:

1.) Our perception of a shot when down can be very different than what we see standing up straight. So it can lead to constant tweaking with each practice stroke, which in your case, is tweaking you right out of the shot. Learn to trust what you saw while standing erect, and experiment with holding back on the urge to keep tweaking your aim with each practice stroke.

2.) Another possibility is that you created a habit without realizing it where something changes in your grip hand or bridge hand as you take practice strokes. Maybe it kicks-in during the second practice stroke or the third practice stroke. Taking closeup videos of your bridge and grip hands during your practice strokes will tell you if there are any changes you may not be aware of.

 

[Bob Jewett]

.... Interestingly, on some shots, my tip doesn't look centered at all when I look at it, but when I pull the trigger, the cue ball obviously behaves as if it was struck dead center. ...

I suspect that you are not seeing the center of the ball accurately and when you get your head involved, you fix that but you screw up the compensating thing your arm was doing subconsciously to fix it. Check your alignment to be sure a straight, centered shot actually looks straight and centered.

 

[WobblyStroke]

Some people do mess themselves up with their practice strokes. The two main advantages of no practice strokes are target focus and stillness.

Fran laid out nicely how micro adjustments kick in when we're down and perceiving the shot differently than when standing. On top of that, amateurs have poor eye pattern habits when down and performing their practice strokes. Much has been written on eye pattern and where/how long pros vs amateurs focus their gaze. Worth checking out. I think getting down focused on the target and remaining focused on the target while still over the shot until delivery def helps potting and is much easier to do in the absence of practice strokes.

Stillness is a big one too. It is the number 1 fundamental imo. Many amateurs get going with their practice strokes and never really become still again. Their transitions aren't clean and these tiny bits of movement kill their consistency. A common part of the shot routine for pros is to pause the tip at the CB before the final takeaway. Incorporating such a pause at the CB between your practice strokes and final execution of the shot may close the gap between your practicestroking and non-practicestroking performance. It helps both with stillness and allowing you ample time for target ficus.

 

[Oikawa]

Practice strokes can have many various benefits for different players. A lot of variety in how long/short people do them, both in physical length and duration.

For me, the biggest benefits are:

- Opens up/removes tension in my arm, which ensures the cue moves on the correct line (natural hanging position).
- Lets me sense if something is off in my alignment, e.g. if my body is misaligned/in the way of the shot, and the movement feels off in any way.
- Allows my subconscious to do various microadjustments as needed, such as gripping the cue slightly more forwards/backwards, or gripping the cue differently in general, all in the purpose of doing things the same way each time.

Some people also use practice strokes for feeling the power of the shot, or practicing the backswing length. I don't personally do those (my warmup strokes are quite short, and always the same no matter the power I'm gonna use), but I can definitely see the benefit in those things too.

There is also variance in how methodically people do them. For some, it's always the same amount of practice strokes with the same tempo. For others (including me), it's a more natural process where the point of the warmup strokes is to get different small nuances in order, and they are done as many times as needed until everything feels correct. It's a very subconscious process, where you allow the body/mind to feel things better with the movement.

Overall, it helps me execute my PSR more similarly each time compared to not doing practice strokes. More can go wrong without them, since you have to be more precise with your initial setup.

Although, as seen in your original post, if you have issues in your fundamentals, practice strokes can reveal issues that need to be fixed. And it is definitely better to fix those underlying issues rather than continue down a path of using no practice strokes. Whatever is wrong will probably show up in other areas of the game too eventually + you won't be getting the benefits of the practice strokes.