Need a little help troubleshooting my stroke...

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dcb1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm in a bit of a rut and am missing the ball left on a straight in shot. I've been studying my stroke and have noticed one thing....

My follow-through tends to be a bit left of the target line instead of straight down the target line. In slow motion, I can take it back straight back and straight through and it looks good. As soon as I start hitting a ball, the cue swerves a bit left of the target line.

one thing I tried was to slow down my transition and pause slightly between backstroke and forward stroke. This seems to be working for the moment, but I'm not sure why. Even with this, I'm still stroking a bit to the left but maybe not as much.

Any ideas of why my follow through might be moving to the left? I have a pretty decent stroke and am trying to do a classic pendulum stroke so I don't have any elbow drop. I know it's difficult without seeing it in person, but I'm hoping this is a common problem.

Thanks,
Dave
 
You might just be holding the cue too close to your body. This is an alignment problem IMO. Try adjusting the positions of how far your shooting hand is from your body. Be aware of what you are doing with your cue as you get down on the shot.
 
This is an interesting thought. It makes sense as to why when I hit harder, it gets worse. It does feel sometimes like my body gets in the way a bit. Do you think my stance is related? I have a pretty open stance and get down pretty low. Does the stance open/ closed make your arm closer or farther away from your body?
 
2 possible reasons

1) Yiou are standing too straight with your cue (like a snooker stance), and subconciously you are afraid that you will hit your hip at the end of your stroke.

2) You are bending your wrist inward, which will throw your cue left at the end of the stroke.
 
dcb1 said:
This is an interesting thought. It makes sense as to why when I hit harder, it gets worse. It does feel sometimes like my body gets in the way a bit. Do you think my stance is related? I have a pretty open stance and get down pretty low. Does the stance open/ closed make your arm closer or farther away from your body?
Click to expand...

It definitely could be related to your stance. Or it could be that you are pulling your arm close to your body while you get down on the shot which throws your alignment off. I used to do that. If you can videotape yourself, record yourself from the back and front while shooting and pay close attention.

Look up Yang Ching Shun and watch how he gets down on the shot. A very relaxed and effortless motion. He lets his arm hang down nice and relaxed, places the cue on the line of the shot and his stance forms around it. Not saying you need to stand like him, but pay attention to how effortless his motion of getting down on the shot is.
 
Try standing with your right foot at a 90 degree angle to the stroke direction.
This should pull your right hip out of the way. I agree that you are probably
subconsciously trying to avoid hitting your hip. I'm struggling to correct the same problem.
 
I would see if the error is related to the back hand first, since it is probably easier to diagnose this type of error than a stance related one.

Try changing your grip, both in terms of where the cue is the hand and how the hand is orientated in relation to the forearm. If you are still getting the right to left movement then you can rule out the grip as the source. But if any of the back hand tinkering straightens it out, then you know what you need to work on.
 
Just based on what you wrote, I would say that a likely culprit would be your alignment. Your body probably wants to hit the ball where your eyes see, but because the cue isn't aligned, it veers to the direction that would be straight. That's probably why your stroke is straight untill you actually hit a ball.

As others have said, be very careful with your alignment. I would also add that placement of your bridge hand is another area you could look at. Often times players are lined up before they get down, but due to careless bridge placement, the get back out of line when they settle on a shot.

Of course this is not to say you should be extremely robotic getting down on your shots. Longer shots require millimeter accuracy on the cue ball, so often times, shots are not always "one stance fits all", especially when the table gets in the way. You should line up your cue and then form your body around it. Basically just try your best to keep the cue in line until you are settled on the shot.
 
On your pre shot strokes that mimics your impact stroke, place the tip almost touching the CB and aim your shot from there - adjust your stance if necessary.
 
it worked

Thanks for these tips. I was up late last night working on this and it worked. I started standing less open which allowed me to pull my hips to the left more and that straightened out my stroke. It also allowed me for some reason to straighten up my back wrist position. Before my wrist was slightly flexed and now it feels very comfortable in a more neutral position.

I'm stroking it great now and I think my problem is 75% solved. I'm hoping with a little more practice it will continue to improve. I've also noticed that the fell and sound of impact is different. I feel like I'm hitting the ball much more solid. I think I was hitting it with a glancing blow before.

I think my rut is over. I can't thank everyone enough. Have a great holiday and a happy and healthy new year.

Cheers.
 
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