ok i said in my past post that i was putting right english on the ball but come to find out its actually left english (unintentional english that is). had someone look over my stroke and come to find out my cue is too far away from my body causing the tip to be pointed to the left, which makes sense since im putting the left on it. they recommended that i turn my wrist so my thumb gets pointed more down in order to bring the cue closer to me. is this how i would combat this problem?
one more stroke post.
- Thread starter zach12345
- Start date
I am probably the last person in the world who should be giving advice on stroke 
What I try to do to combat that particular issue is to keep my right hand on my hip as I step into the shot. And set it up from there. Kinda keeps the right hand "home".
The other suggestions about thumb and whatnot may very well be good, too, I don't know. Just thought is share what little I know, maybe it will help.
Good luck.
What I try to do to combat that particular issue is to keep my right hand on my hip as I step into the shot. And set it up from there. Kinda keeps the right hand "home".
The other suggestions about thumb and whatnot may very well be good, too, I don't know. Just thought is share what little I know, maybe it will help.
Good luck.
Try this. Put the CB on the head spot and to the left and right of it place an OB. Leave about a half inch space on each side.
Now cue the CB and shoot it into the short rail past the foot spot. Only with a straight stroke can you get the CB to rebound back through the opening between the two OBs.
If you get to do this easily, make the space a quarter inch away from the CB on each side. Don't shoot hard shoot medium soft and smoothly.
Now cue the CB and shoot it into the short rail past the foot spot. Only with a straight stroke can you get the CB to rebound back through the opening between the two OBs.
If you get to do this easily, make the space a quarter inch away from the CB on each side. Don't shoot hard shoot medium soft and smoothly.
Hard to say without an instructor watching, but adjusting your stance is most likely the culprit. Why not take some video from in front of the shot and behind the shot. We can suggest better after seeing that.
Keep a loose grip also with your grip hand and move in a pendulum fashion from the elbow down.
Once you are in your stance and envision the line you want the CB to take, try cuing the CB at its very base where it touches the table while taking some practice strokes.
At the very base there is no left or right side. You may feel more misaligned when the tip placement sort of forces you to find the flaw. Then you can adjust better.
I see a lot of newer players think they're aiming their cue at center ball when they are actually lining up well off center to begin with. If there's a good player/instructor around, ask them to take a look at your stance and cue ball address and they can tell you where you're going offline. It's very difficult to diagnose it on your own.
Don't adjust your wrist to bring the cue closer, bring your body closer to the cue.
Without seeing you play I have no idea how you'd go about doing this. I have 4 contact points with my cue; both hands, chin and my chest. If you have quite an upright stance you should have 2 points of contact.
I can't imagine just having my arm dangling at the side of me without my cue touching my chest, it feels so unstable. Make sure you have your back foot on the shot line, front foot out to the side or forward then bend from the hips so your head is over the cue, chin touching or a couple inches off the cue. Your upper arm should be aligned with your cue. If you do this your cue will automatically draw to your chest, and give your shooting hand plenty of clearance from the hips.
If you don't want to transform the wholse stance then a fairly simple transformation can be done to get the bridge hand, head, shoulder, elbow and back hand all aligned....
When you approach a shot with your arm by your side, push the upper arm into your side so no one can smell your armpit
keep this like that when you get down on a shot and all throughout the stroke. You will need to twist slightly at the waist so your chest faces your cue a little instead of the ground. It gives the feeling of pushing your shooting shoulder 'back' a little. This should at the very least align your cue with your upper arm.
Good luck,
Without seeing you play I have no idea how you'd go about doing this. I have 4 contact points with my cue; both hands, chin and my chest. If you have quite an upright stance you should have 2 points of contact.
I can't imagine just having my arm dangling at the side of me without my cue touching my chest, it feels so unstable. Make sure you have your back foot on the shot line, front foot out to the side or forward then bend from the hips so your head is over the cue, chin touching or a couple inches off the cue. Your upper arm should be aligned with your cue. If you do this your cue will automatically draw to your chest, and give your shooting hand plenty of clearance from the hips.
If you don't want to transform the wholse stance then a fairly simple transformation can be done to get the bridge hand, head, shoulder, elbow and back hand all aligned....
When you approach a shot with your arm by your side, push the upper arm into your side so no one can smell your armpit
keep this like that when you get down on a shot and all throughout the stroke. You will need to twist slightly at the waist so your chest faces your cue a little instead of the ground. It gives the feeling of pushing your shooting shoulder 'back' a little. This should at the very least align your cue with your upper arm. Good luck,
stroke
Great advise from PIDGE!!!
Watch closely if your elbow gets out of line during the process of stroking!
For 9 out of 10 of all my students the elbow swerved to the outside (to the right for a righty) specially when they were tensioning up their biceps during their stroke!
If this occurs- try to bring your upper arm closer to your body until you F E E L that the inner part of your upper arm (actually it is just a fraction below your armpit) touches your latissimus slightly (the big muscle on the upper side of your torso).
Keep your upper arm and lattissimus in gentle touch in your stance, while bending down and during your complete stroke action!
Now being in your set position experiment with your grip until you are able to stroke more straight while accelerating.
Do not use any balls on this drill while training this!!! Just set up two reinforcement rings (one for the virtual cue ball and one more around 5 inches away on a straight line in direction of a pocket. Stand behind these reinforcement rings, step in and go down into your set position like for a real shot and pretend as if you were actually shooting the virtual cue ball straight into the pocket. Stand up and do it again until you find out how you have to bend down and grip/hold the cue to be able to stroke straight without steering to the left while accelerating during your stroke. Do not stay down and try it a thousand times. Stand up again, reposition your body in the stance position and bend down again. It is important to catch how to step in and bend down correctly to be able to bring the cue perfectly on the line of stroke (a lot of players align across that line without being aware when bending down/ often this is due to a wrong hip movement)
Now watch closely where your tip ends in relation to the second reinforcement ring in your finish position and adjust your grip and your stance. You may have to experiment until no part of your body bothers your cue action- this may call for a different front foot position to get your hip out of the way, while having your back foot on the line of aim, until it works.
2nd step is to do the same but now using a striped ball (as the cue ball) and shoot it into the pocket. The second reinforcement ring stays on the line of stroke as a check point for you! The stripes of this ball should point in direction of the pocket to be able to see if unintentional english was on the ball. Try this 60 times using 20 times center ball, 20 x follow and 20 x draw while focussing the final position of your tip. Now adjust the tightness of your grip and find out if you need to curl in or push out your wrist some millimeters. Be aware I talk about millimeters!!! The position of your wrist must be vertically immobile and must not move to the right or to the left during your whole stroke!!!
Another problem may be as well not having your dominant eye in the perfect position and for this reason not getting a true picture regarding center ball.This can lead to steering too! Recognizing this without a third person being around is difficult!
Watch everything closely when you get videotaped!
This tool may help you finding your personal perfect eye position to really get a TRUE SIGHT PICTURE
of correct alignment and true center ball on your own! It shows you as well if the cue is rotating in your hand.
http://youtu.be/CBxA3pe-PNU
Ekkes
Great advise from PIDGE!!!
Watch closely if your elbow gets out of line during the process of stroking!
For 9 out of 10 of all my students the elbow swerved to the outside (to the right for a righty) specially when they were tensioning up their biceps during their stroke!
If this occurs- try to bring your upper arm closer to your body until you F E E L that the inner part of your upper arm (actually it is just a fraction below your armpit) touches your latissimus slightly (the big muscle on the upper side of your torso).
Keep your upper arm and lattissimus in gentle touch in your stance, while bending down and during your complete stroke action!
Now being in your set position experiment with your grip until you are able to stroke more straight while accelerating.
Do not use any balls on this drill while training this!!! Just set up two reinforcement rings (one for the virtual cue ball and one more around 5 inches away on a straight line in direction of a pocket. Stand behind these reinforcement rings, step in and go down into your set position like for a real shot and pretend as if you were actually shooting the virtual cue ball straight into the pocket. Stand up and do it again until you find out how you have to bend down and grip/hold the cue to be able to stroke straight without steering to the left while accelerating during your stroke. Do not stay down and try it a thousand times. Stand up again, reposition your body in the stance position and bend down again. It is important to catch how to step in and bend down correctly to be able to bring the cue perfectly on the line of stroke (a lot of players align across that line without being aware when bending down/ often this is due to a wrong hip movement)
Now watch closely where your tip ends in relation to the second reinforcement ring in your finish position and adjust your grip and your stance. You may have to experiment until no part of your body bothers your cue action- this may call for a different front foot position to get your hip out of the way, while having your back foot on the line of aim, until it works.
2nd step is to do the same but now using a striped ball (as the cue ball) and shoot it into the pocket. The second reinforcement ring stays on the line of stroke as a check point for you! The stripes of this ball should point in direction of the pocket to be able to see if unintentional english was on the ball. Try this 60 times using 20 times center ball, 20 x follow and 20 x draw while focussing the final position of your tip. Now adjust the tightness of your grip and find out if you need to curl in or push out your wrist some millimeters. Be aware I talk about millimeters!!! The position of your wrist must be vertically immobile and must not move to the right or to the left during your whole stroke!!!
Another problem may be as well not having your dominant eye in the perfect position and for this reason not getting a true picture regarding center ball.This can lead to steering too! Recognizing this without a third person being around is difficult!
Watch everything closely when you get videotaped!
This tool may help you finding your personal perfect eye position to really get a TRUE SIGHT PICTURE
of correct alignment and true center ball on your own! It shows you as well if the cue is rotating in your hand.
http://youtu.be/CBxA3pe-PNU
Ekkes
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Don't adjust your wrist to bring the cue closer, bring your body closer to the cue.
Without seeing you play I have no idea how you'd go about doing this. I have 4 contact points with my cue; both hands, chin and my chest. If you have quite an upright stance you should have 2 points of contact.
I can't imagine just having my arm dangling at the side of me without my cue touching my chest, it feels so unstable. Make sure you have your back foot on the shot line, front foot out to the side or forward then bend from the hips so your head is over the cue, chin touching or a couple inches off the cue. Your upper arm should be aligned with your cue. If you do this your cue will automatically draw to your chest, and give your shooting hand plenty of clearance from the hips.
If you don't want to transform the wholse stance then a fairly simple transformation can be done to get the bridge hand, head, shoulder, elbow and back hand all aligned....
When you approach a shot with your arm by your side, push the upper arm into your side so no one can smell your armpit
Good luck,
I like the way you described this. :bow-down: For those who have never tried the 4 points of contact, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.
JoeyA
Thanks. From the age of 7+ my instructor mind washed me sort of into the 4 points of contact. Never knew how important it was until I grew old enough to realise. Even though my muscle memory in my shooting arm is there, if I don't have my chest touching the cue it becomes a real effort to stroke straight.
Yes. If your elbow doesn't drop then you will hit the chest with your cueing arm. Sometimes, al la Ronnie O'Sullivan, you can drop your elbow and still hit your chest. It is mostly a good sign. Dropping it or not you can still have a solid straight stoke. If you could post a video for some of the intsructors to disect then that would be great. If you do, the video of the table doesn't matter so much, what's important is a video of you, from toes to head, front back and both sides.
Plenty of great teachers on here that are willing to offer advice for free.