How many of you can draw the cueball the length of the table with an open bridge, and after you do so, your cue does not go flying off your bridge hand? I noticed snooker players can do this, but many pool players, including alot of top pros, can't keep the cue on their open bridge hand steady when they hit a draw shot fairly hard. I've been working on this, still can't keep the cue from bouncing off the table. How do snooker players keep it so solid?
Open Bridge Hard Draw Shot
- Thread starter cuetechasaurus
- Start date
I can do it quite easily, because I don't grip the cue tightly, even for a power draw. However, what we teach is to use a closed bridge for this type of power shot. Then you can't lift the cue off, even if you try to.
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee said:
Yes I know it's custom to use a closed bridge for this, but snooker players don't. I am trying to learn this technique to perfect my stroke. If I can keep my cue steady on power shots with an open bridge, it will help my stroke in general. Can you post a video of you doing a shot like that? I want to see the technique. Using a loose grip surely can't be the reason, there has got to be something else.
lewdo26 said:
Im not talking about lifting, I'm talking about the tip of your cue bouncing off the cloth when you hit a draw shot. On a centerball or follow shot, I can keep the cue on my bridge hand. On a draw shot with an open bridge, it bounces off the cloth when I hit it above medium speed. Snooker players hit hard draw shots and their cue remains steady.
So, without actually seeing high-speed video, I'm guessing that there are two possibilities: They drop the elbow some to keep the stick level so the tip doesn't get to the cloth and bounce. Or, they actually put some downward torque on the stick to keep it on their bridge hand. I'll try to watch more closely the next time the local snooker player shoots a draw shot.cuetechasaurus said:
I've also tried to shoot power draw with an open bridge, but my problem starts before contact.
Bob Jewett said:
When I play I put a little of the downward torque that you mentioned, with (apparently) a slight elbow drop. That and I don't grip the cue to tight either.
I think the pros do the above also but I believe it depends. Ronnie O'Sullivan drops his elbow on power shots.
Cuetechasaurus, try to find some footage of Jimmy White playing, he is probably the best screw back player ever.
When hitting hard with draw, I believe the cue is forced down quite strongly, causing it do bounce out of the bridge hand.
I play this way and it doesn't bother me when the cue bounces out.
If just drawing back a table length with CB and OB just a couple of feet apart, the bouncing should not be readily apparent.
You'll see my cue often bounces up in the air with my open bridge in my 24 stroke shots video.
http://www.cue-tv.com/blog/_archives/2006/6/21/2044207.html
Not saying this is perfect cueing technique, but it works ok for me. One of my strengths would be maintaining a good level of accuracy when using power.
Colin
I play this way and it doesn't bother me when the cue bounces out.
If just drawing back a table length with CB and OB just a couple of feet apart, the bouncing should not be readily apparent.
You'll see my cue often bounces up in the air with my open bridge in my 24 stroke shots video.
http://www.cue-tv.com/blog/_archives/2006/6/21/2044207.html
Not saying this is perfect cueing technique, but it works ok for me. One of my strengths would be maintaining a good level of accuracy when using power.
Colin
I can draw the cue the lenght of the table with an open bridge as you described.
Try these four things:
1. Grip your cue further back and very loose.
2. Flex your wrist where your hand is cocked forward. For this to work your grip has to be really loose.
3. Accelerate through cue ball. In other words your cue should pick up speed as you follow through.
4. Make sure you eliminate any existing lift in your stroke.
5. Make sure you are not lunging with your head or shoulders even a little bit.
I have been tinkering with this very issue for about a month now and have made some satisfactory progress.
Try these four things:
1. Grip your cue further back and very loose.
2. Flex your wrist where your hand is cocked forward. For this to work your grip has to be really loose.
3. Accelerate through cue ball. In other words your cue should pick up speed as you follow through.
4. Make sure you eliminate any existing lift in your stroke.
5. Make sure you are not lunging with your head or shoulders even a little bit.
I have been tinkering with this very issue for about a month now and have made some satisfactory progress.
cuetechasaurus said:
Short backswing, long follow through. Let the white ball do the work. It's not how hard you hit it, it's how well. All these bits of advice helped my master screw. I can't pull back all the way back to baulk on a snooker table but I can comfortably get back to the blue if needs be.
English billiards players Mike Russel and Steve Naisby are a couple I've seen do this, but the best I've witnessed was a club steward who played for us in the first local league I played in. He wasn't all that good, but I saw him play a red in the jaws of the pocket from the jaws of the opposite pocket and screw all the way back to the black. Any sensible person would have just potted it at an angle and ran round the angles, but it wouldn't be nearly as spectacular. That's partly why he wasn't that good. He tried to play crowd pleasing shots all the time and never mastered the art of doing the simple thing well. He could never stun a straight ball in for perfect position when there was a chance to cock it up screwing in and out of baulk to the same position. Mind you, he was probably the most spectacular 14 break player the world has ever seen, and if you can do it at every visit to the table you can have moderate success at a certain level.
Boro Nut
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cuetechasaurus said:
I can draw the cb a lot harder with an open bridge than I can with a closed one, and I will sometimes use this bridge when I need maximum draw that's a little beyond my "normal" maximum draw. I don't try to control where my stick ends up after the shot because, at that point, what's done is done. If the shot is inaccurate, it's b/c of something that happened before/when the tip touched the ball, not after.
One might say that if the stick is pointed up after the shot, then it's because of a flaw in the stroke, which could effect the overall shot, etc, but on a maximum-english shot like this, the deflection of the tip off of the ball is tremendous. It doesn't matter how straight or level your stroke is or how good your follow-through is, the shaft is going to get shoved hard in one direction or another, and if you're using an open bridge, then the stick's going to go wherever it wants to. I guess you could try to control this with your back hand if you wanted to, but I don't see how there could be a tremendous gain, and on the downside, you'd have to grip the cue tighter with your back hand, which definitely could cause problems.
Good Luck!
PoolSleuth
Banned
cuetechasaurus said:
1/2 Table Lenth...
i can get some decent draw with the open bridge i play with this kind of bridge more then a closed one as i like the snooker style, but i don't know about table length maybe on a bar box LOL.
I shoot exclusively open bridge, though I've never played snooker. I think the stance has a bit to do with the delivery of the cue. Gripping at the balance point (changes for bridge distance!) makes a big difference as well. To execute this shot, you don't really need as much power as it would seem. I don't know how I keep the follow-through strait. I just do. 
cuetechasaurus said:
So what you're saying is you hit the cue ball in the intended spot, and your back hand follows through straight and smooth, but your tip deflects down off the cue ball, bounces off the table bed, and bounces up off of your bridge?
Are you elevating at all? With a level stroke, your tip shouldn't be deflected into the slate so hard that it bounces noticeably upward, unless you're lifting it with your grip hand. Maybe I just don't understand what you're trying to describe?
-Andrew
Andrew Manning said:
We'd need some video to be sure, but I think what may be happening here is that the shaft is actually being bent downward a little bit because of the deflection off of the cb. If you can imagine holding a popsicle stick over the edge of a table, push downward on the end that's hanging off the edge, and then release it. You get a significant spring upward, and that may be what's happening here. It could be that the tip never actually has to touch the table to produce this effect.
Good luck!