There are a lot of players that turn their hand inward when they stroke. Gabe Owen and Cliff Joyner are two that come to mind. This grip usually is used with the piston type stroke, a straight back and forth movement.
I migrated from a pendulum stroke to this type of stroke when I started to play more on the bigger tables. I had a lot of wrist action and wanted to try to tone it down a little. I found I started to point my thumb towards my body and my wrist became less movable.
With this change, I lost some ability to draw and spin the cueball. I traded that for a perceived better control of my stroke. After reaching a plateau and not being able to achieve a consistency in my game, I reverted back to pointing my thumb to the floor and using my wrist again.
The pendulum stroke immmediately returned and so did the stroke. The Larry Nevel draw is back and surprisingly, the cue ball control stayed with me. I should have continued with the good fundamentals and not caved into my critics who told me to do something different. They said I would develop bad habits with a loose wrist.
If you are able to make solid fundamentals work in your game, like a grip with the thumb pointing to the floor, do it. Changing is not easy, but how far do you want to take your game? We are all not cookie cutter teachable, but you got some good advice in your last thread from sage posters. Sticking with good fundamentals will always keep you improving instead of trying to fix one problem and creating another with poor mechanics.
Best,
Mike
