If they were really 'jerky' then yes.
Pause in Backstroke, Does It Help, How?
- Thread starter JessEm
- Start date
Great comparison! Thank you.
But the piston does have a slight pause at direction change.
In his book, he does. Mark Wilson's mantra is that you can swing a cue any haphazard way you want, and with enough practice you can become a World Champion, but if you incorporate a pause in your stroke, as well as his other guidance on stance, etc, you can develop a rock solid, pressure resistant stroke sooner than the haphazard guy.
I suspect that when an instructor demonstrates the pause, they are showing you that the back stroke has nothing to do with the cue speed on the forward stroke. As a result, they are trying to teach you that there is no reason to take the cue back fast and rush into the forward stroke. Instead, you pause between the back stroke and forward stroke in order to divide the back stroke and forward stroke into two distinct parts, which helps you not rush your swing, which presumably will increase your cue ball striking precision. And CB striking precision is not simply measured by: Did you miscue or not? Rather, cue ball striking precision is measured by: "Did you hit the CB within 1 millimeter of your aim point?" Unless you are a pro, the answer is most likely: "No!" When you realize how precise your cuing needs to be, you might come to understand that a quick backstroke with no pause before the forward stroke inevitably leads to some slight tremor in the transition between the back stroke and the forward stroke, which will prevent you from hitting your 1mm radius target circle.
Because the back stroke does not affect the speed of the cue on the forward stroke, you might as well take the cue back slowly and precisely. As far as I can tell, the main purpose of the backstroke is to groove the correct take back distance--the distance which will enable the forward stroke to achieve the necessary speed at cue ball impact for that particular shot. A quick backstroke does not somehow build up energy in the cue for your forward stroke to launch off of like a spring.
To summarize, I think a pause is supposed to help your CB striking accuracy by smoothing out the transition from the back swing to the forward swing, which will allow your cue to stay on line with the chosen target point on the CB.
I think I could easily hit a 1mm radius circle drawn on the CB if I very slowly inched the cue towards the CB on the forward swing. When I got within an inch of the CB, the cue would be moving so slowly I could adjust to precisely hit the target. However, that is not enough speed to hit any shots, so I have to speed up my forward swing to actually play pool. But, as I speed up my forward swing, I get more inaccurate, and at some speed in my forward swing I can't hit the 1mm circle anymore. So the question is, "Does a pause before my forward swing help me more accurately hit that 1mm circle?" You'll have to answer that question for yourself. I bought a practice CB with a bunch of 1mm radius circles stamped on it, and they are extremely hard to hit! It makes me appreciate how smooth and on line your forward swing has to be in order to even get close.
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In order to change direction, it has to stop at TDC. It's momentary, but it DOES stop. In order to change direction, as it approaches TDC, it slows down and at the apex of the rod it stops and then changes direction. The stop can be measured. It stops at BOTH TDC and BDC.
It's because of this stop that engineers have to account for it in non flat plane crank engines. This is why flat plane cranks like in ferraris and the new C8 Z06 and Z07 can rev so high compared to non flat plane crank engines. It's the secondary balance that's off due to the piston rate changes as they approach apex at TDC and BDC in non flat plane crank engines.
Because flat plane crank engines have pistons that are at opposite apexes, they have inherently better primary AND secondary balance. I promise you though, while the rod NEVER stops, the piston DOES. TWICE.
Jaden
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But I thought the premise most are hanging their hats on, is the notion that the arm must stop between back / forward stroke. That is not the case when you have arm (crank) stroke. Sure the cue (piston) stops during transition, but that's not the arm.
No offense brother but i don't read posts that look more like a novel. Brevity is your friend here.
But Like I said, the arm isn't like a crank. It's a straight back and forth motion, just like the piston going up and down, the only way for it to reverse direction is to stop moving backward and START moving forward.
Jaden
but it is when you perform a circular motion when tranistioning from back to forward...
I think if you wanted to really split the hair you could argue that there still is a pause as one muscle group relaxes and the other flexes. However this most cerainly couldn't be considered a pause as in a lack of motion.
When I finally took the time, to video my pause & deliver, my stroke began to heal itself. I attribute that fact to watching & learning in REAL TIME, so that errors were overcome by learning about what needs to be changed & when... I like learning with video.
Any physical object in the universe has a slight pause when reversing direction. That's different then telling every player in a teaching stable to make a conscious, perceptible pause (for sometimes wrong reasons).
Does the rod (where its connected to the shaft) spend a measurable amount of time traveling in a straight line at any point in its continuous circular motion? I don't believe so, and if not, then the piston never stops for a measurable amount of time.
pj
chgo
dquarasr
Registered
At the risk of perpetuating an irrelevant point (a crankshaft is NOT the same as a shoulder and elbow unless a player is moving the hand and wrist in a circular motion), yes, a piston MUST come to zero movement. It’s instantaneous but it does happen. In an engine this fleeting stop is not the same as a pause. It transitions immediately to the opposite direction. But a back-and-forth motion of a piston, attached to a crankshaft that never stops thereby affording the piston virtually NO time at 0 movement, is NOT comparable to a pool stroke where the arm CAN be still for a definite amount of time, aka, “the pause”.
I think a pause has a measurable timespan and not every reversal has a pause.
Purely semantic (the TV's broke).
pj
chgo
dquarasr
Registered
Yes I believe my comments supported your assertion.
I think there are three distinct types of pause as far as pool strokes go:
1. The stick comes to a complete stop for a non-zero time. Both the motion and the acceleration are zero for that time span.
2. The stick comes to a complete stop and the acceleration of the stick goes to zero at the same time but both are for an infinitesimal time (zero length of time). There is no forward/backward push on the cue at that instant of the pause.
3. When the stick reaches the back of the backstroke, the arm is already pressing forward on the stick -- you might call the arm "wound up" at that point. The stick is motionless but only for an instant and not for a length of time.
I think these are very different strokes. I only consider the first to be a real pause. I think most players use stroke 3.
See my March, 2021 article in Billiards Digest for diagrams.
1. The stick comes to a complete stop for a non-zero time. Both the motion and the acceleration are zero for that time span.
2. The stick comes to a complete stop and the acceleration of the stick goes to zero at the same time but both are for an infinitesimal time (zero length of time). There is no forward/backward push on the cue at that instant of the pause.
3. When the stick reaches the back of the backstroke, the arm is already pressing forward on the stick -- you might call the arm "wound up" at that point. The stick is motionless but only for an instant and not for a length of time.
I think these are very different strokes. I only consider the first to be a real pause. I think most players use stroke 3.
See my March, 2021 article in Billiards Digest for diagrams.
I am no where near expert at anything, but I photographed my stroke numerous times and after watching over and over I noticed that on my last back stroke, immediately before my actual stroke, I was pulling the stick slightly inside and up, resulting in my actual stroke being down and out on the cue ball. Becoming aware of this tic helped me overcome it, but also pausing in the back stroke also helped a lot.