Use a spring loaded cue.
Perfect Stroke = No Stroke?
- Thread starter Patrick Johnson
- Start date
Any one ever watch Marco Fu? Virtually no movement until he pulls the cue back, for the one time swing / cue action.
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Yep. Sucks here too. Now we're snowed in!!
Fun question! I think "less creativity" but a perfect mechanical cue would be a superb teaching aid, for example, teaching a new player how to aim.
Wu Jiaqing (fka Wu Chia-Ching) stroke has changed a bit after he started playing Chinese 8 ball. It seems more compact and robotic unless he really needs to let his stroke out.
In 2015 at the CBSA Pool International 9-Ball Open:
In 2019 at the China Open:
In 2025 playing Duya Golden Nine:
In 2015 at the CBSA Pool International 9-Ball Open:
the stroke on the 9 ball from 2025 looked like a full stroke to me
He's supposedly a business man - IDK what business so maybe been working with a coach.
Yeah imop a long back swing to deliver consistently and easily acceleration with a finish to the stroke (ie hand to chest) making a short penetration through cb is def more accurate an consistent and more compact
Than a long backswing with a long loose elbow dropping stroke where the tip penetrates the cb well past 8-10/12” etc.
Even if you change that last paragraph to a short backswing you now have to contend with building up much more acceleration when needed into a shorter distance…creating way more chance for error due to torque required. Then finishing long
Neither once of those two are really compact at all.
No matter how short a back swing or delivery is, if it’s got lateral sway in it “fishtailing”…is not compact imop. Well at least not the compactness that could be beneficial lol
Messterr Blessterr
I seem to remember reading that Mark Selby moved up from being a jobbing professional to one of the real monsters on the pro snooker circuit when he shortened his stroke (although it is still one of the longer ones). [Edit - I should say that I cannot now find any evidence to back this up]. And Steve Davis said recently that the biggest improvements that most amateurs can make is to shorten their bridge.
It could be that some players have an overly long final backswing because they need the time during this phase to mentally prepare to deliver the cue. If so, then they might want to follow Allison Fisher's lead: she said that the biggest improvement to her game came when she slowed her backswing down. (Logically, this would provide the necessary final preparation time in a shorter stroke.)
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Not sure that I am directly answering the question, but.... I sometimes practice playing without using any rehearsal strokes. So I place the cue, pull it back and fire. The reason I do this is that it encourages me to prepare (aim, align, visualize etc) properly, both when I am standing behind the line and as I get down.
But to the extent that I perform well when using this approach, does the benefit come from this early preparation, or from cutting out something unhelpful in the rehearsal strokes? I suspect the former but I can't prove it.
I also find that when I get down right, when I look up after placing my bridge hand, I 'see' the shot very quickly. When that happens, I just don't feel the need for practice strokes. Just a couple of very short rehearsals (about an inch), and I am good to go.
Also fatigue affecting the bracing of the back and shoulder can be an issue if you down on the shot for a long time. But it is not only posture that can deteriorate with age; also concentration.
Not giving yourself time to mentally get in your own way can be helpful also, especially under pressure. I suspect that this behind Tony Drago's fast play. When he was an amateur snooker player in the 1980's, he didn't play any faster than anyone else. But when he turned pro, and it became all about pressure, he sped up.
Close to fifty years ago when I stopped making balls I started making one stroke or half a stroke. Seemed to help. I would either backstroke as I was getting down, forward stroke only or half a stroke or I would get down, backstroke and forward, one stroke. Seemed to help but I got some strange looks around Buffalo's as I tended to shoot these shots hard too!
I'll do this when I think I am overthinking shots. Seems to work.
Hu
Yes, this rings true. I think that there can be a real issue when things are not going well, and in response you start trying too hard. What seems to happen is you start using the wrong part of the mind to orchestrate your movement. This just doesn't work. Compare with when you are in the flow, playing well. Where is your mind then?
The difficulty I believe is in consistently getting to use the right parts of the mind to focus on the right things at the right time. Not easy, but a reasonable coping mechanism, esp when you are going through a slump, is to get the parts of the mind you don't want to interfere to get out of your way. This is where abbreviating, or short-circuiting, parts of the shot routine can help.
those aren't the only two. and draw your point further and look at snooker, that has plenty of long strokes. john higgins, dave gilbert, neil robertson, etc
Taking the STROKE out of pool is like taking the drives out of golf.
Pool has been turned into a game of BUNTING.
Maybe golf should be turned into only PUTTING to make it a BETTER game.
Pool has been turned into a game of BUNTING.
Maybe golf should be turned into only PUTTING to make it a BETTER game.