Piston stroke?
- Thread starter CeaseLess
- Start date
CeaseLess
Active member
Thanks, I didn't know that. Any good examples of pool players that you can think of?
Oikawa
Well-known member
Chris Melling, Jani Uski, Allison Fisher
All former snooker players?
Many snooker players are known for keeping their chins on the cue stick during the stroke which nearly guarantees a piston stroke. I haven't checked carefully, but there may be "native" pool players who do the same. Pro pool stances are generally much lower than 50 years ago.
At one time I noted that both Jeremy Jones and Lori Jon Jones had piston strokes but I don't know if they still do. She has a different last name now.
Oikawa
Well-known member
Uski at least didn't start from snooker, don't know about Chris and Allison.
Fedor Gorst also has a piston stroke if I remember correctly.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
It's when elbow isn't fixed but instead works in tandem with shoulder wrist and hand to keep cue level throughout stroke. Tell tale sign on longer strokes is an elbow that drops in the back stroke as arm extends back. Elbow then moves back up a bit as the cue comes forward and then drops in the follow through.
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The stick moves like a piston constrained in a cylinder in a perfectly straight line. For a pendulum stroke, the back of the stick rises and falls as the pendulum rotates.
the only pro pool players nowadays who don't have a low stance are chang yu lung and evan lunda.. don't know many more. maybe roland garcia
CeaseLess
Active member
And Tony Cohan a lot of times
Willie Mosconi
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
Not in any footage I've seen of him albeit he an old man in those YT videos. Like most guys of his era, Willie was pretty upright and the arm worked a little differently than in the super low stances of snooker or today's pool. Besides, just focusing in on what his cue is doing, a piston stroke isn't just level throughout, it is straight as an arrow. Willie would veer to the side a lot, whether due to back-hand-english or not as he seemed to do so quite often even on simple stuns. You can check out his instruction video and watch his strokes...many don't finish on the same line he starts on. He does stay fairly flat most of the time tho, but it's not a piston stroke imo.
I agree with Wobbly.
Ewa Lawrence has interesting arm and elbow movement.
Ewa Lawrence has interesting arm and elbow movement.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
Ye, her lanky (and often bare) arms make it quite obvious on her longer strokes. I get why Chris LOL'd at my comment as the idea of an elbow dropping in backstroke and then coming back up on the forward stroke just seems so odd and who knows how big a movement he imagined. But Ewa has one of the most extreme moves I've seen in terms of the elbow dipping as she takes the cue back and then coming way back up as her arm folds up. More than anyone I can recall. But the same move is present in any piston stroke if it is sufficiently long...just more subtle. On shorter strokes, just the opening of the grip hand and some wrist movement is enough to keep everything level, but once long enough, that elbow has to dip a bit as arm extends back to keep the piston in its cylinder.
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how about Mike Sigel?
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
Ha. Sigel's arm is so 'alive' it's hard to pin down what he's doing with all that twitching and veering and finishing with the tip 2 feet up off the table. My guess is he's mostly intending to be a J-stroke type guy. Piston strokes are quiet. The cue's movement is elegant. Sigel is anything but that.
If you watch the business end of Sigel's stroke, it's nothing but pistonic. Well most shots anyway.