Please evaluate my stroke

Not an instructor but you are flinching and dropping the elbow.

I suggest getting a hold of Scott or Randy . They teach the pendulum salute stroke where you finish smoothly without the elbow drop.
 
Thanks

I saw the elbow drop and it amazes my I don't feel that when i'm shooting. I didn't notice the flinch until you said that. I need to figure out how to stay still.
 
It appears that your stroke is hinging at the shoulder. You will need to concentrate on keeping your elbow still.

It looks like you are not delivering the cuetip straight through the ball. Setup the routine you taped and be sure that the cueball, object ball and pocket are in straight alignment with each other. I noticed you had them setup with an slight angle. The straighter you setup this drill the better you can assess the quality of the hit, by observing the cueball after contact with the OB, and your tip placement on the table in relation to that straight line.

With that said, I would like to see you freeze at the end of the stroke, and assess your tip position, and where that CB is. Strive for a stopshot on the OB ball. This will give you some good feedback.

Also it is OK to chaulk your tip before each shot. Develop this habit into your preshot routine, to slow yourself down, and to force you to focus on the shot at hand.
 
I suspect the reason you're moving as the others have described is that you're too tense. Relax, loosen your grip, and slow your speed down.

There are many little things you may change to also improve your shot making. The best way to address them through a lesson with an instructor.
 
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A qualified instructor really is the best way to fix your issues (I'm not one). Make sure you take something to write with, because the notes you take will last you far longer than the memory of what they tell you. maybe even a camcorder.

First thing I noticed was your wrist angle. Second thing was, it looked to me like your footwork was off. believe it or not, your upper body fundamentals could be perfect, but it's your feet that sets it all up. if your feet are off, the rest of you is off. look up the forcefollow video where greyghost is talking about fundamentals. that's a great video. also look up the john schmidt instructional series where he talks about his pre-shot routine and chalking. there's a lot of good info there, he discusses "dropping" into the shot and lining up before you even get down to shoot. definitely not the end-all, be-all, but very important things when building your overall game. that's just my input, for whatever it's worth. as stated above, a qualified instructor is the best way to diagnose your ails.
 
thanks

Thanks for all the great feedback. I plan on hooking up with Randy G in Maryland at the end of June. Making these changes will be hard because until i saw it I had no idea. Hard work ahead but worth it.
 
I am not an instructor but it appears from what i saw your stroke line is a good bit out from your body this can make for some inconsistency as it is easy to not have the same position from shot to shot.
 
imwalrus38 said:
Thanks for all the great feedback. I plan on hooking up with Randy G in Maryland at the end of June. Making these changes will be hard because until i saw it I had no idea. Hard work ahead but worth it.
Click to expand...

It may not be as hard as you think. Randy is a great instructor, and will show you how to replace bad habits with good ones. If you do what he shows you, work on the mother drills he supplies, and really want to improve, you can see significant results within a month of taking the class.
Pay attention, be willing to try new things, and follow the practice plan you get.

And HAVE FUN!!!!!!!

Steve
 
imwalrus38 said:
This is to follow up onmy previous post. Please review this video and let me know how to best deal with the flaws in my stroke. And let me just say there's many. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDLGFOxwxME&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...

I watched the video and I feel sorry for you. Wish I was closer to you, we could fix sooner.

The angle of the camera is wrong for any trouble shooting.
I need to see a side vid.

See you soon,
randyg
 
Not an instructor, but you also might want to think about changing your bridge for closed bridge to have the "butt of the palm" on the table for a more stable bridge rather than fingers supporting for the bridge. And as others have said loosen up. Grip too tight. Work for more of a pause between back stroke and forward stroke. Slow down.
 
imwalrus38 said:
This is to follow up onmy previous post. Please review this video and let me know how to best deal with the flaws in my stroke. And let me just say there's many. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDLGFOxwxME&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...

You might want to do a little research on stance. It appears that you don't consider at all where you place your feet.

Remember, your legs and arms are attached to the same body. You can't just pay attention to one and ignore the other. Have you ever tried walking with your legs facing one direction and your arms swinging in another? Not easy. So why would you consider shooting pool like that?

When your body is out of alignment, your shooting arm and hand may sometimes have to do some strange things to make a shot. Then bad habits can form and you're in trouble.

There are other issues as well, such as steering problems. Players subconsciously start twisting the cue, hoping to send the cue ball in that direction and the next thing you know, you've created a bad habit you can't stop.
 
imwalrus38 said:
This is to follow up onmy previous post. Please review this video and let me know how to best deal with the flaws in my stroke. And let me just say there's many. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDLGFOxwxME&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...

Not an instructor... but this is what I see... your cue alignment is helter skelter... sometimes it's straight but it is not very consistant.

I would put the cue tip directly behind the CB and make sure your right hand is in line with both the CB and OB so the cue is aligned.

That is the time to put your bridge hand on the table. Push the cue straight through the cue ball without jumping up. Hope this helps.
 
Ralph Kramden said:
Not an instructor... but this is what I see... your cue alignment is helter skelter... sometimes it's straight but it is not very consistant.

I would put the cue tip directly behind the CB and make sure your right hand is in line with both the CB and OB so the cue is aligned.

That is the time to put your bridge hand on the table. Push the cue straight through the cue ball without jumping up. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

This is what I saw on his first shot. He needs to pick a point on his grip hand to align the cue down the shot line.

As Fran has stated, correct body alignment with the shot line is everything.

John
 
For the shots on the first two minutes of the video, where you face the camera, it looked like on every shot you were aimed off to your left (inside the cut angle) and then swerved with your final stroke to attempt to pocket the ball. See where your tip follows through to confirm what I'm saying.

Joe Tucker's Third Eye Trainer will cost you less than $15 including shipping and a DVD and will help you solve this problem promptly, especially if you do as suggested by the other instructors and players on this thread to get organized about stance and placement of the hands and body. Go for it and feel free to continue to ask questions here.

Thanks for sharing your video with us.
 
not an instructor here.
I do notice your back hand is all over the place when stroking, throwing the cue stick off line. Bring it in so the stick is up against the body. if you can get used to the feel of this stroke you will be amazed at the stability. You now have three points of contact, the bridge hand, body, and grip hand.

i didn't notice how you were standing but a good way to start is with the toes of the back foot directly under the grip hand. most important however you take the stance is... Be very still. If you move on the shot and it goes in you must have been doing something wrong to begin with...

there are many ways to get it done, this is just one, learned over many yrs. gl.
steven
 
not an instructor here either, but the first two things that stood out for me after watching the video.
1. The stance . it's hard to tell exactly what's wrong with it looking from that angle, but you appear to stand uncomfortable.
2. There's is NO pause or almost no pause before your final backswing. It seems like you do a few practice strokes and the final practice stroke becomes the actual shot stroke.
 
Thanks toall for the great feedback. A couple of things

My discomfort in the stance is partly because of a pinched nerve in my neck making my left shoulder hurt. Other things I'm noticing are I put too much weight on my back leg causing my lower back to become stiff. I'm also trying to spread my legs a little more.

My back hand and back swing do go all over the place. The more I try to control it the worse it gets.Randy G made a few suggestions that I think will help with this.

I think pausing at my back swing is helping this. I need to train myself to pause a liitle longer. Old habits die hard. I think this may also help me keepmy elbow still. I'm amazed watching the videos how often I drop my elbow without knowing i'm doing it.

Any suggestions on increasing my body awareness?

Thanks again
 
Randy probably already told you this, but take a couple seconds at the pause (in your back swing) as well as when you complete your stroke. (Freeze after finish) Your mind and body need to communicate to feel these positions.

When you are training old habits, being deliberate allows more processing and reduces the time to retrain yourself. To help, say to yourself (or out loud) "smooth backswing" and "pause to go home" before accelerating forward. Change the words if you want, but find something to help you be deliberate.

Good Luck!

I had similar back stiffness and I began taking aleve daily, it has helped significantly.
 
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