Please evaluate my stroke

You need a straight, repeatable stroke. Waggle around with your practice strokes and get the shot lined up with the cue stick moving straight - no lateral (sideways) movement. When you're ready slowly draw back straight (maybe pause a bit) and then go through the cue ball straight. Straight, straight, straight. Sound easy - it's not. It takes LOTS and LOTS of practice. Watch some videos of the pros - it's uncanny how straight their stroke are, try to copy them.

BTW, I'm not an instructor but I shoot a lot better thanks to some lessons (Scott Lee's my man). A pendulum stroke and someone qualified to teach will straighten you out. When things aren't going right it's usually because of the straight, straight, straight rule. Clear you mind, get comfortable and do it straight, straight, straight. There's an SPF 'mantra' I use my instructor taught me to keep me straight - very useful.
 
I'll repeat, you have alignment issues. I'd like you to commit to a straight stroke but for a different reason--so you can honestly assess your misses post shot. Look at the first two minutes of your video and you'll see your stance/alignment/stroke hand is off line.

Have a friend stand on the other end of the cue ball and hold their stick laser straight above yours to show you the difference between the aim line and your cue. Then go out and commit to straight stroking so you can begin to bring eyesight and body stance in alignment to the straight stroke down the aim line. Thanks.
 
Lack of pre shot routine. Mainly by this I mean addressing the cue ball and stepping into hour stance. Also you seem to be suspending the wait of your cue instead of using a free hanging pendulum. As many pointed out you are steering the cue. I think this is to compensate for bad alignment in pre shot. This all applies to stance and such as far as stroke, not meaning to sound rude but u are slapping the cue ball not stroking it at all really. This causing lack of accuracy and lack of reaction on the cue ball.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
I will keep it simple. Your aim is way off! You subconscious is trying to correct your mistake in the middle of your final stroke (steering). Your aim is so bad and so far off, i cant even tell if you have a decent stroke?

You are cueing on the white line in the picture when you should be on the black line.
 

Attachments

  • Untitled - 200.jpg
    Untitled - 200.jpg
    58.1 KB · Views: 198
The same shot as in the above picture. I hope this helps you understand when the instructors are talking about your alignment being off.
 

Attachments

  • Untitled - 170.jpg
    Untitled - 170.jpg
    58.9 KB · Views: 201
Last edited:
Phoenix13 said:
I will keep it simple. Your aim is way off! You subconscious is trying to correct your mistake in the middle of your final stroke (steering). Your aim is so bad and so far off, i cant even tell if you have a decent stroke?

You are cueing on the white line in the picture when you should be on the black line.
Click to expand...

Phoenix13 said:
The same shot as in the above picture. I hope this helps you understand when the instructors are talking about your alignment being off.
Click to expand...

Phoenix:

Good catch. Yes, the first things I noticed are:

1. He's "pitchforking" the cue -- meaning, he's stabbing at the cue ball as if he were holding a pitchfork in his grip hand, and going for deep penetration into a bale of hay. This is instead of feeling the weight/heft of the cue, and letting the cue swing from the elbow, letting the cue do the work.

2. As Tony_in_MD succinctly points out, most of his stroke is coming from the shoulder, with a pronounced elbow drop. Again, the pitchforking comes into play here.

3. Alignment is off SEVERELY. You can see, in the practice strokes (or shall we call these "wind up" strokes?), that the cue has a significant yaw in the backward and forward motion. This is because the grip contact with the cue is not symmetrical/balanced (i.e. it's a grip gripping the cue, and not a cradle as it should be), and the forearm is not hanging from the elbow to let gravity help position it correctly. Everything is forced.

A good session with any qualified instructor should help put the OP back on track, literally and figuratively.

-Sean
 
He is doing a really "rough guesstimate" of the aiming line at the standing position. He then is moving to the bridged position and that's when he is trying to pick up the contact point (aiming line). He starts shifting his body alignment in the bridge position (body will only shift so far) and then he tries to finnish off the aiming, by steering the cue.

OP must not make a move to the bridged position until he is certain he has found the cueing line (alignment,contact point) in the standing position. One of the better aiming systems (pro1 or see system) may be a lot of help for him with this issue.

This picture was taken in his first practice stroke once he bridged.
 

Attachments

  • Untitled - 222.jpg
    Untitled - 222.jpg
    58 KB · Views: 201
Last edited:
I had another look and those first few shots facing the camera. Stand erect, stand up straight and tall, chin and belly button both on line, to assess aim, then bend down. You're standing tilted with your front foot forward and your head cocked so you're seeing a cockeyed angle than standing wrong.

You can go further to stand on the full line between the cue ball and object ball to assess aim from the erect position.

The Full Line - A Place Where Many Excellent Players Stand To Begin

Let us know your progress. Thank you again.
 
Not an instructor but I suggest approaching the table with your head down already near where it will be when you shoot.
 
That's fine and the full line is an alternative choice for someone this far off alignment. However, stand up straight and tall to start with the body beginning perpendicular to your aim line start - cp to cp, the full line, the cb/gb line, but not hunched and twisted sideways.
 
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...

Here's what I see.
First, you stroke with your shoulder. Not necessarily a bad thing but the butt of your cue goes up and down because of your shoulder work.
I've seen this in a lot of "bar" players.

Second, when you practice stroke back you bring the butt of the cue farther from your body and up, and when you stroke forward you move it down and in.
When you shoot, you pronounce the inward and down movement causing the cue to move significantly.

Also, when you line up the shot, you line it up with your nose instea of lining it up with your line of sight.

All in all I think you practice one stroke and play a different one. THis will throw you off a lot. Why bother with a practice stroke at all if you are just going to change it when you take the shot.

Also, you hit the cue ball too hard. THis causes you to force the cue forward which accentuates the shoulder movement influence. Only use as much force as needed to get the ball in place. A soft shot is far more accurate than a hard one.

If I were to give you advice it would be to stop hitting at a ball over and over and, instead, shoot a spot.

What you want to do is mark a spot on the table where you will shoot from and an area to leave the cue ball in after the shot.
THen shoot at the bumper and try to get close to the spot you save for the cue ball. But DON'T shoot it straight. Make an angle shot each time.

Practice shooting softly long before you shoot hard.
 
Phoenix13 said:
The same shot as in the above picture. I hope this helps you understand when the instructors are talking about your alignment being off.
Click to expand...

Wow! thanks for posting these pics. It is really eye opening. I definitly have a problem aligning myself to what i see. great feedback
 
Inferno said:
Here's what I see.
First, you stroke with your shoulder. Not necessarily a bad thing but the butt of your cue goes up and down because of your shoulder work.
I've seen this in a lot of "bar" players.

Second, when you practice stroke back you bring the butt of the cue farther from your body and up, and when you stroke forward you move it down and in.
When you shoot, you pronounce the inward and down movement causing the cue to move significantly.

Also, when you line up the shot, you line it up with your nose instea of lining it up with your line of sight.

All in all I think you practice one stroke and play a different one. THis will throw you off a lot. Why bother with a practice stroke at all if you are just going to change it when you take the shot.

Also, you hit the cue ball too hard. THis causes you to force the cue forward which accentuates the shoulder movement influence. Only use as much force as needed to get the ball in place. A soft shot is far more accurate than a hard one.

If I were to give you advice it would be to stop hitting at a ball over and over and, instead, shoot a spot.

What you want to do is mark a spot on the table where you will shoot from and an area to leave the cue ball in after the shot.
THen shoot at the bumper and try to get close to the spot you save for the cue ball. But DON'T shoot it straight. Make an angle shot each time.

Practice shooting softly long before you shoot hard.
Click to expand...

I'll have to pay attention to lining up with my nose. I did see i don't always align with the same eye. Maybe i miss cause my nose is bent from being broke lol.
 
sfleinen said:
Phoenix:

Good catch. Yes, the first things I noticed are:

1. He's "pitchforking" the cue -- meaning, he's stabbing at the cue ball as if he were holding a pitchfork in his grip hand, and going for deep penetration into a bale of hay. This is instead of feeling the weight/heft of the cue, and letting the cue swing from the elbow, letting the cue do the work.

2. As Tony_in_MD succinctly points out, most of his stroke is coming from the shoulder, with a pronounced elbow drop. Again, the pitchforking comes into play here.

3. Alignment is off SEVERELY. You can see, in the practice strokes (or shall we call these "wind up" strokes?), that the cue has a significant yaw in the backward and forward motion. This is because the grip contact with the cue is not symmetrical/balanced (i.e. it's a grip gripping the cue, and not a cradle as it should be), and the forearm is not hanging from the elbow to let gravity help position it correctly. Everything is forced.

A good session with any qualified instructor should help put the OP back on track, literally and figuratively.

-Sean
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback. All very true. I have a few exercises from Randy G now that addresses those very things. I need to work on finding a good way tgo align. There were some good suggestions mage that i need to try.
 
Phoenix13 said:
He is doing a really "rough guesstimate" of the aiming line at the standing position. He then is moving to the bridged position and that's when he is trying to pick up the contact point (aiming line). He starts shifting his body alignment in the bridge position (body will only shift so far) and then he tries to finnish off the aiming, by steering the cue.

OP must not make a move to the bridged position until he is certain he has found the cueing line (alignment,contact point) in the standing position. One of the better aiming systems (pro1 or see system) may be a lot of help for him with this issue.

This picture was taken in his first practice stroke once he bridged.
Click to expand...

Extreemly good breakdown. I wouldn't have pieced it together that well. I can now be aware of each step and have a way test different things. Very much appreciated.
 
 
Last edited:
Phoenix13 said:
Try these links, they will help you. If you continue to post in here I will try and help you out a bit and i am sure others will also. That Nic Barrow guy is the Boss!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKoMZrg1MAg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wafKOsa8-M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp4vw6aA9mk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=7ZHpK9XPt2A&feature=endscreen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP4RvZJMPd8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQ8AOLGFxE
Click to expand...

Great videos.These will help a lot. Nic Barrow is great. Thanks again
 
I'm no instructor either but it looks to me like, on the final stroke, you're lifting your head on the backstroke, which can cause all sorts of problems. Good luck. It's not an easy game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top