I am wondering what should happen in your grip hand during the follow thru of a stroke. Is the cue supposed to slap the palm of your hand, or should it not touch the palm of your hand? Also, on a normal speed shoot, how many inches thru the cueball should your tip follow thru?
Question about follow thru
- Thread starter LowEnglish
- Start date
Don't think about either of these things, they don't matter. Zero follow thur is impossible. The whole follow-thru thing is about delivering a smooth stroke and not trying to PUT THE BRAKES on your stroke before it is complete. If you only have a 1 inch follow thru you are probably engaging muscles to put the brakes on your stroke before making contact. Think and feel SMOOTHNESS and these 2 issues will work themselves out. Read 'The Inner Game of Tennis' for more on overthinking. The technical answer on follow thru is about 6 inches, but really try and feel smooth. In your head think nothing during the stroke, and if you can't then just say to yourself in your head 'Smooth in' during your backstroke and 'smooth out' during you forward stroke, almost like breathing. Do you think about breathing?
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I think the length of the follow through is generally dependant on the type of stroke you are trying to apply to the cue ball. If it is a big stroke, then the follow through should be longer--where I have room to do so and the shot requires a large stroke, then my follow through may extend the length of a diamond. As another poster suggested, I think this part should be largely addressed by the unconscious. However, it took a lot of conscious work for me to figure that out.
When I am addressing the cue ball--where the tip of my cue is almost touching the ball--the butt of the cue is just coming into contact with my hand. Thus, I know that if I deliver my regular stroke, then my cue will hit "right there". So yes, the cue does "slap" a portion of my hand when I deliver a stroke. Although, I am not sure if the portion of my hand that is struck, is my "palm" extactly. This part of the stroke is largely a function of your stance, so I do not think it is properly manipulated by the unconscious. Rather, if there is some deficiency in your set-up then it should be addressed. I am not suggesting there is something wrong, I am just saying that something so important should be developed and understood not left to what feels natural.
kollegedave
When I am addressing the cue ball--where the tip of my cue is almost touching the ball--the butt of the cue is just coming into contact with my hand. Thus, I know that if I deliver my regular stroke, then my cue will hit "right there". So yes, the cue does "slap" a portion of my hand when I deliver a stroke. Although, I am not sure if the portion of my hand that is struck, is my "palm" extactly. This part of the stroke is largely a function of your stance, so I do not think it is properly manipulated by the unconscious. Rather, if there is some deficiency in your set-up then it should be addressed. I am not suggesting there is something wrong, I am just saying that something so important should be developed and understood not left to what feels natural.
kollegedave
LowEnglish said:
randyg said:
good point, good question
VAP
In a related question regarding follow-through, I've noticed that I tend to start my follow-through just before I contact the cue ball. That is, the tip starts dipping towards the cloth (i.e. via natural pendulum motion) just shy of contact. Due to this, I don't feel like I'm stroking with a level cue. In fact, I feel like my contact point between my cue and the cue ball is the top of my tip rather than the center (on center/high English shots). When I try to correc this by forcing a level stroke at contact, my follow-through feels forced and unnatural.
Now that this is as clear as mud, any advice or observations?
Now that this is as clear as mud, any advice or observations?
Follow through generally indicates that the cue displayed some type of acceleration through the cue ball. A longer follow through would imply that the cue stayed in contact with the cue ball longer, thus imparting a greater force upon the ball...F=MA. There is a time component to acceleration as it measures the rate velocity increases. Thus, if the cue is in contact with the cue ball for a longer period of time, then it is easier to impart a high degree of spin.
kollegedave
kollegedave
randyg said:
It is hard to effectively address this without seeing you, but I am a firm believer that all stroke problems have their orgin in your feet (stance) and your pre-shot routine.
kollegedave
kollegedave
papercut said:
papercut said:
I do this sometimes too. How tall are you? If your forearm is way forward of perpendicular at, or close to, contact then your cue tip will start going down. If you have a really long stroke you might shorten it up a bit, if you are tall and are running out of cue you might think of getting a longer cue, and finally, if you're just choking up on the cue for no apparent reason just move your hand back until your forearm is perpendicular to the ground at, or close to, contact. Hope this helps.
randyg said:
I am asking how many inches further then where the cueball originally was should your tip go?
Why are you playing dumb? You are supposedly a master instructor or something like that.
LOWENGLISH: Each player has to find their own "sweet spot" and follow through distance.
Your tip should finish through the cueball:
1. Level or dipping down.
2. Still pointing at your initial target.
3. The tip should be at it's "natural" finish position.
The natural finish position is found at the full extention of your pendulum arm with out the elbow dropping. The grip hand finishes somewhere around your chest area.
My natural finish is 5 inches through the cueball on all normal stroke shots.
More follow through does not give the cue ball ANYTHING.
Hope this helps. I didn't mean to sound like an idiot.......SPF-randyg
Your tip should finish through the cueball:
1. Level or dipping down.
2. Still pointing at your initial target.
3. The tip should be at it's "natural" finish position.
The natural finish position is found at the full extention of your pendulum arm with out the elbow dropping. The grip hand finishes somewhere around your chest area.
My natural finish is 5 inches through the cueball on all normal stroke shots.
More follow through does not give the cue ball ANYTHING.
Hope this helps. I didn't mean to sound like an idiot.......SPF-randyg
randyg said:
Thank you very much, this is the information I was looking for. And no you didnt sound like an idiot, I misunderstood what you were saying before.
I also take the somewhat unconcious approach, and ajust automatically for the most part, but I am curious, What about the spin/follow through relivent to the distance between the cue ball and object ball? Would you not have to acount for spinout on the longer shots? Greg
Could you get maximum spin from no follow through? I would suggest that neither you nor anyone else could.
Obviously, there is a physical limit to how far one can follow through, and as a result how much spin could be imparted on the cue cue ball. If you think follow through is not important, then don't.
kollegedave
Obviously, there is a physical limit to how far one can follow through, and as a result how much spin could be imparted on the cue cue ball. If you think follow through is not important, then don't.
kollegedave
randyg said:
I meant to write... If you think follow through is not important, then don't.
From your other post, it seems like you think anything over five inches of follow through is what...a waste? Perhaps it is, but I don't think I do/could know enough to be as certain as you about actual distances. When I wrote a "diamonds length", I was describing my follow through. Can we all agree that this poster now knows that some kind of follow through is required, anywhere from 5 to 12 inches? I would suggest that most shots only require 5.
kollegedave
From your other post, it seems like you think anything over five inches of follow through is what...a waste? Perhaps it is, but I don't think I do/could know enough to be as certain as you about actual distances. When I wrote a "diamonds length", I was describing my follow through. Can we all agree that this poster now knows that some kind of follow through is required, anywhere from 5 to 12 inches? I would suggest that most shots only require 5.
kollegedave
Actually, i think that the follow through should correlate with the stroke speed.kollegedave said:
If you are using a fast stroke for a long draw shot, you don't want to try and "limit" your follow-through to just 5-6", for that would be "putting the brakes" on your stroke so to speak.
If i were to try to keep my follow-through the same on every shot, i would be worrying about that, and not the shot it self. As if we should have to worry
kollegedave said:
I think that you could get very close to maximum spin with little or no follow through. However, you would have to set up to where your arm is already near it's stopping point against the bicep and not drop the elbow. However, that being said, I don't think you could get maximum cue ball speed.
This is like the trickshot that I saw where someone had a guard on his hand and the cue ball and object ball something like 1/8" apart and used the table to stop the stroke while making the ball and drawing back to make another ball without fouling.
