Really Staying Down

TheConArtist

TheConArtist

Daddy's A Butcher
Silver Member
How many really practice on staying down over the shot when practicing, i know i find myself practicing it and really staying down until everything stops when the balls goes in and the cueball is almost coming to a stop. But then the next day when practicing i find myself not really staying down unless i notice it. What i have been doing to keep myself from jumping up, is after my final stroke to the cueball while still down, i stroke the cue then get up. On each shot and it has been coming natural the last two days or so. It gives me that extra fews seconds to keep my position and stance in form. Getting too mechanical :D hey it feels good
 
You know it must be an anxiety thing. Well much more than that but it’s going to happen when you’re not sure of a shot. It’s going to happen because you want to see the outcome well before it actually happens. When we make a stroke that isn’t quite right we know the outcome may be dim so the tendency is to jump up and see your mistake. You know before the stroke is finished. Taking our eye off the focus point definitely leads to jumping up.

Until more recent years I’ve always stayed down. I had confidence in my decision making plus I visualized the shot before it happened. Years ago that’s just what I did. Now with books, video, instruction, etc. it’s called pre-shot routine. Call it what you like but when you’re confident there isn’t any reason or hurry to jump off a shot. You know it’s going to happen as planned. More recent with my little play it happens to often.

It’s a double edged sword; I don’t play nearly as much as I once did so doubt can creep in my mind. Ok that is fine and I have to accept that as a cause. On the other hand when you have doubt, you get back up, rethink the situation, then execute a shot you know you can handle based on your ability. I think the key, other than just practice staying down is to know your ability and don’t try to exceed that limitation.

A famous golf instructor (Harvey Penick) had an excellent quote. It’s left me time being but in effect he said; The most important thing in your life right now is this shot. It’s so true; I mean what else you are doing that is more important? If you have something more important then you should be doing that and not playing pool. When players think the outcome is more important then you’re lost.

If you’re a very advanced player you already know the shot is not going to come off perfect. By that I mean aim, speed, etc. Such things as hitting a ball a little fat, thin etc, nobody hits all shots as planned. However that is still is no reason to jump off the shot. You do a brief evaluation while you’re down, time permitting of course and learn from the experience.

Staying down to long have it’s moments as well. Like the times I’ve fouled because of a ball running into me or my cue. LOL I’d rather be guilty of that than the opposite alternative for the few times it happened.

Rod
 
When I took lessons at Jimmy Reid's, he made me count to 5 before getting up out of position. This is HARD.....but once you start staying down on every shot you're game will improve immensely. I'd say 95% of the time when I do miss, is because I jump up. Period.
 
TheConArtist said:
How many really practice on staying down over the shot when practicing, i know i find myself practicing it and really staying down until everything stops when the balls goes in and the cueball is almost coming to a stop. But then the next day when practicing i find myself not really staying down unless i notice it. What i have been doing to keep myself from jumping up, is after my final stroke to the cueball while still down, i stroke the cue then get up. On each shot and it has been coming natural the last two days or so. It gives me that extra fews seconds to keep my position and stance in form. Getting too mechanical :D hey it feels good
Click to expand...

On one of Jimmy Reid's tapes, he says to stay down for a count of 3 AFTER the object ball falls in the pocket. Just a thought.
 
This is one of the things I discipline myself on...I stay down until I see the OB going to the pocket...
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I stay down so long that after the object ball misses the pocket, the object ball comes inches from my bridge hand after I move it out of the way to avoid a foul.

I just think it's funny to see people jumping up after a shot. Nothing demonstrates poor mechanics as clearly as this error.
 
I am a 7 in the APAand one of the older players. One of my team mates made a comment to me after beating a 6 5-0. He said that he noticed all the 7's are slow and take a lot of time on every shot whereas the 5 and 6 players tend to jump around and play fast and when they are losing seem to play faster. He wanted to know why they do that? I told him that I play slow because I am old and don't have the energy and he just laughted and said no I don't think so. I then said I believe it is because they think they need to get into a fast rythmn to take the thinking out of the game but they are in fact playing into the bad habits of not staying with the shot or following their shot routine.

I don't know why it is but most times when I miss it can be attributed to not staying down on the shot unless of course I just flat out lined up wrong.
 
I think the most important parts of staying down are:

1. Don't flinch during contact (maintain eye contact throughout shot)
2. Don't move your head
3. Make sure your balance is good
4. Stay down until after cueball contacts object ball
 
Part of my shot routine is to stay down long enough to get feedback on that shot. Did I finish my stroke properly? Is my cue still aiming where it was when I started, and is the tip level or pointing down toward the table?
The answers to those questions tells me if my mechanics are right, or if I need to correct any problems. The result is I don't usually move for a good 2 to 3 seconds after the stroke is finished.
Steve
 
this will probably open up a can of worms lol, but ive found that watching the object ball last helps me stay down too. If i was the cueball last, when you hit the cueball takes off out of your line of site and it seemed like i wanted to jump up to watch it, looking at the object ball last then hitting the shot kind of keeps you glued in that position waiting to see what happens.
 
TheConArtist said:
How many really practice on staying down over the shot when practicing, i know i find myself practicing it and really staying down until everything stops when the balls goes in and the cueball is almost coming to a stop. But then the next day when practicing i find myself not really staying down unless i notice it. What i have been doing to keep myself from jumping up, is after my final stroke to the cueball while still down, i stroke the cue then get up. On each shot and it has been coming natural the last two days or so. It gives me that extra fews seconds to keep my position and stance in form. Getting too mechanical :D hey it feels good
Click to expand...

I can be pretty bad during practice. Sometimes when I notice the cueball is on the correct line after hitting it, I get up and often beat the cueball to the object ball, lol. A habit I have to break. Other times I start standing fairly upright, especially playing straight pool, which is a bad habit also because I learned my stroke while standing in a snooker stance.

Jeez, I gotta play more snooker. This stuff wasn't a problem when I was playing snooker all the time.
 
scottycoyote said:
this will probably open up a can of worms lol, but ive found that watching the object ball last helps me stay down too. If i was the cueball last, when you hit the cueball takes off out of your line of site and it seemed like i wanted to jump up to watch it, looking at the object ball last then hitting the shot kind of keeps you glued in that position waiting to see what happens.
Click to expand...

This is exactly why I look at the OB last. My game improved a lot because I became less jumpy.
 
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