Rubbing the cue against your chest while down aiming/stroking

not sure if you can relate to this, but i notice ronnie o’sullivan (better than you or i) sometimes knocking his chalk out of his vest pocket when hitting a difficult shot hard (high speed)- his hand was supposed to miss his body but it didn’t and the chalk flies out

since he usually makes all shots both difficult and simple there is a lot of applause as he picks his chalk off the floor
 
mino said:
He’s definitely correct there. Any stroke/stance advice I’ve ever gotten has been from snooker instructional videos
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it makes me feel better knowing I can still do that. I have been playing a long time and I just know i will never be able to stroke/shoot with a free floating cue. Hugging the chest completely steadies my cue. The mistake I have been making for 18 years is cocking my stroke arm inwards to make the cue do that. I am now going to work on keeping the arm aligned, and manipulating the stance to achieve the same thing.
 
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skiergd011013 said:
what a relief. I have been playing a long time and just know i could never shoot with a free floating cue. I tried it and it was all over the place. The rub against my chest completely steadies the cue. My mistake has been moving my stroke arm inwards to achieve the rub. I need to work on keeping the arm aligned, and using my stance to achieve the rub.
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to me hugging the side is different from touching the chest, but now i know what you mean. perfectly normal and common among today's pros.
 
skiergd011013 said:
how is it any different for players that push their chin into the cue?
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Resting the chin on the cue is not really there to guide it, it's to line up the shot, and very very few players actually rest the chin on the cue. Alison Fisher does it, and I can't think of anyone else that actually has it on the cue. That won't affect the movement of the cue since it's not pushing it to the side or up or down like having it hit the body or having the arm move out due to hitting the body while stroking.

You made it sound in the first post like you are actually using the side of your torso to guide the cue. "But it also results in the cue rubbing my side, which i use as a guide to keep it steady." It sounds like you were using the torso as part of the stroke to line up the cue, kind of gliding the side of the cue along.
 
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hang-the-9 said:
Resting the chin on the cue is not really there to guide it, it's to line up the shot, and very very few players actually rest the chin on the cue. Alison Fisher does it, and I can't think of anyone else that actually has it on the cue. That won't affect the movement of the cue since it's not pushing it to the side or up or down like having it hit the body or having the arm move out due to hitting the body while stroking.

You made it sound in the first post like you are actually using the side of your torso to guide the cue. "But it also results in the cue rubbing my side, which i use as a guide to keep it steady." It sounds like you were using the torso as part of the stroke to line up the cue, kind of gliding the side of the cue along.
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yes i got that impression too as if the op was pushing in to keep the cue touching his rib cage
from his other posts i dont beleive thats the case
 
hang-the-9 said:
Shooting with the cue against the body will most of the time end up badly and with a limit to how well a person can play.
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I know there's been some conversation about a distinction between body vs chest, but I think that argument boils down to body type.

When I'm playing my best, not only is my chin resting on the cue but so is my chest. My grip arm is also completely vertical. This method locks my cue into a known position and prevents me from deviating from a straight stroke. If anything, this stance/method is the one advantage I have over other players, and most certainly not holding me back.
 
hang-the-9 said:
Resting the chin on the cue is not really there to guide it, it's to line up the shot, and very very few players actually rest the chin on the cue. ...
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There are quite a few pool players, especially European, who have chins touching cues. Essentially all top snooker players have their chin on the cue stick. On Ronnie O'Sullivan's power shots, you can see his stick bend down due to the force from his chin. Really.
 
I shot pool with a young lady that was quite nicely endowed for several years. She did complain that her breast got in the way on some shots. Absolutely nobody else saw her breasts as a problem!

I experimented with as many anchor points as possible several times over the years. If things like rubbing against your body are consistent and stable this is just another anchor point and as long as it works with the other anchor points you use it is not a problem, more of an asset.

When I could get very low on long very thin cut shots where I am almost just using the breeze from the passing cue ball to pocket a ball I used to use the corner of my chin, sometimes even rubbing the side of my face just under my eye. A full beard to slide on was an asset using these anchor points. I had to forget vision centers getting this low, the view was much more like using one eye to look down a rifle barrel with iron sights.

If additional contact points help position your cue they are an asset. If they disturb the path of the cue they are an issue. Pretty simple really.

Stroking into a long necked bottle or tube was advocated as a great practice tool when I was learning. Took me quite awhile to learn it was a bad thing that lead to a very contrived stroke trying to keep my tip and the front six inches of my cue always level and straight side to side. I don't remember what started me using a channel instead of a tube to practice my stroke. My movement side to side was still sharply limited but I could have a much more natural stroke.

Hu
 
This video completely explains what im talking about, and the problem I have. I have been "bringing the cue to my body", or cocking my stroke arm inward to achieve the rub, rather than bringing my body to the cue. This is why my stroke looked wobbly on video.
 
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couldnthinkof01 said:
Cue always leaves a stain on my shirt. It may help with cueing, but it really puts a cramp in my laundry chores.
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can you explain how you achieve the chest rub? I tried last night "bringing the body to the cue", as demonstrated by the snooker coach in the video above, and i still feel like it was throwing my cue arm out of line. Do you lean into it? Bend legs to get lower to touch the cue? Any advice?
 
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No. When I was very young I used the cue like McCready. Sort of side armed. As I got taller things changed.
I don't like the cue rubbing any part of my body.
 
skiergd011013 said:
can you explain how you achieve the chest rub? I tried last night "bringing the body to the cue", as demonstrated by the snooker coach in the video above, and i still feel like it was throwing my cue arm out of line. Do you lean into it? Bend legs to get lower to touch the cue? Any advice?
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If you are really tall it might be hard on a pool table.
Front leg bent 125-130°
Rear leg 165°
A foot or so apart.
Cue barely rubs chin on most shots.
Cue lightly glides against my shirt without hitting my pectoral muscle.
2 hours or less there is barely a mark on my shirt.
After 5+ hours there is a black stain.
Try to wipe my cue down now and then while playing to minimize it.
Barry's teaching is what I use. His videos help so much.
 
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couldnthinkof01 said:
If you are really tall it might be hard on a pool table.
Front leg bent 125-130°
Rear leg 165°
A foot or so apart.
Cue barely rubs chin on most shots.
Cue lightly glides against my shirt without hitting my pectoral muscle.
2 hours or less there is barely a mark on my shirt.
After 5+ hours there is a black stain.
Try to wipe my cue down now and then while playing to minimize it.
Barry's teaching is what I use. His videos help so much.
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thanks. Im about 5'10. I have an old ironing board with adjustable height. I can get it to similiar pool table height. Im going to look for a portable mirror, and use them to practice my stance and stroke. I can put a cueball on the ironing board to give me something to cue at. I can look at all angles and see what is going on. This way i can practice at home.
 
skiergd011013 said:
thanks. Im about 5'10. I have an old ironing board with adjustable height. I can get it to similiar pool table height. Im going to look for a portable mirror, and use them to practice my stance and stroke. I can put a cueball on the ironing board to give me something to cue at. I can look at all angles and see what is going on. This way i can practice at home.
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One thing that helps is to set up your phone while you do that to see if maybe you have some un- wanted movement. If there is a little sideways motion near the end of the back swing you won't hit your chest.
Having a piece of paper with a straight line in black marker down on the ironing board can help to see if it's straight. Mirror kind of gives you a wonky view or eye position when trying to see what you're doing, in my experience.
 
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