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Scottster
Guest
Should the shoulders be parrallel when down on a ball? I noticed tonight that my back shoulder is slightly elevated. If so, what is the fix?
Scottster said:
No, I don't think so. Many players who set up very low to the table have their left shoulder a bit lower than their right shoulder since they have some of their weight on it.
However I can't imagine how it would impact your game.
Just about every pro I can think of has their shooting arm shoulder higher than their bridge arm shoulder.
edit: Now that I think about it, it would be very difficult to play pool if your shoulders were on the same horizontal plane with each other. You wouldn't be able to get your head over the cue if they were both level.
edit: Now that I think about it, it would be very difficult to play pool if your shoulders were on the same horizontal plane with each other. You wouldn't be able to get your head over the cue if they were both level.
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Good question. The tip I hear from people is to keep your shoulders "square" whaterver that means. I know for myself, keeping my back flat, rather than arched, which also keeps my shoulder in line, has made a significant difference in the straightness of my stroke.
Scottster said:
Scottster,
I don't think they should be parallel (perpendicular to the cue). I shot this way for many years, until a pro recently corrected me. Switching was very difficult, until I figured out how to do it. If you turn your hips more parallel to the cue, you will find your shoulders line up with the cue very easily, so your cue, left shoulder, head, right shoulder, and right elbow are all in the same line. This allows you to have a longer, more powerful stroke. I was astonished how much more powerful my stroke was after making this change (and I had been told that it was quite powerful already...). Elevating your back shoulder will actually help, because it keeps your body out of the way of your stroking motion, as long as your body is turned in the right way.
To make this switch, I now first turn my hips, before getting down on the shot. Otherwise I go back to my old ways. It may take you a few weeks to get used to this change. Doing many straight in shots will help with your frustration.;-)
Anyways, I think this is very important. So much emphasis is always put into having a straight stroke, which I had (thanks Joe Tucker). But proper body alignment is equally important, in my opinion.
Line Up
"If you turn your hips more parallel to the cue, you will find your shoulders line up with the cue very easily, so your cue, left shoulder, head, right shoulder, and right elbow are all in the same line."
Watch the alignment from the cameras above the table on Accustats, BCn or even the ESPN telecasts and the cue and those parts of the body are right in line.
"If you turn your hips more parallel to the cue, you will find your shoulders line up with the cue very easily, so your cue, left shoulder, head, right shoulder, and right elbow are all in the same line."
Watch the alignment from the cameras above the table on Accustats, BCn or even the ESPN telecasts and the cue and those parts of the body are right in line.
KCarson said:
Hold on, now. I agree with the quoted sentence totally if you remove the left shoulder part. If your left shoulder, head, and right shoulder are all in line, you're not going to shoot very well, as you've been decapitated.
Anyway, the key to the shoulder turn is that your SHOOTING shoulder should be directly above the cue. If your shooting shoulder AND your chin are going to be directly above the cue, you'll need to twist your shooting shoulder back behind you. Once you have that, you get your shooting elbow directly above the cue, and your shooting arm is then totally aligned. If your shoulder and elbow are both directly over the cue, a simple, totally relaxed, and totally straight pendulum motion is possible, which will really allow you a powerful and accurate stroke. And most of us want our chins over the cue at the same time for sighting.
Of course, some don't sight with their chin over the cue due to eye dominance or other reasons, meaning they may want a different shoulder alignment, which in effect moves the head in relation to the aligned shooting arm.
-Andrew
Andrew Manning said:
Decapitated, or pretty darn close. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that your neck would snap if you tried to play pool like this. I hope nobody took that person's advice and broke their neck trying to change their alignment ROFL
cuetechasaurus said:
Haha, you guys are mostly right! I should have said your left shoulder should be close to that line, not in it. The reason I made that mistake is that the guy who taught me has his chin almost resting on his left shoulder. It is possible because his chest is close to perpendicular to the floor. Everything can actually line up that way. Also, he's got a pretty big shoulder, so it's a bit different for me. I'm a skinny guy, my shoulder doesn't go nearly that far.;-) Anyways, this is a very common body position here (korea), possibly because they play so much billiards.
When he was trying to teach me, I wouldn't have been surprised if my head had popped off, it hurt like H###!!! He was trying to pull my right shoulder over my cue (it was out to the right side of my cue, so I shot from under my body), and also move my left shoulder in more (because it was almost shoulders' width away from the cue, since my shoulder line was perpendicular to my cue). Since my hips were still 90 degrees to the cue also (notice a pattern?) it was impossible for me to do this.
I gave up on trying to fix this until I had a dream about it, and realized that I had to turn my hips to make this comfortable. I also dreamed that my Dad and I played Efren that night, partners 8 ball. I don't remember how that came out...but it was a good night for dreaming!
Anyways, you guys are right, the left shoulder can't be directly in that line, but it can look pretty close, depending on how you stand, and how much weight you have on you.;-)