Slip Stroke/Stroke Slip

cuetechasaurus

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Who here does either of the two? A slip stroke is when on the final stroke you slip your grip hand further back on the cue. A stroke slip is on the final stroke you release the cue and it slips forward a couple of inches in your grip hand. I know a couple of players who do this, but I've never understood why. When I get down on the shot, as I am taking my practice strokes I slip my grip hand back and forth until I find a comfortable point on the cue to hold, and I just keep it there for the remainder of my practice strokes and the final stroke. Most players do this also. Is there some type of benefit to either of these two aforementioned styles?
 
I use a slip stroke and always have.

I chock up on the cue and keep letting it slide back into my hand untill I feel the balance point for that particular shot.

Cornbread Red also used a Slip Stoke and had one of the nicest/smoothest stroke you would have ever seen....

-Jedi
 
I do both, but not in the same proportion. Most times I'm what you call a stroke slipper, with the occasional slip stroke. I use the former particularly on draw shots or with heavy english. I've always found I got more action without the feeling of trying to kill the cue ball that way. My slip stroke motion allows me to hit a more delicate shot with most of the arm motion of a full stroke, increasing my feel and accuracy.
 
cuetechasaurus said:
Who here does either of the two? A slip stroke is when on the final stroke you slip your grip hand further back on the cue. A stroke slip is on the final stroke you release the cue and it slips forward a couple of inches in your grip hand. I know a couple of players who do this, but I've never understood why. When I get down on the shot, as I am taking my practice strokes I slip my grip hand back and forth until I find a comfortable point on the cue to hold, and I just keep it there for the remainder of my practice strokes and the final stroke. Most players do this also. Is there some type of benefit to either of these two aforementioned styles?
I sort of release the cue prior to contacting the cb. It keeps me from subconsciously compensating, steering, or putting muscle into the stroke.
 
I don't do it intentionally, but I have a slight stroke slip. It's only about 1-2 inches. I've never paid much attention to it. I guess it happens because I close my grip too late in my stroke. I don't know anything about any benefits or drawbacks though.

cuetechasaurus said:
A stroke slip is on the final stroke you release the cue and it slips forward a couple of inches in your grip hand. I know a couple of players who do this, but I've never understood why. When I get down on the shot, as I am taking my practice strokes I slip my grip hand back and forth until I find a comfortable point on the cue to hold, and I just keep it there for the remainder of my practice strokes and the final stroke. Most players do this also. Is there some type of benefit to either of these two aforementioned styles?
 
slip stroke

I use the slip stroke(sliding my hand further down the cue after a couple of practise strokes) when I'm faced with a difficult or long shot because it helps keep me aligned better.

But for 95% of shots I use a conventional non-slip anti-teflon stroke. :p
 
I just made a post about this yesterday. The whole purpose of using any of these types of strokes is to make sure that you're letting the cue stick do the work, it prevents any slight flaw in your stroke from effecting the shot as much.
 
I used to let the cue slide through my hand through the cb. According to your terminology, that would be a "stroke slip" shot. I took lessons from Buddy Hall and he told me not to do that. He said that you lose control by doing that. I'm not going to disagree with him so I quit using it.

I was hovering around a 90 speed (USPPA) using the stroke slip and went down to the low 70's right after Buddy's lessons. Even though it was exasperating, I've been hanging in there and following Buddy's advice. My game is steadily moving up now and I'm hoping I'll move past the 90's when all is said and done.

When you're locked into something as critical as how you stroke, a major change just screws everything up, at least it did with me. I am now discovering that I do have much better position control than I used to have especially on the medium range and short range position shots.

My problems with doing away with the stroke slip is shooting accuracy. When you allow the cue to slide through your grip, it doesn't get much straighter than that. However, when you're using english, I do think you have a tendency to have more deflection with the stroke slip.

Hope this helps.
 
I use the slip stroke due to always being told to keep my arm 90 degrees with the tip right at the CB. The slip stroke keeps my stance in place to do that.
 
how much was your cue slipping? a couple inches? did/do you have a pendulum or pump stroke? From what you're posting..it seems like you feel like you're controlling the cb much better now? also what is usppa 90 speed equivalent to? know this is loaded, but just trying to get an idea

what you're saying about control makes sense to me...and it made me think about my own cue slippage. I'm not sure that my cue slippage is great enough to affect my control...if it is though, I'll definitely think hard about getting it out of my system. As a note, I have a very deliberate piston-style stroke...don't know if stroke slip would be as much of an issue as with a pendulum or pump style stroke..

Rickw said:
I used to let the cue slide through my hand through the cb. According to your terminology, that would be a "stroke slip" shot. I took lessons from Buddy Hall and he told me not to do that. He said that you lose control by doing that. I'm not going to disagree with him so I quit using it.

I was hovering around a 90 speed (USPPA) using the stroke slip and went down to the low 70's right after Buddy's lessons. Even though it was exasperating, I've been hanging in there and following Buddy's advice. My game is steadily moving up now and I'm hoping I'll move past the 90's when all is said and done.

When you're locked into something as critical as how you stroke, a major change just screws everything up, at least it did with me. I am now discovering that I do have much better position control than I used to have especially on the medium range and short range position shots.

My problems with doing away with the stroke slip is shooting accuracy. When you allow the cue to slide through your grip, it doesn't get much straighter than that. However, when you're using english, I do think you have a tendency to have more deflection with the stroke slip.

Hope this helps.
 
Egg

The amount of slippage was dependant on the power I stroked with. When I first started doing it, I had an occasion or two when the cue slipped out of my hand - embarassing as Hell! What I liked about it was the laser straight stroke and the action I got on the cb.

I have used both a pendulum and a pump stroke but mostly use the pendulum. I used the pump or piston stroke more with the stroke slip especially on the short to mid-range shots.

I do feel like I'm controlling the cb more now.

Here is the link to the USPPA web site http://www.usppa.com/, and this will tell you what the ratings are equivalent to. Off the top of my head, I would say a 96 is like a A or AA player. When the balls are spread out in 9b, a 96 should run the table most of the time.

Ask yourself this, are you sometimes getting a little out of line by inches? I have to admit that I was. I seem to be in line more now. My accuracy became the big issue after getting rid of the stroke slip but that is now getting much better. I feel like I'm just about back to where I was before the Buddy Hall lesson in terms of ability and also feel that I will still improve. With the stroke slip, I just didn't feel like there was anything I could do to improve more. I was kind of at a brick wall.

Hope this answers your questions. Thanks for asking.


Egg McDogit said:
how much was your cue slipping? a couple inches? did/do you have a pendulum or pump stroke? From what you're posting..it seems like you feel like you're controlling the cb much better now? also what is usppa 90 speed equivalent to? know this is loaded, but just trying to get an idea

what you're saying about control makes sense to me...and it made me think about my own cue slippage. I'm not sure that my cue slippage is great enough to affect my control...if it is though, I'll definitely think hard about getting it out of my system. As a note, I have a very deliberate piston-style stroke...don't know if stroke slip would be as much of an issue as with a pendulum or pump style stroke..
 
I would love to be there - If Cornbread overheard Buddy knocking a slipstroke.

Don't get me wrong - I agree with Buddy. But I can just hear Cornbread now - Going Off On Buddy. They were very close, but Cornbread had a way of putting anyone in their place that didn't agree with him. Many top players played with a slip-stroke back then but I think Cornbread's was the biggest.
What I have against them is - a lot more mis-cuing.

TY & GL, OHB
 
OldHasBeen said:
What I have against them is - a lot more mis-cuing.

TY & GL, OHB

I definitely agree with you here OHB! It happens a lot when the cb is against the rail! Been there done that!!
 
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