I was wondering how the majority of you players have your weight contributed in your stance. Is your weight slightly forward, as in, your bridge arm is supporting your body, or is your balance all in your legs, and there is very little or no pressure in your bridge arm? It seems that if I put all my weight on my legs, I have to lean back and it is hard to keep still when I stroke, I feel my body shifting back and forth. When I put my weight forward and onto my bridge arm, I can keep fairly still but there is alot of pressure on my bridge arm, so it causes some strain. I can't seem to find a happy medium here. My question is, should your stance be like a tripod, with weight on your feet and bridge arm, or should your weight mainly be in your feet? Or should it all be forward on your bridge arm? Thanks
Stance Question
- Thread starter LowEnglish
- Start date
The common advice is to put no pressure on your bridge hand. I don't know of anyone good that does.
Maybe you're not bending your knees as much as you should?
I don't have so much of a consistent routine in getting down and I don't believe that you should rely on your approach. When lining up for shots I lead with my cue. I place it in position to make the shot and then I align my body around that, and I have never ended up with a sore shoulder.
Maybe you're not bending your knees as much as you should?
I don't have so much of a consistent routine in getting down and I don't believe that you should rely on your approach. When lining up for shots I lead with my cue. I place it in position to make the shot and then I align my body around that, and I have never ended up with a sore shoulder.
thoffen said:
I do that too, but my stance has been really uncomfortable and off balance. So I am trying to figure out how to stand so that I will be rock solid (my body moving because of my practice strokes), comfortable, and balanced.
Are you worrying about it when your shooting? Thinking about it?
Just bring yourself into the zone and shoot objectively. Try to quiet your thinking mind and let your subconscious take over. Then after a while of playing well re-evaluate your stance and think about what you did right or wrong.
Trying to use your conscious mind to make corrections to your fundamentals why playing a game is an absolutely horribly idea. You need to just go with whatever feels best. Take a few minutes away from it, and objectively visualize and recall what you were doing. Then your mistakes will jump out at you and you'll be able to correct them because instead of admonishing yourself while shooting you're instructing your subconscious for future events.
Just bring yourself into the zone and shoot objectively. Try to quiet your thinking mind and let your subconscious take over. Then after a while of playing well re-evaluate your stance and think about what you did right or wrong.
Trying to use your conscious mind to make corrections to your fundamentals why playing a game is an absolutely horribly idea. You need to just go with whatever feels best. Take a few minutes away from it, and objectively visualize and recall what you were doing. Then your mistakes will jump out at you and you'll be able to correct them because instead of admonishing yourself while shooting you're instructing your subconscious for future events.
LowEnglish said:
I think the main factor is comfort and balance. I use to experiment with more weight forward, back, equal between both. Now I just forget about it and stay as balanced as possible and don't worry where my weight is shifted. When I work on my stance in my practice sessions I experient with different body angles to the cue stick i.e. face shot(snooker stance) and a more classic stance and I concentrate on staying totally still and getting the feeling of being totally balanced. I think if you worry about putting your weight forward or back, you would have to practice this for years before it was ingrained enough for you to do it naturally in the heat of battle. Why not start out as natural as possible right from the beginning?
The other problem is that you have to narrow your other problems down as well. Maybe its not your stance thats causing you the problem. Look at other areas of your game too. Staying down and not popping up, grip, Width of stance, your stroke tempo, etc.
I know one problem I've run into in the past is thinking that a certain thing was my downfall and then realizing it was something different.
LowEnglish said:
I cover this in an article located at this link:
Factors Of Stance Mechanics
Hope this helps.
stance ...
Basics of billiard stance:
1) Feet about shoulder width, maybe just a little more.
2) Stand at a 45 degree angle to the cue.
3) If right handed, right leg is straight with 60% of weight on it.
4) Left foot is angled slightly forward in direction of cuetip.
5) Left leg is slightly bent (not much) with 40% of weight on it.
6) Bend at the waist, keep back straight (If you play 10-12 hrs and get
back ache, you are standing wrong).
7) Learn open and closed bridge properly, and use which one feels best.
(learning to bridge is very important to accuracy)
8) When you bend over your cue, your chin should be directly above your
cue. My chin almost touches my cue, and it feels similiar to sighting
a rifle.
9) Your right arm from elbow down should be perpendicular with the floor.
10) Your right arm from elbow up should be parallel with floor.
11) Proper grip described for right hand is with 2 fingers and thumb, much
the same as if you gripped someone's upper arm with 2 fingers and a
thumb (variations to this - but remember a full grip by total hand
will not allow your cue to stay level at the end of the stroke, your
wrist must be able to break so a level straight stroke can be
maintained ALL the way through the stroke.)
12) Your butt should stick out a little in back. You are like a tripod with
straight lines that is tilted back just slightly.
13) Your left arm (bridge arm) should be just slightly bent.
14) Your weight is on your legs, your bridge arm is mainly just used for
balance weight.
15) Of course, when you have to bend over the table because the cueball
is halfway down the table or more, some of this changes, but the
principles are still the same.
Strive to have straight lines, your right arm down straight, your upper right arm straight and parallel with the floor, bend at the waist, keep back straight.
60% of your weight on back leg, 40% on front leg, too much weight of front
leg will cause you to miss - you will end up looking over shot in lieu of sighting
through the shot.
I learned this 43 years ago from the 3 books I read about Pool and Billiards before I ever attempted to learn the sport. It was good then, and is still
good now ... I am afraid I am an old school player, and basics are very
important.
Basics of billiard stance:
1) Feet about shoulder width, maybe just a little more.
2) Stand at a 45 degree angle to the cue.
3) If right handed, right leg is straight with 60% of weight on it.
4) Left foot is angled slightly forward in direction of cuetip.
5) Left leg is slightly bent (not much) with 40% of weight on it.
6) Bend at the waist, keep back straight (If you play 10-12 hrs and get
back ache, you are standing wrong).
7) Learn open and closed bridge properly, and use which one feels best.
(learning to bridge is very important to accuracy)
8) When you bend over your cue, your chin should be directly above your
cue. My chin almost touches my cue, and it feels similiar to sighting
a rifle.
9) Your right arm from elbow down should be perpendicular with the floor.
10) Your right arm from elbow up should be parallel with floor.
11) Proper grip described for right hand is with 2 fingers and thumb, much
the same as if you gripped someone's upper arm with 2 fingers and a
thumb (variations to this - but remember a full grip by total hand
will not allow your cue to stay level at the end of the stroke, your
wrist must be able to break so a level straight stroke can be
maintained ALL the way through the stroke.)
12) Your butt should stick out a little in back. You are like a tripod with
straight lines that is tilted back just slightly.
13) Your left arm (bridge arm) should be just slightly bent.
14) Your weight is on your legs, your bridge arm is mainly just used for
balance weight.
15) Of course, when you have to bend over the table because the cueball
is halfway down the table or more, some of this changes, but the
principles are still the same.
Strive to have straight lines, your right arm down straight, your upper right arm straight and parallel with the floor, bend at the waist, keep back straight.
60% of your weight on back leg, 40% on front leg, too much weight of front
leg will cause you to miss - you will end up looking over shot in lieu of sighting
through the shot.
I learned this 43 years ago from the 3 books I read about Pool and Billiards before I ever attempted to learn the sport. It was good then, and is still
good now ... I am afraid I am an old school player, and basics are very
important.
Skeezicks said:
Usually, people with a "high stance" will be looking at the shot from an "over head" view, rather than "looking down the barrel of a gun" type view.
There are some players that have played for a LONG time with the over head view stance and are good, but that's the best they'll ever get. If you want to be better than good, you'll get low on your stick and see "through" the shot.
One of the reasons it's important to get low on you stick is it helps to get the ball's perspective of what's going on so your mind can process that information more accuratly.
When you're low on your stroke, your eyes pick up the little nuances that the table has (conscientiously and subliminally) more so than with a high stance.
What I mean by that is, when you're low on the stick, your eyes are closer to the table and can see how dirty/fuzzy/wet the table is through your peripheral vision and (more often than not) your minds eye helps make the admustment to your muscles to adjust for the stroke. If you practice/play a lot on different tables, you'll know what I'm talking about.
EVERY table is different. If you can't "read" a table and adjust, then you won't improve your game. That's what that comment was talking about.
Hope that helps.