Hal Mix- Pocket Billard Secrets
MichaelKendall said:
Hello All,
I am in search of a great instructional video that shows proper stance in detail. I was also looking for all of your favorite tutorial sights.
thank you for your help.
--------------------
You've already received some nice advice. I am currently suffering from a pool slump and decided to pull out some of my old books and read through some of them tonight and rememered your request and while this isn't a video, it comes from a different source than what you might normally find. It is an excerpt from Hal Mix's book which somehow survived Katrina in spite of being downstairs when we got flooded.
Hal was the traveling companion and coach of Nick Varner for at least all of 1989 when Nick was kicking butt everywhere he went. Hal was a student of the game and learned from different people over the years but didn't really "get it" until he was in his 40's and beyond. Hal was born in 1910 and has since passed. He autographed a copy of his book in 1999 shortly before his death and sent me a personal note and thought it might be fitting to share a small portion of what his book contained.
Like all pool advice, try it for yourself, if it doesn't work keep searching until you find what works FOR YOU.
-----------------------------------------------
"Stance:
You will see as many different foot positions used by different players as there are different cues. But after years of research, my opinion is that we play more with our feet than is generally believed.
My recommendation is that your feet be positioned much the same as if you were going to square off for a fight. The leading leg should be slightly bent, the trailing leg should be straight, with weight distributed slightly forward. Never rock back so that your weight is in your, ah, back pocket!
Both feet will be pointed in the exact same direction where you want the cue ball to travel. Before placing them though, you first must decide on the "line" the cue ball will travel.
Find the "line" and face it with your body centered on the line. Then wihout moving your right foot (if you are right-handed) move the left foot forward and bend down on the shot, so that the bridge hand is at the desired distance (six to eight inches, in most instances) from the cue ball.
Unless one's stance is proper, it may become almost impossible to maintain a proper cue direction, which is very straight in relationship to the cue ball and object ball. Often we may find the cue direction, which we determine as straight, may in fact be pointed away from the aim that we have chosen. Perhaps not by much, but when we stop and check where the cue is actually aligned, one may then see just what angle the is on. For the positive roll of the cue ball is completely dependent upon the cue angle to, and through the cue ball. A mis-aligned cue cannot accommodate a pre-chosen straight line! And any one attempt to make a straight stroke from one that is crooked, will soon be tempted to try some other game.
- POCKET BILLIARD SECRETS- by Hal Mix
