Stance

R

RareHare

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How personal is the stance, and what I'm really asking about is the placement of the feet (not upright v. bent, etc.). I have been playing only a short time, and I spent a lot of energy fixated on my elbow looking for a repeating motion. Focusing on my arm didn't seem to help much. Then I moved my feet and got instant improvement. At first, I stood at about a 40 degree angle to the cue. I moved my feet parallel to the cue, and it helped. Today I pulled my back leg further away from the cue (now behind the parallel line) and I now find a much truer stroke. Indeed, when the position of the cue ball forces me to turn my belly toward the table, my success rate drops immediately. I suspect it has something to do with my foot position.

Is this just something that is going to make a difference for a weekend and then go away (kinda like the golf swing "fix" that works for a few rounds only), or does foot position matter long term, and does the "right" position vary a lot from person to person?
 
The address can be one of the culprits, that keep players from playing their best. Here's an analogy. If you don't point a good rifle at the target, you won't hit the target.
 
Hi there,

Our bodies are all different. I liken the stance to a karate fighter. You want to be solid,not too teetery. The stance starts when we are standing up. Our eye will put us in the proper position to start while we are standing up straight. Now we approach the shot by holding this line. Get the cue pointed holding it perfectly still with your head up a little bit higher than you normally would. Now still making sure that your eye is in the same position as it was from up higher drop down to where you want to be on your shot.

Your body should follow your eye as you aim. just make sure you are solid. There are so many different angles we have to be at and different heights that there is no one stance fits all for everyone.

Some of us are short and some are tall. Some of us have injuries that make it kind of tough for us to get in some of the positions.

The turning or not turning of your body might be restricting your stroke. A common problem that I see is we need to move our hand back a little bit on the but. We are choking our stroke a little and for some reason the hand keeps creeping up. This will cause alot of trouble because we seem to run out of stroke. It's hard for any player to realize this has happened and the problem just seems to continue.

Whatever you do in your pre-stance routine is guided by your eyes. Just make sure you are comfortable and feel in total control. Make sure your your hand is far enough on the but and which ever way you turn to see the shot better or shoot the shot better keep on doing it.

It's hard to try and help on the internet but it's not really rocket science. These are some of the things that I check for right away and I find that they can make a world of difference.

Good Luck and I hope this might help...........

.
 
The most important part of standing is balance. It is important not to move once you get your shot lined up. In order to stay still you must be over the center of (your) balance, or you will wobble. If you wobble standing wrong and keep standing wrong for you your muscles will develop around to change your center of balance...That is why everyone believes there is some magic way of standing...everyone has trained there body to stand a certain way. This doesn't mean it is right for you.

This being the case you must adjust your stance to yourself. If you make the mistake of getting bad lessons they will almost always start screwing your potential here.

It is you, and the height of the table that create a proper stance for each person. It is important that you learn what helps you to stay still after you are lined up.

You mentioned some things you have tried that have helped and I noticed you don't mention your bridge hand. The bridge is the single most important part of your pool game. Focus on stability in your stance, and in your bridge hand you will start to see improvement.

A guy can be all over with his stroke. You start making the bridge faulty balls will not go...It is more important than any other part of your body when playing pool. Well....your brain, if you bother bringing that to a pool game.
 
Natural Stance

Most instructors talk in great detail about a natural stroke. However, very few discuss in any detail the natural stance that is different for each person. The best explanation that I have found on how to find your natural stance is given by Ralph Eckert and Andreas Huber in the IPAT Level 1 DVD. That alone is well worth the price of the DVD.
 
Neil said:
Standing straight up, hold your cue parallel to the floor very loosely in your hand, just let your fingertips cradle it. Totally relax. See where the cue wants to go. For some, it will be almost straight ahead, for others, it will (the tip of the cue) turn to the left. (right handers) This is the natural line for the cue. Just step back and bend over along the line of the cue. Now, you have a very good base for setting up. Some it is almost straight on, some it at a 45 degree or so angle. It varies person to person.
Click to expand...

This is what got me turned as much as I'm now turned. When I let my arms relax, the cue basically touches my belly, which tells me that pointing it out straighter is unnatural, so I turned my body instead. I did see this on some video clip on the net. It worked wonders very quickly.

p.s. thanks to all for taking the time to help a newbie.
 
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