Straight in shots

[CreeDo]

A lot of players slightly 'swoop' the stick across their body. Like a left swings the tip from left to right,
and a righty goes right to left (hence sending the cue ball to their left a little).

There are a bunch of possible fixes, some will feel ok, some will feel really weird.
For me, the fix is to curl my back hand inward a little. Other players might stand further away
from the cue and angle their bodies more. Another might try rigidly locking his elbow and tucking
the whole arm closer to the body.

Try a bunch of these until you find one that works.

For actual aiming of the shot, I think a useful trick is to line up the bottom of the cue ball
to the bottom of the object ball. Then imagine shooting a simple stop shot that doesn't move anywhere.

 

[fastone371]

Solution: There are many solutions to this issue, but 1st find out if the same thing is happening to other shots, then and only then look for answers. For a quick fix, shorten your follow through to only about 3 to 4 inches, sure you will not be able to shoot hard, but something for now.

The shorter follow thru really should not make a difference, the Qball is long gone when your follow thru starts, the tip to Qball contact time is like .100th of a second I believe. Once you figure out how to cure this problem it is probably a good idea to frequently check to make sure you do not fall back to old habits. I do this by practicing long diagonal corner to corner shots, stop shots, follow shots, and draw shots because you will probably find out once you cure this problem you may still have the same trouble but only on certain shots. You might be ok on center ball and follow shots but be off on draw shots or vice versa. The longer distance magnifies any flaws in your stroke.

 

[efirkey]

I focus on what the cueball should do after contact on a straight in shot. It should either stop dead, go forward, or come back but all on the same straight line, so I focus on making the cueball stay on that line after contact.

The easiest practice drill is to try to shot a stop shot from different distances starting from close up and moving farther away until you can not make the shot reliably and keep practicing from that distance until you feel comfortable.

And if you really want to make sure you are hitting the cueball dead center put the cueball on the rail. This isn't really dead center but high center but if you are off the center by a small amount you will miss.

 

[Buzzard II]

Yeah Zach, I have the same problem. At SBE last year the great Jerry Briesath used me as a teaching dummy. In 90 seconds he says "Oh, your stroke is fine, you have a visual perception error." I see off about a 5/8 of an inch on a 9' table. Been working on it ever since with a little improvement. I cut to the left pretty good though.

My stroke is thanks to Scott Lee and Randy G. Now I have to fix my phuckin vision. I have found that with a more upright stance I see angles better. That has been helping my long shots. Moving my head from one side to another is no help.

This is a thread that I will follow. I will try any silver bullet advice.

 

[Philthepockets]

Yeah Zach, I have the same problem. At SBE last year the great Jerry Briesath used me as a teaching dummy. In 90 seconds he says "Oh, your stroke is fine, you have a visual perception error." I see off about a 5/8 of an inch on a 9' table. Been working on it ever since with a little improvement. I cut to the left pretty good though.

My stroke is thanks to Scott Lee and Randy G. Now I have to fix my phuckin vision. I have found that with a more upright stance I see angles better. That has been helping my long shots. Moving my head from one side to another is no help.

This is a thread that I will follow. I will try any silver bullet advice.

And now your faced with trying to sort through and qualify the good information from the bad in this thread, good luck :thumbup:

 

[naji]

The shorter follow thru really should not make a difference, the Qball is long gone when your follow thru starts, the tip to Qball contact time is like .100th of a second I believe. Once you figure out how to cure this problem it is probably a good idea to frequently check to make sure you do not fall back to old habits. I do this by practicing long diagonal corner to corner shots, stop shots, follow shots, and draw shots because you will probably find out once you cure this problem you may still have the same trouble but only on certain shots. You might be ok on center ball and follow shots but be off on draw shots or vice versa. The longer distance magnifies any flaws in your stroke.

I used to think that, but I was dead wrong. The hand moves at same rate when you follow through, sort like touching each other for longer time so cue drags cb with it. If cb constantly goes to left it is steering if it goes left and right it is squirt swerve stuff

 

[Philthepockets]

:speechless:

 

[SmoothStroke]

Switch

Switch from right hand to left hand

 

[DGilb147]

I just got down on my table and noticed when I shoot harder my wrist will twist Inside. ( my thumb will go from pointing down to pointing at the side of my body. How do I fix this?

Sounds like your grip is the problem, not opening your back fingers when drawing
back on the power shots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojagkyrXQE0

pinching Scaramouches web page

 

[bdorman]

I found Dr. Dave video of vision center alignment very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680o8EChP_o

 

[MitchAlsup]

The way I fixed this problem was to go to the pool table and shoot 1000 long straight shots. Each shot taking the same pre-shot routine, and with the same mental concentration.

 

[alstl]

When I try to shoot mid - long range straight in shots the same thing always happens. The cueball will go to my left and the object ball will go to the right. I'm a right handed player and was curious if anyone had this problem?

Post a video of yourself playing. Without that people are just guessing as to what your problem is.

 

[naji]

The way I fixed this problem was to go to the pool table and shoot 1000 long straight shots. Each shot taking the same pre-shot routine, and with the same mental concentration.

I found Dr. Dave video of vision center alignment very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680o8EChP_o

IMO vision if good has nothing to do with missing a straight shot. What happens when you move your head is your stance and stroke changed to better or worst. I asked dr Dave about this video hope he replies. Dr Dave is an expert but I noticed things raised some questions

 

[Neil]

I used to think that, but I was dead wrong. The hand moves at same rate when you follow through, sort like touching each other for longer time so cue drags cb with it. If cb constantly goes to left it is steering if it goes left and right it is squirt swerve stuff

I hate to break it to you, but you are still dead wrong.

 

[naji]

I hate to break it to you, but you are still dead wrong.

Neil, you are 100% right, i am 200% wrong. I am really happy there are people like you insist on being right, and you are, sorry if i caused any doubts in any one's game or shot.

I did some sole searching and a bit of practice, there is no doubt DGilb147 is most accurate when he said "Sounds like your grip is the problem, not opening your back fingers when drawing
back on the power shots"

Also thanks to Scaramouche which shows how the lovely lady open her grip hand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAXIS9NYdIA

fastone371, sorry bud, you are right 96%, my tip due to the bad back swing strike CB off center. You the man.

Neil, you may laugh at this it is allowed. I had same issue that the OP has for a while, so i have been correcting by aiming having in mind my CB is always going to left, due to the above, and had great success, but a little inconsistent, and that is because at times i want to crush the butt, at time i was loose, so you can tell what happens CB when tight grip CB goes as planned a bit to left, when i loosen my grip it goes dead straight and i miss.

This was great Post. Thanks OP



.

 

[BeiberLvr]

I found Dr. Dave video of vision center alignment very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680o8EChP_o

The vision center test (if that's what you want to call it) may be the single best thing on his website.

I actually combined that with something else I started doing (see this Thread), and it's pretty amazing how much my stroke has improved in such a little amount of time.

 

[Neil]

The vision center test (if that's what you want to call it) may be the single best thing on his website.

I actually combined that with something else I started doing (see this Thread), and it's pretty amazing how much my stroke has improved in such a little amount of time.

Everybody has their favorites. It all boils down to which segment actually helped the person reading it. If a person has no problems in one area, that segment may seem mundane. Problem areas might light the 'ol light bulb up on high with certain segments. He just about has something for everyone on his site.

 

[Neil]

When I try to shoot mid - long range straight in shots the same thing always happens. The cueball will go to my left and the object ball will go to the right. I'm a right handed player and was curious if anyone had this problem?

You really aren't telling us much that we can go on, so we all are guessing. As someone else said, a video would really help. That said, your problem might be as simple as making sure your elbow is in line with the cue. If it is off to the side a little, you will automatically steer the cue as you bring it forward. It will also cause you to drop your elbow a little if you are using a pendulum stroke.

 

[Scaramouche]

In snooker, with its bigger table and smaller pockets, and where pocketing long, straight shots is a necessary tool for a competitive game, it is called "hitting across the cue ball".
It is a gremlin that can appear in anyone's stroke at any time.
Stephen Hendry, 7 time world champion, started to do it and quit the game - after shooting a perfect frame - 147 - while losing the match.
A head-on video is the best way to see what you are doing.

It isn't a grip problem IMHO

This page has a video.
The gimmick explanation starts at about 1:40
http://www.sightrightuk.com/news.php

Basically, it is two lines at different elevations, and I suspect that one is sloped.
I've never tried it, but you could create the same phenomena with a folded piece of paper with a straight line drawn on it, and place it in front of the cue ball to check cue alignment.

 

[naji]

In snooker, with its bigger table and smaller pockets, and where pocketing long, straight shots is a necessary tool for a competitive game, it is called "hitting across the cue ball".
It is a gremlin that can appear in anyone's stroke at any time.
Stephen Hendry, 7 time world champion, started to do it and quit the game - after shooting a perfect frame - 147 - while losing the match.
A head-on video is the best way to see what you are doing.

It isn't a grip problem IMHO

This page has a video.
The gimmick explanation starts at about 1:40
http://www.sightrightuk.com/news.php

Basically, it is two lines at different elevations, and I suspect that one is sloped.
I've never tried it, but you could create the same phenomena with a folded piece of paper with a straight line drawn on it, and place it in front of the cue ball to check cue alignment.

Not sure if it me or many people have same thing. I do not miss shots due to eye position, with my eyes at center of cue, left of cue or right, my right face against cue left or right, I still make all shots when my stroke is straight