Stroke Instructor Challenge

[bubikaj]

Let's focus on 2 lines and the relationship between them:

1) The line formed by your elbow and shoulder
2) The line formed by your grip hand and elbow

Stand up straight with your arms by your side. Contract only the bicep of your shooting arm. Does your arm (line 2) move straight up towards your shoulder? Or does it go inwards towards your chest? It should go inwards towards your chest. This is what I consider your body's natural stroking motion.

For the sake of comparison, contract only your bicep so that line 2 does move straight towards your shoulder. Does it feel like you're working a slightly different part of your muscle?

Instead of positioning your hand, elbow, and shoulder in a straight line with a shot, I advocate an alignment in which line 2 points inwards towards your body in relation to line 1 So your shoulder will jut out, and the line/movement of your hand and elbow will pivot in a line inside of your shoulder. The line formed by your shoulder and elbow will be angled away from the shot (outwards from the body) - in order for the motion of your grip hand and elbow to be lined up with the shot.

Here's a good picture representation. Notice how line 1 points away from the shot and how much line 2 crosses the body in relation to it.

You'll see this type of alignment used by Mika, Shane, Alex P, Corteza, Efren, and the list goes on and on. Bustamante and McCready are frequently cited in discussions around variations in alignments and how anything can work. However, I'd counter that they have the same basic arm alignment as the others. The entire stroking plane is just angled - line 1, line 2, and the stroking line of the cue have the same or at least a highly similar relationship.

Try visualizing Bustamante's stroke plane rotated and compare to the above.

Same goes for Keith. Notice the similarities in the line 1 - line 2 relationship.

So those are my thoughts on stroke alignment. Feel free to disagree with me and I encourage you to state your own opinions.

I have done some analyses of stroke motion and placement of line 1 and line 2 after reading your post because, for me, was interesting. Alcano and Efren position/set of shooting arm is visible on th pictures with green (forearm) and blue one (upper arm) ... red line is for cue... you'll se on both players that elbow is inside of cue placement ... I thing that how much you place elbow inside is individual and depend of your anatomy and type of shot.

Alcano is on 1,2,3 picture (set position, backward swing, forward swing)
Efren is on 4 picture
See differences on whole Alcano shooting arm position on picture 5 and 6 for two different shots.

 

[bubikaj]

pictures that I mention in my last post of Alcano arm set postion

 

[bubikaj]

And this is position of Efren shooting arm for set position (picture 1) and position of transition from back-swing to follow through (picture 2)...

 

[One Pocket John]

This has been an interesting read.

I am a right handed player and right eye dominant. For years it had bothered me that my grip hand shoulder and elbow were not in line when in the shooting position. Yes I used a mirror. My elbow position is as shown in the posted pictures.

Here is my thought process when shooting a shot. I get behind the cue ball and line up the OB in straight line to my belly button. Then I draw a line from the pocket through the OB. Seeing this point on the OB with my dominant eye tells my grip hand and body how to position myself for the shot. To me this process is comfortable and not forced.

Believe me when I say that I tried for many years to develop a stance and grip hand, shoulder and elbow line as shown in most pool publications. It just wasn't for me, very uncomfortable and my mind was telling me that something just wasn't right with this body position.

Your eye/s will tell your mind how your body needs to be positioned to execute the shot. Whatever method you use in shooting pool it must be comfortable and natural. Not forced.

Just my $.02

Thanks for all of the posts.

John