Stroke Trainer review

hey don the guy who invented it lives right there in lynchburg va. I emailed him about it......seems like a nice guy, offerred to meetme somewhere and show it to me......he plays in alot of tournaments too i gathered from how he talked. Let me know what you think of it, ive thought about buying one to help with my lefthanded game.
 
scottycoyote said:
hey don the guy who invented it lives right there in lynchburg va. I emailed him about it......seems like a nice guy, offerred to meetme somewhere and show it to me......he plays in alot of tournaments too i gathered from how he talked. Let me know what you think of it, ive thought about buying one to help with my lefthanded game.
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I'm in Leesburg, VA. If you are close enough, you can try it too. Give it 2 more reviews.
Don
 
TheBook said:
At the beginning of every season my game is off a little. As the season goes on I start shooting better and make more shots. I think that this is due to the extra practice time I put in. If I made 45,000 shots in the last 3 or 4 months I am sure that I would have improved tremendously. Not only would my stroke improve but I think that my aim would get better also.

I think that your stroke is getting better because you put more time into it. I also think that you could improve much more if you just practiced stop shots that were straight in at various distances. This would also show if you are hitting to the left or right and/or putting english on the CB.
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I agree. This is a drill I do frequently.START(
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%K[0Q8%LZ8J3%M[1V1%N[1T7%OZ9L0%Pg8Z7%WD3[5%XY8Z2%YD2Z3%ZZ1R0
%[C4C2%\Z1P0%]C6C5%^Y9D5
)END
Take ball in hand, and from the headstring pocket each ball. If you miss start over. It's harder than it looks and takes a good stroke to make it happen. Between this drill and the Trainer I've seen some improvement.
 
I had one too but sold it because I could not force myself to use it like I probably should. It is a good training too but just like everything else, it requires some self discipline and dedication which I sometimes lack :)
 
I just got mine today. The quality is nice. My first impression after about 10 strokes was "my legs are going to give out". After about 20 strokes "my arm is going to fall off". I did manage to do 50, and did 3 more sets of 50. I've played many all night sessions, and my body has never felt this stressed. I don't understand why this is happening. The height is at 31 inches, but I'm not on a pool table. It was as if I was at the gym lifting weights.

The other thing was that with my right hand I had NO trouble whatsoever in keeping my arm aligned and the paper from falling. I was hoping that my stroke was crooked, and that with this device I would straighten it out, and thus greatly improve my game. But it seems that my stroke is fairly straight. I never thought that would be a bad thing. I did try 50 reps on my left hand (I NEVER shoot left handed), and it was immediately obvious how horrible my left handed stroke is. (Is that how total beginners feel?)

Anyway, I'm going to stick with it and update periodically. Perhaps placing it on a pool table will help with the "weight liftting sensation" as it would be mcuh closer to game situations.

Has anyone brought this to their poolroom? What was the reaction? Did the owners give you a hard time about placing this on their tables?
 
I just tried an experiment after my last post. I placed my bridge on the stroketrainer so I was at the same height as before, but I did NOT use any of the guides. In other words, my stroke was completely UNGUIDED. When I did that, I could stroke 50 times like it was nothing. Absolutely no muscle fatigue like before. Then I tried the using the trainer as intended. After 10 strokes, my arm was shot. I tried the combintation one more time in the oopposite order. The results were the same, in that I had no muscle ache when shooting unguided, but much ache when guided.

This leads me to believe that the muscles requrired for a straight stroke were never used before, but are now. Since they have never been under this stress before, they are getting very soar. Just like doing a NEW excercise at the gym.

So I think I was wrong on the last post when I said my stroke already was straight. If it was, my muscles would not be soar. I can't wait to see what happens in one month of use...
 
iusedtoberich said:
I just tried an experiment after my last post. I placed my bridge on the stroketrainer so I was at the same height as before, but I did NOT use any of the guides. In other words, my stroke was completely UNGUIDED. When I did that, I could stroke 50 times like it was nothing. Absolutely no muscle fatigue like before. Then I tried the using the trainer as intended. After 10 strokes, my arm was shot. I tried the combintation one more time in the oopposite order. The results were the same, in that I had no muscle ache when shooting unguided, but much ache when guided.

This leads me to believe that the muscles requrired for a straight stroke were never used before, but are now. Since they have never been under this stress before, they are getting very soar. Just like doing a NEW excercise at the gym.

So I think I was wrong on the last post when I said my stroke already was straight. If it was, my muscles would not be soar. I can't wait to see what happens in one month of use...
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Now that your muscles are SOAR,hopefully your game will SORE. :D RJ
 
BiG_JoN said:
Umm...
RJ...
I think you got that backwards...

:D
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Umm... I think I got it backwards on purpose to show our friend Iusedtoberich how to spell sore.
:D

ps. No hard feelings Iusedtobe$$$$, because my spelling at times can really suck as well :p you are not suffering from terminal uniqueness. :D RJ
 
I used the StrokeTrainer II when I was attending the BSACA. It was very awkward to me at first, but after about 25-30 strokes, it started to feel more natural.
About a month ago I purchased one for my students as well as myself. I've used the "Coke Bottle" method before, but feel right about the motion of the shaft. What I mean by that is, the tip of your shaft rises and dips according to the position in the pendelum stroke. With the coke bottle my tip or shaft was unable to complete the stroke due to the fact that the bottle opening was only so big. With the StrokeTrainer, you're able to see the pendelum motion of the shaft and tip without obstruction. Yes, the coke bottle is okay for a very short time frame. You don't want to confuse the muscle memory that took hours and hundreds or thousands of strokes on the StrokeTrainer.
I have a pretty straight stroke and the StrokeTrainer is only making that more consistent. Starting in April I put it to use on my left hand in my practice routine.
If anyone is near St. Louis and would like to give it a try, contact me and you can come by and try it out!

StrokeTrainer II highly recommended by me and the BSACA.
Zim
 
recoveryjones said:
Umm... I think I got it backwards on purpose to show our friend Iusedtoberich how to spell sore.
:D
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Didn't you see my big smiley???
:D :D :D :D :D
There are some more!
 
get a beer bottle

Stroke trainers are great.. Coca Cola, budweiser, and bottled water companies put out good bottles that meet the same purpose.

I perfected my stroke in my apartment in houston with a Heineken beer bottle. The beer was good and I have been winning at pool ever since.

Hope this helps,
Marcus
 
With all due respect to the posters who compare the StrokeTrainer to a bottle, in my opinion there just ain't no comparison! I used to aim straight into a Coke bottle all day long without any problem, because it's a tiny contained area to aim at (unlike a spot on the cueball which is not contained) - but my stroke still wasn't straight. The difference is you are training your muscles with the ST, learning what a straight stroke feels like, whereas with the bottle you're only learning to miss the edges of the bottle. At least, that's why it didn't work for me - it was easier for me to aim to put the tip of my cue into the bottle than to follow through straight on an actual shot. Which brings me to another difference: you can't follow through to your full extension with a bottle like you can with the ST, because of the length and also, as Zims Rack pointed out, the pendulum motion.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I truly believe the ST is far, far better than using a bottle.
 
Kerry Impson said:
With all due respect to the posters who compare the StrokeTrainer to a bottle, in my opinion there just ain't no comparison! I used to aim straight into a Coke bottle all day long without any problem, because it's a tiny contained area to aim at (unlike a spot on the cueball which is not contained) - but my stroke still wasn't straight. The difference is you are training your muscles with the ST, learning what a straight stroke feels like, whereas with the bottle you're only learning to miss the edges of the bottle. At least, that's why it didn't work for me - it was easier for me to aim to put the tip of my cue into the bottle than to follow through straight on an actual shot. Which brings me to another difference: you can't follow through to your full extension with a bottle like you can with the ST, because of the length and also, as Zims Rack pointed out, the pendulum motion.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I truly believe the ST is far, far better than using a bottle.
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Glad to see Kerry back..... :p
 
whitewolf said:
A few words of advice on how to set it up. DO NOT put it on the cloth as this will wear your ass out bending over etc. Place it on top of the rails across a corner. Now it is elevated.
Better yet I have an ironing board that I put my stroke trainer on. I can jack it up as high as I want to.
:D
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Maybe I'm missing something here... if you practiced with the ST at a different height than the playing surface of a table, then got down to shoot some balls, wouldn't that feel awkward? Your stance and alignment would be different than what you've been training with when using the ST. You really should use the ST on the playing surface of a table. Afterall, this is how you will be standing when playing. That's the whole idea behind the ST, to get your muscles used to repeated motion.

JM .02 worth,
Zim
 
Zims Rack said:
Maybe I'm missing something here... if you practiced with the ST at a different height than the playing surface of a table, then got down to shoot some balls, wouldn't that feel awkward? Your stance and alignment would be different than what you've been training with when using the ST. You really should use the ST on the playing surface of a table. Afterall, this is how you will be standing when playing. That's the whole idea behind the ST, to get your muscles used to repeated motion.

JM .02 worth,
Zim
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I was thinking the exact same thing.I actually cut some wood pieces at work to shim my kitchen table up to the exact height of the pool table in our local poolroom.I also modified my stroketrainer (mines homemade) by bevelling it so I can get my chin down on the stick much easier than the orginal.

By making those alterations, I believe that I can now train my muscles to the exact game situations I will encounter. RJ
 
Kerry Impson said:
With all due respect to the posters who compare the StrokeTrainer to a bottle, in my opinion there just ain't no comparison! I used to aim straight into a Coke bottle all day long without any problem, because it's a tiny contained area to aim at (unlike a spot on the cueball which is not contained) - but my stroke still wasn't straight. The difference is you are training your muscles with the ST, learning what a straight stroke feels like, whereas with the bottle you're only learning to miss the edges of the bottle. At least, that's why it didn't work for me - it was easier for me to aim to put the tip of my cue into the bottle than to follow through straight on an actual shot. Which brings me to another difference: you can't follow through to your full extension with a bottle like you can with the ST, because of the length and also, as Zims Rack pointed out, the pendulum motion.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I truly believe the ST is far, far better than using a bottle.
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I can only agree with every word you said. IMO, as I stated earlier, the bottle method provides absolutely no feedback about what is going on before the tip is actually at the point of entering the bottle.
 
whitewolf said:
If you have ever used a ST about the only place you can put it on the table comfortably is parallel to a long rail. Everyone knows that your stance is slightly different in this position when compared to shooting a ball straight into the side pocket.

So using an ironing board, taking out the heigth factor, it is better because you can move your body to simulate a more square stance for example.

As long as your muscles make your hand end up on your chest as the BCA instructors teach, your muscles will be trained properly. You can have a square stance or the traditional American stance and you will get the exact same results.

At home I have set up my pool table on 2 inch blocks of wood. That way I can practice longer since I don't have to bend over as far. Fast Larry thought it was such a good idea that he was going to recommend this to eveyone. Ask some of the older players here, pool tables used to be higher, a lot higher than today's tables. I think they are trying to make tables cheaper, and the less wood the less the costs of manufacturing.

In the early 1900s we had the elephant leg tables - huge heavy pool tables that were very high in the air. I used to play on them all of the time in the 60s and 70s in Roanoke Va. and in Charlottesville, Va. I am sure that Luther Lassiter player on these high tables and did we ever here about him or anyone else for that matter complain about today's lower tables? I think not.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I go from playing on my higher home table to league night playing on the lower tables with absolutely no noticeable change.

To you it might make a difference however. I can't tell but can only suggest that you try it out. There are a lot of players who just throw the ST on their kitchen table and go at it. One of the things the ST does is to keep your wrist from twisting on the backswing. And you have to follow through straight also. It doesn't matter how you stand. Again, if you think about it, you rarely stand the same way on every shot at the pool table.

Now I will admit that you may have a point in that this could slow my progress, but personally I don't think it matters.

Regards, WW
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If you're going to participate in a marathon, you don't train by walking on a treadmill. Same with the ST! If you're going to use the ST to train your muscles to perform, why would you use it in a matter that differs from a game environment. If you are changing location to ease the muscle pain in your back, shoulder, knees, or whatever muscles, then IMO, you're defeating the purpose!!! I use the ST on a 7' table and have NO problems with my "snooker" style stance. I can place it facing a side pocket, or in the middle of the table lengthways up against the rail. I see NO need to adjust the height of the ST just to ease your pain. If you are in that much pain when you use the ST on a pool table, maybe it's time you (or anyone having this much pain) selected a different sport.
I'm not saying that the ST is not working for you, I think that you're using it other than what it's intended to do.

JMO,
Zim
 
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