Hello again,
a few weeks have passed, so I decided to make an update on my stroke. Did I make any progress?
Please note I played with a club cue which is way shorter than mine (out of order), so I normally hold the cuestick a little closer. No 'grip-too-far-back' advice was ignored.
Feel free to critique my stroke as I finally want to stop dealing with inconsistency in this game. King regards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODvil4D6xn0
Couple suggestions:
1. You're not stroking *through* the cue ball. You seem to be "chopping" your stroke very soon after contact with the cue ball. (A good example is when you shoot the 1-ball at the beginning -- you almost "check swing" [as we say in American baseball] right after contact with the cue ball.) Don't be skittish about hitting the cue ball -- hit that sucker! Stroke *through* it. Let the cue come to its own natural stop -- don't involve any muscles to "stop" the cue's motion.
2. Another example is your breakshot -- you hit the cue ball as if it had germs and you didn't want to get infected (notice how you flinch upwards backwards even before you made contact with the cue ball). Stay down after contact, and view the results from that position. It's easier to troubleshoot aiming and stroke mechanic problems from "down there" than it is from "up there" in a standing position.
3. As an aside, when you play the ghost, you must let all balls complete motion (come to a complete stop) before picking up the cue ball. You picked the cue ball up while it was still in motion, and the 5-ball was on a dead caroming path towards the cue ball. By removing the cue ball prematurely, you affected the final position of the 5-ball on the table.
4. When you missed the 2-ball, you were too "tentative" about shooting that shot. Shoot it like you mean it! Yes, you can "mean it" and still hit the ball gently for subsequent shot position. Maybe you were nervous because you know you were being recorded?
5. You might want to try different variations of your grip. It looks like a tea-cup-handle grip, with only the thumb and a single finger. You'll want a more substantial grip that doesn't allow the fingers to flay around, which otherwise allows the cue to wobble around as well. "Substantial," by the way, doesn't mean a firm or stranglehold grip on the cue. Rather, it means that the fingers support each other and keep each other in place, and doesn't allow them to flay around loosely. You can have more fingers wrapped around the cue, yet still allow the cue to rest gently in there, in the cradle.
6. The dreaded "grabby grabbies" -- i.e. the forced opening and closing of the hand as you deliver the cue. Try experimenting with just resting the cue on the pads of your fingers, and keeping the hand still throughout your stroke. Try not to open/close your hand as much. Remember, the hand is an asymmetric device -- it's not symmetrical -- and the act of opening/closing the fingers goes in one direction -- away from and towards the palm respectively. This has a tendency to put a little bit of a "hook" in your stroke, slightly pulling the butt of the cue either away from or towards your body. By keeping your fingers as still as possible, and just form a "cage" that the cue rests on the bottom of, you have a solid platform that stays constant throughout the stroke.
Hope this is helpful!
-Sean
