Techniques for helping a player stay down on the shot

BillPorter

BillPorter

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Since many of us have a tendency to "come up" on some of our shots, usually the most important ones, how about compiling a list of techniques for helping a player stay down as they pull the trigger on a shot? I'll start off with a few I have run across.

1) Nick Varner said it helps you to stay down if you always try to watch the cue ball hit the object ball. A more extreme version is to try to stay down and still until you see the object ball go into the pocket. Just remind yourself, as part of your pre-shot routine, to watch the cue ball hit the object ball.

2) Incorporate into your pre-shot routine the thought, as you drop down on the shot, the sage advice of Jay Helfert, "Be still."

3) My friend Billy Carrelli offered two solutions. He said when he worked on this problem within himself, he would imagine that he was playing in a room with a very low ceiling, just a couple of inches above his head when he was down on a shot.

3a) Billy other suggestion was to have a friend with a ping pong paddle stand near you as you shoot and whack you on the head real hard if you raised up on the shot. He predicted it would take only a couple of whacks to cure the problem.

4) Put a 40 pound weight on the floor between your legs. Tie one end of a piece of twine to the weight and loop the other end around your scrotal sac. Just be sure there is no slack in the twine as you are down on the shot.

5) A poster here on AZ (Colin Colenso?) suggested that a player who raises up on his shot did really drop down on the shot with the INTENTION of staying down through the shot. I have noticed that when I am nervous about a shot, I can just feel, as I drop down to the table, that my body is preparing to "bail out" and come up rather than stay down. So it might help for you to think, as you move down to the table for the shot, "I am settling in and staying down on this one."

6) Add your suggestions here.
 
Bill, I've heard #4 before and that would definitely teach you to stay down in a hurry!

Another suggestion would be to follow-through the shot with your cue to a point 6" past the cue ball and watch the follow-through. Usually, you'll unknowingly stay down while concentrating on watching your follow-through.
 
The jump up cause happens to me BEFORE I make the final stroke. I anticipate the result so much that I want to see it before I've completed making it happen, thus move during the shot. Der.

So, my solution to jumping up is to calm myself and invoke patience and calmness during my final three practice strokes. Then the old SPF deal to finish.

fwiw,

Jeff Livingston
 
One very good exercise is to shoot with your eyes closed, in this way you will not be tempted to lift your head up to watch the results of the shot. Do everything normal way, and before the final stroke just close your eyes and shoot. Hope this helps.
 
This is one area of the problem that I see a lot of -

Many players have a tendency to lift or sweep their bridge hand up prior to the completion of the follow through.

Consciously thinking about it really doesn't do much to alleviate the problem, in fact I believe that makes it worse. Spending time on strengthening specific weak parts of the bridge seems to work best in most cases. The purpose of the bridge is to support and guide the cue. If the bridge is weak and careless, the stroke will be too. Depending upon what type of bridge is being used for a particular shot, there are certain balance points and support points in the bridge hand that must maintain contact with the table. If the bridge hand moves, then the guidance and direction of the cue becomes unpredictable and erratic.

The sweeping motion of coming up and not staying down is mostly due to a defect in eye pattern movement (JMO). Instead of rolling the eyes, the player stands up to see the result of the shot and the position, OR - the player just has a habit of standing up out of their stance prior to the completion of the stroke. When the player comes up, the tip comes off the cue ball, or the follow through is abbreviated or altered by the movement. I have seen everybody from SL-1's to Parica do this - so I think that it is a natural thing that is worsened by nerves.

I was taught to follow through and keep the stroke extended and count to two - stay down until the ball drops - etc - but ...NOTHING works better than having a solid stance, bridge, and stroke - combined with a preshot - shot - and postshot routine.
 
It becomes a lot simpler to just focus on not moving your head, as the rest of the body moves if the head does. Don't move your head at all, even lifting your chin or tilting your head to watch where the cue ball goes. I try to just keep my head absolutely still through contact with the object ball and keep my eyes on the object ball, not the cue ball.
:p
 
Voodoo Stand up school

I have helped a number of people how to play from the league duffer to seasoned players, the stand up drill goes like this.

I stand behind them with a house cue and hold it over them, after the standup process starts they raise up, hitting their head on the shaft end of the house cue. I normally let them do this several times. Then I turn the cue around, changing the impact to their heads. The weight of the butt clunks them a couple of times and normally helps them believe that every time they raise their head, they will get clunked ala Pavlov's <thanks Dave, HAHAHA> Dog theory.

If that doesnt work I go to extreme...I stand behind them as their down and swing the house cue over their head baseball style, making an unmistable sound and tell them "stand up again and I'll take you @#$ %^&* head off" I have never had a student stand up after that <only had to hit one and he was a friend, LOL>
 
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Voodoo Daddy said:
I have helped a number of people how to play from the league duffer to seasoned players, the stand up drill goes like this.

I stand behind them with a house cue and hold it over them, after the standup process starts they raise up, hitting their head on the shaft end of the house cue. I normally let them do this several times. Then I turn the cue around, changing the impact to their heads. The weight of the butt clunks them a couple of times and normally helps them believe that every time they raise their head, they will get clunked ala PAvloc's Dog theory.

If that doesnt work I go to extreme...I stand behind them as their down and swing the house cue over their head baseball style, making an unmistable sound and tell them "stand up again and I'll take you @#$ %^&* head off" I have never had a student stand up after that <only had to hit one and he was a friend, LOL>
Click to expand...

He's not making that up either.
 
Was

Voodoo Daddy said:
I have helped a number of people how to play from the league duffer to seasoned players, the stand up drill goes like this.

I stand behind them with a house cue and hold it over them, after the standup process starts they raise up, hitting their head on the shaft end of the house cue. I normally let them do this several times. Then I turn the cue around, changing the impact to their heads. The weight of the butt clunks them a couple of times and normally helps them believe that every time they raise their head, they will get clunked ala PAvloc's Dog theory.

If that doesnt work I go to extreme...I stand behind them as their down and swing the house cue over their head baseball style, making an unmistable sound and tell them "stand up again and I'll take you @#$ %^&* head off" I have never had a student stand up after that <only had to hit one and he was a friend, LOL>
Click to expand...

Is was the key word here? ;) :thumbup:

Steve
 
I have a couple that work for me.

1. Pick up my toes and force the weight distribution to my heels. This is uncomfortable but gets rid of the problem right now. After a few shots with my toes raised I am better able to stay down on a shot.

2. Watch the cue ball roll up to and make contact with the object ball. This is irritating as I prefer to watch the CB after contact and pre contact approach requires more concentration and I often lose the CB post contact because I am "stuck" watching the hit.

3. Focus on keeping my head perfectly still, similar to golf. This work the first time or two I notice I am not staying down. If it is a serious problem then I move to solution one or two.
 
I know this topic has been discussed before, but

It's a topic worth revisiting from time to time. It's like most (all?) other bad habits, whether with your pool game or other aspects of life, they may be suppressed and you think you have totally beaten them, but they can pop up again from time to time.

Steve, I really like your method!:)
 
*making a note*

Voodoo Daddy said:
I have helped a number of people how to play from the league duffer to seasoned players, the stand up drill goes like this.

I stand behind them with a house cue and hold it over them, after the standup process starts they raise up, hitting their head on the shaft end of the house cue. I normally let them do this several times. Then I turn the cue around, changing the impact to their heads. The weight of the butt clunks them a couple of times and normally helps them believe that every time they raise their head, they will get clunked ala PAvloc's Dog theory.

If that doesnt work I go to extreme...I stand behind them as their down and swing the house cue over their head baseball style, making an unmistable sound and tell them "stand up again and I'll take you @#$ %^&* head off" I have never had a student stand up after that <only had to hit one and he was a friend, LOL>
Click to expand...

never ask Big Steve for help with this issue :p
 
sde said:
Is was the key word here? ;) :thumbup:

Steve
Click to expand...

Still friends {laughs :thumbup:}...he doesnt play bad when he does play. I know that whole thing sounded like Im a lunatic, but its never not worked over 25 yrs.The latest two recepiants were Crystal McCormick and Kelly Coyle of the Florida Spirit tour.
 
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JoeW said:
I have a couple that work for me.

1. Pick up my toes and force the weight distribution to my heels. This is uncomfortable but gets rid of the problem right now. After a few shots with my toes raised I am better able to stay down on a shot.

2. Watch the cue ball roll up to and make contact with the object ball. This is irritating as I prefer to watch the CB after contact and pre contact approach requires more concentration and I often lose the CB post contact because I am "stuck" watching the hit.

3. Focus on keeping my head perfectly still, similar to golf. This work the first time or two I notice I am not staying down. If it is a serious problem then I move to solution one or two.
Click to expand...

Good ideas, Joe. Reading your post jogged a memory of a tip from Tony Robles. He recommended that you throw 15 balls on the table and run them off in any order, but you have to STAY DOWN AND STILL until the cue ball comes to a complete stop. It feels really weird on some shots where the cue ball is rolling all the way down the table and back. He says do this a couple of times at the beginning of a session. I tried it and it does lessen the tendency to rear up. Of course, almost all methods work for a while. The worst part of this problem with me is that I am usually NOT CONSCIOUS that I am starting to come up on shots. Often, a railbird will tell me that I am coming up real bad on some shots and it will usually be a surprise.
 
I had that problem last year. Looked like I tried to jump in to the roof.
I just focus on staying down. Get in to the routine that you stays down, until all the ball cueball has stopped.
 
Put a fish hook in your crotch, tie the fishing line around your neck.

Problem solved after the first mishap...'course having children just gets in the way of playing pool anyway.

Jeff Livingston
 
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what works

For me (most days) is "watching from the table." If the cue ball or another ball isn't rolling towards me, Itry to watch everything happen that is going to, until it's done happening, from the same place I completed my stroke, down.
 
I have shown this to a few with some success. Put the cueball on the spot, using center ball shoot straight down table across the other spot into the cushion with freezing your cue tip in position when it went through the cueball and "also" freeze your head in position, you want the cueball to come back and hit the cuetip exactly where it left before you move a muscle, stopping the cueball against the tip of your cue. Do this repeatedly using different speeds. This is the old "shooting straight" check of your stroke method, but also helps the jumping issue because you have to "not" jump to have the cueball go straight.
 
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