For years and years I tried to powerdraw the ball wrong. I wanted a smooth push on all my shots, basically I shot most shots with a follow stroke, even the draws. The ball comes back, and if you hit where you want to you'll get good draw, but it takes effort. Physically you could power draw this way, but you need to be strong/fast and I'm neither, so I had to look for other options to get the maximum out of my draw. I could still draw table length the other way, of course. This also goes for the break, btw, which is an entire theme of it's own.
A lot of old-timers recommended a decending blow when trying to get huge draw (of course we know that most draw shots have to be elevated due to the rails, but they were talking about even more elevation that that).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjZq0HN82Os If you watch that video you'll see all sorts of fundamental flaws btw. It's merely meant as an example of what some previously taught.
Now why is it that they believed that? Well, when you time your stroke in a way that lets you use your fingers or your wrist, the cue will naturally snap down and the butt will hit the top of your gripping hand. Your arm must be sligthly forward of perpendicualar to allow for the full range of wrist/finger movement and to get the forarm in a stronger position (short muscle is stronger). If you try a swing without a cue, sitting at the desk, trying to time the wrist snap, you'll notice that the wrist feels much stronger when the bicep is more contracted. Trying to time the wrist to snap with a partially contracted bicep (perpendicular) will feel weak and weird.
The arm will be on an upswing, but the wrist/fingers will push the cue down. This is no longer a pendulum with a dead wrist, but something completely different. The top speed is not reached at the botttom of the pendulum but rather a bit after, because of the extra torque added by the wrist. On modern equipment, you don't really need all that power, which is why many people don't do it, and the old timers didn't really understand WHY the technique worked. They saw the cue going down, and thought that must somehow be the cause. But the cause is not the cues trajectory, but the way our bodies work and the extra torque from the wrist that gives greater tip speed. Adding the shoulder will give even more power but much lower precision laterally.
Now a lot of modern coaches will recommend a low bridge and a long, level follow through. And that will work decently, give you a greater margin of error before miscueing and probably give you enough power to get by (but not much more).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbnxQWe_OTg Watch this video by Mike Massey and notice how everything he says contradicts what he does. He does in fact NOT follow through as far as he says (watch the actual stroke in slow motion), he gets extra power from dropping his elbow and snapping his wrist, with great timing. Notice that his cue is not pushing through smoothly and far, but rather goes very fast and the "snaps back" a bit (long after the ball is gone). That is a result of this sort of muscle contraction. The cue DOES NOT go smoothly through when you time the wrist like that. When people who use this technique follow through far, they often move their bridgehand and the movement is not at all smooth! The first movement, the stroke, is fast, and the rest is merely a comfort thing and can be smooth, but usually with a jagged transition between the two stages. You can't follow through long without dropping your elbow or moving your bridgehand or both, because the cue snaps violently down! It happens too fast to see but if you slow down the David Howard video it's very clear. The people who SAY that they do the long follow through, do not actually know what is happening and probably believe what they say, which is why you need video to convince them. That being said, some people do follow through, long and level on all shots. They are not the most powerful draw shots players, typically, but again, you can get by that way.
Since the cue is much heavier than the ball, you don't really have to (or even benefit from) pushing the cue through the ball in an exaggerated manner. All you need is getting the cue to get up to a high speed, like a whip. You are not pushing the whip through the air, you are snapping it to get that supersonic crack. I don't think anybody would teach a "dead wristed" whipping technique especially with a short whip? Especially not if the hip had to be immobilized like we do in pool. Likewise when you use your hand to "whip" the cue, the cues weight does the pushing for you. You are merely providing it with the speed. The extra long follow through doesn't really do anything for the power at all.
A lot of old-timers recommended a decending blow when trying to get huge draw (of course we know that most draw shots have to be elevated due to the rails, but they were talking about even more elevation that that).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjZq0HN82Os If you watch that video you'll see all sorts of fundamental flaws btw. It's merely meant as an example of what some previously taught.
Now why is it that they believed that? Well, when you time your stroke in a way that lets you use your fingers or your wrist, the cue will naturally snap down and the butt will hit the top of your gripping hand. Your arm must be sligthly forward of perpendicualar to allow for the full range of wrist/finger movement and to get the forarm in a stronger position (short muscle is stronger). If you try a swing without a cue, sitting at the desk, trying to time the wrist snap, you'll notice that the wrist feels much stronger when the bicep is more contracted. Trying to time the wrist to snap with a partially contracted bicep (perpendicular) will feel weak and weird.
The arm will be on an upswing, but the wrist/fingers will push the cue down. This is no longer a pendulum with a dead wrist, but something completely different. The top speed is not reached at the botttom of the pendulum but rather a bit after, because of the extra torque added by the wrist. On modern equipment, you don't really need all that power, which is why many people don't do it, and the old timers didn't really understand WHY the technique worked. They saw the cue going down, and thought that must somehow be the cause. But the cause is not the cues trajectory, but the way our bodies work and the extra torque from the wrist that gives greater tip speed. Adding the shoulder will give even more power but much lower precision laterally.
Now a lot of modern coaches will recommend a low bridge and a long, level follow through. And that will work decently, give you a greater margin of error before miscueing and probably give you enough power to get by (but not much more).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbnxQWe_OTg Watch this video by Mike Massey and notice how everything he says contradicts what he does. He does in fact NOT follow through as far as he says (watch the actual stroke in slow motion), he gets extra power from dropping his elbow and snapping his wrist, with great timing. Notice that his cue is not pushing through smoothly and far, but rather goes very fast and the "snaps back" a bit (long after the ball is gone). That is a result of this sort of muscle contraction. The cue DOES NOT go smoothly through when you time the wrist like that. When people who use this technique follow through far, they often move their bridgehand and the movement is not at all smooth! The first movement, the stroke, is fast, and the rest is merely a comfort thing and can be smooth, but usually with a jagged transition between the two stages. You can't follow through long without dropping your elbow or moving your bridgehand or both, because the cue snaps violently down! It happens too fast to see but if you slow down the David Howard video it's very clear. The people who SAY that they do the long follow through, do not actually know what is happening and probably believe what they say, which is why you need video to convince them. That being said, some people do follow through, long and level on all shots. They are not the most powerful draw shots players, typically, but again, you can get by that way.
Since the cue is much heavier than the ball, you don't really have to (or even benefit from) pushing the cue through the ball in an exaggerated manner. All you need is getting the cue to get up to a high speed, like a whip. You are not pushing the whip through the air, you are snapping it to get that supersonic crack. I don't think anybody would teach a "dead wristed" whipping technique especially with a short whip? Especially not if the hip had to be immobilized like we do in pool. Likewise when you use your hand to "whip" the cue, the cues weight does the pushing for you. You are merely providing it with the speed. The extra long follow through doesn't really do anything for the power at all.
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