Video of my stroke and 3-ball practice

xidica said:
I usually play better under pressure.
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That's not usually the case with most people.

In high pressure situations, say your opponent is on the hill and you are down two or three games, and you are on the game winning ball and an iffy, long cut shot is staring at you, on a tight pocketed table, and your opponent has shown you throughout the match that you can basically leave him no shot or he will make it, right then, when you're facing what for you is a 35-40 percent shot on the game ball (and you know that if you miss it or fail to leave him tough) and your existence in a tournament is gravely jeopardized by what you do on this shot, right at this moment, you are in a "pressure" situation. If your arms have never started to shake, or tremble, if your knees have never gone a bit wobbly, you're not really familiar with the pressure I'm referring to. If it has happened to you, you know what it's like. Your breathing may become difficult, you may have trouble thinking, you may have trouble in your stance, lots of things can happen. At that moment, having a rock solid preshot routine, that you've gone through many, many times, will help you. At that point, if you forget how to shoot the ball, you are toast.

I think if you take some lessons from a good instructor you will benefit greatly. (FWIW, I've taken lessons from at least half a dozen instructors, and they all helped me in various ways. It's well worth the time, money and possible frustration that will come.)

Flex
 
Great way to improve your fundamentals with the video by the way.
Here's my 2 cents.
The less moving parts the better, less to go astray, so keeping the elbow up and just swinging the forearm will help immensely.
I would also like to see you lower on the cue and slow down the stroke.
The pause at the back of the last stroke gives you a chance for one last check of the cue ball before switching your vision to the object ball. It also allows you to control the forward stroke.
Check out John Higgins in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnNai_7U_rM
Watch his stroke carefully, smooth, methodical, controlled. His head hardly moves even on power shots. Slight pause with a nice positive follow through ,phenomenal accuracy and consistency, brilliant!
 
I"ll try to avoid restating what's already been said ad nauseum:

1. Follow throught a little bit more. Drop the elbow a bit when you follow through and you'll be more accurate with your cue tip and get more action on the ball.

2. Really now, a baggy shirt tucked in?

Over and out.
 
xidica said:
No. maybe 3 out of 10 ?



No. Wouldn't know.



I usually play better under pressure.

Hitting Balls #2 :
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1580899036
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I think you're going to be a very good player. I see a lot of good things, a lot of potential. However, you do need some pro instruction. I am not a pro or an instructor but I play pretty decent.

If you can't get lessons right away, I would like to make some suggestions that might help. My first observation is that you have a lot of coordination with the cue already. That's a biggie. You seem to have decent follow through and pretty good aim. Your practice strokes are different than your final one. Your final stroke is pretty darn good, much better than your practice strokes.

You need more control in your game.

- My suggestion to get better is to shorten your bridge to about 10" and your tip travel on the back stroke to about 6". This will take some of the banana out of your stroke. It will give you a lot more control. When you can handle that, then you can go long - as long you can maintain a flatter stroke.

- Right now because you are pulling the cue so far back, on softer shots you are really decelerating. You are babying the shot. It's hard to be consistent this way. Take the tip back less and move it forward positively through the cue ball.

- Slow your stroke down and make it more relaxed and even. It should be as smooth as silk and the cue should feel light in your hands. Try to get relaxed in the shoulders, etc. Practice just stroking smoothly, no ball there. Just stroke and stroke to feel the rythym and build coordination. Support your weight with your feet, try to set up with very little weight on your bridge hand.

- Right hand grip - it's too loose. Try to firm it up a little and lose the finger cradle. The fingers can twitch and this grip promotes clutching, grabbing the handle at the last second, throwing off everything. Hold the cue the same way and pressure as if you were holding it straight up and down with one hand.

While you are practicing this stuff, it will feel very strange, but I think you will improve a lot faster because you won't be fighting idiosyncracies for the next 20 years.

Chris
 
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There's been alot of good advice on here from these guys, one thing I will say is pool is all about consistency, you need to be consistent from shot to shot. When you are setting up practice shots, set up the EXACT same shot and shoot it over and over again, and make the cue ball do the EXACT same thing every shot. It doesn't matter if you are practicing a straight in stop shot or a tuff cut with 3 rail position, set it up exactly the same way and land the cue ball where you want to over and over again. Keep practicing, the only way to not succeed is to quit before you achieve success.
 
Slasher!!!!!!

No wasted motion in snooker pro's stroke. Now thats what I call
super great. Thanks
Pinocchio
 
Pinocchio said:
No wasted motion in snooker pro's stroke. Now thats what I call
super great. Thanks
Pinocchio
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Glad you enjoyed it, John is a machine. On the practice table he's been known to string together 4 back to back centuries :eek: I love his rock solid fundamentals, I have a video of him in a comp from a few years back, he plays a massive power shot to get around the table and the only thing that moved on the shot was his forearm, simply amazing discipline. He deserves to win more than he does.
 
Thanks to *all* for the bigtime advice.

I played nearly 12 hours today taking suggestions on 8 foot A.E Schmidt tables with tight pockets up at Cape Buffalo.

Even got some cheap games in, started with some guy from Oklahoma for .25 cents a game next thing you know it's 5 a rack. (just friendly play)

Later that night gentlemen wanted to play for 5 a rack, I lost one, won one, then he bought me a shot and doubled it up to $20 and won.

All in all I think I spent a total of $6 for a lot of enjoyment and experience with all the great advice given.

I apologize Randy that I wasn't able to make it due to financial reasons; but will definitely get with you as soon as finances permit.

Once again, thanks all! I'll take more videos if wanted
 
I think the pendelum stroke is great, but TOO much pendelum motion is no good IMO. You raise your back hand too high on the back stroke. Slow your stroke down, and try opening up your pinky and index finger, maybe even your middle finger on the back stroke. This will help level out your cue. Just try to be smooth. Another thing is that you dig down into the cloth too much on the follow thru. It's almost like the cloth is stopping your follow thru. Try to level it out a little bit, and follow thru more.

You do stay down on the shot pretty good. Don't worry bro, when you get to that point in your game where you get a dead straight stroke and you are really smooth, you will have that cueball on a string. You can do anything with minimal effort. That's what it's all about. You look like you've got natural talent, so I think you are gonna get real good real soon. Keep at it!
 
cuetechasaurus said:
I think the pendelum stroke is great, but TOO much pendelum motion is no good IMO. You raise your back hand too high on the back stroke. Slow your stroke down, and try opening up your pinky and index finger, maybe even your middle finger on the back stroke. This will help level out your cue. Just try to be smooth. Another thing is that you dig down into the cloth too much on the follow thru. It's almost like the cloth is stopping your follow thru. Try to level it out a little bit, and follow thru more.

You do stay down on the shot pretty good. Don't worry bro, when you get to that point in your game where you get a dead straight stroke and you are really smooth, you will have that cueball on a string. You can do anything with minimal effort. That's what it's all about. You look like you've got natural talent, so I think you are gonna get real good real soon. Keep at it!
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Thanks for the tips! I think the best thing that's happened to my pool game in the 9 months or so I've been serious is being able to record myself.

Now I can see what I'm doing wrong, where I should have done this, etc.

*AND* I get a lot of good feedback from a community of stronger and more experienced players. Thanks again to all! I can't give enough rep to explain how grateful I am.
 
Good thread. If I can find a way to get videos on here I'd like to open myself up to this learning experience as well.
 
Dead Money said:
Good thread. If I can find a way to get videos on here I'd like to open myself up to this learning experience as well.
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Get with me, i'm txBlogLoser214 on AIM if you have it or e-mail me.

You'll need a program called Blaze Media Pro for editing and transcoding the video to a format acceptable in size for streaming and uploading to youtube/myspace/etc.

More will be on the way. I can't believe how much I've improved just by watching what I'm doing wrong.
 
I am no expert, but it seems like your not within the "balance" point of the cue...Your bridge is so long it forces your back hand to grip the very end of the cue for even routine shots.

It also seems like with that set up you will have struggles trying to get any follow through... I Did not see you attempt any draw shots or "stroke" shots...you kept moving the balls effectivly giving yourself "stop" shots.

(Until you are able to get to an instructor)

My "technical" suggestion is to shorten your bridge, move your grip hand up accordingly. I think that change will change the "balance" of the cue in your hand and "flatten' your stroke a tad....also (as already mentioned) get away from that rail bridge...I was actually impressed you actually made balls all jacked up that way.....

On to the "Rythum and Flow"....Hopefully you don't take offense here....Your rythum is "off" and not consistent.....Honestly it's actually "hard to watch"... I am sure you will hear this at some point in your learning curve.... Watching someone playing pool is almost like watching someone dance.....There are some people that dance very well and you enjoy watching...There are others (like me) that can't dance at all and look more like they are having a convulsion on the dance floor...Pool is the same way...Watch almost all the good players and you will see almost a distinct "dance" as they move around the table...

A pre shot routine is part of the dance...but also the tempo of your warm up strokes, the cadence of your warm up stroke....and the transition to the actual stroke....Your "transition" is (I think) where your dance falls apart.....I would suggest in your case a "distinct" pause at final address (right before you pull the cue back for the actual stroke)...another "pause" at the final "backstoke" and then another "pause" after impact (you already do the last pause very well) I would force yourself to do that right away...It will probably feel very awkward for you at first...but it should help you develope a better overall rythum...

When you are doing this during your practice check your balance at each position..(Do you feel your body waver at all??? you should not)

After you do this for a while....Set Up like normal, and then right after you get set and you take your "first pause" at final address (NOTE: When you take that initial pause, your eyes should lock in on your aim point) close your eyes for the actual stroke........This will give you a "major" awareness of what body parts are moving during your actual stroke.....With your eyes closed the only image you should have in your mind is the "aim point" on the OB (or CB if that is how you shoot)

(For Me) Shooting with my eyes closed "smoothens" my stroke...It makes me aware of any "jerking" motion in the stroke...Usually for me I find that I am jerking the cue back in the back stroke instead of having a smooth free flowing back stroke...

All that being said....I would get to an instructor ASAP to get your set up fixed...longer you play the way you are the harder it will be to change...

Good Luck!!
 
That's very good information and I'm trying to integrate it all in. I actually am working with someone to address some of the problems I have developed.

If anyone wants an apprentice pool player/ball racker I'd be happy for a mentor. Thanks all once again. This has been the greatest birthday ever!
 
Slasher said:
Glad you enjoyed it, John is a machine. On the practice table he's been known to string together 4 back to back centuries :eek: I love his rock solid fundamentals,
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He did this in last year's Grand Prix Final against O'Sullivan never mind in practice, probably the best session of snooker ever. But I agree. If I had to think of an example of the classic snooker stroke, Higgins is the man.

Boro Nut
 
Let your elbow "sleep" during the stroke, everything swings from below the elbow the upper armmovement is not needed for a normal shot this is different for an extreme length shot or a 9 ball break


A normal stroke is mostly forearm and wrist, finger tension on the stroke is also an important factor

Video from the side so we can see your hand and arm especially at address/contact end of back swing and end of stroke
 
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