Videos me vs. The Ghost

Very nice and simple stroke. I like that you are doing just 1-2 short warm-up strokes before you shoot. Those who make a lot of warm ups are very annoying, to much movement with the cue is useless.
 
very nice stroke!

How about the blonde that comes out of the bathroom at the start of the second rack? She need a man in her life? HAHA

Second Rack: Did you shoot the 1 ball and then the 3 ball followed by the 2 ball? I know the balls I use the 2 ball is blue and the 3 ball is red.
 
FLOG378 said:
very nice stroke!

How about the blonde that comes out of the bathroom at the start of the second rack? She need a man in her life? HAHA

Second Rack: Did you shoot the 1 ball and then the 3 ball followed by the 2 ball? I know the balls I use the 2 ball is blue and the 3 ball is red.
He made the 2 on the break...
@Sensation: you have good fundamentals and CB control...
 
Your shooting arm's not aligned well. You're a very good player, and you seem to have excellent control, but your stroke will gain power and consistency if you straighten it out.

The trouble is your right shoulder is not directly above the cue. Instead, it's well outside the cue, meaning your lower arm is bent back in toward your body, instead of hanging straight up and down. Because of this, if you were to just move your lower arm straight back and forth, using your elbow as a simple hinge, with no other movement, your stroke would have a banana curve, because the plane of this arm swing would not be lined up with the shot. You have a very compact stroke (and there's nothing wrong with that) so this curve is not pronounced, but it still means you're probably getting more muscles involved than necessary to correct this arm swing, and that means you're holding your stroke back.

So do this: you have your chin over top of the cue. So turn your shoulders so they're at more of an angle with the shot; you'll rotate your right shoulder back and inward. You can use your neck a little also to move your head a bit to your right, to make it easier for your right shoulder to be behind your chin, in line with the shot. You'll probably also want to move your hips further to your left, so that this shoulder rotation doesn't involve an uncomfortable twisting of your torso.

So now that your shoulder is straight over the cue, you'll probably also need to tuck your right elbow back in closer to your body, so that it is also directly over the cue. If your chin, your shoulder, AND your elbow are all over top of the cue, then your forearm must be hanging straight down (perpendicular to the floor) from your elbow to the cue. You clearly have the capability to video yourself, which will help you see when you've gotten things properly in line.

Now, try to stroke straight. You're used to compensating for funny alignment, so you'll be off at first, but once you get that stroke straight again with your new correct alignment, your forearm will be swinging straight back and forth from your elbow, with almost no effort whatsoever. Moving the cue back involves the tricep muscle contracting, and NO OTHER TENSION. Moving the cue forward involves your bicep muscle contracting, and NO OTHER TENSION. This movement is hugely more efficient and controllable than the one you were doing before, involving many small muscles to make your forearm swing straight even though that's not where your elbow hinge pointed.

You should notice immediately that you get more stroke velocity (more action) with less effort, with the new stroke. Over time with the new stroke, you'll find that you can also be much more accurate on long hard shots, because it's less of a feat of coordination to move your arm swiftly and accurately in the forward stroke, now that you're using one simple muscle contraction instead of several smaller ones in concert.

-Andrew

EDIT: Oh yeah, like the other posters are saying, you're clearly an excellent 9-ball player, and I don't see any reason you couldn't become a truly great player. I just posted a constructive criticism of your stroke because that's what you asked for.
 
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Looks very solid to me. You keep your position play pretty simple which makes it look alot easier than it is. Great job.

Southpaw
 
Thanks for all the great comments, including Andrew's :D

I've been playing for almost 2 years and nobody showed me the fundamentals... watching myself on video allowed me to notice some "defaults" in my technique (which good players already told me about).

Have you noticed my bridge arm getting locked on more than 50% of the shots? How about that?

Left eye dominant... blue mark on chin proves it.

What about my stance, I'm 6'2"?

Don't know if I wanna change my chicken wing stroke. I sure can get plenty of action on the rock with it... probably could get more...:rolleyes:
 
Nice shooting. Get yourself some lessons from a good instuctor. I believe you'll go far. Johnnyt
 
Nice shooting! You are clearly on your way to being an excellent player, and I would describe your game as being characterized by consistent shotmaking, good shot selection and simple, common sense position routes and pattern play. I concur with Andrew's excellent analysis, however, that your setup and stroke production are probably the only things holding you back from making a quantum leap in your game.

In looking at the video, I noticed that on most shots, your shooting hand appears to be behind your elbow at impact rather that directly below or slightly forward of it. This makes it difficult to smoothly accelerate the tip into the ball, thus requiring you to exert more force, as opposed to fluid motion, to generate stick speed. As a result, your stroke did not demonstrate the smooth effortlessness that enables you to move the ball around the table while using, in Luther Lassiter's words, 'calm speed'. This manifested itself in some position errors in which you failed to get sufficient draw, were forced to hit the ball harder and thus create more angle on a draw shot, or came short of the position zone on a multi-rail position route. I would hazard to guess that this may also manifest itself when confronted by 'work shots', particularly in pressure situations.

Thus, in addition to rotating your body clockwise somewhat, as suggested by Andrew, it would probably be good to bring your stroking hand forward a few inches. There are a few ways to do this, such as simply gripping your cue further forward, standing up a little straighter in your stance, or lengthening your bridge. A BCA-certified instructor would be best qualified to do an evaluation and recommend changes based on his observations, your body type, etc.

You clearly have the potential to be a great player. Keep working, learning and enjoying!

Edit: As regards the left eye dominant/chicken wing setup, I agree that it may be difficult, and perhaps not worth the effort to change at this point. The good players that I have known who are 'opposite eye dominant' either tilted their head crazily, utilized a chicken wing, or stood fairly straight in order to align the stick with their line of vision. I think that standing up straighter is the more fundamentally sound approach to this problem, but it is certainly understandable that you may be very reluctant to make such a drastic change in your setup at this stage.
 
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I agree with what's been posted so far. I would like to add that your choppy stroke isn't following through to a natural stopping point either. You are manually stopping the cue before your hand hits your chest. This is something I struggle with as well. The hope is that we aren't decelerating the cue before contact. The only way to be sure we aren't is to have a good follow through to a natural stopping point. I agree that lessons could prove to be very beneficial for you.
 
bsmutz said:
I agree with what's been posted so far. I would like to add that your choppy stroke isn't following through to a natural stopping point either. You are manually stopping the cue before your hand hits your chest. This is something I struggle with as well. The hope is that we aren't decelerating the cue before contact. The only way to be sure we aren't is to have a good follow through to a natural stopping point. I agree that lessons could prove to be very beneficial for you.

Not so sure I agree with the end of the movement always ending with my hand touching my chest. And I don't decelerate during my stroke, that I know. Watch snooker players.

No one to give me some lessons here in Canada...
 
Great shooting. I'm positive that slight imperfection in Sensation's stroke is NOT what is holding him back. He already plays at a very high level...far above average. Would he really be better with 'by the book' style? There's no way to tell. It could actually disrupt his game. Let's face it...there are many players out there who look to have picture perfect smooth stroke, but in reality don't play even near Sensation's level.
 
predator said:
Great shooting. I'm positive that slight imperfection in Sensation's stroke is NOT what is holding him back. He already plays at a very high level...far above average. Would he really be better with 'by the book' style? There's no way to tell. It could actually disrupt his game. Let's face it...there are many players out there who look to have picture perfect smooth stroke, but in reality don't play even near Sensation's level.

The cue ball doesn't lie. If sensation didn't exhibit textbook form but was getting the proper results from the cue ball, I wouldn't have anything to say. I had a student once whose wrist was cocked inward so much that his palm practically faced the sky. However, he could hit a long stop shot dead perfect (cueing at the center of the rock) 9 times out of 10, and he consistently threw the stick straight through the ball smoothly and effortlessly. I told him not to change a thing.

In this case however, the keen observer will notice that although he was getting out, the flaws in sensation's stroke were evident in the movement of the cue ball. Clearly, if he is content with his current level of play, sensation need not change a thing. If he desires to move to the next level, however, he may want to consider some improvements in his fundamentals.

It is undeniably true that the best players in the world exhibit a variety of forms and styles--from Ginky's silky smoth textbook pendulum to Keith McCready's sidearm to Allen Hopkins' "jab" stroke. However, one thing that remains consistent across the board is that regardless of the differences in form and warmup strokes, on the final stroke the pros, almost to the last man, smoothly deliver the cue straight through the cue ball and they get the action they need.
 
Sensation said:
Not so sure I agree with the end of the movement always ending with my hand touching my chest. And I don't decelerate during my stroke, that I know. Watch snooker players.

No one to give me some lessons here in Canada...
Is'nt luc salvis in your area.he gives lessons, i think .
 
predator said:
Great shooting. I'm positive that slight imperfection in Sensation's stroke is NOT what is holding him back. He already plays at a very high level...far above average. Would he really be better with 'by the book' style? There's no way to tell. It could actually disrupt his game. Let's face it...there are many players out there who look to have picture perfect smooth stroke, but in reality don't play even near Sensation's level.

I agree with you. Johnnyt
 
jimmy-leggs said:
Is'nt luc salvis in your area.he gives lessons, i think .

I know Luc's room is in Valleyfield, and Alain Martel is located in Pierrefonds.
I'm sure either of them would be able to give some lessons.
 
I have a real hard time believing you've only been playing for less than 2 years.

That would be a compliment.

I'm totally guessing because I didn't see it but if you've only been playing for 2 years your safety play probably isn't as good as your runout game is and I would do a lot of safety drills to become a torturer.
 
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