Warm-up strokes ...

ThePoliteSniper

ThePoliteSniper

Fruitshop Owner
Silver Member
I had this idea for some time now, but it's difficult to test this.
One big problem for pool players seems to be aiming or sighting. You know what I mean. The shot never looks right. Putting the cue under your "dominant eye" doesn't seem to help either. Basically, you have to feel the shot, and the more you play the better your feel gets. But still, the shots don't look perfect and you miss the accuracy.

Could it be possible that the warm-up strokes can mess up the aiming process?
The cue gives you a reference line that will show you where you are aiming at (even when using english, your brain can still use the cue as a reference and calculate the resulting cueball path). When your warm-up strokes are not perfectly straight, that reference line becomes blurry, because you are moving the cue on a range of lines. Now, I know it's no big secret that the best way to move your cue is in a straight line. But I've noticed with many players that their warm-up strokes are not straight. And I know from experience that you can be absolutely convinced that your warm-up strokes are straight, when they actually aren't. The camera reveals everything. Even some pros have consistently crooked warm-up strokes (either on purpose, or they don't care).

My idea is: If the warm-up strokes are straight, aiming will be easier. And when I say straight, I don't mean roughly straight. I mean 100% perfectionist straight. Every deviation would reduce the aiming precision.
Could this be a big factor in aiming?

Opinions? Objections? Haters?
Anybody here who doesn't do warm-up strokes?
 
Bert kinister's mighty X drill was based on this. Fine tuning your aim without practice stokes. I have known some great players who play like this. It works for them. It is not for me.


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Making balls is more being aware of things about the equipment than formulating ideas based on what you think you know...from what you see. When you can feel what the perfect word description of the action is, you will understand it, internally as opposed to a vague idea based on an abstract awareness of it.
 
Good thread and good question.........

ThePoliteSniper said:
I had this idea for some time now, but it's difficult to test this.
One big problem for pool players seems to be aiming or sighting. You know what I mean. The shot never looks right. Putting the cue under your "dominant eye" doesn't seem to help either. Basically, you have to feel the shot, and the more you play the better your feel gets. But still, the shots don't look perfect and you miss the accuracy.

Could it be possible that the warm-up strokes can mess up the aiming process?
The cue gives you a reference line that will show you where you are aiming at (even when using english, your brain can still use the cue as a reference and calculate the resulting cueball path). When your warm-up strokes are not perfectly straight, that reference line becomes blurry, because you are moving the cue on a range of lines. Now, I know it's no big secret that the best way to move your cue is in a straight line. But I've noticed with many players that their warm-up strokes are not straight. And I know from experience that you can be absolutely convinced that your warm-up strokes are straight, when they actually aren't. The camera reveals everything. Even some pros have consistently crooked warm-up strokes (either on purpose, or they don't care).

My idea is: If the warm-up strokes are straight, aiming will be easier. And when I say straight, I don't mean roughly straight. I mean 100% perfectionist straight. Every deviation would reduce the aiming precision.
Could this be a big factor in aiming?

Opinions? Objections? Haters?
Anybody here who doesn't do warm-up strokes?
Click to expand...

The most common problem I see when giving lessons is the cue when a player gets down on the shot. They just keep the cue moving, moving and moving.

If you were aiming a gun you would want to hold it still. Especially if you really needed to hit what you are aiming at. Like someone shooting at you.
And the first few seconds when you get down on the shot are the most important when it comes to aiming. If the cue is moving your body is moving. if your body is moving your eyes are moving. If your eyes afre moving ,Good Luck.

It's hard to hold that stick still when you first get down to aim if your used to keep it stoking. But once a player starts holding it still things start to work out a little better.

And the part about it not making a difference with the dominant eye. If you are aiming a gun and you just put it under your eye you can shoot fairly well but if you know how to aim the sight with the sight on the gun you can shoot Perfect or as Perfect as possible.

Good thread. Many players have this problem.

Have a great day geno..........
 
The best I saw at the US Open this year at handling the prestrokes and pause is possibly Thorsten Hohmann in his early round streamed match... He was deliberate and consistent from his first long practice strokes to the tiny practice strokes right before he pulled back into a pause...
 
One thing I noticed about Alex was that he didn't take many full practice strokes, just a couple of very short ones, then a very slow full back-swing.
I'm sure I read somewhere that Nick Varner advocates a slow back-swing. A major instructor also recommended this to me last week. The theory is that a slow back-swing will keep the delivery stroke straighter. I'm trying it out for myself this week.
 
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Sure I would rely on feel when I practice, but for an average player like me, all feels are somehow "lost" as I play in a tournament/money match. I can only rely on aiming rather than feeling. Maybe because everyone gets nervous and we all feel lost during a tournament....
 
Not like shooting a gun

Stroking a pool cue is not like shooting a gun. When you pull the trigger of a gun the bullet will travel at a set speed. With a practice stroke you are determining not only where to hit the CB but how hard or soft. A practice stroke will also determin the abount of resistance or friction between the shaft and your fingers.The is a ton of information being processed in your brain at the warm-up. A practice stroke ( even if its only one)is just as inportant as a follow through. How many time have you take a practice stroke and realized you were not set and got up to readjust your stance or bridge. Now the million dollar question is how many practice strokes is too many.
 
I agree that pre-strokes can mess up the aim and the shot.
A full stop like Geno says concentrating on the aim is the way to go.
1-2 pre-strokes to verify if cue is going where it should. Attention is not really on the shot.
The stroke should be intentionally separated from pre-strokes.
Stop at CB switch attention to the aim again and OB. Attention stays there and the rest is executed subconsciously:
Back semi-slowly, no snatching. Stop. Fire away, first slow picking up speed.

Recently, I have caught myself doing something sort of interesting when in dead stroke that I sort of didn’t realize I was doing.
As I’m getting down on the shot I execute a full stroke in the air once or even twice so the tip of the cue goes pass the CB
and at the last moment tip ends up behind the cue ball and moves about 4-5 inches forward to the address of CB at about 1 cm away from CB. Dead stop.

When I’m struggling I don’t do that.
 
Tony_in_MD said:
What is next C. A trek to Tibet?


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Click to expand...

A trek to the Philippines would be nice. I was bored and played pool all day, now I'm just waking up from a nightmarish 10 hours. My obliques are flaming, my feet and hands hurt, gonna trek to the supermarket. Do you right thing, spike!
 
My rythm goes like this:
2 practice strokes, pause, pull back, very short pause, push through.
And while I'm doing those first 2 warm-up strokes, I can already see whether I'm on the correct line or not, so the aiming is done here. But sometimes I can's see it so clearly and I suspect that it has something to do with the straightness of my practice strokes - and of course with the difficulty of the shot.
 
It's not the line you are suppose to be focusing on. You should be on it before dropping.
 
I think that one can learn to stroke straight and to make it a basic ingredient of the pre-shot routine. I suspect that after this is accomplished it is the body shifting that contributes to a miss. The whole body must be like a gun emplacement and any micro movement based on balance (foot placement) or lack of a tripod between feet and bridging hand contribute to micro movements which can result in a miss.

I think your stroke can be dead straight and you miss because of “other” factors. I have tried to observe my posture following a miss by freezing the body and find that it is my body that seems to have moved out of line. I find that shorter strokes help to keep the body in line. Allen Hopkins may get laughed at for his short stroke but he may have good reasons for using it.

BTW I found that you can achieve a dead straight stroke by using a technique from snooker and combing it with what you know about "strapping in" when shooting a rifle. Snooker players allow the stick to rub against their chest. This contact point requires a dead staright stroke. The strapping in can be further enhanced by rubbing the chin on the stick and by using SPF's technique of having a finish position in which the swinging arm ends with contact on the chest. Combine all of these and I got a dead straight stroke.
 
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Pushout said:
One thing I noticed about Alex was that he didn't take many full practice strokes, just a couple of very short ones, then a very slow full back-swing.
I'm sure I read somewhere that Nick Varner advocates a slow back-swing. A major instructor also recommended this to me last week. The theory is that a slow back-swing will keep the delivery stroke straighter. I'm trying it out for myself this week.
Click to expand...



Good advice. Let's add something to it.

A slower back stroke just about insures that the player will not have to re-grip or re-align his stick on the transition. Let the stick stop naturally.
randyg
 
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