When did getting low on the cue happen?
- Thread starter livemusic
- Start date
Back in the old days when straight pool was king and most of the game was played 1/2 table it's easier to see angles and the clearance between balls by standing more upright.
The closer the cue ball is to the object ball the more upright I stand.
As the shot gets longer I get lower.
It's just the way I do it.
I grew up playing mostly straight pool in the early '60's.
Yeah I'm that old.
The closer the cue ball is to the object ball the more upright I stand.
As the shot gets longer I get lower.
It's just the way I do it.
I grew up playing mostly straight pool in the early '60's.
Yeah I'm that old.
This is exactly as I remember it as well - I almost never saw anyone low on the cue in the 60s - Seems like the 80s advent of the 9 ball popularity brought in a new wave of low on the cue pool stances - Mike Zuglan taught me low on the cue as he liked to have his eyes on the same plane as the aiming point on the balls with less of a sight angle from eyes to OB contact point.
Guys with glasses did not like the low on the cue stance because their eye sight picture was always above where their eyeglass lenses sat on their nose bridge If you stood upright to shoot - you could look down more through your eyeglass lenses - so I transitioned to contact lenses and a low on the cue stance. People started selling "pool" eyeglasses and they still do today. The idea is to keep your eyesight to the cue behind the eyeglass lenses while in your lower shooting stance with oversize lenses.
I think that's an excellent answer. I checked a few photos and it makes sense. Here's Greenleaf lining up for a short shot:
And here's Greenleaf aiming for a table-length shot, with his chin low and near the cue:
Switching to pool glasses helped me a whole lot...
I’m curious if pro snooker players got lower on the cue 50+ years ago, before most pro pool players started getting low on the cue?
If it was the better way to do it, I'll almost guarentee that it happened in snooker first...lol
PS: Check your pms
Geosnookery
Well-known member
Snooker:
Almost a century apart. World’s best billiard player ‘back then’ and world’s best male and female billiard players today. It’s the only way I’ve ever played for 52 years.
Almost a century apart. World’s best billiard player ‘back then’ and world’s best male and female billiard players today. It’s the only way I’ve ever played for 52 years.
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Here is what Edwin Kentfield thought was a good stance. His book on billiards was printed from 1839 into the 1880s, and was the standard. He knew about squirt and swerve and pivot point.
Here is John Roberts, Jr. from 1902. Like Kentfield, his game was English billiards, which doesn't require as much accurate pocketing as snooker.
Here is Joe Davis from his 1929 book. It was about billiards rather than snooker, but he was already a pretty good snooker player. He was also more or less blind in his right eye. He was the snooker champion for a few decades.
Here is the suggestion on stance from a basic US how-to-play booklet from 1948. It was published by the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America. Quite a ways behind Joe.
Here is John Roberts, Jr. from 1902. Like Kentfield, his game was English billiards, which doesn't require as much accurate pocketing as snooker.
Here is Joe Davis from his 1929 book. It was about billiards rather than snooker, but he was already a pretty good snooker player. He was also more or less blind in his right eye. He was the snooker champion for a few decades.
Here is the suggestion on stance from a basic US how-to-play booklet from 1948. It was published by the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America. Quite a ways behind Joe.
Note all those open bridges.... just saying
Phelan in his 1850 book (Billiards without a Master) likewise shows an upright stance:
So does Collender in 1880 (Modern Billiards):
So does Collender in 1880 (Modern Billiards):
FWIW, I was no pro but in 1970 I had just started playing pool and snooker at college. No instructor or books, just watched the better guys and most of them were low on the cue so that is how I started and still shoot most shots.
I remember reading a book from the local library back in the mid 70’s by a famous Aussie Snooker player named Horace Lindrum, and from what I remember that “Gun sight aim technique” was standard operating procedure for those guys. It made sense to a young Kentucky boy who loved firing rifles.
Don’t ask me how a library in rural KY got their hands on a book written by an Aussie snooker player, but it was very much appreciated by this old country boy.
I came here looking for this post! I remember reading that it was around the turn of the century is when most young professionals in English Billiards had their chin on or near the cue for most shots. I want to say around 1905 or 1910.
What a family of cuesman? Horace, Walter and I think there were a couple of others in the family that were awesome as well.
Even as late as 1913, Maurice Daly's popular billiards book (in the US) had photos only of upright stances:
