Why do Players Miss Power Shots?

[Colin Colenso]

Interesting. So, your theory is really opposite of what would be the standard answer.

Your theory suggests that a person will actually hold their initial aim line better on a power stroke.

Fred

Yes, I believe this is the cause of many misses for mid to high level players. They lose that ability to make small swiping adjustments when shooting firm.

They often line up thick on shots and swipe them a little with OE to make the shots. So when the whack the shot, momentum resists swiping off line.

I think a large percentage of players swipe and aren't very aware they are doing it.

If people didn't make these adjustments, they should pot just nearly as well closing their eyes...but if you get players to close their eyes when stroking, you'll see they miss quite a lot.

 

[Colin Colenso]

When I miss power shots, I tend to hit the CB left of my intended aim line (i stroke right-handed). I think this is because the power shot is more of a pulling action than a pushing action. When you pull something, your hands naturally want to be pulled toward your body. This is what happens to me on a power stroke. When I stroke hard, my backhand tends to go towards my side instead of going straight through the target line. This results in my tip striking the CB a little to the right of where I intend to hit it. This off-center hit, combined with a hard stroke, causes the CB to squirt towards the left. I always noticed on hard shots, I undercut cut shots to the left and overcut shots to the right.

jsp,
This is a pretty common problem I think. When I'm not shooting a lot I often put a touch of right english on the CB unintentionally and miss those same shots, on the same sides as you.

I believe another significant cause of this is that the body drifts left, especially when taking a more powerful swing.

I did a lot of practice with a laser, and though I soon gained control of cuing straight, the dot would often shift to the right as I tired in my stance.

Hence, I think it is very important to develop a balanced and strong stance, so the body is still and stable. Try this out, it may help.

 

[Colin Colenso]

Jamison raised an interesting issue with pauses on the backswing.

Actually, some of the most accurate potters and positional players such as Steven Hendry and Steve Davis utilize this pause method.

However, I think it is an alignment issue for them, alowing them a mental period to prepare for small adjustments in final deliver.

Starting from a static position such as this requires more effort to produce the same speed of hit. Just a someone can jump higher if they bob down before jumping rather than squating still before the jump. This is known in the field of biomechanics as being due to the eccentric contractions produced in the muscle fibres.

I can't think of any accuracy sports requiring speed judgement that begin statically. Such sports as darts, golf, bowling, diving, gymnastics all utilize a dynamic aspect at the beginning of an action requiring accuracy.

 

[mnorwood]

Reasons for power missing:

1. Tensing muscles
2. Practice stroking faster than usual which leads to a wobble in the backstroke.
3. Moving before contact (body and bridgehand)
4. Lack of confidence

Power is useless without a fluid accurate stroke. I beleive experienced pool players forget this due to their involvement in other sports. Players revert to their little league mentality of swinging for fences.

One interesting obsevation that I have made is that players who play on bar tables are more accurate speed shooters. I beleive this is due to the fact that to draw the big rock much more power is needed, therefore they are more accustomed to stroking with speed.

 

[pete lafond]

Jamison raised an interesting issue with pauses on the backswing.

Actually, some of the most accurate potters and positional players such as Steven Hendry and Steve Davis utilize this pause method.

However, I think it is an alignment issue for them, alowing them a mental period to prepare for small adjustments in final deliver.

Starting from a static position such as this requires more effort to produce the same speed of hit. Just a someone can jump higher if they bob down before jumping rather than squating still before the jump. This is known in the field of biomechanics as being due to the eccentric contractions produced in the muscle fibres.

I can't think of any accuracy sports requiring speed judgement that begin statically. Such sports as darts, golf, bowling, diving, gymnastics all utilize a dynamic aspect at the beginning of an action requiring accuracy.

In fact a more efficient power can be attained with a pause. We see much more golf on TV than we do pool and both back swings/stroke are to achieve only one thing which is to get the club/cue in position only.

Many players try to create a bounce using their legs, legs are were the extra force comes from, making them think they are getting more power. In fact it is the opposite because as we stroke backwards faster, the forward stroke is now fighting the backwards momentum which kills power.

Notice when a golfer on TV needs to get a 9 iron over the trees for a distance of about 180 yards. The back swing they take is slower and more deliberate. Why, because they need to get the legs, and rest of the body into a settled position for maximum torque. I also know this because in golf if I need an extra 10 or more yards out of an iron to cut a corner over the trees, my pause is longer than my normal swing. I use golf here because we can see results by the distance outcome were as in pool we do not have the tools to measure in normal play.

Look at a baseball pitcher. They also pause before they follow through on their throw. If so much power were gotten by moving faster (reducing the pause) taking the ball back, more would be doing it. How about the batter, just before the ball arrives he creates that extra coil but there is a slight pause before he swings.

Clearly, you do not want to be idle for a long period of time because of muscle locking. But the important thing here is that power shots are missed because the player was too fast and never allowed for settle time (this includes everything including aim and posture).

There are no shots in pool that require so much power that a normal back stroke with a slight pause can not handle. On the other hand, the player that does not pause long enough they are more likely to have an erratic shot because the flaws in their stroke will become more pronounced.

 

[Colin Colenso]

In fact a more efficient power can be attained with a pause. We see much more golf on TV than we do pool and both back swings/stroke are to achieve only one thing which is to get the club/cue in position only.

Many players try to create a bounce using their legs, legs are were the extra force comes from, making them think they are getting more power. In fact it is the opposite because as we stroke backwards faster, the forward stroke is now fighting the backwards momentum which kills power.

Notice when a golfer on TV needs to get a 9 iron over the trees for a distance of about 180 yards. The back swing they take is slower and more deliberate. Why, because they need to get the legs, and rest of the body into a settled position for maximum torque. I also know this because in golf if I need an extra 10 or more yards out of an iron to cut a corner over the trees, my pause is longer than my normal swing. I use golf here because we can see results by the distance outcome were as in pool we do not have the tools to measure in normal play.

Look at a baseball pitcher. They also pause before they follow through on their throw. If so much power were gotten by moving faster (reducing the pause) taking the ball back, more would be doing it. How about the batter, just before the ball arrives he creates that extra coil but there is a slight pause before he swings.

Clearly, you do not want to be idle for a long period of time because of muscle locking. But the important thing here is that power shots are missed because the player was too fast and never allowed for settle time (this includes everything including aim and posture).

There are no shots in pool that require so much power that a normal back stroke with a slight pause can not handle. On the other hand, the player that does not pause long enough they are more likely to have an erratic shot because the flaws in their stroke will become more pronounced.

The increased power from what is called dynamic eccentric contractions does not increase proportional to the speed in the reverse direction that preempts it.

It a golf swing, the major speed producing muscles are not active at the top of the backswing, but moreso during the lower section of the swing when the right arm (if right handed) triceps and then wrists come into play. If the swing is rushed into movement, the sequence of contractions of the muscles is hard to achieve such that the strongest muscles experience a degree of eccentric force, such as the wrists do as they flex back during the down swing.

Regarding the legs, they are potentially very powerful, when combined with the back muscles, if they act to pull up on the club as it approaches the ball. This creates centrifugal force, the force that hammer throwers utilize to accelerate the hammer, by pulling away at 90 degrees from the direction of movement. You'll notice a lot of the long drivers powerfully extend their front legs during the impact phase to utilize this force.

 

[pete lafond]

The increased power from what is called dynamic eccentric contractions does not increase proportional to the speed in the reverse direction that preempts it.

It a golf swing, the major speed producing muscles are not active at the top of the backswing, but moreso during the lower section of the swing when the right arm (if right handed) triceps and then wrists come into play. If the swing is rushed into movement, the sequence of contractions of the muscles is hard to achieve such that the strongest muscles experience a degree of eccentric force, such as the wrists do as they flex back during the down swing.

Regarding the legs, they are potentially very powerful, when combined with the back muscles, if they act to pull up on the club as it approaches the ball. This creates centrifugal force, the force that hammer throwers utilize to accelerate the hammer, by pulling away at 90 degrees from the direction of movement. You'll notice a lot of the long drivers powerfully extend their front legs during the impact phase to utilize this force.

Correct and order is important, which is also why settle time is so important.

This is how I explain the muscle group movement to golfers and pool players;

Imagine that you are holding a cement block with your arms straight down. The objective is to throw it to the left (assuming you are right handed) as far as you can. You need to swing it from sided to side only to finally get it as far right as possible. You can not hurry the throw, it has to be at the moment of peak on your right side before you begin the throw, a pause (settle time and timing is very important). It is the large muscle group at work only. Guiding the cement block is with the smaller muscle group.

The power for pool and golf come from the same large muscle group used to throw the block. Throwing it too soon will cause you to fall over, or miss a pool shot. Also, because it is heavy, we are accelerating as we throw it because otherwise too soon will cause loss of power.

You can not hurry the block just like you can not hurry the golf swing or the pool stroke. If more players attacked their stroke this way they would not only make more shots, but gain much better CB control.

 

[JPAlexis]

Making the long hard shot

A couple years ago I wached a money match between a guy from Florida, Adam Schick playing Minnesotan Toby Dick. They doubled up the money and the score was 8-8 in a race to 9. Adam got stuck on the bottom rail on the 8 which was 2/3 up the table almost straight in. Adam slamed the 8 ball in and the cue ball hit the top rail and came all the way down to the bottom rail for position on the 9-ball. To start out with cue ball was frozen on the bottom rail, I thought this was the greatest shot I had ever seen in my 50 years around pool.
I bought Bert Kinisters "Secrets of Making the Long Hard Shots". Guess What folks, I now make that shot. Not every time but maybe 1 out of 3 or 4. Bert says you are aiming at the ball wrong and it is an optical illusion. I watched this very poor quality tape and think Bert you are full of crap. I paid this guy good money, so I try what he is saying and I shoot not from the rail but maybe 6-8 inches from the rail and make this shot 7 out of 10. The next night I make 10 out of 10. After about 4-5 days of practice I start hitting them from the rail and am about 70%. I still can't believe it, but it works. Of course you have to stay down and follow throw. Buy his tape. You will like it. JP Alexis

 

[Bob Jewett]

... t on slower shots a slight twist left or right of the cue, albeit unconsciously (reactively) allows them to divert the CB to where it needs to go. They do this because often their bridge position is not set up correctly for a straight cuing action to make the pot.

But on a power shot, these little adjustments cannot be made, or if made slightly, they don't have the same effect on the CB direction. Hence the player misses a lot of these power shots.
...

I think this may be a factor. A lot of fairly good players have little movements in their bridge hand just as they shoot, presumably because they have set up wrong as you propose. This is different from swooping, which can't help much if they are bridging at the effective pivot point. Their hands have learned over the years that some motion is needed to make the ball. I think such problems also cause these players to shoot at the wrong speed because the required speed is not one that will make the ball for the spin they are using. Of course, all this supposing is hard to test.

 

[Colin Colenso]

I think this may be a factor. A lot of fairly good players have little movements in their bridge hand just as they shoot, presumably because they have set up wrong as you propose. This is different from swooping, which can't help much if they are bridging at the effective pivot point. Their hands have learned over the years that some motion is needed to make the ball. I think such problems also cause these players to shoot at the wrong speed because the required speed is not one that will make the ball for the spin they are using. Of course, all this supposing is hard to test.

Hi Bob,
Firstly, I was thinking about the terminology. I've been using swipe to indicate a sideways movement of the tip, but on consideration I think 'sweep' is more appropriate, and 'swoop' as it indicates downward sweeping would be best left for swooping as a way to increase bottom spin. The term sweep is relevant for its previous uses such as: 'to sweep the cards from the table' or 'he swept his gaze across the skyline'.

I've been doing some testing with 'sweep' and how it relates to pivot points. What I've found is two-fold:
1. Sweep takes the CB off line significantly more than straight through cuing...up to several degrees.
2. Almost all shots are played and bridge length and at a distance such that sweeping will send the OB thinner for OE and thicker for IE than it original path of alignment.
(This is true not because players bridge shorter than their pivot point, but because SIT requires that the CB deviates from the straight pivot line. Also because sweeping increases the effective pivot point considerably, and that pivot point length seems to increase at slow speeds...hence, my cue has a pivot point at 10" for firm hits, but at near 20" for slow swept shots).

Therefore, sweeping creates a significant response in the intuitive direction in nearly all practical cases. Hence, if a player is aligned to undercut, sweeping to the thinner side will compensate for this...and vice-versa for undercut adjustments.

I think this is a very common and significant adjustment factor for players, and something that they find much harder to apply with consistency at speed.

 

[Bob Jewett]

...
1. Sweep takes the CB off line significantly more t... .

This (and the other points) depend on the timing of contact. If the ball is struck earlier or later in the sweep, I think your statements will have to be reversed.

 

[Egg McDogit]

I'm just a streetplayer, but I think slowrolling accurately is harder than smacking a ball 200mph.

I can't think of too many cases where you really need to smack the ball 200mph other than when your almost straight in and want to stun over or when the table is messed up or you're out of position and need to force follow 2-3 rails with english or maybe draw with english to get around some blockers or something. In those cases, it's probably putting all that juice on the ball that's killing you, not the amount of power?

I belive one reason is that they are tensed up, negative about the shot in the first place and so they cannot relax and use their senses and shot memory to align properly.

But another interesting reason I have been thinking about, is that on slower shots a slight twist left or right of the cue, albeit unconsciously (reactively) allows them to divert the CB to where it needs to go. They do this because often their bridge position is not set up correctly for a straight cuing action to make the pot.

But on a power shot, these little adjustments cannot be made, or if made slightly, they don't have the same effect on the CB direction. Hence the player misses a lot of these power shots.

Thoughts?

Colin