Zero Head Movement

I think Hunter Lombardo took his game all the way apart a few years back and put it back together, when he decided to go pro full time. That may have had a lot to do with his rock solid fundamentals/mechanics. He does have one of the straightest strokes out there.
 
Presumably Hunter has to keep his head still to stop his hair flopping over his eyes.

Joking aside, I often end up on a table next to him giving lessons and he is pretty strict with his students about having proper follow through and staying down for a few seconds after a shot.

I've seen him have a student drill the same shot for a full hour which I thought was a bit excessive but it does tell you something about his approach to practice.
 
Hunter is a perfectionist in regards to stroke and fundamentals... I would say if he ever finds his true rhythm and gets out of his own way he may end up with the word class level players... Love his drive and dedication just thing he is too hard on himself at times... Would like that in an instructor as I am usually not disciplined enough in my approach.....
 
bdorman said:
Most pros are reasonably still during their shot. A little twitch here or there, but for the most part they are still.

It's interesting, however, to see how many times (often) they'll miss a shot and the culprit was because they jumped up on the shot. Surprisingly, Efren seems to do it most often.
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I thought I read somewhere (might have been something Dr. Dave wrote) that almost all the time when players "jump up" it is AFTER the cue ball is long gone - in other words, jumping up is a reaction to a player knowing that they missed the shot, not the cause of it.

Gideon<----might be mis-remembering.
 
I've spent a lot of time (maybe wasted) closely observing various mechanical idiosynchasies of various top level pros. Efren moves is head slightly when his rhythm is off. Those shots he misses will usually have some head movement; maybe a reaction to knowing he's missed or part of the reason he missed...hard to tell. But he seems to be tired when his head starts moving, so I think it's causing problems for him. He admits as much.

Wang Can moves his head ever so slightly to the line outside the angle of the shot. He's not alone, a few other pros have done this.

Shane Van Boening pushes his lead shoulder just a hair toward the CB as he pulls the trigger (you can see the bend in his bridge hand elbow pull in just a few degrees). He has a slight swooping action/approach to the cue when he pulls the trigger.

Mika wiggles his cue up and down on his measuring strokes and almost NEVER pauses.

Earl and Johnny Archer both twist their wrists on firm stroke shots.

Kim Davenport and Jim Rempe both had a pronounced right to left movement on their tip during measuring and execution strokes.

Mike Davis swoops his stick in low to high on the CB, dropping his elbow (his stroke is about 90% shoulder and 10% elbow) with his feet about 4 or 5 feet apart.

Bustamante aims his cue extreme low/left, then brings it up to hit the CB where he intends as he pulls the trigger...actually, most of the Filipinos and a great many players (including SVB, Earl and others) will aim their cue at the bottom of the CB, at the felt and bring it up.

I would trade a perfect stroke for just a fraction of their skill and consistency any day.
 
Some great (and some not so great) analysis of pros' mechanics in this thread, but as a non-pro who wish to emulate the zero-head movement stroke of a Cheng or Lombardo...where do you start?

I think it's somewhat irrelevant to point out the quirks among pros. Obviously they are not affecting their game, and obviously any movement they have is after contact with CB. In my own game, I feel many missed shots are the result of movement prior to contact, and so my goal is to establish a stance/stroke/etc that incorporates zero movement.

This is more difficult than a matter of mental will, "just staying down" on the shot. I can stay down on the shot until the CB stops rolling, but when I look at the tape I'm still lunging before/during/or after contact. When I'm "in stroke" all the movement occurs after contact; when I'm struggling it seems i'm moving during or even before contact. Therefore it makes sense to me that if you are to improve on your fundamentals, trying to work out a set of mechanics that allow you to comfortably stroke through the ball w/o ANY head movement is highly beneficial to anyone not currently playing at pro speed.

IMO, watching Hunter's game...when he misses a shot it seems like he mis-aimed or misjudged english/speed, rather than anything to do with his fundamentals. This might or might not be true for pros with pronounced head/shoulder movement, but my point is it's not obvious with those guys.
 
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