This month I would like to address the difference between aiming and sighting a shot.
Those players who have developed a good routine will know that they don’t just get down on a shot and expect to see a magic point to aim at. Aiming starts from an upright position with body alignment. Before even getting down on a shot a player should stand in front of the shot and, once a decision is made on how the shot will be executed, line his or her body up a certain way. This is not the same for everyone. For example, I line up my right leg, while others turn their bodies more and may use the cue stick to align for the shot. You can do this either by placing the cue stick level and stepping in around it or by dropping the cue down the line of the shot from above after lining up the stance.
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How do you sight the shot? If you are a beginner, it is very hard to understand how to see the shot. When first starting out, many players don’t understand how to cut a ball. The contact point is different from where we aim the cueball. The contact point is the part of the object ball that we want to cover with part of the cueball. The contact point on a shot is the farthest point from the pocket. When we look at a half-ball shot, we would like half of the cueball to cover half of the object ball, as this part of the object ball is farthest from the pocket. Another way to explain this is to imagine a mirror image. If I am playing a fine cut, I pick an edge of the object ball that is farthest from the pocket and then I imagine the same portion of my cueball covering that, thus creating a mirror image.
What makes this particular shot tough is that you are literally aiming to miss the object ball, which makes it uncomfortable because you are aiming with your vision in to thin air because the target has almost disappeared. To be good at these shots you need to have a lot of trust in your set-up and mechanics, which goes back to what I first mentioned.
With plenty of practice you will learn how the shots look and how to aim and sight. For a beginner the easiest way to start seeing the various angles is to set up a line of five balls across the side pocket about a diamond out. Put another ball behind each one in line with the pocket. This ball will represent a ghost ball. This is where we want our cueball to contact the object ball. Now move the cueball with ball in hand each time to five different locations. The first represents a full-ball contact. If you place the cueball about a foot from the other two balls in a straight line, you will see that the whole ball is covered in front of you. This is the farthest point from the pocket. This is the point at which we want our cueball to strike the object ball. The other shots are as follows: half ball, three-quarter ball, quarter ball, and thin cut.
Each time take ball in hand and move the cueball around so that you are only covering the desired position on the object ball. You will see that no matter where you place the cueball the ghost ball is fully covered. But when you look at the object ball only portions are covered. Therefore the aiming point and contact points are completely different. Good luck!
This month’s question is: What does it take to reach the next level in your game and attitude?
Well, speaking from my own experience, I can share my story. When I first saw snooker on television, I fell in love with it. I don’t know why, but all I knew was that I wanted a table. I was seven years of age. When I was twelve, I progressed to a 12-foot by 6-foot table, which is the standard size for all tables in Europe.
When I wanted to improve on an area in my game, I went to the best player to learn it. Playing with the old locals, I also learned a good safety game, because they were not great shot makers. My grandfather said to me that I would never be as good as the best player in there. I think he inspired me to do my best. It became a challenge.
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I remember when I made my first 20-ball run, I ran over to my dad to tell him what I had done. He told me to concentrate on the next shot, which of course I missed, but that taught me to control myself better. One time, on my way back from a tournament, my parents told me off for taking it too easy in the finals of an event. From that day, at age 16, it became a job that I was dedicated to because I wanted to succeed. My whole attitude changed, and I realized I was going from a hobby to having to make a living. I always had the desire to do well, and I still do. The desire is to try and become the best player that you can be. Not everyone wants to make a living at it, and quite frankly, it is very tough to do so. But the game is so great because it is always challenging. It is also very rewarding when you can feel and see improvements.
The best way to reach new levels is to perfect one thing at a time. Take each part of your game apart and see where the weaknesses are and then rebuild it. I can never stress enough the need for great fundamentals. If you have flaws, they will kill you under pressure. There are millions of great players in practice but very few in a match.
The other thing in your game that needs to be good is mental toughness. Try to work on putting bad shots or results behind you and learning from the experiences. Write down the shots you missed and practice them over and over. If you keep missing them, it is time to analyze your stroke and alignment. It can be something minor that is going wrong. Give yourself some achievable goals, whether in matches or in practice drills. Start building confidence and watch good players to try and learn new things. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you like the way someone does something.
Please can you explain in more detail how to hold the cue and talk about the grip?
First, when I teach pool, I talk about having a pendulum action. When addressing your tip to the cueball, the back hand should fall at a right angle (90 degrees) with the cue. The reason for this is that when you swing the cue backward and propel it forward, the tip will be striking the ball with good acceleration and continue accelerating through the stroke. If you hold the back hand inward on the cue instead of straight down, you will lose the acceleration and end up without a smooth stroke. On the other hand, if you hold behind the 90-degree spot, you will be accelerating too soon and start slowing down when making contact with the cueball, thus losing energy on the ball.
Now, to the grip or not, as Gerda Hofstatter and I refer to it at our academy in Charlotte, NC. At any point through the stroke, the big danger is to grip the cue too tight. Remember, the cue does the work, and we are just there to guide it. Many people have a tendency to add more pressure to the cue when they have a tough shot or are nervous. The muscles in the arm tense up because often we look at a shot and have already decided that we don't like it. Start looking forward to the shot as a challenge. The most important thing is to make sure to let the cue stay as level as possible and relatively loose throughout the stroke.
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At the beginning of every shot I settle in to a comfortable position and address the ball. At this point my whole hand is on the cue. Depending on the speed of the shot, what I am about to execute will vary what I do with my back hand. If I am going to play a short touch shot that does not require much energy on the cueball, I keep my whole hand on the cue because my backswing is very little. Now, if I need to impart a lot of energy on the cueball for a long draw shot, I have different hand movement. In order to keep the cue as level as possible, I have to open my wrist in a backward-forward motion, not sideways. When addressing the cueball, I have my hand on the cue, and as I draw the cue back, my wrist opens up. My last two fingers may be touching the cue but have no effect. Instead, the front of my hand may feel a slight pressure between the thumb and index finger with my middle finger and index finger guiding the cue. At the back of my stroke when the cue is as far back as I want it with the wrist open, I now start my follow through accelerating forward. As I do this, the fourth finger now comes back on the cue, and the front of my hand between the thumb and index finger is loose. My lower arm and my back hand at this point is forward of the right angle originally created at the beginning of the stroke when addressing the ball.
There are many different ways that players hold a cue, and there is no right or wrong, as long as the cue comes through in a straight line. What works for me may not work for someone else. The important thing is to be able to identify what you do and how it feels to you. The more you know and understand your own mechanics, the quicker you improve and your level of consistency grows.
Hi everyone! As always, thanks for writing in with any questions you may have about your pool game. I have been teaching for many years now, and the question I want to cover this month is about dropping the elbow during the stroke.
I typically stand in an open stance, meaning that I more or less face each shot. If you do the same, you know that it is difficult to follow through beyond a certain point because the chest inhibits this. It is only possible to get more follow through by dropping the elbow.
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In a typical pool stance, where the body is turned more to the side, it is easy to get more follow through, for the chest does not inhibit the stroke any more. However, the question really is how much follow through beyond hitting the cue ball do we need? The cue tip stays in contact with the ball for one two-thousandths of a second. This has been proven with the use of slow-motion camera.
So why follow through? The purpose of following through is for a consistent and natural stroke. It is part of having great fundamentals. You will never see a golfer or a tennis player stopping after striking the ball. The reason is that they would be slowing down their stroke during contact. The game of pool is all about timing, the energy we are giving the ball during contact. When the cue ball does not go from “A” to “B,” often it is because we decelerated the cue during the delivery. The spin stays on much longer with a good follow through because of the energy and mass of the cue.
When I teach, I tell my students that their back swing should look like their follow through—a mirror image. Of course this will vary, depending on the power of the shot. I teach my students not to drop their elbows. I like to keep everything as compact as possible. Only in very extreme circumstances, like with a long draw shot, would a longer follow through help because of more stick speed. The most important thing is to be accelerating when impacting the cue ball with a smooth delivery.
The only things that should be moving during a stroke are the eyes and the lower arm from the elbow down. I think when some players try to create more power, they tense the muscles up, hitting the ball like it is a brick wall. Therefore, very little spin is applied to the cue ball. Others create power by dropping the arm, which can bring the tip up at the wrong time. See what happens when you drop the elbow. You will see the tip ends up in the air, thus not contacting the cue ball in the correct spot. This is where timing comes in to play. Stay very loose in the arm so that the biceps and triceps can do their job at the right time. Just be aware of what you are doing, as this will help you improve your game.
I’ve learned a lot through watching you on ESPN. I’m a college student, and we have bought an old pool table for our house. I’m a beginner, and I’m still learning about english and the different angles. I don’t understand how you get the cue ball to draw back to you, though. I’ve tried everything. If it doesn’t miscue, it will jump. I don’t have to be great, but I miss some easy shots sometimes. For example, I may miss a straight shot, or I’ll make the shot and the cue will follow in the pocket. Then, I’ll make a difficult cut shot on my next shot. It doesn’t make sense. Thanks for your time.
-Douglas
When anyone picks up a cue stick for the first time, they just want to try and make the balls in the pockets. The funniest thing happened to me at a trade show a couple of years ago. Four children approached the J.S. Sales booth where I am a player representative for Cuetec cues. They each challenged me to a game. I happily obliged, but then I saw the end of their cue sticks—they all had a built-on cue ball on top! I would break the balls, and they would play with their own cue ball on cue and tap the balls in the pockets! They all beat me. With my ego barely intact I met their father, who created their sticks. It helped the kids reach the shots and gain confidence from making the shots and feeling for hitting the balls. They could memorize angles by seeing how much of the ball was covered when sinking the balls. I thought it was a fantastic idea to get someone started, even though I hated losing!
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When Walter Lindrum, a billiard player from Australia, was growing up, his father only allowed him one ball to play with for a couple of years before he added any more. Steve Davis, a great snooker player who dominated the sport in the 1980s, used to hit the cue ball up and down the spots on a 12-foot snooker table for hours on end. That is true dedication to perfection—or a little insanity!
I think just hitting a ball in the center is very tough, because the tip isn’t flat and neither is the ball’s surface; therefore, it is very easy to put unwanted spin on the cue ball and object ball. I have mentioned it in past articles and I probably won’t stop—learn what can be achieved with no sidespin first. It is amazing that just by adjusting tip position slightly there are so many ways to play position on the table.
Here is a good drill for you: Set up a straight-in shot across the center of the table. Address the cue tip in the center of the cue ball with a level cue. When you hit the ball, the cue ball should stop when it impacts the object ball, as they are in close range. Now address the top of the cue ball by raising your fingertips of your bridge hand and do the same thing. You will notice that with a level cue the ball just wants to keep rolling after contact.
Now for the tough one: the draw. Really, it is not that tough once you accomplish it for the first time. Lower your bridge hand and address the tip of the cue at the bottom of the cue ball. Again, try not to raise the butt of the cue or the natural action on impact is to lift the cue tip up, creating a jump or miscue. Take a slow backswing and make sure you follow through beyond the cue ball smoothly. The cue ball will come back toward you if the speed was correct. If you hit too softly, the cue ball will have a bit of backspin, but the backspin could wear off too soon, possibly sending the cue ball forward slowly on impact or simply stopping the cue ball in place. Another piece of advice is to make sure you don’t grip the cue tightly when following through. The back hand guides the cue, and the grip pressure doesn’t change. Learning angles and speed control can be improved with drills and lots of good practice. Take it slowly and absorb what you are learning. Have fun!
