O'Sullivan's Cue Action

[brettski]

He does have a great cue action, always seeming to be bang on with it. Shame I tend to stab occasionally, its harder than it looks to maintain technique. However God knows how Joe Swail pots a ball.

[coach del]

cue action

the way Ronnie drives through the ball is very popular with alot of pro s and top ams now days .i find coaching this way helps improve alot of my pupils i would always encourage this cue action ,best wishes and happy snooker Del

[poolqjunkie]

the way Ronnie drives through the ball is very popular with alot of pro s and top ams now days .i find coaching this way helps improve alot of my pupils i would always encourage this cue action ,best wishes and happy snooker Del

Please forgive me for sounding so ignorant. From reading the posts especially by Lee, it sounds like keeping the elbow up, back hand opened up at the end of the stroke type of cueing is not what this driving through the ball stroke is about...could you please elaborate a bit because I am confused. Is this a different new way of cueing?

What I meant to ask is I guess is there a major difference(s) between the cueing action taught by you and that by Frank Callan and Terry Griffith?

Thanks.

[lee brett]

pool junkie

where in canada do u live?
it is very simple to do, and show you how to do this, you obviously are confused by what where trying to explain to you on how to do this,
the cue comes back on an up slope opening the hand then dropping the elbow, creates the drive and closes the hand on the follow through, keeping the elbow up in a high position helps on dropping it in the drive as it has to go down,

[burwat292596]

Hi Lee

Just a quick question on your theory, I am 6'3 using a 59 1/4 inch cue as it feels comfortable - would I be better off using a shorter cue (a lot of ppl here advocate a shorter cue) - where are you on this argument?

Tks
Ian

[1lawyer]

There is a lot more to coaching than learning this dropping the elbow thing..I think that it is quite wrong to advise people do this without seeing them as what suits one player will not always suit another surely?

[LeeMills]

Hi,

O'Sullivan does have an almost perfect cue action and timing almost on a par with Jimmy White. He seems to make the white ball travel very far with very little action. I have a similar cue action with Ronnie where I drop my arm on power shot but not necessarily on low power shots. If you watch Ronnie on low power shots he doesn't drop his arm very much but on high power shots his arm drops a hell of a lot. The grip is also very important as the back of the hand is a little open meaning when the arm drops the grip changes and thats why the thumb moves. The way I feel my arm on the shot is just before the arm hits my chest my arm drops. I'll try and post a few videos of me in action, oh and on a final note, get as low as possible on the shot and bring your back arm as low as possible!

Lee.

[joe.l]

the stroke

read Joe Davis's book it will explain everything

[Terry Davidson]

About the Joe Davis book. It has everything a player needs BUT if you're taller than 5ft6in then bend your bridge arm a bit. Joe advocated the straight left arm as did Jack Karnham when he ran the B&SCC school in the 80's.

I advocate dropping the elbow a little on the backswing, however the amount totally depends on the length of the final backswing which in turn depends on the amount of power for the shot. Slow, pocket-weight shots demand a shorter backswing, no elbow drop but still bring the grip to chest. Harder shots need a longer backswing with elbow drop, longer follow-through also with an elbow drop.

You could try the Ronnie technique but it's a bitch to teach as Ronnie grips with his middle 2 fingers and drops his elbow BEFORE (or during) he hits the cueball and that coordination is very difficult to teach and does not suit all players. The reason Ronnie gets that cueball action with seemingly little power is his upper-arm muscle, which is more powerful, is involved when he goes through the cueball.

Terry

[joe.l]

cue action

I think Joe Davis said that the grip of the cue is made up with the thumb and first 2 fingers . that the cue rests against the pads of the last 2 . on the backswing this allows the hand to open , and this keeps the cue on a flat plane , no rocking up and down . what is not explained in the book is that on some shots ,say when the cueball is near the rail , and you are hitting the bottom part of the white , the grip should be made with the rear 2 fingers . I personally think that follow-throw is over rated . it should be the end of the natural forward thrust of the cue, and that there should be an end to it (when the tip of the cue comes into contact with the white the cueing action should begin to stop , (hit and hold and keep the cue on line ) after all once the cueball is on it's way to the contact target area of the object ball the shot is deemed finished , or very close to it ( keeping head still , eyes looking at where the object is or was , ) follow threw should happen naturally and on most shots to over do it causes the shoulder to drop before the ball is hit and this causes inaccurarcy = missed shot . far better to have a good line behind the cue , as to height the stance can be adjusted ...later Joe

[Terry Davidson]

joe.l:

Although you can believe what you like, I do disagree with some of your statements. Firstly, there are no shots where you should grip with the back 2 fingers, however grip is something each player does individually and I don't believe there is one 'correct' grip as long as it's nice and loose and not a death grip on the butt.

Both Nic Barrow and myself try and analyse the top 16 pros at any given time and see what they are doing in common. For this we use slow motion and stop-motion video along with a software analysis tool called 'Dartfish'. There are 5 things all the top pros do in common and the last of them is they all bring their grip hands to their chest consistently, except perhaps on short pocket-weight shots where there's a lot of room for error and the pot is very simple.

The amount of follow-through achieved by this is somewhere around 5in as measured from the edge of the cueball closest to the player's eyes, unless the player drops his elbow and achieves 7-8in of follow-through. The primary reason for this is it ensures the player is accelerating all the way through the cueball and beyond it a little bit plus stopping the grip in one position all the time leads to better consistency.

When most players stop the cue before the hand hits the chest is means at somewhere around the moment of impact with the cueball they are starting to decelerate the cue and they do this by gripping it harder in order to slow it down and stop it. Since this would natually happen later in higher power shots it would seem a natural thing to do all the time as long as the player's natural rhythm is not screwed with.

This harder gripping of the cue involves closing the fingers and thumb tighter around the butt and usually involves a slight upward and to the right movement of the butt, taking the cue off-line in a lot of cases unless the player has learned to grip the cue tighter with just the inside of the forefinger and thumb without applying any upward pressure.

Terry

[noel]

... accelerating all the way through the cueball and beyond it a little bit plus stopping the grip in one position all the time leads to better consistency. Terry

Makes complete sense to me Terry.



=o)

Noel

[mick 142]

hi i have studied ronnies action for a few years and he raps his hand around the cue to keep his arm straight .he also keeps his thumb straight and opens his forfinger this feels very strange for a wile but it dose work it has helped my game.

[mick 142]

hi i have been lucky to speak to ronnie him self about his action and and grip he said he raps his hand around the cue this keeps his arm in line with his elbow he then opens his forfinger and keeps his thumb straight he only holds the cue with back three fingers .he keeps his wrist very loose this helps with the follow through .if your wrist is stiff then you cant drop your elbow as he dose his left arm is slightly bent with his hand pointing inwards just a bit this keeps his cue of his chest .and he points his right foot at the shot

[noel]

hi i have been lucky to speak to ronnie him self about his action and and grip he said he raps his hand around the cue this keeps his arm in line with his elbow he then opens his forfinger and keeps his thumb straight he only holds the cue with back three fingers .he keeps his wrist very loose this helps with the follow through .if your wrist is stiff then you cant drop your elbow as he dose his left arm is slightly bent with his hand pointing inwards just a bit this keeps his cue of his chest .and he points his right foot at the shot

Very cool Mick! Thanks!
Does this technique work for non-geniuses too?


L0L.


=o)

Noel