Gripping the cue with two fingers off the butt

[cazmac1]

I had lots of trouble with uploading video. I sorted it now but have change a lot of things about my game since this post. I'll have to read though it and see if the point still apply to my game as it stands now.

[seppo147]

I dont mind about gripping,i just take as slow its possible to make last backswing. Grip comes natural.

[Terry Davidson]

seppo:

The unfortunate thing is the grip does not become 'natural' and it's probably the one thing players tinker the most with and that's especially including myself.

I got myself into the unfortunate habit of having the butt of the cue too far into my palm which results in the natural reaction of gripping the cue too tight and too early in the delivery and thus 'stabbing' the cueball (stabbing means decelerating before you hit the cueball and this lead to disasterous results).

Having lately lost my last 3 matches 4-0, 4-0 and 5-1 I decided something wasn't right and out came the video camera (yet again as I don't have a coach handy) and using frame-by-frame stop action analysis I found I was slowing down the cue before I actually hit the cueball. I knew something wasn't right as my grip hand was not 'driving' into my chest except on the very high power shots and even then my accuracy sucked.

So now the question was (about one week ago) how can I resolve this. That's when I discovered I was using a 'wrap-around' grip and even though I was trying to keep it as loose as possible it bacame obvious my hand tightened way too prematurely in the stroke.

BACK TO BASICS!!!!!

In the past week (and just after I received my new TW cue with my own specs) I 'stole' the grip advice from the great Joe Davis and also Frank Callan's book and took the cue more towards my fingertips and allowed the 4 fingers to make a very relaxed hold on the butt with the thumb lightly resting against the tip of the forefinger. I found that with this grip I was not 'gripping' the cue at all until my hand (back of the thumb) hit my chest. THIS GRIP ALSO GIVES YOU A SLIGHTLY MORE PRONOUNCED WRIST COCK, which is a good thing by the way.

Suddenly, I'm much more accurate and also my head and shoulders remain still and I actually had to adjust my power as I was over-screwing everything. It was also a very nice feeling delivering the cue consistently.

Now for cazmac, straigtening out the left arm should not lead to having to get a longer cue unless you have very long arms. Ensure in the address position you have the following: 10-12in from the 'V' of the bridge to the cueball, cue less than 1/8in from the cueball, left forearm bent no more than 10degrees, grip arm forearm hanging vertically and grip hand directly over the laces on your right foot. Use the Joe Davis grip with the cue just laying in the 'bed' of the 4 fingers and on the backswing allow the butt of the cue to push the back 2 or 3 fingers out of the way but still remain in contact with the butt of the cue.

ALWAYS initiate the backswing and delivery using ONLY the forefinger unless you've decided to experiment with the 'Alex Higgins grip' and are holding the cue with the back 3 fingers. You can try using the second (longest) finger as your primary grip also as this seems to make the drive through to the chest more consistent, especially under match conditions during the first frame or so when you nerves are a little shakey.

Remember to keep the backswing very slow too.

Terry

[seppo147]

For some people grip comes naturally! Trust me Terry. That doesnt mean grip is like coach says but still working. Try Terry slow backswing or very fast,in slow backswing grip is comes natural. If doesnt go try nother sports!

[cazmac1]

I am going to turn this on its head now. I did get a longer cue made by TW at 58 I tried to play with it but just couldn't get use to it. I have since had it shorten by H&O to 56 inch. I've also had coaching from Del hill and have tried to play with the arm straighter but it just has not worked for me.
I still have the fault of cuing across or putting side on the ball. I been practicing the last two days and have found a practice potting routine that really exposes the problem to its extreme. So yesterday I spent about two hours basically on the same shot and no matter what I changed grip, legs, tucking the shoulder in or pushing the arm out nothing really worked, the result was the same and the object ball was missing by the same amount to the same side all the time. I just couldn't make this shot twice in a row, in the end I put it down to maybe being tired so went home.
So today I set the practice up again and with the same results. I began to think maybe it’s my eyes and experimented with putting the cue inside of the chin then outside the chin with no success. I then started to think that maybe the cue is throwing the white off, so tried holding the cue with the flat in different positions and yet the result was the same again. What I found amazing is that the error is so consistent that I know if I could find out what is going on I can correct it. Then I cracked it. I done the reverse of every thing that del hill and my friends have been telling me and bent my bridge arm and lengthen my bridge overhang and bingo every thing fell into place. I started potting and what’s more because I was actually hitting the white correctly, I was getting more reaction from the white. Now I don't have all the answers but it would seem that when I try to play text book it actually throws my cuing off. I have decided that I'm going to go with what works for me and tear up the text book. It’s a shame that I couldn’t work with you directly Terry so that you could see what is happening I’m sure that if I fully understood what is going on I could finally reach my full potential.

[adibon]

Gripping the cue

For some people grip comes naturally! Trust me Terry. That doesnt mean grip is like coach says but still working. Try Terry slow backswing or very fast,in slow backswing grip is comes natural. If doesnt go try nother sports!

Salam,
Grip does not come naturally and it should be taught as it is done for many other sports,arts,...
It may take many many years before this gets accepted but the sad part is that there are not many people who can teach this.
We all have a lot to learn about this " Grip "

Be Sport ... Become adib ( wise )