cue arm&shoulder

[hsn]

I see. Do you know who helped him achieve that alignment? By the way it was me. He was saying that he managed to achieve this alignment by moving his shoulder out from his natural position and that he was not feeling natural and comfortable as well. What I said was to move (move meant to adjust and not to move them miles) his feet in such a way that the same alignment is achieved naturally, without having to say move his shoulder in or out only to end up missing the pot as the arm returns to its NATURAL position during the delivery.

I want to learn something from expert people like yourself but I am surprised to see that you often misunderstand what you should know better than us.

Did you not say to move the feet Around? Moving the feet will change what looks to me like a great alignment. I think alabadi needs to work on his. Rhythm and timing, especially accelerating through

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

Hi Terry can you please enlighten me out of your coaching experience what comments of of mine do you disagree with in post # 267? Did I say that the alignment is not good?

Did you not say to move the feet Around? Moving the feet will change what looks to me like a great alignment. I think alabadi needs to work on his. Rhythm and timing, especially accelerating through

Terry

[Byrom]

I'm not saying you shouldn't change things if they are drastically wrong and will eventually improve your game.

I'm on about you trying to contort your body into a shape where you look aesthetically correct in the stance, but might mess up any chance of cueing straight. You only have to look at pro pics to see this. ROS, Hendry, Higgins elbow in. Perry, Parrott, Reardon elbow out. Perry's shoulder visible etc etc. Don't you think if it was that imperative to straight cueing that all these players would have looked into it?

Snooker is a simple game of getting the cue on line, pulling it back straight and pushing it through straight. The 'secret' is working on a pre shot routine and walk in that enables this consistently. Whatever you look like to achieve this will be unique to you.

You say you have only been playing 3.5 years. Well I have been playing a lot longer to a pretty high standard and in the past have been sucked in to filling my head with all sorts of thoughts of what I 'should' be doing. And do you know when my best period of play was? When I was practicing more!

I like this answer personally - if you don't please form an orderly queue in the - how to over think it line.

Saying that however we have all been in that line at one time or another - so what the hell where did I put that mirror

[hsn]

Hi Terry can you please enlighten me out of your coaching experience what comments of of mine do you disagree with in post # 267? Did I say that the alignment is not good?

alabadi:

Yes, the first photo in post #240 shows your elbow hanging in a bit BUT the damned line isn't vertical so it looks worse than it is. In the second set of 2 photos in post #264 I would say your alignment is PERFECT and would disagree with 'hsn' comments on those 2 photos.

If you aren't improving with that alignment getting plenty of practice then I would look elsewhere for whatever is holding you back. The first thing I would look at is the grip...is it relaxed through the whole backswing and delivery? Next I would look at your actual backswing...is it absolutely straight and not too fast? Next I would look at your delivery...is it straight and of special importance are you accelerating through the cueball with the grip still relaxed and not stopping the acceleration of the cue until the back of your grip hand hits your chest (this will squeeze the thumb into the cue and automatically tighten the grip well after the strike, in fact at the very end of the delivery).

So all this said what you need to do is put up a series of 3 videos. The first from straight on with the camera showing from 6" in front of the cueball to the top of the elbow and try 10 long blue 'stop shots'. The second should be from directly behind you with the camera showing from the top of the elbow down to just below the cue. The third should be from the grip hand side showing from top of elbow down to just below the cue.

Take 5 long blue stop shots with each video. Forget about your stance and alignment as I'd be willing to bet they are fine judging from the 2 photos in post #264. Post those videos and don't worry if you miss the blue since that will more than likely tell us where you're going wrong. If you don't want to post the videos on here then email me with a link and I'll take a look, free of charge.

Terry

[tedisbill]

Alabadi:

Your biggest problem is not accelerating through the cue ball on every single shot. When I watch your line-up videos, you tend to very tentatively hit the cue ball. As Terry says, you must accelerate through the white on every shot.

Your latest line up video, you even laugh at yourself after the first black. Then you play a red to the middle and jump up on the shot. You again say out loud "didn't commit to it".

For me this is what is holding you back. You MUST stike the cue ball positively every single time.

[alabadi]

Thanks Terry that will be helpful. I will try and do some in the next couple of days

[Terry Davidson]

Post 240 on this thread Terry.

alabadi:

Yes, the first photo in post #240 shows your elbow hanging in a bit BUT the damned line isn't vertical so it looks worse than it is. In the second set of 2 photos in post #264 I would say your alignment is PERFECT and would disagree with 'hsn' comments on those 2 photos.

If you aren't improving with that alignment getting plenty of practice then I would look elsewhere for whatever is holding you back. The first thing I would look at is the grip...is it relaxed through the whole backswing and delivery? Next I would look at your actual backswing...is it absolutely straight and not too fast? Next I would look at your delivery...is it straight and of special importance are you accelerating through the cueball with the grip still relaxed and not stopping the acceleration of the cue until the back of your grip hand hits your chest (this will squeeze the thumb into the cue and automatically tighten the grip well after the strike, in fact at the very end of the delivery).

So all this said what you need to do is put up a series of 3 videos. The first from straight on with the camera showing from 6" in front of the cueball to the top of the elbow and try 10 long blue 'stop shots'. The second should be from directly behind you with the camera showing from the top of the elbow down to just below the cue. The third should be from the grip hand side showing from top of elbow down to just below the cue.

Take 5 long blue stop shots with each video. Forget about your stance and alignment as I'd be willing to bet they are fine judging from the 2 photos in post #264. Post those videos and don't worry if you miss the blue since that will more than likely tell us where you're going wrong. If you don't want to post the videos on here then email me with a link and I'll take a look, free of charge.

Terry

[itsnoteasy]

Post 240 on this thread Terry.

[Terry Davidson]

Where's the photo you're talking about above^^?

Terry

[alabadi]

Thanks for the replies, well to answer a few questions its a case of stalemate, i have now been playing seriously for 4 years and although i have been improving steadily i have reached a point where i have just hit a wall. i know i am cueing better and shots which i use to not get i can get with ease now, however there are still shots that trouble me.

after watching this post and reading Teds dilemmas it was interesting to see someone who can make 70 breaks and still thinks his alignment is holding him back from improving further. ( i would be satisfied with the odd 70 break)

this is what prompted me to look at my alignment. and it was n't that good, (Terry i have uploaded an earlier pic which shows my elbow behind my shoulder towards my back)

J6UK maybe soon ill record a new vid and post it for you and others to pull it apart...lol

so the crust of it i want to get to the stage that i am knocking in decent breaks and i am consistent in doing so, despite my age i am stubbon and have the will to work hard at it, whatever it take i am determined to get there

[j6uk]

I don't see any reason to change anything. Either photo looks pretty good to me. Perhaps all you need is tons of practice to improve your rhythm and timing coupled with more experience.

Terry

yep i agree.
you could also slap up another vid al so we can see what your up to

[hsn]

I wonder what your alignment was like before making any changes?

I took i pic of myself taking straight blues into the middle, when looking at it my elbow is not inline with the cue


i went down to the club today for an hour and tried to see if i can get it straighter, not sure i was successful. it seems slightly left, not sure how to get it straight maybe moving my right foot further to the right could help.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16673[/ATTACH]

it didn't effect my shots i was able to pot blues with follow and the white follows into the pocket, so i'm not sure should i change it

[hsn]

He has already changed his misaligned elbow and the shoulder to look like this. Please see his previous post for earlier photos.

I don't see any reason to change anything. Either photo looks pretty good to me. Perhaps all you need is tons of practice to improve your rhythm and timing coupled with more experience.

Terry

[hsn]

well i had another go today, eventually got everything inline however didn't feel comfortable at all. maybe if i stick to it it will, only time will tell.

here are two images the first as hsn advised moving my left leg 5-6 inches to bring my elbow back inline, doing this corrected it somewhat but not perfect as the image shows.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16678[/ATTACH]

i ventually had to move my elbow slightly to the right, i achieved this by moving the cue slightly left of center chin. which in effect is towards my dominant eye.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16679[/ATTACH]

it looks much better, however it didn't feel natural at all. obviously i'm not use to it but it was hit and miss with potting. ill give it a few weeks to see if it does make things better.

Your alignment looks very good now. However, it is only THE FIRST STEP towards a complete overhaul of anyone's setup whose game is not improving beyond a certain point. And also a better setup to follow for beginners.

You MUST be able to MAINTAIN this alignment THROUGHOUT the delivery otherwise it's just NOT going to work.

Shooting a video of you playing a stroke is a great way to check this.

The grip also changes with any alteration to the setup as well as the body-weight distribution. And all of them have a tremendous impact on the way the cue will travel along.

You have to find a sweet spot among all of the aspects which guarantees to hold the cue precisely on the line of aim.

What I can advise you here is try to make your stance feel comfortable and let your shoulder and the elbow align naturally.

Placing your right shoulder right on top of the cue line while getting down onto the shot, instead of aligning it afterwards, is definitely going to to help.

To make your alignment feel comfortable and natural, I can suggest you to experiment with placing your right foot a couple of inches right to where you are used to in addition to moving your left foot 5-6 inches back. Try changing the direction of your toes as well. Look for if your stance is imbalanced.

Stand in such a way that your cue automatically gets aligned with your shoulder and your elbow without having to align it unnaturally resulting in opposing forces working to pull or push it offline when you deliver it through.

The bottom line is that you have successfully achieved the alignment. What remains now is to make it happen naturally and feel comfortable with it.

[Terry Davidson]

well i had another go today, eventually got everything inline however didn't feel comfortable at all. maybe if i stick to it it will, only time will tell.

here are two images the first as hsn advised moving my left leg 5-6 inches to bring my elbow back inline, doing this corrected it somewhat but not perfect as the image shows.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16678[/ATTACH]

i ventually had to move my elbow slightly to the right, i achieved this by moving the cue slightly left of center chin. which in effect is towards my dominant eye.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16679[/ATTACH]

it looks much better, however it didn't feel natural at all. obviously i'm not use to it but it was hit and miss with potting. ill give it a few weeks to see if it does make things better.

I don't see any reason to change anything. Either photo looks pretty good to me. Perhaps all you need is tons of practice to improve your rhythm and timing coupled with more experience.

Terry