Quick Shot of My Cue Action

[stjimmy18-1991]

Hey chaps, just thought i'd share a photograph of my stance and cue action to gather peoples opinions.

The main thing i noticed was my grip hand seems to be slightly cocked in as shown.

Is that okay?

[nrage]

Looks ok to me. When I am playing well my grip looks a lot like that, with the 2 smaller fingers further away from the cue and playing very little part in the action. I think this is a good thing.

[stjimmy18-1991]

Cheers. I played in PTC1 the other day and got thumped 4-0 by Lee Page. During the match my grip hand really tensed up and my friend made the observation that the hand is slightly forward, so i was just wondering if it needs fixing in any way.

[nrage]

Well, I think tense is probably bad.. but I have been experimenting with a grip using the 2nd finger. It's hard to explain but it's kinda like holding a gun with the thumb wrapped over the top, and the 1st finger loose in the trigger area (under the cue), the weight rests on the 2nd finger. I like to slide it into position by placing it too far up the butt (1 inch max) and just sliding it back to the correct position. This cocks my wrist forward on the cue as it appears to be in your photo. The 'grip' is therefore just the 2nd finger, closed around the cue, the other fingers are loose and just there to stop the cue moving sideways in the grip. This grip seems to promote the driving action as the hand is already in a position which allows it go right throught, but it does restrict the back swing a little, if you have an inflexible wrist.

[Terry Davidson]

stjimmy:

Looking at the photo I've noticed 2 things if this happens to be your normal address position. The first is not too important, but the tip of your cue looks to be around 1in or a little less behind the cueball. Since this distance is subtracted directly from the amount of follow-through you can get you should try and get a little closer to the cueball, within 1/4" if you can without fouling the cueball. This set-up also means you are not hitting the cueball at the exact address position, which is something you should always try to achieve.

Until I read nrage's last post I was going to say a similar thing as I don't like the appearance of your grip too much (it looks to be similar to Ryan Day's). It looks a little tight and the forward angle of the wrist looks a bit too severe to allow for a relaxed drive through the cueball and this grip may also lead to tightening on the butt too soon in the delivery.

Due to some very bad play on my part in the Canadian Championships (I failed to make it out of the round robin section) I had to try an analyse what was going wrong and I came to the conclusion I too was gripping the cue too tight and also way too early in the delivery which leads to 'stabbing' the cueball (not getting the grip hand through to the chest consistently and smoothly). I've always known if I use the second finger as the main hold on the cue with the forefinger relaxed (like Ronnie) and the back 2 fingers just barely touching the butt that I am able to naturally get through the cueball much better, but I was reluctant to use this grip as it's not the 'ideal' I teach my students (even though Ronnie uses the second finger as primary with his 3rd finger also holding the cue).

I coupled this with the determination to keep my chin on the cue, loosen the grip down and also to not only drive through to the chest but also to leave the cue extended at the end of the delkivery for a second or too. I've found this to be very helpful and very productive as far as potting and positional play go although I was tending to over-screw the ball sometimes (my table is very fast too).

So see if gripping the cue with the second finger only works for you as it might go a long way in helping you to not grip the butt too early in the delivery. Also, conciously leave the cue extended with the head still at the end of the delivery and allow the grip to tighten when your grip hand hits your chest. You will find also that you will (or should) get an automatic 'wrist snap' which will add even more power into the delivery.

It's not the 'ideal' grip, which should be similar to holding a hammer (but more loose) however it sure seems to be working for me these past few days. This morning in practice (solo, but a normal rack and playing tournament safety) I managed a total clearance of 138 plus a couple more high breaks above 65.

Terry