Help me line up properly!

[stjimmy18-1991]

Hello again all. Having achieved a fairly consistant straight cue action through alot of hard work, yet still not seeing great results, i've stumbled across a flaw in my game which i think renders every good habit i have learned redundant. If i were to get down and place my cue along the baulk line, my cue does not run straight across it. I am left handed. My stance has my right foot half a shoe in front of my left (my left being of course on the line of the shot) to bring my chest a fraction forward as i was slightly delivering the cue AROUND my chest. I twist slightly into the shot much like Hendry to bring my back arm and shoulder behind my head in a straight line. And i have a super slow backswing and accerlate and drop my eblow like Del Hill preaches. But anyways, this graphic shows what happens when i get down along a baulk line, which i assume happens to any potting angle line. I have made the cue semi-transparent to show the baulk line underneath. As you can see, my cue runs along the baulk line different to that of a dead straight line. The cue is cueing across the shot to the left, hence i cant play up and down the spots because i have left hand side ONLY A FRACTION THOUGH. but it is consistant. the same amount, every time! I believe all of the good habits over time i have placed into my game dont count for nothing until i fix this. I get down how Del Hill teaches, i put the tip to the ball, aim while standing up, and then place my chest on the cue. But this still happens. I've tired moving my right foot closer to my body (which does help), but for me to then be straight along the baulk line, both my feet are touching. The ONLY way i have found to fix this is to physically get down as slow as possible by placing the cue on the baulk line first and getting down. But for me, this is too clumbersome and too difficult to execute for every shot i have. Essentially, i need a quick fix. Can someone please help me with my problem. It feels as though i've put in so much hard work over the years yet im still the same standard. Thanks.

[Monty]

Hi stjimmy
Have you tried positioning the cue on the line first and then positioning your body without moving the cue?
You should be arranging you stance around your cue and not the other way around.
My game improved about 60% when I started to work on this!
Hope this helps!

[Izzyfcuk]

I have almost the same problem as you, left handed and there's always a tint of right hand side.........sad..

[kevy62]

Hello again all. Having achieved a fairly consistant straight cue action through alot of hard work, yet still not seeing great results, i've stumbled across a flaw in my game which i think renders every good habit i have learned redundant. If i were to get down and place my cue along the baulk line, my cue does not run straight across it.

I am left handed. My stance has my right foot half a shoe in front of my left (my left being of course on the line of the shot) to bring my chest a fraction forward as i was slightly delivering the cue AROUND my chest. I twist slightly into the shot much like Hendry to bring my back arm and shoulder behind my head in a straight line. And i have a super slow backswing and accerlate and drop my eblow like Del Hill preaches.

But anyways, this graphic shows what happens when i get down along a baulk line, which i assume happens to any potting angle line.



I have made the cue semi-transparent to show the baulk line underneath. As you can see, my cue runs along the baulk line different to that of a dead straight line. The cue is cueing across the shot to the left, hence i cant play up and down the spots because i have left hand side ONLY A FRACTION THOUGH. but it is consistant. the same amount, every time!

I believe all of the good habits over time i have placed into my game dont count for nothing until i fix this.

I get down how Del Hill teaches, i put the tip to the ball, aim while standing up, and then place my chest on the cue. But this still happens. I've tired moving my right foot closer to my body (which does help), but for me to then be straight along the baulk line, both my feet are touching.

The ONLY way i have found to fix this is to physically get down as slow as possible by placing the cue on the baulk line first and getting down. But for me, this is too clumbersome and too difficult to execute for every shot i have. Essentially, i need a quick fix.

Can someone please help me with my problem. It feels as though i've put in so much hard work over the years yet im still the same standard. Thanks.

I have a question? is your left foot in a straight line down the cue, or is is twisted to one way or the other?

[CoachGavin]

You say you twist like Hendry but be careful you do not twist so as to swing the butt of the cue off the line of aim. Also make sure your head and nose are on the line of aim as you come into the shot. Many players come in slightly from the side.

[cazmac1]

I could have helped if I was in your team, HA lol

[nrage]

As Gavin has mentioned, if you twist too much you will swing the butt over just a fraction too far and get something like what you're describing.

Is one side of your cue lining up with the baulk line as in the graphic? Could it be that you are placing one side/edge of the cue on the line of the shot (unconsciously) instead of imagining a line up the middle of the cue?

If it is mechanical, as opposed to being sighting related, then what you want is to find a minor change you can make which naturally moves the butt of the cue away from you just slightly.

One possibility that I find works for me, personally, is to square up my stance and point my back foot straight down the line of the shot. Another possibility, may be to decrease the upper body twist just fractionally - this should move the entire cue arm shoulder out the small fraction you need. And finally, adding just a fraction more wrist cock would do it - but I suspect this change would be the hardest to make as it's a very dynamic part of the cue action vs the more static changes in foot placement/line or upper body twist.

[Terry Davidson]

stjimmy:

I didn't reply to this when I first saw it as I figured it was pretty obvious from your graphic that first of all the 'V' of your bridge is not centered on the baulkline and this is just a matter of body awareness and also checking when you get down and do the preliminary pause that the tip of the cue is centered on the white.

However, I then realized with the way you are lining up the tip will appear to be fine on the centre of the white however the cue is not laying along the correct line of aim and you would in fact cue across the correct line of aim.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to give you something that would correct this. Firstly, the 'V' of your bridge HAS to be incorrectly lined up to the centre of the white and to my way of thinking this is the basic cause of why you are in the end lining up across the correct line of aim. You see, as you get down you are not placing the bridge hand correctly and therefore your are twisting the body to match this incorrect set-up of the bridge hand.

I believe this is where your problem begins and where you have to work to correct it. So, using the baulkline and I would suggest a mirror set up at the end of the baulkline against the side cushion so you can see from the tip of the cue all the way to the top of your left elbow. Now take a very close look and see if the 'V' of your bridge is EXACTLY on the baulkline since from your graphic it can't possibly be there and must be to the side.

If it is to the side of the baulkline even by just a millimeter or two it will be enough that you will force the butt of the cue over so the tip lines up to the centre of the cueball but of course this will not be on the intended line of aim.

There would be two ways to correct this using the mirror. First by turning your wrist VERY slightly until the 'V' is centered correctly and then working with the mirror by standing up and getting down into the address position multiple times until you have it as second nature but you MUST check in the mirror every time you get down.

The other way, still using the mirror, would be to adjust your thumb up or down a fraction however I hesitate to recommend this method since it will alter the shape of your 'V' and also the height of the cue and that is not a very good thing. Just ensure you are making a good 'V' with the thumb and forefinger but ALSO ENSURE THE HEIGHT OF THE 'V' IS CENTRE BALL WHEN YOU ARE USING CENTRE BALL (this would have the centre of the vertical diameter of the cue EXACTLY 1-1/32" off the bed of the table). OK, OK I know the 1/32" is a little rediculous so maybe try and get the cue as level as possible and the 'V' around one inch off the bed when striking centre ball remembering that the cue cannot be EXACTLY level due to the height of the cushion.

I would be interested in you posting the results of your efforts on trying to cure this since it is an unusual problem since most people would be able to line the cue up right along the baulkline in the address position and the difficulty then becomes keeping it on the baulkline during backswing and delivery. It sounds like you don't have the second problem and have a straight backswing and delivery but the problem is your cue is not lined up properly on the line of aim.

Let us know what you do to correct this problem

Terry