help please :(

[Terry Davidson]

I've read all the posts so here is what I think may be happening. For myself, I find it very, very difficult to focus on a spot like 'BOB' on a plain coloured object ball.

What I focus on is covering an arc of the object ball with an imaginary 'ghost' cueball as I find this method to be much easier to determine. For very fine cuts I also do the same thing, aiming to get the edge of the cueball to contact the edge of the object ball (exactly where BOB would be).

HOWEVER, with myself and most of my students I've found it's not really the aiming that is the problem but rather there is usually some very small body movement in the backswing, normally near the end of it and especially if the student doesn't drop the elbow on a longer backswing. It's almost like the cue is forcing the chest up perhaps by 2-3mm or so which is enough to cause problems.

But like Belloz, if I have that same student attempt to pot the blue from the yellow spot with his eyes closed some of them will make 70% or better and then when I tell them to play the shot normally they drop back to 50-60%. The difference is, with the eyes closed the player is sensing his body more (and better) and the shoulder movement doesn't happen.

I worked on this issue for my own game and although I haven't got it completely mastered as yet (hellishly DIFFICULT to stop it) I've found if I really concentrate on keeping my head still with the chin on the cue and also keep the cue on a level plane by allowing the elbow to drop a bit on the backswing I play much, much better and my long potting is really good.

My problem is I play VERY bad when I forget to keep the head/shoulder area absolutely still and with me I ALWAYS hit the left side of the cueball on the strike, which sends the object ball to the left also.

Belloz:

Try concentrating on keeping your head and shoulder ABSOLUTELY still on the backswing (and the delivery too of course) as even just 1mm of head movement will cause you to miss a longer pot and if you happen to be right-handed the tip of the cue will normally move just slightly to the left on the cueball.

Terry

[Belloz22]

thanks for reply terry....

when you say keep your shoulder still do you mean focusing on keeping the elbow in same spot throughout the shot and follow through

[Terry Davidson]

Belloz:

No, you are misunderstanding my meaning.

The shoulder itself is made up of the shoulder socket with the ball of the upper arm inside that socket. I advocate allowing the elbow to drop at the end of the backswing and also at the end of the delivery and therefore in order to have the elbow move up and down vertically the ball inside the shoulder socket must rotate up and down.

HOWEVER, the shoulder itself (in other words the SHOULDER SOCKET) should remain absolutely still in space, not moving up or down. A lot of players will allow the shoulder socket to move up a little on the backswing (especially a long one) and it is this movement of the shoulder socket which causes the butt of the cue to go off-line. Allowing the shoulder socket to lift will also lift the head as it is interconnected to the shoulder socket, but NOT to the ball on the end of the upper arm, which can move independently of the socket.

Therefore, the upper arm should be allowed to move up and down if you are dropping the elbow correctly on the backswing and delivery, but this must be done WITHOUT ALLOWING THE SHOULDER SOCKET (or the head) TO MOVE IN SPACE.

The easiest way to master this is to concentrate on keeping the head absolutely still. On another string a player commentated that his head 'was only moving a couple of millimeters' and that was acceptable, wasn't it?' My reply was ABSOLUTELY NO HEAD MOVEMENT, not even 1mm and not even 0.5mm.

I haven't done the math but I'm sure a 1mm movement in the head/shoulder across the 10-12in fulcrum of the 'V' of the bridge will likely result in the tip moving at the cueball by at least 0.25mm or more and that is more than enough to miss both a long pot or else a pot to a closed pocket where there is no margin for error.

Remember this too...99.9% of pots (barring kicks) are missed because the player did not deliver the cue straight down his intended line of aim. It's been my experience that the brain of EVERY player who has played for a little while will automatically pick out the correct line of aim for the cue but too many players screw up in the execution of delivering the cue straight down that chosen line of aim.

Terry

[Belloz22]

thanks terry.... food for thought

[Sidd]

Splendid explanation Coach Terry. I never thought on the lines of dropping the elbow and did not pay attention to the drop itself uptil now. Something new for me to try out intensionally and try to learn. So this means that the elbow will have to be dropped or allowed to be dropped on final delivery propotional to the amount of power... and also during the backswing the elbow will have to be kept straight without any movement in the forearm and the lifting of the head...


Terry: any practice drills to master this coordination please??? I am a little concerned now about the shoulder/head/forearm/elbow thing and also about the dropping of elbow on final delivery, which is what I have never done intentionally so far...!!!!


Regards, Sidd.

[denja]

yes i have.... 20-20 vision..... i think its more an ability to not being able to keep my eyes focused on a spot

I am no expert but could this be down to mental stress is your brain sort of switching off because you are trying so hard to get things right Example Years ago I was going to take my driving test and the only thing that worried me was reading the number plate at the required distance ! I had a slight weakness in one eye ! I had a eye test and was told my eyesight was well within the legal limit, however for weeks before the test I found that when I tried to read car number plates I felt I could not focus I started to turn into a right nerve case, a girlfriend of mine ran Yoga relaxation classes and she gave me some exercises to do and without doubt they helped I found I could focus with no trouble My point is the condition was in my own mind ! There is a old saying "The mind can do funny things" HOPE THIS MAY BE OF SOME HELP" (I PASSED)