Head up or down?

[Particle Physics]

Some will say that the head position should just be what feels natural to each person's body. But in an ideal world, what is the best position to begin with or to train in? I've noticed that some players are quite heads up on the cue, e.g. Hendry, while others are more eyes down, so the object ball is in the peripheral vision. Personally, I can see obvious advantages about heads up, but I'm no expert. Thoughts gents?

[Terry Davidson]

Provided the player can get it there, the head up position is the best (in my opinion) as then you are looking directly at the object ball. However, some players might find that difficult because of their physique and it may introduce some discomfort and the player will have to tilt the head down a bit to get rid of the strain.

So the answer is...have the head up as much as possible without introducing any discomfort

Terry

[steve clarke]

So the answer is...have the head up as much as possible without introducing any discomfort

Terry

How about the 'pool player' stance where the player doesn't get down on the shot nearly as much as the snooker player?

[DeanH]

How about the 'pool player' stance where the player doesn't get down on the shot nearly as much as the snooker player?

I have the same stance, low position, and head position for pool and snooker.

[Particle Physics]

Provided the player can get it there, the head up position is the best (in my opinion) as then you are looking directly at the object ball. However, some players might find that difficult because of their physique and it may introduce some discomfort and the player will have to tilt the head down a bit to get rid of the strain.

So the answer is...have the head up as much as possible without introducing any discomfort

Terry

Common sense from Terry, as ever. I guess the idea may be to try and elevate the head a little at a time, over a period, so that one isn't in discomfort, but so that one's head is becoming upright. I guess the real deal is to get the back as flat as poss (except for the cueing arm), and then elevate the head, whilst bending at the hips [given the coaching questions over the last few days]? And I imagine this applies to all table sports?

[Giggity1984]

I think this also has to do with where your body is in relation to the cue. Eg if you stand "over" the cue ala Jamie cope or mark Williams the your eyes will be down, whereas a Hendry Higgins or Murphy who get right down on the shot all have forward faces. Lol.

[Terry Davidson]

steve:

Jim Wych still plays with his head up off the cue and he still plays well. It is not a method I would recommend for coaching but it does free up the cue more but on the other hand leads to the chance of instability creeping into the technique

Terry

[Particle Physics]

Giggity, I agree with you. At practise today, I tried both head up and a bit down. To make it comfortable, I had to swivel the body around in a clockwise direction. I seem to remember Hendry playing very head up in the 80s and his cue arm being miles outside his body.

Terry, you've given some grand advice. As a coach, where do you draw the line between a person's natural technique (stance, cueing, grip, bridge arm, bridge, head position) before coaching and the kind of technique you'd like them to adopt to improve their game? I guess it all depends on the player in question, but how much do you look to change on average?

[Terry Davidson]

particle:

I think the objective of any coach is to get his student to a point where he can deliver the cue consistently straight. Once that is achieve then the coaching gets more into tactics, shot selection, safety play and most importantly positional play.

As most of the students I've ever taught were not able to deliver straight I have always worked on those issues which are keeping them from that but I try to do that without altering their natural technique they've developed unless something in that technique is preventing them from improving. So first I look for upper body movement which can be corrected without altering any technique and then I try and find the root cause of why the cue is going off line, which usually means they turn the wrist during delivery, or have the cue at too steep an angle or else not driving through to the chest and thus 'stabbing' the cueball or in other words decelerating through the cueball.

Normally, I don't worry too much about the stance or grip unless they are obviously hindering him. I also look at the timing and rhythm a player has and the problem is here that timing IS a basic part of their rhythm and I have to explain to them what I've observed and also why I've elected to try and change that. I try and explain that in a way they will easily understand and in this instance video analysis plays a really big part, more so than video will help to show the student any upper body movement or turning of the wrist.

When I get a really good player who is after coaching I move right into the video analysis because usually you are looking for some minor dynamic issue which most likely the playere isn't even aware of. Video in frame-by-frame playback usually drives these players crazy since they knew they weren't playing well and knew something was going wrong but couldn't sort it out themselves even though some of them know a lot about technique. Also with really good players once the technique issues are corrected they are usually better than I am at tactics, shot selection and positional play so in the end I usually end up learning something from them!

Terry