Poker Straight Bridge Arm

[denja]

I have been told that the Poker Straight bridge arm is old fashioned and a bend in the elbow is more suitable,do any members play with the real straight arm from the Joe Davis era I would be grateful for some comments. are there any pros who play with it ???

[Particle Physics]

Experimenting, I've found the straight arm to be quite nice for long pots. What is does do, is shorten the cue length available for follow through. I also tend to roll over to the left on the bridge arm when dead straight, whereas the kink in slightly bent arm, allows the bridge arm to be more stable and flatter to the table.

[vmax4steve]

I have been told that the Poker Straight bridge arm is old fashioned and a bend in the elbow is more suitable,do any members play with the real straight arm from the Joe Davis era I would be grateful for some comments. are there any pros who play with it ???

Mathew Stevens, Jamie Jones and Luca Brecel. Tony Drago's is almost straight.
My own is dead straight.

[Particle Physics]

However, the greatest players use a bent arm. I've found through experiments that different set ups, particularly stance and sighting, favour either straight arm or bent arm. The bridge arm is part of the whole set-up and can't be isolated or changed by itself. All the different parts of the set up have to work together.

[denja]

However, the greatest players use a bent arm. I've found through experiments that different set ups, particularly stance and sighting, favour either straight arm or bent arm. The bridge arm is part of the whole set-up and can't be isolated or changed by itself. All the different parts of the set up have to work together.

I have noticed the even Stephen Hendry will resort to a very straight bridge arm now and again when the white is in the middle of the table at a stretch from is address position.

[narl]

Joe Davis advocated the use of a fully extended bridge arm, can't get much more of an endorsement than that

[Giggity1984]

Steve Davis says it doesn't matter. Don't think about it, let your body do its natural thing.

[damienlch]

Experimenting, I've found the straight arm to be quite nice for long pots. What is does do, is shorten the cue length available for follow through...

I play the same too, i.e. pushing out my bridge arm to make it straighter for long pots and for the same reason...

[Terry Davidson]

I think the best compromise is to get the bridge forearm as straight as you can without introducing any discomfort. For some players 'thrusting it out' as Joe Davis recommends means they put a bit of a strain on the shoulder muscle.

I also believe a very slight bend allows the player to get the bridge forearm on the table better for a little more stability

Terry

[Particle Physics]

I played around with my bridge arm today at practice, thinking about this discussion. It was really interesting. First off, I could make a straight arm work, but I had to adjust stance and body position. This makes sense as Joe Davis was a 'boxer' and it's easier to go straight with the give that the boxer position offers. With a foot in line of shot 'shoelaces' approach, there is a natural inclination towards a bent elbow. I found that for long potting, it was best to keep the upper arm parallel to the cue with maybe two balls gap between the inside elbow and cue. This produced a lot of accuracy, comfort and the balls flew in and made a lovely clunk; so cueing must have also been easier, cleaner and had more flow about it. However, the comfort of the bent arm is weighed against a stance and foot position that is less comfortable than the boxer position which leads to a less comfortable straight arm. Swings and roundabouts I guess. The really odd thing is that while bent arm offers stability from the kink, flat arm is stable as the forearm is more flat down than bent arm, so there isn't much in it in terms of stability.