Delivering the cue in a straight line.

[Canny Tim]

Hi. I was just wondering if anyone can offer me advice on pulling the cue back straight and then delivering it straight? I stand in the default stance and keep to the 4 points of contact but when I pull the cue back it goes off line and feels wonky.

[Terry Davidson]

Just loosen your grip and slow your backswing right down to a point where you can positively control it. Try cueing along the baulkline while watching the ferrule on the backswing until you reach a speed where you can keep it straight, then try some of those. Then switch to an easy pot using the same backswing speed and graduate to harder pots with more pace but always remembering to keep the backswing very slow.

Normally if the backswing is dead straight the delivery will be straight too unless you tighten that loose grip before striking the cueball.

You'll find your accuracy will increase.

Terry

[Canny Tim]

Thanks a lot, Terry.

[Terry Davidson]

The old adage is '90% of delivery problems originate in the backswing' and I'm finding it to be true. When I slowed mine right down and did the exercises I recommended and straightened my backswing my delivery became more accurate in response to that.

Terry

[throtts]

90%, wow, that's majority towards delivery problems. I always forget to toy with my backswing speed, must try it. Haven't played for 7 days now, I am resting up.

All the best, Canny Tim..

[luke-h]

The old adage is '90% of delivery problems originate in the backswing' and I'm finding it to be true. When I slowed mine right down and did the exercises I recommended and straightened my backswing my delivery became more accurate in response to that.

Terry

id agree with this 100pc.....one thing i will say is playing today i noticed that my bridge hand wasn't fully stable and the palm side of my thumb rarely touched the cloth, i rectified this today and i found the centre of the white alot more easily....my question is does it really make that much of a difference to have a loose bridge??

[chas6868]

Hi. I was just wondering is anyone can offer me advice on pulling the cue back straight and then delivering it straight? I stand in the default stance and keep to the 4 points of contact but when I pull the cue back it goes of line and feels wonky.

How far are you pulling it back, as I have noticed that I sometimes pull it back a bit to far , and that causes me to pull it in to the body,
Tape yourself playing to see if that's the case with you, as I did this and was surprised at my long backswing.

might help???

[Terry Davidson]

luke-h:

You should absolutely make the bridge as stable as possible. If your bridge hand moves 1mm that will translate to somewhere around 5mm variance on a long pot which is enough to miss a pot.

The standard coach's test is to take a new bank note and see if it will fit underneath ANY PART of the bridge. You pass the test if it won't.

Terry


Terry

[j6uk]

What exercise do you recommend terry?
Really? I heard a top coach say that the rear pause disconnects the back-swing from the delivery so any errors in the straightness of the back-swing are sort of canceled out.. What do you think?

The old adage is '90% of delivery problems originate in the backswing' and I'm finding it to be true. When I slowed mine right down and did the exercises I recommended and straightened my backswing my delivery became more accurate in response to that.

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

That is what Nic Barrow said to me regarding my total lack of a rear pause 'you're delivering the cue with your backswing'. However, when I purposely concentrated on a rear pause and used my normal too speedy backswing (he also wanted me to lengthen it) we discovered things got much worse.

He recommended I keep the slower backswing but go with my natural length and my now pretty short rear pause.

It's true I suppose the rear pause will disconnect the backswing from the delivery but it didn't work for me and I suspect a lot of players would benefit from a slower backswing anyway.

As for exercises, the ones I recommended will help a player find the right backswing speed for him, where he can positively keep it absolutely straight. What happens is any variance in the backswing (even with a rear pause) will be amplified in the more dynamic delivery as the brain will know the damned cue went off-line and will unconsciously try to correct it and because of the speed it will over-correct. So it's best to try and get the backswing straight. And no 'pump handle' rising and falling is allowed. In addition the players have to remember the old Joe Davis lesson, 'let the butt of the cue just lie in the bed of the 4 fingers'.

I know this because I battled it for 5 years or so just lately. I had a tendency, especially under match pressure, to lift my head on the backswing which of course took the butt off-line. I used the 'chin on cue' swing thought to conquer this and when I kept my head still the difference was amazing.

In my 'old days' in the 80's I never did this and had a rep as a long ball potter. I don't know where it came from but maybe age as even Steve Davis started doing the exact same thing in his 50's until a guy told him on his MySpace blog. He thought it was me but I can't take credit for it but he actually thanked the guy in a TV interview.

Terry

[j6uk]

So you would advocate that the rear pause does disconnect the backswing from the delivery so any errors in the straightness of the backswing are sort of canceled out?

That is what Nic Barrow said to me regarding my total lack of a rear pause 'you're delivering the cue with your backswing'. However, when I purposely concentrated on a rear pause and used my normal too speedy backswing (he also wanted me to lengthen it) we discovered things got much worse.

He recommended I keep the slower backswing but go with my natural length and my now pretty short rear pause.

It's true I suppose the rear pause will disconnect the backswing from the delivery but it didn't work for me and I suspect a lot of players would benefit from a slower backswing anyway.

Terry

[luke-h]

luke-h:

You should absolutely make the bridge as stable as possible. If your bridge hand moves 1mm that will translate to somewhere around 5mm variance on a long pot which is enough to miss a pot.

The standard coach's test is to take a new bank note and see if it will fit underneath ANY PART of the bridge. You pass the test if it won't.

Terry


Terry

really that much?, couple that with involuntary movement in the body its a recipe for missing, i always wondered why i was struggling with longer pots

[chrissmall147]

Hi

The bridge should be very stable. Alot of people dont think the bridge hand is all that important but its very important. I tell my clients to grip the cloth with the pinkie and forefinger and with the left and right pads of the hand. So there are 4 grip points. I then put a credit card under the pad of the bridge hand and it should be very difficult for me to remove the card. The backswing should be slowish for control as if its very quick its very hard to pull back in a straight line. The rear pause does disconnect the backswing from the delivery but if the backswing is not straight it is very difficult to go through straight and this will cause problems no doubt about it. The need for a rear pause is to get the eyes fixed on the contact point of the ob and for the control of the delivery. So slow backswing for control and straightness rear pause for fixing eyes on ob and also for controlled delivery which will mean straight and controlled delivery keeping everything still until the shot is complete. Ie until ball is in the pocket. Another common fault even with a good standard of player. Lifting the head far to early on the shot and because they dont realise they are doing it the problem gets worse and as time goes on they start lifting the head even earlier. I trained myself to not move until the ball was in the bag and maybe even wait on cb hitting a cushion depending on the shot obviously.

Cheers Chris small

[hotpot]

Just loosen your grip and slow your backswing right down to a point where you can positively control it. Try cueing along the baulkline while watching the ferrule on the backswing until you reach a speed where you can keep it straight, then try some of those. Then switch to an easy pot using the same backswing speed and graduate to harder pots with more pace but always remembering to keep the backswing very slow.

Normally if the backswing is dead straight the delivery will be straight too unless you tighten that loose grip before striking the cueball.

You'll find your accuracy will increase.

Terry

Terry / Chris would standing too far to the left or right be a another major cause of the backswing and delivery to go off line .

[j6uk]

nice one chris, good of you to swoop in to the rescue.