Twisting cue

[hotpot]

Someone suggested taking your thumb off the cue all together and just use the fingers , i tried this yesterday and cued much straighter but couldnt get power into the shot

[Terry Davidson]

Someone suggested taking your thumb off the cue all together and just use the fingers , i tried this yesterday and cued much straighter but couldnt get power into the shot

Then I suspect you're doing something wrong. The thumb shouldn't play any part in the grip except to keep the cue in the bed of the fingers and shouldn't apply any pressure onto the cue until the very end of the delivery when the back of the thumb hits the chest.

Power comes from the length of backswing as the rate of acceleration should remain the same (or nearly so) but the speed of the cue through the cueball will of course be higher with a longer backswing because there is more length being used during acceleration.

If you need your thumb gripping the cue in order to get acceleration then you are tightening the grip before the strike and that is something to be avoided if you are able to.

Terry

[sydneygeorge]

Thank you very much to all who responded, I will take your suggestions to the table and report back.

[JFoulger]

I spent ages turning the cue despite playing well doing it. I don't do it so much now and my consistency has improved. The only advice I can give is to consciously keep your wrist straight in the address position by having the thumb pointing down instead of having it pointing out to the side slightly. It is hard to break the habit it just requires conscious effort to break it.