Elbow position

[tedisbill]

So at what stage should you not try to fix the problem? If I have been doing it for years and not improving is it a good idea to try and change now?

Cheers!

Depends how often you play and what your goals are.

You're not gonna slightly adjust your elbow and become a better player overnight. That would be the same with any adjustment you make.

So it's really about looking at the bigger picture. If you're playing once or twice a week for a couple of hours with a mate, then just play the way you play and don't worry about it. However, if you really want to be good and you're playing 3-4 times a week and can really commit to any changes in technique you make, then go for it.

[CoachGavin]

If you are not improving and think that is the problem then I would give it a go. I agree though you will need to practice it and get used to it and improvement may not come immediately. If you are playing and practising regularly then I think you should always be asking questions if you are not improving. Good luck!

[Big Splash!]

Place a red about two feet from the black pocket. Place the white on the yellow spot so that the shot is dead straight. Do the same with the blue ball/spot but rearrange the white so it's as far away as the yellow spot but across a bit. Now place the CB back on the yellow spot and this time have the OB about just a couple of feet away from the CB. Take ten shots at each of these three pots. If you can't hit 7/10, something is wrong. When you do the shots, get someone/video to check that your elbow isn't moving and only hit the shots at sweet pace with nothing fancy on the ball. In fact plain ball is ideal.

If......................if, your mate spots no-elbow movement and can see the cue being delivered dead straight with no cue rotation, hand turning in/out on the fore or take-back stroke, and if you miss these shots, especially the long red, then the problem is not the elbow or cueing but sighting down the cue. Check that the cue appears to be dead straight to your eyes. It doesn't matter if you cue under centre-chin or under one side, or even under one eye, the cue must appear dead straight. If it isn't, you may be putting the head on the correct shot line but not the cue, or you may be putting the cue on the correct shot line but not your eyes. Both tend to lead to misses.

Summary: the cue must appear dead straight to your eyes, not angled. The cue must be on the correct shot-line (which is why standing back 3ft and walk-in are critical to judge this line). You must take the cue back, then accelerate the cue along this shot line. If you nail all three perfectly, regardless of elbow position, grip, stance, bridge, bridge-to-ball distance, you will pot all three shots above 10/10 times.

Most shots are missed due to non-straight delivery, some due to applying the wrong angle (this can be down to non-straight sighting down the cue) and some because of the cue being on the wrong shot line. So check these things first.

If it appears that your elbow is moving, then you have a complex problem with a non-simple solution. I would say making it upright is the answer in such a case, but you will then have to adjust everything to accomodate this change. Grip will change slightly, maybe stance, sighting, bridge etc. Even a minor tweak in set-up has knock-on effects.

If you do make changes, prepare yourself for the long-haul because it will generally take at least two years to perfect a new cue action (at least Advani found this to be the case) but if you really want to improve and love the game and are reasonably young, it's worth it.

[tedisbill]

Pardon...?

[cpserrao]

If you do make changes, prepare yourself for the long-haul because it will generally take at least two years to perfect a new cue action (at least Advani found this to be the case) but if you really want to improve and love the game and are reasonably young, it's worth it.

Pankaj Advani changed his cue action ?

[ghost121]

Lots of pros have tweaked their cue action over the years. And many of them ended up going back to their natural style of playing. Ricky Walden being one of the most recent examples.

[tomlimcj]

elbow isn't important. the only reason they wanted it up is due to the pendulum swing of ur cueing. if you have to put the elbow up, it would be right over the line of the shot, cue arm down to grip also on the line of shot. so when you waggle, everything is down the line of shot. but because everybody has a different body and posture, as long as when you waggle, its straight down the line of shot, then the elbow doesn't matter. it simply acts as a gauge. it is still the textbook style when learning snooker though.

[tomperty]

Question: is this a problem? Could this affect my shot? I assume so since all players do it differently. But maybe this works just fine since it's my natural habit.

I believe the 'perfect' elbow position will differ from player to player.

Firstly try this experiment - take your cue, bridge on a sensible surface and try and get the cue moving forwards and backwards WITHOUT the cue touching your chest. If it's wobbling side to side as you're cueing, try and move your elbow either inwards or outwards and try again.

Once you find the position where you are cueing without ANY sideways movement, remember where that position is and the reincorporate the chest stability point. This chest contact point will obviously help you a lot with cueing/following through in a straight line.

My natural elbow position is slightly tucked in from the line of the shot. I actually first learnt to cue without touching my chest so I had no option but to find my natural elbow position if I ever wanted to hit a ball in a straight line. Upon asking here on the snooker forum about whether I should incorporate a chest contact point, the answer was unanimously 'yes'. I actually managed to learn this very quickly and, within a week, my cueing had become much more reliable. The most important tip that I heard was 'bring your chest to your cue.'