Lesson learned today

[bluenose1940]

I was at the club today and I thought that I would try out one of the tips that I have seen mentioned on this forum, at least I think that it was on here

Anyway, I have often stood at the baulk line and cue'd along it and at the end of the stroke, my cue was always directly above the line (at least the thinner end was) and so I always said to myself, great, that's perfick that is

However, today I went a step further and tried out what I have seen mentioned, i.e. at the end of the stroke I dropped my cue down onto the cushion and looked down at the butt end of my cue and blimey, I was a mile out. I could actually see the baulk line at the side of the thick part of the cue. The tip and some of the thin end as far as my bridge hand was above the line but obviously the cue was starting to veer off-line albeit very slightly and I couldn't see that but, by the time you get down to the thicker part it was a good half an inch out. I am finding now, that when I walk into the shot, if I do a very tiny soft shoe shuffle to the right, and I mean tiny, when I drop the cue down onto the cushion at the end of the shot, the whole of the cue is directly above the baulk line. Obviously prior to todays discovery, I have been cueing across the cue ball.

I now have a question please. Is the 'soft shoe shuffle' (my words/description) the correct way for me to address this problem or, is there a proper way for me to correct the fault.

[tomwalker147]

I think if it works for you then that's fine. There are several ton maker friends of mine and not many of them have a 'textbook' technique so to speak, I know I certainly don't.

The most important thing is how your technique is at the moment of impact in my opinion. How you get there is less important, shoe shuffle or not.

[vmax]

You'll do this at first before your new position becomes habit and you walk into it naturally.

How's your potting now bluenose, better ?

[bluenose1940]

Thank you folks.

Yes vmax my potting is much improved thank you. I now employ a very smooth action with a good follow through, my 'snatch shots' are now few and far between and I do try to stay down on the shot and this helps too. I used to get up almost immediately after striking the cueball. Today I noticed a further improvement after discovering that my cue was off-line and I introduced the little soft shoe shuffle. Hopefully as you have suggested, the new position will in time become automatic.