Stance

[ADR147]

gosh mike has typed an essay!

[Semih_Sayginer]

JP. stance is important, otherwise coaches wouldnt bother about it, and just tell you to stand on one leg if you prefer, but they dont. they advise on stability, and make suggestions as to what best would give you that stability. stances may well vary, but good coaches will spot you not stable and suggest ways to improve, as its part of the fundamentals to playing a shot, and goes hand in hand with sighting and cueing etc.....

since you are asking about it, youre obviously concerned, so i wont tell you to not be concerned. ill give you advice to try to take that concern away.

make sure its comfortable, and balanced, and stable. then take it from there

[MrRottweiler]

I think a players stance is critically important and you can always tell a good player by how they go down on a shot and how solid and still they become once down. A friend once bumped in to Matthew Stephens in a not-so-flashy Snopoker club in the early hours and he said it was striking to see him down on the shot.

Despite some slight variations I believe a good stance is when the feet are comforatbly apart and pointing out from the body slightly. Very smiliar to how a boxer stands. Once down the player should be able to take a reasonble push from all angles without the risk of falling over. I get confused by players who have all the finest equipment but stand with their feet practically touching each other or almost doing the splits. The stance is a 'basic' along with the bridge and grip and is uniform amongst players with just slight differences to accomodate for size and weight.

[MikeWooldridge]

yes, totally different to the original post.

huh? i'm sure i said exactly the same but with more words....

[Semih_Sayginer]

huh? i'm sure i said exactly the same but with more words....

ahem

"the ONLY thing that matters is how you deliver the cue."

this from your first post i totally disagree with. wink all you like, but i say its not the ONLY thing.....

[Semih_Sayginer]

I think a players stance is critically important and you can always tell a good player by how they go down on a shot and how solid and still they become once down. A friend once bumped in to Matthew Stephens in a not-so-flashy Snopoker club in the early hours and he said it was striking to see him down on the shot.

Despite some slight variations I believe a good stance is when the feet are comforatbly apart and pointing out from the body slightly. Very smiliar to how a boxer stands. Once down the player should be able to take a reasonble push from all angles without the risk of falling over. I get confused by players who have all the finest equipment but stand with their feet practically touching each other or almost doing the splits. The stance is a 'basic' along with the bridge and grip and is uniform amongst players with just slight differences to accomodate for size and weight.

good posting Rotsy!!

[JParrott1]

since you are asking about it, youre obviously concerned, so i wont tell you to not be concerned. ill give you advice to try to take that concern away

Im pretty comfortable with my original stance, its natural to me, I was just looking at the conventional stance and thinking that this is definitely the way I should be doing it. Some posts here state that this is not the case and Ill take that on board.

[MikeWooldridge]

I think a players stance is critically important and you can always tell a good player by how they go down on a shot and how solid and still they become once down. .

fair comment, and generally/reasonably true. a good player will naturally possess a 'good' solid stance. but not necessarily text book style.

however, there's plenty of players out there with 'perfect' stances who never improve...

A friend once bumped in to Matthew Stephens in a not-so-flashy Snopoker club in the early hours and he said it was striking to see him down on the shot.

that sounds dodgy to me...

[Semih_Sayginer]

Im pretty comfortable with my original stance, its natural to me, I was just looking at the conventional stance and thinking that this is definitely the way I should be doing it. Some posts here state that this is not the case and Ill take that on board.

best of luck with it JP

as said before, the most important things is that its comfortable and its "stable"

[JParrott1]

Cheers m8!

[poolqjunkie]

There are lots of great posts here.

I agree with most that were mentioned here, and I also want to point out that if you try to copy a certain stance but cannot deliver your cue nicely in doing so, then it is really pointless.

Please allow me to share some of my observations here:

I have observed many different stance among pro players, some bent their legs, others keep the back straight; some really turn their upper bodies, others are more square; some keep their bridge arms straight, others bend and lay them on the table; some have their elbow outward or inward, others have them in a perfect straight line; some are very square, others have a side way stance...etc. This indicates to me, that a stance of a player is an indivual thing, with a wide range of variation being acceptable.

Nevertheless, I have never seen a single pro who does not have a smooth cueing action, which I believe, is the indication of a good player.

I notice a good player always seems to have his tip staying with his cue ball longer during the follow through, always hits the ball with lesser force but generates more movement on the cue ball, and also displays a consistent rhythm within a wide range of shots. A good player manages to follow through his cue ball straight, and stop his tip on the table at the end of the stroke. I have noticed variations in the rhythm of the stroke, but not really in the stroke itself in terms of the basic cueing action as mentioned. It leads me to believe that there is such a thing as a "technically correct" cueing action, which all the top players process.

I do not believe a certain stance can do magic to improve one's cueing action, without improvement made on the stroke itself; but I agree that it can produce consistency in once game, which would result in improvement when other areas are improved.

I also agree that a good cueing delivery should be really focused upon, because it is the fundamental of being able to execute a wide range of shots, with precision and consistency.

Therefore, it is my personal belief that a player should try to find a stance which allows him to be consistent with his cue delivery, stable, and comfortable--it does not have to be a replica of someone's stance in particular--and then focus his attention on developing a first class cueing action.

Thank you.

[JParrott1]

Thanks for the reply, a lot of what you say there makes sense to me.

[MikeWooldridge]

and thank you poolqjunkie. excellently presented opinion. 100% correct.

concentrate on these issues jparrot1 and you give yourself a chance of improvement