how to keep grip loose all the time

[vucko117]

Simple question here: How to prevent of gripping the cue too tightly before hitting the cue ball?

Imagine this: My grip is really loose and relaxed on the start of the delivery,but a split second before I am to hit the cue ball I tend to grip the cue more tightly,and because of that I am not delivering the cue straight. How to avoid this?

[nrage]

Simple question here: How to prevent of gripping the cue too tightly before hitting the cue ball?

Imagine this: My grip is really loose and relaxed on the start of the delivery,but a split second before I am to hit the cue ball I tend to grip the cue more tightly,and because of that I am not delivering the cue straight. How to avoid this?

First I think you have to convince yourself that you do not need to grip the cue hard. You have to re-train the muscle memory to stop doing what it's currently doing and start doing something different.

To start with, try this.. with your grip hand, form an O with forefinger and thumb, now move the finger/thumb tips apart far enough to get your cue (grip) between them. You should only be touching the cue with forefinger and thumb, the other fingers are out straight away from the cue.

Play a few shots with your hand like this, even deep screw shots. You should be pleasantly surprised how much cue power you still have, even with such a light grip.

Go from this to a similar grip using just forefinger and thumb, but this time form the O and place the cue inside it, more like a normal grip. Do not actually grip the cue, but make the O small enough so it is touching the cue on all sides. Again the other 3 fingers are out straight and not touching the cue.

Play more shots, you should have the same cue power as before.

Now, form your normal grip.. but, do not grip the cue, just cradle it.. like the example above the fingers are touching on all sides but applying no pressure.

Play more shots, concentrate on not falling back into the habit of squeezing the cue intentionally, instead let the motion of it hitting your chest perform the squeeze.

[nortoncue]

First I think you have to convince yourself that you do not need to grip the cue hard. You have to re-train the muscle memory to stop doing what it's currently doing and start doing something different.

To start with, try this.. with your grip hand, form an O with forefinger and thumb, now move the finger/thumb tips apart far enough to get your cue (grip) between them. You should only be touching the cue with forefinger and thumb, the other fingers are out straight away from the cue.

Play a few shots with your hand like this, even deep screw shots. You should be pleasantly surprised how much cue power you still have, even with such a light grip.

Go from this to a similar grip using just forefinger and thumb, but this time form the O and place the cue inside it, more like a normal grip. Do not actually grip the cue, but make the O small enough so it is touching the cue on all sides. Again the other 3 fingers are out straight and not touching the cue.

Play more shots, you should have the same cue power as before.

Now, form your normal grip.. but, do not grip the cue, just cradle it.. like the example above the fingers are touching on all sides but applying no pressure.

Play more shots, concentrate on not falling back into the habit of squeezing the cue intentionally, instead let the motion of it hitting your chest perform the squeeze.

wow very good advice! i will remember this while playing, thanks!

[Terry Davidson]

The easiest way to stop gripping the cue too soon and thus 'stabbing' the cueball (means decelerating the cue prior to striking the cueball) is to only have the action of the thumb of the grip hand hitting the chest and forcing the thumb against the cue and forefinger.

nrage's advice is very good and may help you and he is correct in that ONLY the forefinger and thumb should be gripping the cue until you reach the end of the delivery and the back of the grip hand thumb hits the chest.

Believe is or not I have just 'discovered' this as I realized I wasn't taking my own advice and was consequently stabbing the cueball on an awful lot of shots. Trying to get this is very difficult if you've been used to doing something else but you have to keep working at it.

The biggest problem I seem to have is the perceived loss of control of the cue, which isn't really true of course but it feels that way to me.

The other thing, as nrage has said, the amount of power you get from a lot less acceleration is amazing and anything that slows down the acceleration has the effect of increasing the accuracy, which is a very good thing of course.

Terry

[vucko117]

thanks for your advices it helped me a lot. In a day I have felt some really significant improvements in the wayI am gripping and delivering the cue. Thanks guys. I have noticed that I found really helpful to concentrate on the wrist and trying to keep it completely loose.