DEVELOP A STROKE AND A STANCE YOU CAN RELY ON

The ultimate goal of evaluating the mechanics of the game is to produce a sound shooting routine that you can rely on in any situation. Different players will have different routines, but all successful routines share a proper implementation of the following elements:

BODY – STANCE – SIGHT – BRIDGE – GRIP – STROKE

Your stroke is simply the movement of your forearm and wrist – which should be fluid and loose. Your stance is the position of the rest of your body – which should be comfy, steady, and still. The stroke is not reliable unless it is built upon a sound stance, while a good stance will do nothing for an erratic stroke. They are mutually dependent and equally important.

In pool, your body is the only moving part you control – so you must know it and treat it right. The bridge you use determines how steady the cue is, and your sight, or eyeball action, determines the reaction of your subconscious muscles through your brain.

BODY

The first stop in the physical part of pool is your body. Since it is the only thing you directly control in pool – it is essential that you understand it and treat it right.

Think of Tiger Woods, think of Bruce Lee, think of Jackie-Joyner Kersey. These world class athletes take their bodies seriously, and it shows in their work ethic, success in competition, and the soundness of their spirit. Improving the condition of your body can dramatically improve your performance, even in a relatively non-exercise sport such as pool.

Knowing where your body is, and what it is doing, is essential to performing at a high level.

STANCE

Getting into your stance is the first motion of getting ready to shoot. Once your stance is set, the only moving parts of your body until the shot is over should be the forearm and your eyeballs.

Your stance should be well balanced, steady, solid, and comfortable. Most good players keep their heads low and centered over the cue, with the eyes an equal distance from the table for a balanced view.

Above all, as is so often the case in billiards, the stance you settle on should be consistent and produce predictable results. Once it is fundamentally sound, comfortable, and consistent, it will be one less thing you have to think about when shooting — and that will allow you to move on to learning other things.

SIGHT (Eye Action)

Do not underestimate your eyeballs when playing pool, they are crucial to your game — and don’t ignore what they are doing while you shoot.

Establish a routine in which your eyes recognize all the relevant points in your environment and their relative proximities – such as the striking point on both the cue ball and the object ball, as well as the center of the pocket at which you are shooting.

Your eyes will have a tendency to stray to irrelevant targets at times — just recognize this, and remind yourself to focus. Learn where your eyes need to be during different parts of the stroke routine, and stick with it.

BRIDGE

The bridge hand steadies the front end of the cue stick as you stroke it back and forth. It is essential that this be a non-moving part, so as not to introduce sideways motion — which causes an undue margin for error. You need to know exactly where that cue will touch the cueball, and your stick must go in a straight line with the desired path of the cueball. A wobbly bridge makes it impossible to achieve that level of accuracy.

There are many resources for developing a sound bridge, and there are many different styles. The key is that it is solid and does not allow any sideways action during the stroke.

STROKE

Your stroke is simply the action of your dominant wrist and forearm — it should be comfortable, natural, and predictable. Your goal should be to make your stroke ultra-consistent — so that it is reliable in all situations.

There are many drills to practice your stroke, but the key is that the stick must travel in a straight line. Many, many different looking strokes have been used to force the cue-stick to travel in a straight line — but all the good ones share this in common.

Common mistakes during the stroke include ‘pushing’ the cuestick forward too early, as opposed to letting it swing back and forth like a pendulum. Much like golf and baseball, and contrary to popular belief, the less you use your muscles, and the more you let the weight of the cue do the work — the more power and accuracy you will have. Compare the sweet swing of ‘Big Easy’ Ernie Els to yours — you may find you are trying too hard!

Another common stroke mistake is a failure to swing the wrist backwards and forward in a straight line — but instead introducing a sideways direction to the path of the wrist. Make a conscious effort to let the weight and momentum of the cue stick do the work — and keep the muscles in your wrist loose. This will go a long way toward ensuring a straight stroke.

GRIP

The grip of your dominant hand on the cue stick should be secure, but it should not be too tight. Many of the great players hold the stick very lightly, like an egg. Others have a slightly tighter grip, but none of the good players have all five of their fingers gripped like a fist around the cue.

Many players grip too close to the end of the cue — but the hand should be right around the center of the woven grip on a custom cue, or about 6-12″ up from the end of a house cue. The cue should rest on the pads of the fingers on a dangling wrist — and the fingers should be supporting the cue more than they are holding it. Generally speaking, the forearm — which makes a line between your elbow and your wrist — ought to be at a near 90 degree angle to the cue stick, pointing straight down to the floor.

CONCLUSION

Once you commit a fundamentally sound shooting routine to your muscle memory – you can rely on that part of your game without thinking about it – and your pool game will truly soar to new levels.