Screw back not going straight.

[poolqjunkie]

When I practise potting the blue from baulk line, I have a good success rate with center ball and follow. But my screw are much worst.

When I shoot my cue ball from the brown spot to the blue and back down the table, my ball goes straight down with top center and bottom strike.

I feel that my shaft vibrate a lot more on screw long shots, and my ball always ends up hitting the cushion at the same spot.

I try to use a shorter bridge, and keep my cue horizontal, but it is still doing it.

On half table screw back, I have no problem. If I put the cue ball half way between the baulk line and the blue and try to pot the blue in the corner and screw back, I do not really have any problem.

So, I am not sure if it is my sighting that is causing the problem.

What are the common causes of this problem?

[C-J]

I think your problem is in the follow-through.With the longer or more powerfull screwshots it's difficult to keep your head still so in follow through you will cue slightly across.Keep your eye on the objectball and focus on keeping your head still and keeping the cue straight under your eyeline until after the follow-through.

[bongo]

I understand how you feel!

It may be what C-J said, your head may be lifting without you knowing.
If your...
-Bridge is always still,
-Your head is always still,
-Only your forearm at the back moves,
-You have no unwanted side,
-You were on the line when you got down,
-You push the cue through on a straight and level line,
-There are no other balls in the way...

Then the ball must go in and the white will screw where you want it to.

What might me happening is that when you push the cue through, your cue slightly moves off line and you push the white with the cue on the wrong line and then mid stroke, it goes back on line, it looks like you pushed through straight.

Your sighting may be off if you were trying to get sooooo much screw then you might have a different stance and sighting like a 9-ball pool power break Johnny Archer style stance and techique without you knowing it but not as animated. That may have pushed you off line.

I hope that helps.

[C-J]

Thanks for stating all those things wich can bring the cue off line Bongo.By reading his post i assumed he could do this all.

[poolqjunkie]

Thank you. I noticed that when the balls are far away, my sighting seems a bit off as to the center of the object ball, so I did not hit the center of the onject ball, and smetimes even the cue ball n these shots.
I practised about 7 hours yesterday, and I am trying a differetn sighting method, which seems to work much better for me.
I also noticed that my face is facing downward with my chin on the cue, and on the longer shots, I need to lift my eys up a lot to see the onject ball. So, I need more time to focus my eyes, and sometimes that off set my timing.
I am also trying to do what Frank Callan said, which is to have a longer feather for the power shots, which conditions the brain befre I actually shoot, as to how much folow through I need.
Another thing I noticed I was doing was that i di dnot really bring my cue to the cue ball and pause. I was pausing a bit short of the cue ball, but my arm was already vertical at that position, Which means I was hitting the ball with my grip short of vertical, and my cue might be moving up. I sometimes tends to grip my cue with a wrist flicks to hold it dnw, so the cue des not fllow through straight.
I do nto beleive my head moved, because I videotyped myself and see that I kept my head down.
But I do notice my grip seems to loose at times with these power screw.
After hitting balls fr a few hurs, then everthing falls int place. But withut the warm up, the long screw back was off.
I will focus n the points Bongo raised, thank you. It is not easy to do though.

[dantuck_7]

I also find this type of shot quite difficult. I try these type of deep screws on safety shots where you want to pot or rattle the object ball and bring the white back a couple of feet.

It rarely seems to work well. It's one of those shots where if you're not cueing well it ends up looking really bad. From my experience of trying to playing this shot you can sometimes try to put too much power into it - rather than cueing it sweetly.

[C-J]

Thank you. I noticed that when the balls are far away, my sighting seems a bit off as to the center of the object ball, so I did not hit the center of the onject ball, and smetimes even the cue ball n these shots.
I practised about 7 hours yesterday, and I am trying a differetn sighting method, which seems to work much better for me.
I also noticed that my face is facing downward with my chin on the cue, and on the longer shots, I need to lift my eys up a lot to see the onject ball. So, I need more time to focus my eyes, and sometimes that off set my timing.
I am also trying to do what Frank Callan said, which is to have a longer feather for the power shots, which conditions the brain befre I actually shoot, as to how much folow through I need.
Another thing I noticed I was doing was that i di dnot really bring my cue to the cue ball and pause. I was pausing a bit short of the cue ball, but my arm was already vertical at that position, Which means I was hitting the ball with my grip short of vertical, and my cue might be moving up. I sometimes tends to grip my cue with a wrist flicks to hold it dnw, so the cue des not fllow through straight.
I do nto beleive my head moved, because I videotyped myself and see that I kept my head down.
But I do notice my grip seems to loose at times with these power screw.
After hitting balls fr a few hurs, then everthing falls int place. But withut the warm up, the long screw back was off.
I will focus n the points Bongo raised, thank you. It is not easy to do though.

Maybe it's not a good idea to practise this very difficult shot with still so much uncertainties.Try to find out where what goes wrong.You can do that by finding your limit.
Start with the easy shots and make it three times in a row clear.Now place the cueball a little bit further and again make the shot three times nicely.If you go wrong at some point place the cueball back a little bit.This way you will stay at your limit and able to find out what goes wrong.

[poolqjunkie]

Thank you everyne. I am doing much better now.
I was a bit lazy with my practise last month, and I have just changed to a new cue, with a new tip (Very drastic changes by the way: 17.7 to 15oz, 57" to 55", Elk Master to old French Champion) so as you can imagine, everything was quite a bit off.
I am putting in about 5-8 hours of practise a day now. I do practise the shorter distance shots as well as the 3/4 table and the really long pots. i also do a lot of drills about cue ball positioning and I am starting to feel much more comfortable now with my stroke and the cue.
I have already done some 40+ with this new cue. Although I am not completely used to it yet, and messed up a few bigger break opportunities because I run out of position, it is making me feeling quite a bit better. I think in times I will get used to it. I have noticed some improvement with my long shot already. Practise does make a difference!!!
Anyway, you all know how it is, I am sure soon i will go through another slump again. in the mean time, i will just keep on practising.