cue distance from ball to bridge

[spike007]

I have a question about what is recognized as the 'standard' distance from your vee to the cue tip. Also what is too long. Whilst videoing myself for a question I raised earlier I have noticed this may be too long. I have seen on some clips that between 9-11 inches is normal??


Spike

[Terry Davidson]

Yes, 9-12" is considered the correct length and varies according to arm length and height.

Most players these days will be closer to the 12" which supposedly gives you more to aim with for the long pots.

Terry

[Particle Physics]

I am often guilty of going too long, up to 14 inches which can lead to a lot of missed shots. I've marked my cue at 12 inches now, to try and stop this bad habit picked up playing pool.

[DeanH]

A good test is to place the cue ball just off the Brown spot (towards the Blue), so when you line up the cue to play down the spots, the cue tip is just off the cue ball and hovering over the brown spot. Your bridge knuckle should not be outside the D line.
If you are then you are probably have a very long bridge cue length.

[nrage]

I think there is a theoretical best distance for each player, and it's somewhere between 8-12 inches. If you're the sort of person who can control abrupt acceleration but struggle with accuracy when you move the cue a long distance - you will favour a short bridge distance. If on the other hand you have to accelerate slowly/smoothly to be accurate, then you will favour a longer bridge. I think that shorter than 8 inches will limit the amount of power you can generate and longer than 12 will increase the effect of inaccuracy for no gain.

[spike007]

cue distance from ball to bridge

I know where this prblem originated. When I was a boy (15) my high break was 75. I had an accident with my cue which was an old billiard cue so quite light anyway. It had some damage just below the ferrule which was properly repaired and re-feathered, as the cue was now shorter I ended up gripping it on the splice. It also had a very slight bend in the cue so in my mind, to grip it in the same orientation on the splice meant to cancel out any variation in the cues bend shot to shot. I carried on for a couple of years until I stopped playing, That was almost 30 years ago.

The odd occasion I have played since (with club cues) it feels natural to grip the splice or end of the cue. I have now returned to the game with much enthusiasm and bought a second hand supposedly quality cue. It has a very slight bend which I don't think (wrongly or rightly) is a problem as I hold the cue where I can feel the splice in my hand (not right at the end) so it is in the same 360 degree orientation every time. However it's 57 inches long and I'm 5'7".

What should I do?

[nrage]

I know where this prblem originated. When I was a boy (15) my high break was 75. I had an accident with my cue which was an old billiard cue so quite light anyway. It had some damage just below the ferrule which was properly repaired and re-feathered, as the cue was now shorter I ended up gripping it on the splice. It also had a very slight bend in the cue so in my mind, to grip it in the same orientation on the splice meant to cancel out any variation in the cues bend shot to shot. I carried on for a couple of years until I stopped playing, That was almost 30 years ago.

The odd occasion I have played since (with club cues) it feels natural to grip the splice or end of the cue. I have now returned to the game with much enthusiasm and bought a second hand supposedly quality cue. It has a very slight bend which I don't think (wrongly or rightly) is a problem as I hold the cue where I can feel the splice in my hand (not right at the end) so it is in the same 360 degree orientation every time. However it's 57 inches long and I'm 5'7".

What should I do?

By "splice" do you mean the cut away part on the butt? If so, it's commonly called a chamfer or similar. The splices are where other types of wood have been added to the butt. If it's hand-made these form a pointy curved shape. If it's machine spliced it''s typically a sharp triangular shape.

There are a number of variables to determining the correct setup, including bridge distance. The key factor is actually the angle of the cue forearm which should be 90 degrees to the cue (or floor or thereabouts) at the address position.

So, set the white ball up on the brown spot and get down on the shot as if to play over the spots. Your cue tip should be less than 1 inch away (ideally) from the white and your bridge hand should be somewhere near the edge of the half-circle on the cloth. As you've gotten down naturally you'll have fallen into your current/trained position with respect to the cue tip and bridge. As long as the cue tip is pretty close and the bridge is not really short, or really long I would leave these as-is.

Have a mate check your grip forearm and loosen your grip so he/she can move your hand until the forearm is at 90 degrees to the cue/floor. Re-grip the cue, this is your "ideal" setup.

If it's different to what you're used to, and you'd like to train it in you can place tape on the butt of the cue just ahead of the forefinger and thumb, so you can just feel it when you grip in the correct position. You can also place a single dot of tape on the shaft where the cue sits on the bridge hand and assuming the cue is always in the same position/rotation this dot of tape will be visible when you get down, but wont brush on the bridge hand an annoy you.

Practice with this for a while. You should start to notice when you are forced to play with a short or long bridge, and in these cases you should adjust the grip hand by the same amount. You should find that doing so gives you a greater feeling of control on short bridge off the rail type shots.

[spike007]

cue distance from ball to bridge

Hi nrage,

I do mean the cutaway. The drop of my cueing arm is pretty good i.e. Close to 90deg to the cue. The tip usually lines up 10-15mm away from the ball.

I will check the other points tmrw.

Cheers

[Terry Davidson]

spike:

I know nrage said inside 1" but that distance is subtracted directly from the amount of follow-through you are capable of. I teach around 1/4" or even less as long as the player doesn't foul the cueball. Remember, the objective of the delivery is to get the tip of the cue back to the EXACT address position at or very near the time of strike. Having an address position at 1" from the cueball means when you strike the cueball you are already PAST your ideal address position.

In addition the straightness of the bridge arm also helps to determine cue length along with how much of the cue is between the 'V' of the bridge and the back of the cueball. With an almost straight bridge arm, somewhere around 11" between the V and the cueball and the grip forearm at 90degrees then a 57" cue for someone at 5'7" should be about right with perhaps 1-2" of butt out the back of the grip hand in the address position with a hand-on-the-table shot.

Terry Griffiths teaches the light pencil marks on the shaft at 9" and 12" and also the tape on the butt just ahead of the natural grip position. This works very well with new students and juniors and I see no reason why it can't work with more experienced players who over the years have managed to move those parameters to where they are causing problems for themselves, which is very common I'm afraid.

Terry

[nrage]

spike:

I know nrage said inside 1" but that distance is subtracted directly from the amount of follow-through you are capable of. I teach around 1/4" or even less as long as the player doesn't foul the cueball. Remember, the objective of the delivery is to get the tip of the cue back to the EXACT address position at or very near the time of strike. Having an address position at 1" from the cueball means when you strike the cueball you are already PAST your ideal address position.

I agree, the closer the better. I was thinking "one thing at a time" when I wrote my reply. If you're more than 1/4" away but otherwise set up correctly you have only a minor "problem" to correct and it involves only a minor adjustment to how you get down, and a bit of practice.

[spike007]

spike:

I know nrage said inside 1" but that distance is subtracted directly from the amount of follow-through you are capable of. I teach around 1/4" or even less as long as the player doesn't foul the cueball. Remember, the objective of the delivery is to get the tip of the cue back to the EXACT address position at or very near the time of strike. Having an address position at 1" from the cueball means when you strike the cueball you are already PAST your ideal address position.

In addition the straightness of the bridge arm also helps to determine cue length along with how much of the cue is between the 'V' of the bridge and the back of the cueball. With an almost straight bridge arm, somewhere around 11" between the V and the cueball and the grip forearm at 90degrees then a 57" cue for someone at 5'7" should be about right with perhaps 1-2" of butt out the back of the grip hand in the address position with a hand-on-the-table shot.

Terry Griffiths teaches the light pencil marks on the shaft at 9" and 12" and also the tape on the butt just ahead of the natural grip position. This works very well with new students and juniors and I see no reason why it can't work with more experienced players who over the years have managed to move those parameters to where they are causing problems for themselves, which is very common I'm afraid.

Terry,

I marked my cue at 12" last night and put some tape around the butt in the appropriate place before i played a friend. Obviously it feels odd right now, the good thing is you dont see the line looking down the cue unless your looking for it so because im already gripping the cue in the new place i'm automatically bridging around 12", i didnt bother to put a mark at 9" as you mentioned 11-12 would be about right for me and im coming down from 14" so didnt want to overdo it. I'm also trying a different way of sighting to what im used to by looking at the object ball just as you finish the pause whaich has helped my long pots alot in just 6 frames. I posted another question about the same time as this one which is titled "cue pushing through to right" i havent tried altering my grip yet but will be soon


Cheers

[spike007]

spike:

I know nrage said inside 1" but that distance is subtracted directly from the amount of follow-through you are capable of. I teach around 1/4" or even less as long as the player doesn't foul the cueball. Remember, the objective of the delivery is to get the tip of the cue back to the EXACT address position at or very near the time of strike. Having an address position at 1" from the cueball means when you strike the cueball you are already PAST your ideal address position.

In addition the straightness of the bridge arm also helps to determine cue length along with how much of the cue is between the 'V' of the bridge and the back of the cueball. With an almost straight bridge arm, somewhere around 11" between the V and the cueball and the grip forearm at 90degrees then a 57" cue for someone at 5'7" should be about right with perhaps 1-2" of butt out the back of the grip hand in the address position with a hand-on-the-table shot.

Terry Griffiths teaches the light pencil marks on the shaft at 9" and 12" and also the tape on the butt just ahead of the natural grip position. This works very well with new students and juniors and I see no reason why it can't work with more experienced players who over the years have managed to move those parameters to where they are causing problems for themselves, which is very common I'm afraid.

Terry,

I marked my cue at 12" last night and put some tape around the butt in the appropriate place before i played a friend. Obviously it feels odd right now, the good thing is you dont see the line looking down the cue unless your looking for it so because im already gripping the cue in the new place i'm automatically bridging around 12", i didnt bother to put a mark at 9" as you mentioned 11-12 would be about right for me and i'm coming down from 14" so didnt want to overdo it. I'm also trying a different way of sighting to what im used to by looking at the object ball just as you finish the pause whaich has helped my long pots alot in just 6 frames, now that feels really odd. I posted another question about the same time as this one which is titled "cue pushing through to right" i havent tried altering my grip yet but will be soon


Cheers