Shoulder 'Locking'

[Particle Physics]

Sometimes when I play, I can pull off amazing shots. The white is a foot off the bottom rail, over the R black pocket (looking down the table), the red near the R blue pocket. I pot it in the green pocket and screw back across the table after hitting the cush. Now how can I do that, and miss a 2 foot straight red in open play? Grrrrrrrrrr. I think that when I play off the cushion, I make more effort to get the left shoulder down, and pull the right shoulder up, round and down 'behind' my head. I think coaches call this locking the cueing shoulder. I think it means that the elbow ends up behind the head and the only thing that moves along the cueing line is the hand and forearm (except the case of elbow drop shots).

Does this analysis of my fault on simple shots, where I have plenty of room to get the forearm and bridge shoulder on the baize make sense? Maybe I'm just plonking my shoulder over the cue and not doing shoulder lock position, because the shot seems simple enough for a little swing of the hand and nothing else, but actually, I'm not respecting the shot, and because of poor body shape, moving the cue off line, with the cue elbow dropping inwards?

I know, I really need to do some video, and a friend and I are up for this now, and will try and set it up soon, so wise folk on here, can comment on what they see, not reported by me.

[throtts]

Sometimes when I play, I can pull off amazing shots. The white is a foot off the bottom rail, over the R black pocket (looking down the table), the red near the R blue pocket. I pot it in the green pocket and screw back across the table after hitting the cush. Now how can I do that, and miss a 2 foot straight red in open play? Grrrrrrrrrr. I think that when I play off the cushion, I make more effort to get the left shoulder down, and pull the right shoulder up, round and down 'behind' my head. I think coaches call this locking the cueing shoulder. I think it means that the elbow ends up behind the head and the only thing that moves along the cueing line is the hand and forearm (except the case of elbow drop shots).

Does this analysis of my fault on simple shots, where I have plenty of room to get the forearm and bridge shoulder on the baize make sense? Maybe I'm just plonking my shoulder over the cue and not doing shoulder lock position, because the shot seems simple enough for a little swing of the hand and nothing else, but actually, I'm not respecting the shot, and because of poor body shape, moving the cue off line, with the cue elbow dropping inwards?

I know, I really need to do some video, and a friend and I are up for this now, and will try and set it up soon, so wise folk on here, can comment on what they see, not reported by me.

I have stopped missing easy balls now ( well 95% of them ). It's was becoming very infuriating potting hard shots and getting back in to perfect position to then miss a gimmee..I treat all shots the same with the same technique and respect, if you don't you are just maturing a bad habit further..And I mean all shots even ones my Mrs can pot...

[nrage]

One possible explanation here is that you're subconsciously only recalling the times when an amazing shot worked, and forgetting the numerous (8/10) times they don't. This is a common phenomenon with perception and is not in fact a bad thing as it typically causes raised levels of confidence, but you have to be careful that it doesn't have the opposite effect - as it could be doing here - of making you wonder why you're so bad with simple shots. In fact, you're not, you're probably more consistent with the short range ones, but because you expect to get them you don't remember the numerous times you do, and instead only recall the odd (1/20) time you don't.

Another possible explanation is that you're expecting to get the short ones, so not putting 100% concentration into them all the time. It makes sense, you do a lot more of them and it's hard to keep concentration up for a long period of time, again and again. In contrast the opportunity to pull off an amazing shot comes rarely and you can mentally boost concentration just for those situations, putting in 100% effort and therefore being rewarded a little more often than you would otherwise.

I reckon some or all of this happens to all of us to some degree or another, all the time.

[Terry Davidson]

particle:

When I miss the sitters in practice with no pressure I have noticed I'm tending to move up on the backswing, especially if there's a little power involved and this of course causes me to cue across the ball. It may not be your problem but check it out.

In the normal course of things easy pots are really missed by a lack of concentration and attention to the cueing technique in one spot or another, either the backswing or delivery and sometimes not locking the shoulder and getting the stronger shoulder musc le involved too early in the delivery. One 'fix' for this is to really loosen the grip and concentrating on delivering the cue with just the elbow since in most of these shots an elbow drop is not required.

Another thing that may be happening, and this is quite common, is with the easy shots where lower power is involved the player forgets to drive the grip hand to the chest and accelerate through the cueball. In actual fact he is decelerating through the cueball and this is normally called 'stabbing' and will lead to real easy shots being missed, like 3 footers into an open corner pocket.

It drives me nuts too!

Terry

[Particle Physics]

One possible explanation here is that you're subconsciously only recalling the times when an amazing shot worked, and forgetting the numerous (8/10) times they don't. This is a common phenomenon with perception and is not in fact a bad thing as it typically causes raised levels of confidence, but you have to be careful that it doesn't have the opposite effect - as it could be doing here - of making you wonder why you're so bad with simple shots. In fact, you're not, you're probably more consistent with the short range ones, but because you expect to get them you don't remember the numerous times you do, and instead only recall the odd (1/20) time you don't.

Another possible explanation is that you're expecting to get the short ones, so not putting 100% concentration into them all the time. It makes sense, you do a lot more of them and it's hard to keep concentration up for a long period of time, again and again. In contrast the opportunity to pull off an amazing shot comes rarely and you can mentally boost concentration just for those situations, putting in 100% effort and therefore being rewarded a little more often than you would otherwise.

I reckon some or all of this happens to all of us to some degree or another, all the time.

Wise words, and probably an astute analysis of 'selective memory' in humans nrage.

[Particle Physics]

particle:

When I miss the sitters in practice with no pressure I have noticed I'm tending to move up on the backswing, especially if there's a little power involved and this of course causes me to cue across the ball. It may not be your problem but check it out.

In the normal course of things easy pots are really missed by a lack of concentration and attention to the cueing technique in one spot or another, either the backswing or delivery and sometimes not locking the shoulder and getting the stronger shoulder musc le involved too early in the delivery. One 'fix' for this is to really loosen the grip and concentrating on delivering the cue with just the elbow since in most of these shots an elbow drop is not required.

Another thing that may be happening, and this is quite common, is with the easy shots where lower power is involved the player forgets to drive the grip hand to the chest and accelerate through the cueball. In actual fact he is decelerating through the cueball and this is normally called 'stabbing' and will lead to real easy shots being missed, like 3 footers into an open corner pocket.

It drives me nuts too!

Terry

I think I'm guilty of all the bad habits you and nrage describe, and as Throtts says, not giving the simple shots enough time and respect.

Terry, I think I read that the shoulder should not be involved in the shot at all, just the forearm and hand for most shots and triceps for some longer strokes. Is this right? I seem to remember Hendry in the 90s being almost a statue, movement was so minimal and I don't think he used his shoulder much did he or am I suffering selective memory again?!

[cazmac1]

don't do it

[Particle Physics]

don't do it

Don't do what mate?

[MeSnooksta]

people tend to get too comfortable with easy shots , when that happens , we tend to not take those shots seriously and with the proper manner. just my point of view.

[DandyA]

it's something I'm working on at the moment, but I'm finding extending the bridge arm as far as possible without discomfort really helps ... as you say PP, I think it's because it automatically means your bridge shoulder gets lower and closer to your chin and hence your cue arm shoulder gets more in the line of the shot and less able to move (ie locked) ...

I'd never really thought about it until Terry Davidson mentioned it so many thanks Terry ... good advice as always which is certainly helping my game

[Particle Physics]

it's something I'm working on at the moment, but I'm finding extending the bridge arm as far as possible without discomfort really helps ... as you say PP, I think it's because it automatically means your bridge shoulder gets lower and closer to your chin and hence your cue arm shoulder gets more in the line of the shot and less able to move (ie locked) ...

I'd never really thought about it until Terry Davidson mentioned it so many thanks Terry ... good advice as always which is certainly helping my game

Dandy, I'm guessing that all the set-up tips we get from the wise owls are framed towards locking the whole body into shot line, so that only the hand and forearm moves, to minimise any other movement? Are you using straight bridge arm or bent? I find that straight seems to help my long potting, and a few other members have expressed the same view. I think one chap who had experimented long and hard with bent arm and a shortened cue, was now selling that cue, going back to full stretch with a full length 58" cue. Bad memory on my part not to know his name, but you get the idea. Today, I found that R foot in line, L foot at 90 degrees to right foot and being parallel to R foot (left knee bent), straight left bridge arm brought round the body (with just a small gap between L shoulder and chin), cue under chin and shoulder lock tightened up the whole body. In this position, it felt like it was just back fingers working on feathering and a bit of forearm on the actual shot. I could be wrong of course, I'd have to do a video to see if anything else was at play. I imagine the whole thing looked quite stiff and probably Hendry et al. like. No bad thing.

[Terry Davidson]

The whole point in the set-up is about 4-fold:

1. Make sure it's COMFORTABLE
2. Make sure it's STABLE and there's no upper body movement during backswing and delivery
3. Make sure everything is in line as much as possible (depending on the player's physique)
4. Ensure the delivery comes from the elbow joint primarily with the shoulder muscle only getting involved at the end

After getting all this ingrained then the only thing left is to drive the grip hand to the chest (on EVERY shot) and not tightening the grip too early in the delivery. Master these points and a player doing sufficient and directed practice will improve rapidly.

Please notice I said nothing regarding preferred eye and where the cue should be on the chin or under one eye or the other. Just keep everything consistent and the rest will come quickly.

Terry

[Particle Physics]

The whole point in the set-up is about 4-fold:

1. Make sure it's COMFORTABLE
2. Make sure it's STABLE and there's no upper body movement during backswing and delivery
3. Make sure everything is in line as much as possible (depending on the player's physique)
4. Ensure the delivery comes from the elbow joint primarily with the shoulder muscle only getting involved at the end

After getting all this ingrained then the only thing left is to drive the grip hand to the chest (on EVERY shot) and not tightening the grip too early in the delivery. Master these points and a player doing sufficient and directed practice will improve rapidly.

Please notice I said nothing regarding preferred eye and where the cue should be on the chin or under one eye or the other. Just keep everything consistent and the rest will come quickly.

Terry

Thanks Terry. Everything you say is sound advice.

I did a practice for a few hours today, long balls and line up, primarilly to test a slight twist on set-up. R foot in line, L foot parallel, left knee bent, leaning inwards, ala Jimmy White. Body twisted round, L bridge arm straight (shoulder in contact with cheek when bridge arm on cushion/rail, and just below cheek (same line) when arm fully on the table. R shoulder pushed back a bit (by holding cue at the end) and locked round a bit. Cue under the chin, chest over cue and in contact with cue, with R nipple about one inch from cue. Ring finger grip open enough so the little finger just touches the cue. In this pose, the elbow appears to disect the head down the middle.

With this set-up, I managed to pot long blues with ease, and also managed to pot angles, straight short balls, cushion shots, skinny shots, screw, stun and run through and middle pocket shots (from over the black ball pockets). I had more problems with balls in the middle of the table, when I had to put my left arm on the table. I seem to prefer straight arm on the cushion/rail, so it was an issue of getting lower down, while keeping the bridge arm on the same line. This required a bit more twist of the body clockwise to achieve the same shot and cue line. It took a while to discover this but I'm glad I did. The left shoulder is no longer touching the cheek but sitting underneath the point where it would touch the cheek if the left arm was on the cushion/rail. The balls were flying in, and I was at times, generating a lot of white ball movement, which seems to suggest that I was accelerating through the ball by concentrating my movement on the cueing hand and forearm? My head/body was still moving a bit, but compared to months ago, I'm a totally different player, and that goes for everything else I reckon.

Sighting; I'm R eye dominant, and manage to switch the left eye on by staring at the left side white and object balls sometimes. I'm still trying to fix this dominant eye thing with patching, though I keep forgetting and must pay more attention to this issue asap.

I will arrange to video this next week and let all see what I've been up to the last few months. It's a shame I didn't have an initial video for before and after analysis.