Stance problem...

[Deepscrew]

When i was a kid my stance was one that meant my feet were very close together. With coaching this was altered to a more traditional 'by the book' stance.

Having been playing a heck of a lot lately and improving, i seem to have gone back to the stance of my youth. Feet close together, left leg straight, right leg quite bent, both feet pretty much pointing straight forward.

I am playing as well as i ever have doing this. In the balls im seeing the angle, getting down nicely, it all feels good and im potting balls and making 50+ breaks regularly. I do wobble sometimes, struggling with balance due to this narrow stance.

My issue is my long potting has gone down hill. This is due (i presume) to moving around on the shot due to my stance not giving me a solid base to strike through the ball on more powerful shorts. I sometimes wobble when im cueing up in the balls and have to get up and start again, but on long pots i imagine when im hitting the ball hard im all over the place and as such missing the pot.

I have tried going back to the more text book stance but i just put epic amounts of right hand side on everything (im left handed by the way).

I can instantly improve the solidity of the stance and therefore my balance by widening my stance, however this affects all my potting and i miss more balls. I played with a wide stance all year, only when i went back to the narrow stance have i seen improvements in my overall game, big improvements too, but i want my long potting back!!!!

any ideas?

[hotpot]

I,ve been tinkering with my grip and stance and have spent the last four practice sessions on long straitish pots holding for the black , i see how soft i can hit the white and still hold for the black , anyway i find that my stance has a lot to do with me hitting across the whit which obviously magnifies on longer shots , so after a lot of experimenting the last session i really felt comfortable , natural and cued really well .
Instead of putting my right foot on the line of aim and straight i put my right groin on the line wich was then more angled , this totally altered my stance , my cueing and how i felt on the shot . Dont know if it was a one off but it felt good .

[hotpot]

I,ve been tinkering with my grip and stance and have spent the last four practice sessions on long straitish pots holding for the black , i see how soft i can hit the white and still hold for the black , anyway i find that my stance has a lot to do with me hitting across the whit which obviously magnifies on longer shots , so after a lot of experimenting the last session i really felt comfortable , natural and cued really well .
Instead of putting my right foot on the line of aim and straight i put my right groin on the line wich was then more angled , this totally altered my stance , my cueing and how i felt on the shot . Dont know if it was a one off but it felt good .

[tomw]

When you try to find a stance with your feet further apart, don't change the position of your hips (= keep your feet in the same "line").
Leave your left leg as it is.
Put your right leg a bit more to the right, and if needed (for the hip position) a bit more to the front.
Play like that for some time.
If you still play well like that, and hit the cueball in the center, put your right leg a little bit more to the right (and if needed to the front), and play like that for some time.
Keep opening your stance bit by bit until it's rock solid, ensuring never to change the position of your hips.

I think that should do it...

greetings
Tom

[DG GIBERT]

i got the opposite problem, was told to get my right leg in line then move my left leg into position not too wide
weight distribution 45% on each leg and 10% on your arm

[DG GIBERT]

Hmm how about standing on two bathroom scales ?
could be hard with them strapped to your feet

[Deepscrew]

haha yes, get some funny looks down the club i suspect. Also you'd know how much each weight a pint of lager puts on!

Think i'll give it a miss.


@ Tom W

I'll give that a go. Think i put my right leg back when i widen, so i'll try and keep legs on same horizontal line but wider. Makes sense!

[Terry Davidson]

Ideally, the feet should be placed so that there is around one shoulder width between the heels. Some players have more and some have less and that comes down to personal choice and comfort.

It may have been me that said 10% on the bridge forearm and hand and the remaining 90% evenly balanced between the legs and feet. However, no one can call that exactly and again it's approximate and based on personal comfort.

So in the stance, STABILITY and COMFORT are the 2 most important considerations. If you feel your narrow stance is compromising your stability then you should try to widen it a bit and the point above regarding the placement of the hips is very valid. In your case you should swing the hips to the right and back until you gat around 2"-3" clearance between the inside of your grip hand and the outside of your trousers, with the left foot (somewhere near the arch) directly underneath the grip hand.

What is most likely happening is by narrowing your stance back to how you first learned the game you may be introducing a realignment of the hips but more importantly some realignment on the left side of the upper body. If you can do this, try and cue in front of a mirror at home on a surface around 2ft8in high to duplicate the table height and get down into your address position with your narrow stance and take a look at the alignment of the upper body (head/shoulders/elbow and cue on chest) then widen the stance and see what happens to this alignment and see if you can get it to where it was with the narrow stance while keeping the feet wider. This is most likely what you prefer naturally and most likely you deliver the cue straighter with this alignment.

Terry

[Deepscrew]

Thanks Terry. Much appreciated.

[tomw]

i got the opposite problem, was told to get my right leg in line then move my left leg into position not too wide
weight distribution 45% on each leg and 10% on your arm

That's the same, but you must be right-handed, no?

[DG GIBERT]

That's the same, but you must be right-handed, no?

yes right handed

[DG GIBERT]

That's the same, but you must be right-handed, no?

yes right handed my furry friend

[Deepscrew]

I remember when we played up at SWSA you had a very wide stance....but then your quite tall from memory?

[Terry Davidson]

deepscrew:

Who is that ^^ comment to? My own stance was fairly narrow originally, about 8" between the heels or so and Nic Barrow told me during our session to widen it out some, so now I have it at shoulder width or thereabouts

Terry

[Deepscrew]

Sorry it was at DG GIBERT. Should have quoted.

I would prefer to have a solid, wider stance, but not if it means RIGHT HAND SIDE CITY!!! I'll get there.