tightening the grip

[98188729]

As the title states, do i have to tighten the grip upon impact with the cue ball? which i see many players does.

[checkSide]

No, your grip pressure should be constant throughout.

Read the bottom two paragraphs here.

[98188729]

ok thanks for your help.

[bonoman1970]

98188729 You have been given a very detailed and accurate response ,however the point of what you are saying is correct, because you can grip lightly or less so on your cueing but it is inevitable and right that you grip the cue tighter at the moment of impact on the cue ball,and yes you are right all of the top players do it,otherwise you would have no feel for the shot.

[Nic Barrow]

Tightening

As the title states, do i have to tighten the grip upon impact with the cue ball? which i see many players does.

Hi there.
The grip naturally tightens a bit for most players as they go through the ball.
I am talking about pros here on the main tour.
This will be a natural reaction to the cue ball trying to push the cue back through the hand on tip impact - the body will tighten the grip to an unnoticaeble degree at this point. Remember that the cue ball weighs about 20% of the cue so there is quite a lot of resistance there to overcome (unless you go to some clubs whose cue balls have worn down over the years of use to being about as small and light as a ping pong ball!).
Some players then will prefer to relax the hand again until it is back to the original tightness at the beginning of the delivery.
Others prefer to maintain the tightening until the hand reaches the chest.
Playing with power lends itself to tightening even more - but with a lot of amateurs that mistake this for thinking that 'strength=power'. In fact the more strength you use usually the less power and control you have.
Watch a cheetah running or a cat leaping - they dont use strength - simply the most efficient way o freaching their destination with the minimum amount of energy useage.
Even Usain Bolt is not using strength as he sprints - yes he is very muscular through training which gives him more leverage but his muscles themself and jaw etc as he runs are as relaxed as possible to allow for the quickest and most controlled possible responses to what he needs and to his technique and to what is going on in teh race (watch any top sprinter in slow motion adn you willl see).

[98188729]

so does it means that i must grip a little tighter upon the contact of cue ball? or is it up to individual? and not to grip too tightly right? only a slight tightness? thanks for all of your help.

[Terry Davidson]

The secret here is to try and not think about when to tighten the grip as it all happens too fast.

The real secret is ensure you have a loose grip to start with, so loose that the cue should slide easily in your grip (without moving your forearm) if someone pulled on the cuebutt with very little force.

To get to this ideal grip you can start by over-doing it in practice and have the cue down closer to your figertips with a 'gap' between the web from thumb to forefinger and the butt of the cue.

Gradually you can pull the cue more to the second pads of your 4 fingers while keeping the grip loose so that the gap between the web and the butt will be gone.

At this point your unconcious mind will control when you tighten your grip and it will primarily be to keep the cue from sliding across the table. To beginning players it seems logical to grip the cue tighter for power shots but in reality the exact opposite is true. Keep the grip as loose as you can until AFTER you hit the cue ball or else right at the same moment so you can keep the cue at the acceleration it has reached before hitting the cueball.

Terry