Stance, 2 sets of instructions.

[godzilla]

Hey, I'm starting to teach myself and I've been reading through books and online as well and I've hit two sets of instructions for the stance which are completely oppositte of each other. The first type of stance I encountered in a Steve Davis book called Successful Snooker and the other stance I initially encountered in a coaching video by Ronnie O sullivan and then once again in another video. The second time I encountered that stance I tried it. I am tall, and the first stance was uncomfortable while the second stance was not. The first stance tells me to bend my right leg incase I am tall and feel uncomfortable. I'm 6 feet btw.

The second stance is in the following two videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rBe54E4rbEh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVjIZpY3Yug

(In the second link above at around 2:42, when he makes the boy pot the ball. Both of these stances in the above videos are the same.)

The first type of stance is the regular one , I guess, where the left leg is in front and about 20/30 degress in front with a gap of about 12 inches or so between the two legs. In this stance the right FOOT is not straight but is a bit outwards, and the line of shot is in line with the ball of the right foot and the left FOOT is straight.
like so >>> http://www.pooldawg.com/uploads/images/Samm/stance.jpg
I got this from the Steve Davis book and this is what I've encountered everywhere else.


The second stance posted above doesn't have the left leg in front and has the right foot straight and not outwards.
(this is for a right hander)
I'm terribly confused. Any help is appreciated on this matter.

Thanks in advance.

[jrc750]

Most important thing about any stance is you have to feel comfortable
As long as you can still cue straight i reckon it doesnt matter how you stand, just look at youtube clips of all the top pros, they are not all the same.
I prefer left leg in front type, but strangely sometimes find myself more square on, also position of cue ball dictates your body position a lot of the time so i wouldnt worry too much.
Maybe some of the coaches on here will back me up with more indepth reasons (or shoot me down )

[Terry Davidson]

godzilla:

jrc is correct, the most important consideration in the stance is COMFORT and also very important is stability.

For my students I recommend the almost square-on stance with the left foot slightly ahead of the right foot, with the right leg straight and forward of the vertical a bit when the hips are shifted to the left.

Left leg bent (for taller players it must be bent a bit more). I think where you got the discomfort was in trying to keep the feet pointing along the line of the shot. This will produce a fair amount of strain on the knee joints.

I would recommend your turn the right foot out a bit, maybe 30degrees and also turn the left foot out a bit, perhaps 20degrees and this will relieve the strain I believe.

Terry

[Erwan_BZH]

Well, we can consider there are two different stances: the boxer stance and the square stance.
(to illustrate, I admit you're a right-handed player)

The square stance means your feet are parallel to each other when facing the shot. Some coaches recommend your right foot to point to the cue ball, however, as Terry said, it applies some strain on the knee and it can be uncomfortable.

The boxer stance is when you put your left foot ahead of your right foot.

In both cases anyway, your front leg MUST be bent. (And I'm 6 ft like you, btw)

Here is a very nice bit from Irish coach PJ Nolan about it, with pics: http://pjnolanschampionsacademy.com/...des/the-stance

It's often said that the boxer stance is more for left-eyed player and the square for the right-eyed player, I tend to disagree with this. I'm a right-eyed player and I use the boxer stance. It feels very uncomfortable to use the square one for me, as it twists your back a lot (see Stephen Hendry's position for exemple).

Anyway, I think you have to try both and go with the one you feel the most comfortable with. It's very important to be comfortable, and not spending a minute on every shot to 'mold' your body into a specific stance you don't like, just because it is supposed to be the one for you.

Hope it helps :snooker:
Happy potting