Back arm and consistency

[bolton-cueman]

I've been talking to a few lads down the club about the importance of the back arm position in maintaining an effective cue action

After a bit of trial and error and quite a bit of modification I moved my grip up the butt by about 3 inches making my back forearm perfectly (well as near as possible) vertical at the address. This is improving my potting around the balls as I'm now (hopefully) getting into a consistent position for each shot

However, on long range power shots or mid range deep screw shots - or any shots that I need to generate power - my grip moves back to the end of the butt. Even though I still feel confident with these shots I keep thinking about does the moving of my back hand take me back to a different grip position for different shots - therefore an inconstant
technique.


Any thoughts?

[Terry Davidson]

You should always keep your forearm in the same position and the most recommended is vertical.

On shots with more power lengthen your backswing but be sure to keep the upper body still and have the backswing slow enough that you can control it and keep it straight.

Terry

[bolton-cueman]

Thanks Terry!

Even though I've been playing years I've only just, well over past few months, started looking at technique and starting de constructing my game to improve it.

The thing I've really struggling with, and it is an elementary thing, is the length of swing for different strength shots. I always used to keep the same (overly long) backswing but deliver the cue at different spends - so on delicate shots I was almost holding the cue back and delivering it in a very staccato way and I believe that's why I never had consistency in amongst the balls.

Now i've got my back arm pretty much consistently place in the address I'm starting to introduce slightly different length of swings for different shots and generating the appropriate power through follow-through on the cue ball, rather than trying to deliver the cue at differing speeds which I'm sure brought problems.

But having played for years, unlearning these habits is VERY hard. Small steps of improvement is the way

[Terry Davidson]

bolton:

I would normally advise keeping the longer backswing and learning to control it and then controlling the rate of acceleration in the delivery as I believe it gives the player more options and in addition helps limit his ability to 'clutch' the cue around the time of strike. It normally will give a player more options.

As an example, when you watch the pros and they have a fairly straight in 3ft shot around the black they will normally play a stun run-through shot rather than a slow putt shot as they feel they control the delivery better when using a little more pace. I know I've seen a lot of players (including myself unfortunately) gently roll a dead easy shot in and almost miss the pocket completely!

However, all that said, the Terry Griffiths school of thought is to change the length of backswing in proportion to the power required and use the same rate of acceleration for all shots. If a player learned to use a longer backswing when he was young and therefore got used to it I would recommend he keep it and try and control it as that is what the top pros do. But if a player has never used a longer backswing technique then I advise them to change the length for power and keep the same rate of acceleration for all shots as it is a lot tougher to control the longer backswing and I believe a player has to learn that when they're young.

Terry