Tweet
I'm no snooker genius, so apologies for an idiot offering an opinion (but one has to get ones post count up somewhere!).
This idea of pushing the cue down on the bridge using the grip cant be right. You would have to grip too tight. The cue wouldn't deliver smoothly, and you'd be wrestling it straight balancing bridge against grip, rather than playing a smooth stroke. How on earth could you aim properly at the cue ball, through to the contact point on the object ball?
Why do people think it happens? It seems most likely to me that people are 'seeing' bend where it doesn't exist. In the pictures, there are obstructions, clothing, etc., that creates an optical illusion that the cue is bent. Also no lens is flat and uniform across it's diameter. Anyone who wears glasses knows and sees this all the time. I look at those pictures and I see a straight cue, not a bent one.
So the video, that's proof, right? I don't think so. What you see in motion is even more misleading than in stills. You see things, because your brain interprets things. It makes stuff up. It will tell you that something is happening, to make sense out of the information it receives. It's not to be entirely trusted. So how could this witchcraft occur? A lot of current top line pros start with a high butt, and drop it flat while executing the shot. If you observe that in motion, it looks like the line of the cue is describing an arc. That's because it is, but it's because the height of the butt drops as the cue comes through, describing an arc rather than a straight line.
So why might pressing down seem to improve some outcomes, for some players. Hard to say, but my broad guess would be that these players have a tendency to lift on the shot. Probably because they are gripping too hard as they come through with the cue. In this case pushing it down (into the bridge hand) might show some benefit over lifting it up (and raising or dropping the tip, depending on the severity of the over-grip)...but it's probably an inappropriate correction, to a problem occurring elsewhere in the action.
It's hard enough to make the cue come through straight, never mind control all manner of bonkers counter-acting additional forces, in the hope that they magically equalise in such a way to deliver the cue tip onto the cue bal how you intend.
It's just my view of course. I'm really no expert (but a bit interested in the mechanics of the cue action, such that I might simplify it, and make it repeatable!).
This idea of pushing the cue down on the bridge using the grip cant be right. You would have to grip too tight. The cue wouldn't deliver smoothly, and you'd be wrestling it straight balancing bridge against grip, rather than playing a smooth stroke. How on earth could you aim properly at the cue ball, through to the contact point on the object ball?
Why do people think it happens? It seems most likely to me that people are 'seeing' bend where it doesn't exist. In the pictures, there are obstructions, clothing, etc., that creates an optical illusion that the cue is bent. Also no lens is flat and uniform across it's diameter. Anyone who wears glasses knows and sees this all the time. I look at those pictures and I see a straight cue, not a bent one.
So the video, that's proof, right? I don't think so. What you see in motion is even more misleading than in stills. You see things, because your brain interprets things. It makes stuff up. It will tell you that something is happening, to make sense out of the information it receives. It's not to be entirely trusted. So how could this witchcraft occur? A lot of current top line pros start with a high butt, and drop it flat while executing the shot. If you observe that in motion, it looks like the line of the cue is describing an arc. That's because it is, but it's because the height of the butt drops as the cue comes through, describing an arc rather than a straight line.
So why might pressing down seem to improve some outcomes, for some players. Hard to say, but my broad guess would be that these players have a tendency to lift on the shot. Probably because they are gripping too hard as they come through with the cue. In this case pushing it down (into the bridge hand) might show some benefit over lifting it up (and raising or dropping the tip, depending on the severity of the over-grip)...but it's probably an inappropriate correction, to a problem occurring elsewhere in the action.
It's hard enough to make the cue come through straight, never mind control all manner of bonkers counter-acting additional forces, in the hope that they magically equalise in such a way to deliver the cue tip onto the cue bal how you intend.
It's just my view of course. I'm really no expert (but a bit interested in the mechanics of the cue action, such that I might simplify it, and make it repeatable!).
Comment