can't cue straight

[ace man]

are american tables lower than chinese 8 ball/english pool tables or are they the same height?

No idea. I've only ever played US pool and snooker.

[kflps]

Yes, those tables are quite low. About 10 centimetres lower than snooker tables, some are even lower than that. One can mess up balance a bit when switching games.

are american tables lower than chinese 8 ball/english pool tables or are they the same height?

[ace man]

Always remember getting down on a pool table is more difficult than a snooker table.

Yes, those tables are quite low. About 10 centimetres lower than snooker tables, some are even lower than that. One can mess up balance a bit when switching games.

[Terry Davidson]

after several hours of practice i'm now almost certain that i've found out the root of the problem of not cueing straight.it seems that i wasn't pulling the cue straight back but was pulling the cue away from my body when feathering & on delivery & the tip was finishing to the left after completing the shot.pulling the cue a little more towards my body,straightened my cueing immediately.i feel like an IDIOT for not realizing this after all these months since i changed my elbow position..terry,if you take a look at the head-on video again,do you think my observation of what's going wrong is correct?does it make sense?anyway thanks a lot for the advice,gripping the cue more forward so that my forearm points straight down to the floor has helped a lot with cue ball control & i'm going to also try to hit my chest with the grip on all shots.

There is a statement somewhere by a famous coach that says '90% of delivery problems originate in the backswing' which means crooked backswing will result in crooked delivery. To prevent this first do what I mentioned above (swinging the hips to the left to clear the trouser pocket from the grip hand thumb) and have the cue snug against the chest - but not too tight. Get the right elbow up as high as you can get it.

On the backswing keep the cue on the chest and as long as your chest doesn't move the backswing will be straight. Always remember getting down on a pool table is more difficult than a snooker table.

[golferson123]

surely its 10,001 no point in skimping

[Master Blaster]

after several hours of practice i'm now almost certain that i've found out the root of the problem of not cueing straight.it seems that i wasn't pulling the cue straight back but was pulling the cue away from my body when feathering & on delivery & the tip was finishing to the left after completing the shot.pulling the cue a little more towards my body,straightened my cueing immediately.i feel like an IDIOT for not realizing this after all these months since i changed my elbow position..terry,if you take a look at the head-on video again,do you think my observation of what's going wrong is correct?does it make sense?anyway thanks a lot for the advice,gripping the cue more forward so that my forearm points straight down to the floor has helped a lot with cue ball control & i'm going to also try to hit my chest with the grip on all shots.

Yes, I was right! Like I said, it's about how you open your hand on the pullback, well, more often than not. We also miss pots (and we shouldn't miss them) when the cue is too close to the hip or too far away. Cueing straight and having the cue in the correct position (distance from the hip) is something players like Methi spend two years to perfect, many hours a day, every player has issues here at some point, even the pros. So don't think yourself foolish because the ability to deliver straight but still pot is a fine balance, if you're a quarter inch out on where the cue should be, you will be found out on a long pot at snooker but may get away with it at pool. Now you've found the correct cue line and grip, you've just got to practise it 10,000 times for it to become natural. lol

[Leo]

after several hours of practice i'm now almost certain that i've found out the root of the problem of not cueing straight.it seems that i wasn't pulling the cue straight back but was pulling the cue away from my body when feathering & on delivery & the tip was finishing to the left after completing the shot.pulling the cue a little more towards my body,straightened my cueing immediately.i feel like an IDIOT for not realizing this after all these months since i changed my elbow position..terry,if you take a look at the head-on video again,do you think my observation of what's going wrong is correct?does it make sense?anyway thanks a lot for the advice,gripping the cue more forward so that my forearm points straight down to the floor has helped a lot with cue ball control & i'm going to also try to hit my chest with the grip on all shots.

Remember every player comes in all shapes and sizes so there's no perfect stance or approach designed for us all, so to many players worry about how they approach and stand on a shot yet your grip on the cue has just of an importance but yet again there's no right or wrong way to do this either as its all about practicing and finding what's best for you.
I've always approached every shot with a penguin stance because that suits me but it doesn't mean that's the right way because there is no right way?

[kflps]

The first thing you should remember about your snooker set-up is it should not introduce any discomfort. Without knowing exactly what you're doing I suspect you are pushing down too hard on your bridge arm in order to get the left shoulder down more. The proper way to do this is to bend the left leg more and get the shoulder down easy with no discomfort. Do not try to force the shoulder down and put a ton of pressure on the left elbow, just bend the leg more and do it naturally and comfortably.

However, my best recommendation for you would be to visit a good coach who should be able to assess you better during a one-on-one session. The oher thing you can try is get into your normal address position and then close your eyes and put your concentration on your left side and shoulder and bridge arm and adjust things until everything is comfortable and also your left armpit is down either on or nearly on the rail (this is harder to do on a US pool table as they are lower than a snooker table).

after several hours of practice i'm now almost certain that i've found out the root of the problem of not cueing straight.it seems that i wasn't pulling the cue straight back but was pulling the cue away from my body when feathering & on delivery & the tip was finishing to the left after completing the shot.pulling the cue a little more towards my body,straightened my cueing immediately.i feel like an IDIOT for not realizing this after all these months since i changed my elbow position..terry,if you take a look at the head-on video again,do you think my observation of what's going wrong is correct?does it make sense?anyway thanks a lot for the advice,gripping the cue more forward so that my forearm points straight down to the floor has helped a lot with cue ball control & i'm going to also try to hit my chest with the grip on all shots.

[tedisbill]

If someone is drastically changing their set-up, it's certainly possible that you will feel uncomfortable on the shot. There's nothing natural about a snooker set-up.

[Terry Davidson]

thanks a lot terry i will try to follow your advice but i have another question:getting my bridge hand shoulder down to the table as much as i can seems to straighten my cueing a lot,the problem is after 4-5 hours of practice yesterday my shoulder is still sore today.do you think my body will adjust or should i stop doing this technique?

The first thing you should remember about your snooker set-up is it should not introduce any discomfort. Without knowing exactly what you're doing I suspect you are pushing down too hard on your bridge arm in order to get the left shoulder down more. The proper way to do this is to bend the left leg more and get the shoulder down easy with no discomfort. Do not try to force the shoulder down and put a ton of pressure on the left elbow, just bend the leg more and do it naturally and comfortably.

However, my best recommendation for you would be to visit a good coach who should be able to assess you better during a one-on-one session. The oher thing you can try is get into your normal address position and then close your eyes and put your concentration on your left side and shoulder and bridge arm and adjust things until everything is comfortable and also your left armpit is down either on or nearly on the rail (this is harder to do on a US pool table as they are lower than a snooker table).

[kflps]

Straightening out your cue delivery and timing is required for BOTH snooker and pool. If you take to heart some of this advice your pool will improve.

Even though the butt of your cue is very heavy try and grip the cue so your grip arm forearm is hanging straight down when in the address position. Use a nice relaxed but firm grip, do not allow the wrist joint to turn even slightly and do not allow any upper body movement during both the backswing and delivery.

In the history of both snooker and pool I've observed that decent snooker players quickly become good pool players (I've met some of them during a Las Vegas tournament) but rarely do even great pool players become good snooker players, although there might be exceptions I'm not aware of. Think of Darrel Peach. Some pool fans say Alex Pagulayan is an example of a pool player switching to snooker and playing well however what most people don't know is Alex started out as a snooker player and moved on to pool.

thanks a lot terry i will try to follow your advice but i have another question:getting my bridge hand shoulder down to the table as much as i can seems to straighten my cueing a lot,the problem is after 4-5 hours of practice yesterday my shoulder is still sore today.do you think my body will adjust or should i stop doing this technique?

[Master Blaster]

Straightening out your cue delivery and timing is required for BOTH snooker and pool. If you take to heart some of this advice your pool will improve.

Even though the butt of your cue is very heavy try and grip the cue so your grip arm forearm is hanging straight down when in the address position. Use a nice relaxed but firm grip, do not allow the wrist joint to turn even slightly and do not allow any upper body movement during both the backswing and delivery.

In the history of both snooker and pool I've observed that decent snooker players quickly become good pool players (I've met some of them during a Las Vegas tournament) but rarely do even great pool players become good snooker players, although there might be exceptions I'm not aware of. Think of Darrel Peach. Some pool fans say Alex Pagulayan is an example of a pool player switching to snooker and playing well however what most people don't know is Alex started out as a snooker player and moved on to pool.

Efren Rayes plays 9 ball but he'd kick your ass Terry. They say he beat Ronnie and Jimmy in a snooker race to 5 with his 9-ball cue. One of a few exceptions though. He was a fine snooker player many years ago. I'm not sure which game he played first. Haha, Deano should know!

http://www.9ballpool.co.uk/interview...ch_240604.html

But yeah, a straight cue action is always an advantage at any cue sport.

[Terry Davidson]

Straightening out your cue delivery and timing is required for BOTH snooker and pool. If you take to heart some of this advice your pool will improve.

Even though the butt of your cue is very heavy try and grip the cue so your grip arm forearm is hanging straight down when in the address position. Use a nice relaxed but firm grip, do not allow the wrist joint to turn even slightly and do not allow any upper body movement during both the backswing and delivery.

In the history of both snooker and pool I've observed that decent snooker players quickly become good pool players (I've met some of them during a Las Vegas tournament) but rarely do even great pool players become good snooker players, although there might be exceptions I'm not aware of. Think of Darrel Peach. Some pool fans say Alex Pagulayan is an example of a pool player switching to snooker and playing well however what most people don't know is Alex started out as a snooker player and moved on to pool.

[jono*]

I'm not 100% sure but I the use of English to refer to the term side spin is banned on this forum lol

[kflps]

Ok, now I've watched your video.
First of all, you are potting balls in no particular order. You move the cue ball very little, have no goals, not giving yourself any challenge whatsoever.
Try tossing 9 or 10 balls on the table and then pot them in numerical order. It is the essence of American pool, no? Start with ball in hand. If the next ball is far on the opposite side of the table, that is when you will be tested. This will show if you can move the cue ball with little effort or not. Also, it will show if you can play with side and side/screw or side/top combined. Many times 2 or 3 rails position with running side will be required to get to the next ball.
9ball is all about cue ball movement with ease and feel and touch, it is not about ultimate object ball precision. You don't need surgical precision of top snooker player and brilliant technique, but you DO NEED to move cue ball well, you need to time the ball well on those tables too. The way you strike the ball, with such little follow through, I think you might have difficulty moving the cueball longer distances. Lots of good 9ballers time the ball very well without cueing particularly straight.
I have given you advice for practicing 9ball, since that's the table you play on.
If you want to remove technical flaws and test straight cueing to the limit, US 9ball table is the wrong place to do it...you will have to move to snooker table exclusively and get a real coach if at all possible. I know I am repeating myself, but really trying to get excellent snooker style technique by practiing on a 9ball table is a completely wrong approach. It might even be impossible.

but i do play 9 ball 3-4 times a week..and i have come close many times on beating the ghost in races to 7 in practice.this video was requested by a guy on another forum who i asked to analyze my technique and he told me to run a few random balls..yes 9 ball isn't about extreme precision on most shots but there are times when you need really good cueing on long shots or long shots which also require english to get position.in this video i don't strike any ball hard because i don't need to move the cue ball around as the position routes are easy & simple..if the nap of the cloth is slow,i do have difficulty moving the cb around on long distances but if the table is playing normal i don't face much trouble on most shots