How to keep chin touching the cue after strike

[howardlax]

First technical question for the new year. Aha.
I found myself sometimes hard keeping chin on the cue after strike.
I gradually ironed out three major offenders in my case but sometimes i still couldn't...
1. Grip tightening during strike. This would cause a lot issues but most of all is to quit the shot prematurely and head tends to lift along with that(afraid of chin hit hard by strongly vibrated shaft??)
2. Shoulder(muscle behind shoulder socket) relaxed/collapsed before hand finishes on chest
3. Strike didn't always end up with cueing hands on chest. (Some due to awkward position on table , some because of above two points)

One thing to add, I always keep my head absolute still during the strike.

As said this issue was mostly improved with above 3 points correctly executed but sometimes chin still left the cue. I am wondering if i still miss other possibility that could cause this issue.
a) i noticed Judd and a few young Chinese players very obviously dropped head(or upper body) to almost consciously keep chin on cue. Is that a technical thing ?
b) i heard from somewhere in forum(maybe from Terry) that strike(from full backswing finish until cue tips hit the white ball) is to reverse everything identically back to address position so chin should be theoretically returning with touch on cue(given your chin is on cue at first) at the very moment of impact unless something has not returned correctly(such as shoulder height , grip shape etc etc..). Has someone had any thoughts on this one ?

You may have seen this post on facebook snookerfan group, not many people answered there so I re-post here hopefully some one have some answers for me.
Much appreciated.

[Looter]

I wish someone would answer you Howard as I could do with the answer too! To cut the long story short I've changed my cue action quite a bit so I'm not dropping the elbow on striking the cb, the only way I can do this is if I concentrate on keeping the cue on chin as much as possible.

[Cue crafty]

Might get a decent answer once the Masters starts as there will be more members online.

just add a note again once it kicks off to bump it up.

[tedisbill]

Hello!

Well done on analysing your cue action, you've done a great job there.

With regards to the cue coming away from the chin slightly after the delivery, that is nothing to worry about at all. The cueing arm may 'slightly' relax as you deliver (which is a good thing) and the cue will drop very slightly as the hand comes through and hits the chest.

Ronnie, Murphy, Selby all do exactly the same thing, and they can play reasonably well

There is no reason to get obsessed by tiny little details like this. As long as you're consistent and the hand hits the chest, if the cue drops away from the chin by 1-2" that is absolutely fine.

[howardlax]

I wish someone would answer you Howard as I could do with the answer too! To cut the long story short I've changed my cue action quite a bit so I'm not dropping the elbow on striking the cb, the only way I can do this is if I concentrate on keeping the cue on chin as much as possible.

Thanks Looter , that's what I exactly found. Only if I consciously kept chin on cue, sometimes I just did't do it. Not mean my head is moving, just I found naturally when cue finishes on chest or arm finishes the strike it just leaves chin naturally, unless I deliberately keep head 'drop' a chin or so , or drop upper body down. But it would incur the shoulder movement at some level... so comes the confusion.

[howardlax]

Hello!

Well done on analysing your cue action, you've done a great job there.

With regards to the cue coming away from the chin slightly after the delivery, that is nothing to worry about at all. The cueing arm may 'slightly' relax as you deliver (which is a good thing) and the cue will drop very slightly as the hand comes through and hits the chest.

Ronnie, Murphy, Selby all do exactly the same thing, and they can play reasonably well

There is no reason to get obsessed by tiny little details like this. As long as you're consistent and the hand hits the chest, if the cue drops away from the chin by 1-2" that is absolutely fine.

Hi Ted, Thanks for your advise. Wish your youtube channel in new year boom as well(I am a fan)

You are right about slightly relaxed the arm(after strike) on my case. That's exactly what happened ! I know all the theory that during strike everything should be as least movement as possible, literally just cueing elbow and grip open/close motion. I haven't got those fantastic feeling about how grip close/sequeeze could provide for the cue power. So I liked to keep everything simple and easy to analyze.
My end goal is to keep cue hand finished on chest on EVERY SHOT. I usually found the most time when I didn't end up chin on cue, is not pushing cue through completely(hand not hitting the chest). And problem was the shoulder....

And I know two prerequisite for this is to keep shoulder muscle still(which is in other term, strike from elbow?) and push through cue until hand hit chest. The confusion I had is actually that not whether shoulder should be relaxed after strike(not during) , I know it should otherwise you would hold tension in arm and even grip ,causing not strike cue through fully, but I don't know WHEN. During that milli-second impact, how can I make sure my relaxed uncontrolled shoulder socket won't steer whole arm in wrong direction when cue ball has NOT left the cue tip during shoulder's collapse.

Being said, Ronnie and Selby is the most striking example that chin not always kept on chin but doing formidably, as you said. On other hand, Judd and Neil, and young Chinese fellas they religiously keep chin on cue as probably their coach told to keep those possibility none.

At the end of days, important thing is always that there should not be any movement during strike. Doesn't matter how you interpret and execute that.

Thanks Ted. This clarifies my questions. Again only practice can help.

[Aarab1986]

Hello
You can see my video about vision center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Z0YLGsNN0&t=19s
interesting

[smart2walk]

Hello!

Well done on analysing your cue action, you've done a great job there.

With regards to the cue coming away from the chin slightly after the delivery, that is nothing to worry about at all. The cueing arm may 'slightly' relax as you deliver (which is a good thing) and the cue will drop very slightly as the hand comes through and hits the chest.

Ronnie, Murphy, Selby all do exactly the same thing, and they can play reasonably well

There is no reason to get obsessed by tiny little details like this. As long as you're consistent and the hand hits the chest, if the cue drops away from the chin by 1-2" that is fine.

This is a great answer.

[Billy]

I'm not a player, but why are you putting so much importance on your chin staying in contact with the cue? You've already said you keep your head still on the shot. In actual fact I've always thought John Higgins looks incredibly 'tight' and over-tense on the shot, which I appreciate possibly destroys my argument given his success, but he never looks comfortable on the shot for me.

[howardlax]

I'm not a player, but why are you putting so much importance on your chin staying in contact with the cue?

Hi Billy, thanks for the reply.
The answer is very simple. To be able to pot under the pressure.
As Ted and others said here, and I agreed that this is not a must-have technique or even a skill for any snooker player, least important comparing to PSR, alignment, smooth cueing and shot selection.... But I think it would help, as every this kind of 'extra bit' will tackle the pressure shot when you under such circumstance, which just may give me that a little extra more confidence. As I always find, snooker technique needs the connection across body parts, if on a particular day I couldn't do something right, IE, always drop shoulder earlier, it may be caused by tightening the cue earlier or some unconscious adjust by stance issue, or if I couldn't finish hand on chest at delivery , it may be because of grip issue , not loose enough etc..etc..
A little thing or technique here and there can quick identify the problem or verify whether I am doing thing correctly. The only reason I found I couldn't always keep chin on cue, is still the hands not finished on chest, which means I am not cueing smooth, either in my case, index finger not loose enough during impact or shoulder/upper arm relaxed too early...

I just believe ultimate consistence require certain amount of rigidness(without compromising comfort). The stillness we always seek is not a given all the time as we thought. It has to be achieved by certain level of formality or discipline. That's why PSR is so important that sitters and 147s are often missed among professionals...