Finger movement whilst playing shot

[davylad]

Hi,

Over the latter few years several players have a system of moving the central finger of the placed and non striking hand and arm, by wobbling it up and down on the cloth. Mark Williams, Barry Hawkins latterly in the semis and several others.

This is very annoying to me as I tend not to watch those players who do it.


I do recall several years ago a demo by Steve Davis on how to clamp your hand to the cloth to get a firm base by drawing back your fingers in an attempt to grab the cloth. Can you please enlighten me what this new idea actually does for the player as there is no firm base with this method.

Thanks davylad.

[Terry Davidson]

davy:

It's not a new idea or anything but rather just an unconscious movement a lot of players will do while they are feathering and concentrating. In the 80's Kirk Stevens did this on every shot (and he still does) and there were a few other players who did it fairly frequently.

What I fail to understand is why this would upset you that much that you don't watch players who do this. Notice that the hand and fingers are still when the player actually delivers the cue.

Terry

[Billy]

What I fail to understand is why this would upset you that much that you don't watch players who do this.

You took the words out of my mouth.

[streamer45]

A lot of players move their fingers (middle finger especially), they are trying to concentrate on the timing I suppose.
Mark Selby does it every shot he plays

[DeanH]

Definitely not something new, see Ken Doherty in the 80/90s (and still now).
Don't think it is a "system", Ken is on record saying he has no conscious control of it. Also I don't think it is a timing system as a coach would not introduce a conscious movement into a players routine.
My vote is that it is purely unconcious and nothing systematic.

[streamer45]

Definitely not something new, see Ken Doherty in the 80/90s (and still now).
Don't think it is a "system", Ken is on record saying he has no conscious control of it. Also I don't think it is a timing system as a coach would not introduce a conscious movement into a players routine.
My vote is that it is purely unconcious and nothing systematic.

I get your point but how do you explain so many players do the same?

[DeanH]

Hi
Don't think it is that many of the top players?
I do think it is a nervous tension physologically release and nothing planned systematic controlled. A "nervous-tick".
Cheers

[Billy]

I get your point but how do you explain so many players do the same?

You've been given the answer about four times now. It's something they do without realising and is probably to do with timing their shot. What answer WOULD you like?

Sorry, streamer, just realised you're not the OP.

[narl]

Ive actually noticed players twitching their fingers on the cue butt while using the rest, think Ricky Walden was doing it yesterday.

[damienlch]

Maybe they're tapping Morse code...

It's an involuntary action, a nervous tick, as what Dean mentioned earlier.

I have a friend whose kid has a habit of curling his thumb beneath his index finger when playing some notes on a piano. It's an entirely redundant action that seems to happen subconsciously.

Is it all in the mind? or could it be related to some sort of repetitive stress disorder? No idea.