Help with grip

[burgerunderwear]

Hello everyone, I need some help/advice/tips on grip and playing shots without twisting my arm and/or wrist.

I recently found out that when I take my shots, I tend to twist my arm/wrist drastically when going through the cue ball. Feathering is quite fine and straight, but when I go through the cue ball I always twist and it's very difficult to get rid of this habit. I think this habit is holding me back from beating my highest break of 26 because my bridge, line, stance are still decent at least. Any tips on how to overcome this? I find it extremely hard to find the feeling of completely letting the cue do the work without any twisting.

Please share your thoughts and opinions!

[itsnoteasy]

I quite liked this, especially describing how the ring acts as the pivot.
https://youtu.be/eJBHGjlFXSM

[Csmith]

Hello everyone, I need some help/advice/tips on grip and playing shots without twisting my arm and/or wrist.

I recently found out that when I take my shots, I tend to twist my arm/wrist drastically when going through the cue ball. Feathering is quite fine and straight, but when I go through the cue ball I always twist and it's very difficult to get rid of this habit. I think this habit is holding me back from beating my highest break of 26 because my bridge, line, stance are still decent at least. Any tips on how to overcome this? I find it extremely hard to find the feeling of completely letting the cue do the work without any twisting.

Please share your thoughts and opinions!

You could be unnecessarily tightening your grip before contact. Also worth considering, what happens on the follow through is often influenced by the quality of your backswing. Ensure that you are pulling the cue back straight. I like the video itsnoteasy provided, it's a good comprehensive discussion on the grip. The key takeaways being that your thumb and index finger are what grips the cue, while the rest of the fingers are just, there. The back fingers should open on the backswing, as demonstrated in the video, which allows you to pull straight back. Otherwise, you may unintentially raise the butt of the cue or worse, pull the cue to the side.

[Shockerz]

You could be unnecessarily tightening your grip before contact. Also worth considering, what happens on the follow through is often influenced by the quality of your backswing. Ensure that you are pulling the cue back straight. I like the video itsnoteasy provided, it's a good comprehensive discussion on the grip. The key takeaways being that your thumb and index finger are what grips the cue, while the rest of the fingers are just, there. The back fingers should open on the backswing, as demonstrated in the video, which allows you to pull straight back. Otherwise, you may unintentially raise the butt of the cue or worse, pull the cue to the side.

It's a good debate this as you have to keep the other 3 fingers loose when you take them off as I used to firmly do this which twisted my hand and when I came through that caused me to push off line

[jonny66]

I find if I keep my hand relaxed all the way through the stroke it closes almost automatically at the end, this can end up with you shoving the cue halfway across the table if you drop your elbow though, don't do that unless you want to lighten the mood a bit.

[Shockerz]

I find if I keep my hand relaxed all the way through the stroke it closes almost automatically at the end, this can end up with you shoving the cue halfway across the table if you drop your elbow though, don't do that unless you want to lighten the mood a bit.

Yeah I guess there's a subtle difference between keeping a loose follow through and slamming the brakes on when your hand hits your chest.

I played with the grip so much that my hand would decelerate way too much. A good case of over complicating a simple action!

[burgerunderwear]

You could be unnecessarily tightening your grip before contact. Also worth considering, what happens on the follow through is often influenced by the quality of your backswing. Ensure that you are pulling the cue back straight. I like the video itsnoteasy provided, it's a good comprehensive discussion on the grip. The key takeaways being that your thumb and index finger are what grips the cue, while the rest of the fingers are just, there. The back fingers should open on the backswing, as demonstrated in the video, which allows you to pull straight back. Otherwise, you may unintentially raise the butt of the cue or worse, pull the cue to the side.

My backswing and feathering is relatively straight & relaxed, just like the video. But just when I go through and take the shot, I have a nasty habit of twisting..

[thai_son22]

My backswing and feathering is relatively straight & relaxed, just like the video. But just when I go through and take the shot, I have a nasty habit of twisting..

i think you should just work on not turning that wrist. like keeping the grip firm but not tight throughout the shot and consciously drive from the elbows.

but to be honest theres always going to be some rotation. i watched some john higgins videos and even as he feathers for the shot, his cue has some slight rotation as you can see the grain of his cue turning.

its not too big a deal as long as you arent snatching on the shot

[burgerunderwear]

i think you should just work on not turning that wrist. like keeping the grip firm but not tight throughout the shot and consciously drive from the elbows.

but to be honest theres always going to be some rotation. i watched some john higgins videos and even as he feathers for the shot, his cue has some slight rotation as you can see the grain of his cue turning.

its not too big a deal as long as you arent snatching on the shot

I noticed that as well, there would definitely by slight rotation of the cue.

Anyhow, a big thanks to you and everyone else who replied! I appreciate all of it

[Dynamics]

If the back arm (from wrist to elbow) is not vertical it's probably more likely that the hand is twisting with the arm in order to cue straight. If you place your back arm behind your back and simulate it in the position as you would cue, but intentionally angle the back arm like ray reardon did, but lock your wrist solid, you will notice you will cue accross the shot because the wrist isn't moving. Therefore the wrist has to rotate to cue straight. Either that or at the elbow, or a combination of both.

Players like John Higgins and Stephen hendry have a slightly bent back arm but everything is taken care of in other areas and I would think in the wrist or elbow. In hendrys case it was in the elbow, where his back arm would start slightly angled as if looking from the back, but when he cued through the shot his elbow would align it the other way to perfectly go through the shot straight. With O'Sullivan the relative positions of the elbow, back arm and position of the wrist are perfectly aligned and straight. Watch O'Sullivan play a shot when the camera is behind him. All very straight.

Can you post a link to a you tube video and people can comment a bit better. Get a friend to film you playing shots from the back.

If you grip the cue with all fingers in contact with the cue, and not coming off it fully, you are less likely to rotate the cue by the effect of fingers coming off. If you watch hendry or osullivans grip, their little finger always stays in contact with the underside of the cue. Some players take off the little finger and one next to it with the result the cue is rotating away from your hand which you want to avoid. I'm watching ding at the moment and all his fingers are on the bottom underside of the cue as he delivers the cue into the follow through. You don't see many decent pro players who don't do this. The point of the grip is to be as inert as possible. It's just a carrier for the cue to go through straight.