Garden Pond Pump

A lot of players are plagued with a "Chicken Wing" stroke that ruins their shot making ability by thrusting the elbow of their grip hand out away from their body. The result is coming through the cue ball out of alignment with the target line and as a result, to sink the ball, they train themselves to correct for having shoulder and elbow out of precise alignment.

I recently read an article about Vijay Singh's Record Breaking golf season that credited his Routine practice routine that among other things involves the placement of a golf glove in his armpit. This way he maintains proper arm/body connection throughout the swing. There are a lot of similarities between golf and billiards and Vijay's routine got me to thinking about a proper billiards stroke.

If your kick shots don't include a plan for which side of the object ball is going to be best to hit, you are one plump, juicy pigeon waiting for a peregrine falcon to strike. You must master the shot that cuts a ball along or nearly parallel to a short rail and brings the cue ball out of there using two rails with low outside English. Practice this one at all speeds and angles, especially when you need to go end to end.

The rock solid basics are stance, grip, bridge, stroke and aiming--we'll get into the right way in another article, right now we are trying to slip free of deadly mistakes. You are not dedicated to lifelong learning--Billiards is not a game of instant success. You will find steady improvement only comes over a period of years and much practice.

The goals of stance are stability, consistent sighting, and a simple swing. If you fulfill those goals, don't worry about the details. Some people spend far to much time pointing their toes in exactly the right direction, or keeping their Pinky off the wrap, or adopting some other little quirk that their uncle Fred assured them was the golden rule for pocketing balls.

You have not taken the time to find your unique game--Look at things not instrumental to your game, positioning of your grip hand, to cup or not cup the grip wrist, maybe a new twist to the bridge. Be an early adopter of new technology like specialized eyewear. How about the new cue extensions?
Practice to perfect right or left hand cue use. In fact, all attempts at becoming unique will involve a lot of practice to make it a habit.

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