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By Adi, August 24, 2009

One of the essential components of a good billiards stroke is a long follow through with the cue . A good recommendation is to follow through at least 6-8 inches past the contact point on the cue ball, while keeping the cue as steady as possible. Without this, the cue ball will not retain its reverse spin for long distances, and you will not be able to draw when the cue ball is far from the object ball.

I usually follow through as far as my arm lets me. I even practice the bottle drill to keep the cue straight during the entire follow through. I didn’t think I could improve my stroke any more.

I was wrong.

Today I made a tiny change to the way I shoot that has increased my follow through significantly – bending my bridge arm.

While practicing at home I observed my follow through carefully. I noticed that even though I was taking my cue arm as far ahead as possible, my cue only went a few inches past the cue ball .

The problem? I was keeping my bridge arm too straight.

The straighter you keep your bridge arm, the further away your back arm is from the cue ball. As a result, you end up losing at least a few precious inches of follow through. Also, since the follow through towards the end of the pendulum swing isn’t as steady and straight as it is towards the middle of the swing, you are more likely to be a little off on shots where you need a lot of stroke.

I spent the last three hours at a pool hall testing out my latest discovery. The only change I made was to bend my bridge arm a little so I was a few inches closer to the cue ball when shooting. It felt very weird and uncomfortable in the beginning, however once I got used to it I started seeing incredible improvement.

Since I have put in those extra few inches in my follow through, I am drawing a lot more effortlessly. I used to have a little inconsistency with my long distance draw shots, especially on tables that had a lot of friction. Not any more!! Also, since my eyes are closer to the cue ball, I think my aiming is getting more accurate, because I was shooting effortlessly today. I was also consistently able to make shots that required considerable amount of stroke and english.

For those of you who are looking for that little extra in your pool stroke, this might be just what you need

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By Adi, July 1, 2009

One thing I heard a lot while I worked on my pool skills, was the term “stroke”. People would admire a player’s stroke, and talk about stroke being the most important thing to master. However, no one could explain what they meant by stroke, or how I was expected to master it.

Several months later, I figured out what they meant. Stroke is essential for subconscious competence in pool. Your mind can only guide you to a shot, if you can actually shoot straight where it tells you to. A good stroke lets you do that.

People with a good stroke can effortlessly draw a cue ball an entire table length while striking the ball just one cue tip below center with a medium speed. Novices on the other hand, slam the ball hard as hard as they can, and still barely get a few inches of draw. Some end up getting the perfect stop shot. (That used to be me).

So what is it that makes draw the perfect test for a good stroke? The fact is, if you can draw an entire table length, you have already mastered all the essentials of a great stroke -

1. LONG FOLLOW THROUGH: You follow through at least 6 inches to a foot beyond the cue ball. Hitting through the cue ball instead of stopping at the cue ball. Your cue does not start slowing down until the cue ball has already left the cue. Without follow through, there is NO way to get the cue ball to retain backwards spin for large distances. It improves your accuracy, and ensures you don’t have any silly jerky motion when you shoot. All good stuff.

2. CUE PARALLEL TO TABLE: Very few people seem to realize that the raised sides of a table causes the cue to be pointing at a downwards angle instead of perfectly parallel. Downward stroke is what is used for masse and curve shots, and the slightest bit of left or right english when combined with a downward shot guarantees that the cue ball curves sideways as it goes forward resulting in a miss. Also, when shooting that way, the downward momentum is wasted and does not contribute in any useful way to the spin. The closer to parallel you can keep your cue (perfectly parallel may not always be possible), the more accurate your shot.

3. SOFT ACCELERATING MOTION: The longer your cue sticks to the cue ball, the longer you are imparting momentum (and spin) to the cue ball. If you go flying at the cue ball like a rocket, you will impart some speed and english, but the moment the cue ball leaves the cue, the green cloth will start taking the reverse spin off the ball. If however, you start slow and keep accelerating through the ball, the cue ball sticks to the cue for at least a foot after and more and more spin accumulates on the ball. The shot looks smoother and more effortless, and the amount of draw imparted is phenomenal. A visualization that has helped me a lot is, move as if you were walking inside a swimming pool – everything is super slow, like Bullet Time in The Matrix.

4. STRAIGHT FOLLOW THROUGH WITH A RELAXED ARM: The upper part of your forearm does not move at all, and all the motion comes from your lower arm. Since your upper arm does not raise or lower, the cue continues to follow through the cue ball, and nearly hits the table a few feet ahead of where the cue ball was. If it doesn’t, you may be lowering your elbow, which is a NO – NO. The upper arm stays steady and does not move, the lower arm moves slowly through the shot. The fastest and most effective way of teaching yourself this is by using the bottle drill to improve your stroke.

5. STAYING DOWN ON THE SHOT: You stay down and watch the shot until all the balls stop. This allows your subconscious mind to record every bit of the shot – The line the cue ball took, how the object ball and cue ball reacted, what line they took after they hit each other, and where the object ball went in relation to where you intended it to go. Staying down also ensures that no twitches or jerky body motions as a result of you jumping up change the line of the shot. It also makes you look more professional.

This little mental check list – PARALLEL, ACCELERATING, STRAIGHT FOLLOW THROUGH, SWIMMING POOL SLOW, STAY DOWN AFTER SHOT has done wonders for my consistency and my ability to draw great lengths. Any day I find my shooting a little off, this is all I have to focus on.

Learning to draw consistently by developing a good stroke is the first step. The power draw, or table length draw needs all of the mechanics described above with a little extra. The video below demonstrates the concept with some of the things that you need to keep in mind.

This one shot will skyrocket your game more than every other jazzy or cool trick shot that you learn because it gives you the perfect stroke. This exact same motion, when used on the top half of the cue gives you perfect follow, and used on the side gives you perfect side english, while minimizing squirt and miscues.

The new problem I have now is trying to control the urge to use draw on all shots just to show off.