Improving your stroke is one of the most important aspects of the game of pool when it comes to fundamentals. There are so many methods to do this and none are any better than the others. It really is a matter of what works best for you as an individual. What I will discuss in this post are the methods that I personally use to improve and fine tune my stroke. This is something that I have personally spent many hours working on because of its importance.

The quality of your stroke makes a large difference in the accuracy of your shot for several reasons. If your stroke is not smooth (almost fluidic) the tip of the cue stick will most likely strike the cue ball in a place you did not intend it too. This may place English on the cue ball or even worse create a miscue. Either way there is a good possibility of missing the shot with either of these situations. In addition to this, a quality stroke will make a massive difference in your ability to control the cue ball during game play. This becomes crucial when you begin playing for position. One error in this effort will mean the difference between a successful run of the table and missed (“Dogged”) shots or even worse, a loss.

The ability to create necessary English, or even dramatic English in the rare times you may need it is all tied to the quality of your stroke. A side benefit to a quality stroke is that you won’t be as fatigue after playing for a few hours. You know that nagging shoulder fatigue? That’s due to you doing the work instead of allowing your stroke to make the cue ball do the work for you.

Now that you realize just how important the stroke is, let’s discuss how to improve it. In the future I will discuss how taking the proper stance can affect the quality of the stroke. For now though I will assume you have already developed the proper or good stance for yourself. To ensure the accuracy of the stroke keep your grip on the cue loose. The tighter the grip on the butt of the cue, the more likely the stroke will stray off course to the right or left. The position of your forearm to the cue is very important. It needs to be at a 90 degree angle from the cue with the upper arm parallel to the ground. It is very important to make sure that your elbow doesn’t drop until after contact with the cue ball is made. If the elbow does drop prior to contact with the cue ball the front end of the cue stick will raise putting “top spin” or “follow” on the cue ball and potentially lead to a miscue. Keeping these two things in mind when performing the stroke will help immensely.

With the technique issues addressed I recommend what I call the “Bottle Drill”. This will help perfect your stroke in a very short period of time. I recommend doing this at least 30 minutes a day for 30 days. Like me, the drill can be continued and difficulty increased to further fine tune the stroke accuracy. Start with a bottle that has a reasonable sized neck to it. For some this may be something like a YooHoo bottle, and for those who have a little more practice start with a coke bottle. Set the bottle on something that is approximately the same height as a pool table with the opening facing you. Take position in your normal shooting stance. Aim to stroke through the opening of the bottle and set up so that on your stroke you enter the bottle approximately 2-3 inches. Start with your eyes open focusing your attention on what your body is feeling while you are performing the stroke without touching the sides of the bottle or making contact with the bottle in such a way that it prevents your cue from entering the bottle. Continue to do this until you fail to enter the bottle properly. Repeat the process until you can do this precisely 40-50 times consecutively without striking the bottle or failing to enter it.

Once you accomplish this and you have a good understanding of how that feels in your mind you can move to the next step. After completing the 40-50 strokes with your eyes open, close your eyes while you continue to stroke the cue. If you strike the bottle or fail to enter the bottle at any point, start over. Continue to do this for a total of 30 minutes each day. After 30 days you’ll accomplish this exercise fairly easily with your eyes closed. You will also notice that your ability to control the cue ball during game play will noticeably improve greatly.

Continue to do this for as long as you feel there is a need to improve your stroke. You can even increase the difficulty level by using other bottles with smaller openings or smaller objects like rings to work with. Once you feel that this has become too easy, start setting up some straight shots on the table and stroke through the ring or small object while shooting the shot. Start with no English using a center ball hit. From there, attempt to do the same with follow, right and left English, and even drawing the cue ball. There are endless possibilities for making this as difficult as need be to continue to challenge yourself and improve your stroke quality. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a bottle, your cue stick and start stroking that cue. Most importantly have fun shooting and watching your game improve.

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Posted in Instructional

Tags: cue ball, cue stick, proper stance