Review of Saeed’s Cue Action and Review
When asked I review the cue action of people that get in touch with me on Skype or email. Email and Skype are OK, but I prefer to see videos because I can see what is going on. See this video below of Saeed who got in touch with me and asked me for help.
Notice the position of his feet, the movement of his body and shoulders to the right as he measures and cues. Please watch the video and leave comments! Thank you!
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Great instructional video on fundementals. I learned a lot about what I should be doing and shouldn’t.
Here are some question I have problems with.
One ,what is the best way to make sure your stroking arm is on line ,and straight ,mine tends to chicken wing out off lline or in ,but not fall straight on line.
Two what is the best way to release the cue straight( follow stroke) some times I feel I jerk the cue especially on firm strokes I feel aim holding the cue loose but I still am steering.
Thanks looking forward to hearing your response
It’s my belief that steering the cue happens because of where you are looking during the final delivery and also because of where you were looking during feathering and pre-shot. Classical theory (ala Steve Davis and others) seems to suggest that our mind and eyes and movement should be primarily focused on the object ball. That is, during feathering, you are meant to divert your eyes from the cue ball to the object ball and back again. This is normal during feathering and aiming as you trying to determine if your cue ball is going to “hit the spot”.
I have a different methodology which I believe nearly eliminates steering. What I do is look primarily at the cue ball during feathering. For aiming, I look THROUGH the cue ball to find the object ball. It’s counterintuitive at first because you don’t know where you are aiming. This can be solved by getting down slowly into position and bringing the cue into aim as you get down on the shot. This “early aiming” provides sufficient aiming precision. I believe that once a player is down on the shot, very little can be done to re-aim. Even if you move your cueing hand right of left to adjust for what you think you are aiming at, your cue ends up being delivered in the muscle memory position without that adjustment.
I prefer instead, to correct aiming through foot and body position, through table approach, and through the sequencing of when you bring your head and cue down.
To support my theory, I use two players which exemplify these techniques. First is Ronnie OSullivan. Watch several of his Youtube videos and look very closely at his eyes. When Ronnie is “in the zone” he is almost exclusively looking at the cue ball when he is down. Sometimes he reshuffles to get back into aim, but his focus is primarily the cue ball during feathering and striking. It’s also no coincidence that he can do some remarkeable things with the cue ball as well. Second is Mark Williams. He has this amazing ability to play the soft long balls. If you look carefully at how he gets down, it seems almost in slow motion. The commentators say he floats around the table but actually its the way he comes down into the shot thats so intriguing. I believe he is doing a lot of the aiming as the body is coming down and then once he is down, relies primarily on cue ball striking and focusing on the cue ball.
I would be happy to share further thoughts in a video or in more articles at some point in future if you are interested and if this comment receives sufficient support.
Thanks Duane!
Hello Mayur
Thanks for responding to my questio .It has Ben very helpful. I am currently implementing some of your suggestions and am having some good results.Yes I am interested in hearing more of your thoughts n this subject. I believe steering is a major reason why I and others miss balls.I in particular fall victim to this because I have difficult looking at the object ball last
Hello Mayur
I am working on approach and coming down slowly it does seem to be a key ingredient in great play when you say look at the cueball while feathering do you mean on your practice strokes and then are you looking at the object ball aim point only once at the flow through
Thanks this is great insight into the game
Hi Duane. Sorry I didn’t respond to your questions earlier. Since posting some of my ideas, I have actually slightly modified my feathering and pre-shot. I still look at the cue ball primarily as I’m getting down into the shot. I find this is much more useful because it’s the cue ball that will be sent into the line of travel and so getting behind the cue ball visually and mentally as you approach the table is the right approach, in my opinion. Regarding feathering, what I have been experimenting with recently is doing a series of feathers, and stopping momentarily at the cue ball each time. In this feathering, I have been checking my line of aim and seeing if I’m sending the cue ball along the correct path. I do this visually but also with my where it feels like the cue ball will go. This feeling is your hand/eye coordination giving you feedback as to the expected cue ball line of travel. I try to “fit” the cue ball into the ghost ball, almost as if I were “parking” the cue ball into it via these feathers and pauses. When it looks good, I bring my cue back slowly to ensure my grip is loose, and I look at the cue ball to make sure I’m hitting it where I want to. On final cue delivery, I once again look for my ghost ball parking spot, and focus my mind on delivery the cue straight and with a loose grip. I hope that helps.