Bob Byrne had a similar argument about snapping the wrist on the follow through and his verdict was the cue ball doesn't know if your wrist snapped or not. Top pros are constantly adjusting fundamentals of their game whether it's equipment, stance, elbow position, or bridge length. The most important thing is to experiment and find what works for you on the practice table. Personally I found my game has gotten alot more consistent just by shortening my bridge just alittle bit and that was something I found through experimenting. Caution though I'm not an expert.
the only people complaining or nitpicking about others doing the elbow drop usually dont play on anything bigger than a 7 foot bar box. Andrew brought up a key point here, only elbow drop after you make contact with the cueball, you will and should be fine. Elbow dropping allows you to follow through on your cueball a lot better to get the hit you want and need on a bigger table for position. barbox players, fight me ;)
@@driesdebackere5233 good for you, not really sure what you are disagreeing with here? i didnt say big table players drop their elbows. I said it's fine to drop elbows if you have to.
If the butt of the cue goes down, the tip of the cue goes up. This will not generally help your draw. Whether you are dropping your elbow or not, the most important thing is that the cue is moving in a straight line, for the most part. Spin can be exagerated by slight movements in the stroke... For example, Buddy Hall taught that you can add a little twist when shooting with high or low ball with side spin... the direction of twist depends if you are high-left, (counter clockwise), high-right (clockwise), low-left (clockwise) or low-right (counter-clockwise). I'd imagine that dropping or raising your elbow can also exagerate top or bottom spin, if you are timing it correctly and moving it in the right direction... I would imagine, dropping your elbow when trying to draw will actually counteract hitting low on the ball and might make it more likely to scoop the ball into the air, whereas it might add some top spin if you are shooting high. But it would depend on your timing and if your tip is rising or lowering while you are making contact with the cue ball. This can be practiced, but I wouldn't want to do it on every shot... but if you need to somehow avoid a wired scratch with an object ball near the pocket and extra top spin or bottom spin can cheat the scratch, it might be worth the reduced accuracy caused by the extra motion, since you have more margin for error when the object ball is near the pocket. In the end, my two cents doesn't matter. Everyone will develop their own stroke and settle on what they prefer, even if it limits their performance. Everyone's body is a little bit different and how they hold the cue and stroke their shot may require soemthing different for each person to achieve a straight stroke. But, in order to stroke forward straight, you have to first stroke backwards straight... Some people do better with a shorter stroke, whereas others can get away with a longer stroke. And some people can use both according to what they want to accomplish with the shot. Being creative and being exposed to new options can help people figure out what works best for them, including possibly dropping your elbow at the right time... hopefully the person can figure out whether or not it's helping or hurting their stroke with practice.
Superb video! I am so happy more and more good players are commenting on this elbow drop bullshit. There is nothing wrong with an elbow drop if you start with the elbow high! As you mentioned in this video, some of the best players in the world have a substantial elbow drop; with Fedor Gorst being a prime example. But there are many others. You have a slight elbow drop on many shots and more than a slight elbow drop on others I have seen - and you are a pretty damn good player. These guys that preach no elbow drop make me sick because they are not doing right by their viewers. There is one guy that absolutely says you should not have an elbow drop at all - LOL. That is ridiculous. I far as Efren Reyes and Bustamante - no one would purposely teach someone to stroke like that and have that much movement. It works great for them, but it would be very hard for most people to ever be good doing it the way they do it. I have seen a lot of bad Filipino players try to copy them, and it just doesn't work. The amount of time it takes to get everything to work well together is probably more than anyone would want to invest, except the most serious players. I have played in pool halls in the Philippines with both Reyes and Bustamante, and watched them closely. The amount of moving parts, and just plain movement, during their fine tuning strokes is crazy! But they are both great players. Watching Bustamante break is actually a bit scary, you would normally not teach anyone to break that way. The bottom line? This video hits the nail on the head. Everyone is different. There are many great golfers and many of them have different swings. There are many great hitters, and many of them have totally different swings. The common denominator is they get through the cue ball in a way that works for THEM. There are all sorts of body types and there is not one stance, one way with the elbow, one way of aiming for all.
He mentioned where the word "timing" comes from, hinting that he wasn't sure. Here's what "timing" is: when you shoot, there is going to be a point where the cue is moving at it's maximum speed. "Timing" is synchronizing that max speed point with the point of impact on the cue. Imagine it on a graph. The Y axis is speed, which maxes out at YsubMax, and the X axis is XsubContact. The line would start at the origin and travel to (XsubContact, YsubMax), and then start traveling back down.
Great video. I always drop my elbow but only after contact with the CB as you mentioned. My stroke just doesn't feel right if I don't. It feels more constricted without the drop.
I hear keep your cue level(butt to tip). If you try to do that you really can’t cut thru cue ball to draw .if you drop your elbow. Continuing along this lesson along with distance from cue ball , would help my draw .
To draw the ball, having a small amount of elevation is good. Too much will result in a jump shot though. Really what’s important is to keep your cue at the same elevation throughout the shot. Changing elevations mid way through the shot will cause a miss almost all the time.
Check out Nils Fejiens excerise: Lay out all the balls (no clusters). Clear the table with the goal of not touching any rail. This forces you to find stop shot patterns, or at least patterns with minimal cue ball movement. You'll see how the balls are connected a lot easier. That's how you play 8-ball patterns.
CJ Wiley just posted about this. Play into zones with options to make your set of balls. Be mindful of the pattern for the last 3 balls. Hope this helps
Focus on your grip hand staying high. Especially through impact. Dropping elbow is ok but don’t drop your grip hand. The cue needs to stay on the same plane.
You should NOT be focused on dropping your elbow. Dropping your elbow is ok as you are going through the ball. Actually, dropping the elbow is mostly a good thing once you work on it. Most of the top Euro players drop their elbow and so do many of the greatest players around the world. This idea that dropping the elbow is bad is ridiculous.
