The Stance - Pool Tutorial | Pool School 

Acep Ahmad excellent, thank you very much, I’m glad it helped.

In the basement of my college dorm we have the big 9 foot tables too, this is defiantly a technique that I should utilize.

😮🎉❤❤🎉😮😮❤)[

I agree! We have a pool table at the office. The entire office stops their work immediately to come watch me shoot pool. I'm that guy now!

Thank you, that's great to hear.

Thanks, glad it helped.

Cheers, hope it helps.

Merci beaucoup

Odirile Macha glad to be of help.

That's on my to do list. I'm just finishing a video about changing a cue tip and then I think the bridge hand will be next. I will cover the closed loop bridge in the video but there are a few reasons why you primarily see it used in American pool and the open bridge in English pool. Firstly the shape of the cues used are quite different. English cues are thinner and have a more tapered shaft. If you try to use a loop bridge with this you need to adjust the size of the loop as you cue back and forth and it can be a little loose. The American cue shaft tends to be thicker and more uniform so it is much more suited to this bridge. The other is the size of the cue ball. With the English cue ball being so small the loop bridge can be a little intrusive on your view of the ball. The final reason is that with the bigger tables and heavier balls you tend to be hitting the balls harder more often, the loop bridge can be better for this in terms of keeping the cue and control.

I'm not sure I'd advocate locking "both" knees as that would be very uncomfortable and I'm not sure it would be that stable either. If you are going to lock one then it would be the back one. However for some taller and indeed less flexible players, locking the knee is very uncomfortable or not even possible. Definitely needs to be a position you feel comfortable in.

Thanks. My next video is going to be a review of a pool cue kindly sent to me from my new sponsor. I’ll covering a lot of cue stuff in that video. My own cue is a 9.5mm tipped, 3/4 jointed cue from “Taylor Made Cues”. I find that baby wipes are a very good way of gently cleaning the cue without too much moisture. Give them a quick wipe down and then polish with a dry cloth.

Thanks glad you like the channel. It's always very hard to say exactly what is going on without seeing someones cue stroke. I think the fact you used the words "squeeze the cue to my chest" might possibly be the reason. It really only needs to be a very light contact and is more of a guide when setting up. If you are "squeezing" the cue into your chest then the fact that the cue gets wider towards the base means that tip would be further to the left (for a left hander) when the fatter part of the cue is against the chest, compared to the thinner part. It might not be this at all but worth trying not to squeeze. If you are squeezing it then you will be pulling the cue across when all your focus should be on going back and forth.

Thanks for your response. Yeah that was a good pointer regarding me squeezing the cue into my chest. Did some more practice and relaxed the contact points and it certainly feels better and is more consistent. Looking forward to gradually working through some of your practice routines. Just need to ensure I have a reasonable chance of deliverIng the cue straight each time before getting too carried away 😝

I am a right-handed player and I have the exact same issue as you. I put unattended right English on the shot. When filming myself I see that I accidentally push the cue towards the right as I follow through. Of course I've made a bunch of unconscious adjustments to adjust for this so I've got good being able to play with this cueing across the cue ball flaw. My problem is I can't quite figure out how to get myself to cue straight. It's easy if I'm just setting up the cue ball and shooting it directly into a pocket without an object Ball. But when I add in the object ball I always cue off to the right. Today during a long practice session of shooting only one particular straight in shot trying to fix this I was able to actually cue straight sometimes and when I do I'd miss. Basically I've changed the aim to reflect my crooked cueing so delivering a straight stroke misses. Of course with a slight change in aim I start making them. But the problem is I can't get consistent on cueing straight. Tying to find the exact reason why I'm having issues with this has been difficult to determine. The other issue I have watching my form video is my right elbow leaks out away from my body quite a bit. I can't seem to get it directly in line with the shot line. Even when I'm constantly squeezing it towards my body it still looks to be away from my body.

Personally I use a 9.5mm tip but as with everything it comes down to personal choice. The general rule is, the larger the tip the easier it is to hit the ball straight, the smaller the tip the more spin you can get on the ball. However, how you deliver the cue is always a more important factor. If you have perfect delivery there is no reason you can't hit a ball straight with a small tip, and there is no reason you can't achieve spin with a larger tip. If your delivery is slightly off however, that is when the tip size will exaggerate things.

😂 Shows the age of the video!

dnbmania thats why I get so much movement

It is a “Taylor Made” cue and I bought it from a shop in Southend. Unfortunately he is no longer there.

There isn’t a “right” answer when it comes to the stance. Every player is different, height, body shape, flexibility, arm length etc. The important thing about the stance is that it is solid and stable and allows you to deliver the cue in a straight line. If you can do that and it’s comfortable then it’s right for you. In my opinion you only need to look at changing you stance if you are not delivering the cue in a straight line. You only need to look at professional snooker players to see how much variation there is between players stance.

Quite possibly. Everyone is a different shape and size and it’s more to do with arm span than height, but generally if you’re shorter your arms are likely to be a little shorter as well. If you hold the cue so that your arm is at about 80-90 degrees when the tip is touching the cue ball and then see how much spare cue is behind your hand. A little bit is ok and gives you extra reach when you need it, but if your holding the cue maybe 10-12 inches from the back then a shorter cue might be better suited.

Thanks. Yeah I struggle myself sometimes and I'm only 48!

I’m quite short myself so a little hard for me to say but I’m not the youngest or most flexible and find a dead straight leg uncomfortable myself. I’ve played against very tall players and they tend to play with quite a lot of bend in both legs as it’s the only way they can get down. There is no “right” way but the most important things are comfort and stability.

@@PoolSchool thanks 👌

how about bending your knee a little bit? sorry for 6 months late comment.

It must be a really tough one to deal with as you obviously can't get the cue in the ideal position. At least it sounds as though you've found a couple of compromises that work for you, even if they're not perfect. I can't really think of any other suggestions I'm afraid.

@@PoolSchool that's ok, I hoped you would be able to give me a couple of pointers but didn't expect it considering the circumstances. Love your videos and I still use them for pointers after years playing in my league and I've definitely seen an improvement

I talk about it in this video (about 7mins in). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ShPKDigRbew.html

It’s a 7ft English pool table which is standard tournament size for English pool.

That's an excellent question but one I don't have a definitive answer to. Like several things in pool, people have there own way of doing things and personal preferences but this is clearly something you find is actually hindering your shot. The 3 most important aspects of the stance are stability, alignment and comfort. It sounds as though you may have to sacrifice one of these a little in order to achieve an accurate cue action. Excuse my bluntness but it really depends how big we're talking about? The first option would be to try to rest the cue against the outside of your right breast. This might involve holding the cue a little further from your hip with the back arm. It is important that if you do this you maintain the vertical line of the back arm and elbow, and don't "tip" it away from the hip. If you do this and still use the chin as a guide you might be able to achieve a decent line between the three. If this is not possible then another option might be to hold the cue between your breasts. This might be too central to the chest though and make it difficult to align your back arm. If neither of these options work then you might need to stand higher on the shot so the cue is below your chest. This is not ideal as you won't be able to place your chin on the cue but you might still be able to use part of your chest to help stabilize things. It's clearly not ideal and I'm sorry I can't give you a perfect answer. Let me know how you get on and I really hope you can find something that's comfortable and works for you.

Thanks for giving me several options to try. I appreciate the feedback. 👍🏻

No problem, let me know how you get on?, it would be interesting to see if you can find something that works for you.

😂 My partner’s favourite man! This comment made her laugh 😂

Absolutely, it's the critical point for me too.

No it’s a 3/4 “Taylor Made”.

@@PoolSchool sorry i wasnt meant to cause any offence there, just the splices are very similar to mine. Can't really tell on the video too much. I have ash shaft with an ebony butt, I haven't played with it yet, so I was going to ask what you thought of how it plays. Nevermind. Nice content though pal 👍

No offence, sorry did I sound offended? Didn’t mean to. “Taylor Made” is the make of my cue. It made by a guy called Gary Taylor so he uses his name, it wasn’t tailor made for me. Hope you enjoy your new cue.

@@PoolSchool it's just hard to tell emotions when reading sometimes. So I said that just in case. I know of the brand, he does nice cues. Thanks mate. I'll have to let you know 😅

There is nothing wrong with that, you have to be comfortable. As long as it’s stable that’s fine.

@@PoolSchool thanks for the advice sir

There are some people that play with the head higher but personally I think it is better to have to the head on the cue for several reasons. It's important to keep the head still during a shot, so by having it in contact with the cue this helps you to feel that you haven't moved up on the shot. It also helps with consistency because you are placing you head in the same spot every time, not some arbitrary distance above it. There are some occasions when being higher up can help, maybe a short shot where you want a better overall view of the table to judge position, but generally I would be down low on the cue, especially if the shot is over any distance.

@@PoolSchool thanks

But why doe