Below I am giving you the lessons to perfect your stroke, the most important part of your game! You will not find a better method than this. The rest is up to you. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Getting Down To Business!

Acquiring a Dead Stroke

Many of you may look at this and think that your game is above it. You are here because your game is not consistent; you have formed bad habits over the years. I can tell you, without even watching you shoot, that it is in your stroke. Therefore, it needs help. You can know everything there is to know about pool, but if you can't make your stick go straight all the time, you are cheating your knowledge.

Most of the shots that you miss are not from aiming wrong. You just didn't execute the stroke right. The best way to correct this is by using the head spot on the pool table. Place a ball on the spot, using center ball english shoot the ball into the corner, be sure to follow through. After the follow through stay down on your shot (freeze right there). Now look down at your stick, there are two things to look at here.

One is, your stick should be over the center of the spot. If not guess what? You didn't make your stick go straight. Refer to the illustration below. Your cue should be directly over the center of the spot.

Here is a drill that will help you correct this problem, DON'T TAKE IT LIGHTLY. This one drill will improve your game more than anything else you ever do.

Using proper stroke techniques covered below, place a ball on the center of the spot on your table and shoot it into the corner pocket. After your follow through be sure to freeze and look at the placement of your stick. It should be directly over the center of the spot, this means your stick went straight.

OK, the second thing you should notice is that your cue descended towards the table. What this tells you is that the top of your arm did not drop. When you take warm up strokes your arm pivots from the elbow down, you should not drop the top part of your arm. If you do the tip of your stick will be sticking up in the air after your follow through, not a pretty sight. I recommend you shoot this drill until the cows come home. So just get all of your balls and place them one by one on the spot shooting them into the end corners, and checking your results. This drill also helps you to stay down on your shot.

Be sure to follow thru about six inches and then freeze. Your cue should be directly over the center of the spot. This lets you know if your stick went straight. Also, your tip should be close to the table, not sticking up in the air. If it is sticking up in the air, you dropped the top part of your arm. This is how most people miscue, and they look at their tip as if it was to blame.

IN SHORT

 

THE NOT SO PERFECT STROKE

How many times have you seen this? A player bends over to address his cue ball and then starts jerking his stick back and forth about as fast as he can. Cool, huh? It's hard to tell when he is going to strike the cue ball, heck he probably doesn't even know himself. The cue is finally struck and he jumps up almost out of his shoes with a confused look on his face wondering why he missed his shot. He just wasted a lot of energy to look cool only to miss his shot; there is nothing cool about that.

THE PERFECT STROKE

After determining the point of aim, speed and english of your shot, it's time to address your cue ball. Take a few warm up strokes, slow and smooth; be sure to have a smooth back stroke. This is one of the aspects mostly ignored by pool players. After your warm up strokes, stop your tip close to the cue ball, then with a slow smooth backstroke pull your stick back and stop.

A good stroke is like a throwing motion; if you are throwing a baseball, you stop on the back stroke then throw the ball forward. A pool stroke is the same, stop and then throw your stick forward. Don't forget the importance of a smooth backstroke. Why would you go through all of the trouble of finding the perfect aiming spot, and then blowing it by jerking your stick back real fast.

If you are really serious about pool, you will want to practice this every chance you get. As long as your back can hold out. I was told by my instructor to practice this for six months, he also told me that my game would go down before improving. He was right, but it was all worth it.

You may think that you are getting a lot of practice with your stroke while your playing 3 & 4 nights a week. The problem is you are not totally focused just on your stroke. Your mind is full of a lot of things, like your shape, the breakout, the music on the jukebox, well you get the picture.

If you had a great stroke, you would be consistent! If you have doubts about this working, just shoot 50 balls off the spot and check your results. Then you'll be a believer. If you already know this technique, you didn't practice it enough, or you wouldn't have ended up on this site.

That little spot on the pool table is the best teacher of all, and it's been right under our nose the whole time.

This practice session will allow you to see your results and build muscle memory, because you are totally focused on the job at hand. Which is great when you are shooting that money ball with that nervous feeling you know we all get. Just turn your arm loose, because it is a trained killer.

To really add to your practice, set a camcorder up and film yourself.

Games Are Won On The Practice Table !!!

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