It's been awhile

I always have the tendency to start blogs and then they die off. Well, I've resurrected this one. I've been quite busy with full time work right out of college. I ended up quitting the corporate world (for now) and going back to school (sort of). So when I'm not programming, I'm playing pool.

In the last year I've really ramped up my playing. I've been lucky enough to join a billiards clubs where I can practice many hours. Although I don't practice every day, as I would like, I feel my game has really progressed in the last year. The club has also allowed me to learn 3-cushion, which has helped my position and creative with a cue. I've been playing in a high level 8 ball league, which has been good experience. I'll be playing with a very strong team this winter season.

I've realized a minor flaw in my fundamentals that tends to creep back over time. This one drives me nuts. After reading my previous posts I realized I've probably been struggling with it all along. It came together for me while watching the 2004 world 9-ball Pagulayan Vs Chang. The commentators were ripping on Chang's stroke for being unorthodox. He has a very short, stabbing stroke thats looks pretty terrible. He also grips a bit up towards the center of the cue. This forces him to have a very short stroke to be effective. If he follows through fully, most likely his elbow would need to drop a lot in order to keep it on line.

I love to grip toward the balance point of the cue. I love the light feeling it gives me. Unfortunately, the same issues arise, as with Chang. To make this work I need to accelerate a lot to keep the cue on line. A lot of the times, especially harder shots, I follow through like I'm suppose to. But if I don't drop my elbow and wrist perfectly, something had to give, and my cue would go off to one side, usually the left via my wrist. This led to inconsistency because I was not able to consistently accelerate the cue along that line. Chang deals with this by just shorting the whole stroke, which reduces the error.

The solution...grip farther back on the cue so that contact happens around 90 degress. Now I'm actually swinging the cues weight, which does the work for me. My contact point is consistent. My cue goes straight through the ball without elbow drop. Even if I do veer off (some great players do a little), its after I hit the cueball. For now I've put on a rubber band to remind me not to grip toward the balance point too much.