Alright, Up Against the Wall!
Pool is physics. And as such, our bodies must be arranged in such a way that eliminates wasted energy. Of most importance in achieving this is to ensure that our shoulder, upper arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, hand and cue begin and remain in the same vertical plane throughout the stroke.
Try this: stand in front of a full-length mirror and drop into your normal stance, the stance you would take if shooting directly into the mirror. The line of the cue should appear straight from the cue itself through to its image in the mirror with no visible sideways change in angle. Your head should be positioned over the cue as normal. Now, ask yourself: can you see your cue-side shoulder? In other words, if right-handed can you see your right shoulder or any part of it? If so, you are out of position and not in a position to efficiently deliver the cue.
Why? Because if you can see any part of your right shoulder with your head positioned correctly over the cue, then either your forearm is tilted inward towards your body (because the shoulder is outside of vertical alignment with the cue), or your forearm is tilted outwards because your elbow is now tucked inside of vertical alignment with the cue. It’s pretty difficult to efficiently channel all the kinetic energy straight down the cue when these major parts are not vertically aligned.
We’re seen pictures or watched top pro players with many different styles, styles that seem to violate this principle -- sidearm, or elbow tucked in, or shoulder way outside – but they’ve played that way for years and have learned to accommodate these misalignments through endless hours of practice. Don’t have that kind of time? Then, Up Against The Wall!
For right-handers (reverse for lefties): Find an interior wall in your home that ends at an open point in the room. Holding the cue, stand with the end of the wall to your right and one foot from the end of the wall, facing into the room. You should be looking down a line that the wall would follow if extended. At this point, the line across your shoulders is 90-degrees to the wall. Feet are together and you should be standing so that your right arm just touches the wall. Turn your right foot slightly outward so that the toe of your shoe touches the base of the wall. Slowly step forward with the left foot and down into your stance so that the back of your head is just beyond the end of the wall. This will allow your head to have room to be positioned over the cue without the wall being in the way. You may have to slightly adjust your stance to do this, and if so, keep your right toe against the base of the wall. Ensure that your right shoulder, upper arm, forearm, wrist and hand are all touching the wall. You are now in a proper, vertically-aligned position. Hold this position for a few seconds then step back with the left foot into the original standing position. Repeat.
After ten repetitions, stay down in the shooting position and slowly move your feet away from the wall about six inches. You should still be vertically aligned with the cue, and parallel to the wall. Stand up and walk into the shooting position a few more times. Ideally, take an inexpensive full-length mirror and position it down range and in line with the wall so that you can see yourself as you perform this exercise. When playing, imagine the line of the shot – the line the cue ball needs to take – is the base of the wall, and is the line on which the plant foot (right foot for right-handers) needs to be before stepping into and down into the stance with the left foot. When practicing this without the wall, your foot positions relative to the shot line may change slightly. For example, you may find that your right foot is on the shot line as opposed to the toe merely touching it. That’s fine. The importance of this exercise is to train yourself to drop into a correctly aligned stance.
This is a great way to help learn and sense where your body needs to be to achieve a perfectly vertical alignment. Next step is to slowly practice your stroke with your shoulder, arm and hand against the wall. Careful that you don’t mark up the surface or you may suddenly find yourself in a horizontally aligned position against the floor, looking up at your spouse or significant other. Just sayin’.
By: Mark Powell, PBIA Master Instructor.