Follow Through

by

Joe Waldron

Follow-through is more than pushing your hand through the cue ball. We have heard a thousand times that follow-through is important, and of course, we all agree. I wonder how many players have stopped to think what it means to truly follow-through on your stroke.

When you take up the cue sports every one who has played for 30 minutes longer than you will tell you that stroke and follow-through are important. We nod our head and try to remember to stroke smoothly: Swing the stick like a pendulum and let the stick glide through the cue ball as if the cue ball were not there. “Well - that is follow-through and I have mastered it.” Nope, not yet.

Ever notice that you still miss those long shots too often? Sometimes you stroke that old cue ball and can watch it leave the intended track. Must have been something with your stroke, but you have mastered follow-through and so its the cloth, the humidity, etc. etc. Funny thing is that after you master the rudiments of follow-through you tend to forget about it and look for some other aspect of the game that needs improving.

There is a major subtle factor in follow-through that will make a tremendous improvement in your game, if you shoot like the pros. I can’t guarantee anything, but I would bet your handicap will move at least one level if you practice a new type of follow through. Of course I would not make this bet with someone who is already at the top of their game because they know what I am about to relate.

Sometime during the last year one of the major billiard magazines ran a series of pictures of the top touring pros in a match. I really don’t remember which magazine and which issue. I searched high and low and can’t find my copy so I’ll have to tell the story without the exact reference.

In this series each player’s picture was taken as they finished their stroke. The interesting aspect of the series was that every pro’s hand position was basically the same at the end of the stroke. Varner, Hall, Strickland, Segal, Archer, They all finished their shots the same way. The picture which accompanies this article shows two pros (a male and a female) as they finish their stroke. As can be seen in the reproductions, the wrist on the right hand is locked in position and is bent straight back. It makes no difference if the stick comes off the table, as in the top illustration or if the stick is on the table as in the bottom illustration. The hand position in the top picture is the best illustration of what I mean by a locked wrist.

The point here is that follow-through includes freezing the hand in position when contact is made and past the contact point. This “locked” hand position is important for the following reasons: If your wrist is loose when you hit the cue ball there is some resistance from the ball. If your wrist is loose, you will continue the hit at a slight angle. Bob Jewett estimates that you have 1/32 inch margin of error on contact when the object ball is two diamonds from the cue ball. It is also assumed that the object ball is two diamonds from the pocket. Any slight movement of the wrist when contact is made can change your angle of hit by more than 1/32 of an inch. Remember that length of table shot that you missed by a full ball width, your wrist probably wobbled.

If your long shots are erratic you are probably letting your wrist move from side to side as you hit the ball. The distance from the hinge on your wrist bone to the location of the stick in your hand is four to five inches. A tremor in your wrist will change the angle of hit by at least the margin of error. In addition, a tremor in your wrist when carried from your right-hand to the tip of the cue stick is indeed a substantial amount of movement. No wonder you missed that long shot.

It can be concluded that side wrist movement must avoided. It is for this reason that each shooter in the illustration has that funny bend in their wrist at the end of their stroke.

If you tend to carry your stick from the side, instead of letting it lay dead stright down, you have to compensate for the angle your wrist is off dead straight and you must hold that exact same angle through the stroke. Some people can do this, Strickland for example. All of the other pros let the cue stick hang dead straight as in the illustrations.

While you must lock out the side movement of your wrist you must continue to have a flowing forward and backward movement of the wrist to get that smooth even stroke. I found that it took me at least two weeks to master this stroke. It is not as easy as it looks to get this final hand position on every stroke, soft, easy, hard, open or closed bridge, reaching across the table or shooting off the rail. Draw shots and force follow. One of the things that you will find is that your accuracy will improve by leaps and bounds. The squirt that results when English is placed on the ball is true. You will also find that you need less English. Fact is, it will change your whole game. For a while it is ruined, later you will run twice as many balls, assuming the rest of your basic stance is good.

The place I continue to have problems and often revert to a “loose” wrist is when draw is needed. It seems that with a locked wrist I can’t swing the stick as fast. This affects the length of the draw: It is shorter. So it looks like there is a trade off. Accuracy is improved but speed of swing is reduced.

I find that when extreme draw is needed and a loose wrist is required, I have to be close to the object ball or it isn’t worth trying. In the past there was a 50% probability of making the shot and getting position. That simply isn’t good enough, no matter how fancy it makes you look on the table. Locking out the horizontal (side) swing in your wrist is going to improve your whole game -- but you will have to work at it -- and with it.