Patrick
04-10-2002, 08:31 AM
If there are shots where you will need more speed than you can get, then you will need to improve your strength from weightlifting. If you already have enough speed in your stroke than you will ever need, then you don't need to get extra strength.
If you can only get speeds between 0-20MPH, then for example if you can get 50 different speeds with your cue, you will have twice better speed control than another player that can do 50 speeds between 0-40MPH.
But you can change that by changing the stroke and follow through. Francisco Bustamante uses a heavy cue and he is strong, this is why he can make 40MPH breaks. He uses a pump stroke because if he uses a normal stroke, he would get too much speed with the cue. He uses more movement in the arm than normal players, he does this to get less speed on the cueball. So if you use twice as long backswings, you can get more speeds than 50 speeds. You can decrease the speed of the cueball by using a shorter follow through or decellerating the cue before it reaches the cueball, like John Higgins does, he uses a longer backswing.
Your body needs to be stable, the more you weigh, the less movement you will get in your body when you stroke the cue. The more your cue weighs, the more extra movement in your body, which is not good. The players who use cues that weigh much, they use a long follow through because of it, they can't stop the cue in their follow through because they are not strong enough, so their stroke gets bad. Look at all snooker players, they all use very light cues.
Bodyfat is never good, it is better to have that extra weight as muscle size instead. Different muscles in your body needs to be specially trained for pool.
Your lower body should be heavier than your upper body, this gives better stability. You will need a good balance of weight all around your body so everything is still when you play pool. Some muscles you will train for strength and some for only size, it is not good to be stronger in those muscles that are counter-productive in your stroke.
But first you will need a perfect stance and stroke, if your stance and stroke is bad, this special balancing technique will not help you much.
As you have understood by now, muscles are very important for pool, I will create a special training program for every student in my pool lessons, everyone are different.
Patrick
If you can only get speeds between 0-20MPH, then for example if you can get 50 different speeds with your cue, you will have twice better speed control than another player that can do 50 speeds between 0-40MPH.
But you can change that by changing the stroke and follow through. Francisco Bustamante uses a heavy cue and he is strong, this is why he can make 40MPH breaks. He uses a pump stroke because if he uses a normal stroke, he would get too much speed with the cue. He uses more movement in the arm than normal players, he does this to get less speed on the cueball. So if you use twice as long backswings, you can get more speeds than 50 speeds. You can decrease the speed of the cueball by using a shorter follow through or decellerating the cue before it reaches the cueball, like John Higgins does, he uses a longer backswing.
Your body needs to be stable, the more you weigh, the less movement you will get in your body when you stroke the cue. The more your cue weighs, the more extra movement in your body, which is not good. The players who use cues that weigh much, they use a long follow through because of it, they can't stop the cue in their follow through because they are not strong enough, so their stroke gets bad. Look at all snooker players, they all use very light cues.
Bodyfat is never good, it is better to have that extra weight as muscle size instead. Different muscles in your body needs to be specially trained for pool.
Your lower body should be heavier than your upper body, this gives better stability. You will need a good balance of weight all around your body so everything is still when you play pool. Some muscles you will train for strength and some for only size, it is not good to be stronger in those muscles that are counter-productive in your stroke.
But first you will need a perfect stance and stroke, if your stance and stroke is bad, this special balancing technique will not help you much.
As you have understood by now, muscles are very important for pool, I will create a special training program for every student in my pool lessons, everyone are different.
Patrick