Level Cue by  Frank  "TheBarber" Almanza ãTricks of the Trade Inc.

 

Well, after more than 45 years of playing pool, here I am writing an article for you.  After all the miscues, scratches, bad hits, masse shots that didn’t masse, jump shots that didn’t jump, dead banks that died, combinations that didn’t combo and nights trying to sleep after missing that easy game ball, here I am going to try to pass on some knowledge as to why these things happen.  Talk about the school of hard knocks!  I went to it and have learned a lot and I’m still waiting to graduate.  So now, the Barber speaks…

 

All the bad things that happen in the game are part of the game and it’s your job to navigate around them.  These bad things are happening right now to some schmuck, and he’s wondering in disbelief, what happened?  Since these things are part of the game, let them happen, but not to you.  I can tell you that you will never keep these things out of your game completely, but surely you can keep them to a minimum.

 

Somewhere along the way in my early years of playing, I realized that winning was a whole lot better than losing.  Of course that wasn’t very had to figure out.  To win, you must keep these negative things to a minimum, the smallest minimum that you can.  I’m going to help you accomplish this goal with a series of articles geared for everyone from beginners to advanced.  We are not going to go into stance, bridge, and all the other stuff that you can get from any book or instructor.  Certainly these basics are important, and if you have expectations of being a better player, they are a must.

 

So lets start with what I consider one of the most important mechanics, the level cue.  Imagine a novice hunter with his hungry family waiting for his return home with supper.  He’s out with a rifle and spots a nice buck that that would feed his family for the cold winter months.  He slowly brings his rifle into position and takes aim.  Being a novice hunter and not knowing any better, he takes aim at a nearby boulder and attempts a ricochet shot toward his prize.  He fires, he misses, and dinner gets away.

 

Ricochet shot off a bolder?  Stupid?  You bet it is.  Is this you on the pool table? You be the judge.

 

There’s your game winning ball (the buck) just waiting to be dropped into the pocket.  You bring down your cue (rifle) and take aim.  But wait, your butt end of the cue is elevated.  You are going to try to make your game ball with a ricochet off the bed of the table. (Hello! Boulder)  The rifle needed to be aimed straight to the meal just as the cue stick needs to be aimed straight to the object ball.

 

You may not even know that you elevate your butt end.  Put yourself on video, look at yourself in a mirror, or have a friend check your cue for levelness.  A level cue is the cornerstone of consistency.  Granted, there are times you must use an elevated butt.  Such as when you are next to a rail or over another ball, you may have no choice.  Other times, it is advantageous to elevate such as to jump, masse, curve, throw, and to draw when the cue ball is close to the object ball.  An advanced player knows when to elevate, and knows the risks associated with it.  For the beginner, beware, as unusual things happen to the cue ball with an elevated butt end.  So before you elevate, make sure you have a good reason to do so.

 

Lets go back to that game winning shot with your butt end of the cue elevated.  When you pulled the trigger, your aim may have been perfect, yet you still miss the shot.  Why? Because remember what I said “unusual things happen to the cue ball with an elevated butt end.”  If you miss hit the cue ball by even the slightest amount to the left or right, one of those unusual reactions will take place.  Usually a curve.  So, the question is ‘How can you try to mentally correct a missed shot that was aimed perfectly?’ You can’t.

 

So many times I have watched my opponent running out a table so smoothly that I was certain I had lost, when all of a sudden, I see the butt end go up on a shot for no reason.  At this point, I feel a new ray of hope because I have seen this too many times.  A key shot is missed due to an elevated cue. My turn!!

 

If a shot is going to be missed, let it be you that missed it and not your mechanics.  If the shot is missed because of your aim, that can be corrected.  If it’s missed because of your mechanics, that’s hard to correct because you don’t know what went wrong.  Remember if your going to elevate your cue, you must have a reason!

 

I see so many players in competition play with raised cues in the back, especially beginners.  This mistake is very disturbing to me because it’s one of the easiest aspects to fix.  Work hard on correcting this.  Here is a simple exercise.  By releasing pressure on your back fingers that grip the butt, you will keep your cue level during your practice strokes before delivering the shot.  This will make the cue work like a piston.  By doing this exercise, in two weeks, anyone can correct this mistake and the results will speak for themselves.  After you feel comfortable with a level cuestick and purposely try to elevate your butt end, you will say to yourself ‘How did I ever try to pocket a ball this way?’  After all, you wouldn’t try to kick in a ball in that you have straight in, would you?  Of course not!

 

If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, please email me at dabarbr@hotmail.com  Next month, we will go into how you perceive your game and how others perceive your game.