What is Timing,
and How Does it Affect the Stroke? by Jerry Briesath We know that a good stroke is a beautiful throwing motion of the arm below the elbow. We also know that the less the elbow moves up and down during the stroke, the greater chance a player has of striking the cue ball exactly where he or she wants.
Now let’s define that perfect stroke a little more precisely; and this applies whether you are swinging a golf club, throwing a ball, or executing a pool stroke. Picture yourself in a contest throwing softballs underhand into four small buckets spaced five yards apart from 5 yards away to 20 yards away. You step up to the line, take a slow backswing and accelerate just hard enough to get the ball to land in the bucket that is 5 yards away. The slow deliberate backswing helps your mind and body develop a feel for how much to accelerate the arm to get the ball in the bucket, whereas a faster jerky backswing would make your speed control very inconsistent. Now let’s do the 10 yard bucket. You step up to the line and take the same slow backswing and then accelerate a little faster to get the ball into the 10 yard bucket. And the same would apply to the 15 and 20 yard buckets. The backswing might be a little longer but not faster. This is the same motion we want you to feel in a pool stroke except that you are just using the lower arm, and elbow movement is kept to a minimum.
Now let me explain what timing is. Timing is the transition from the backswing to the front swing. The perfect backswing goes back slowly and smoothly, and slows to a stop at the end of the backswing as in a clock pendulum. As soon as the arm comes to a stop, accelerate through the cue ball at the speed necessary to complete the shot and get position. A perfect backswing almost looks like there is a pause at the end of the backswing because the arm slows to a stop, then accelerates forward.
Almost every player has made the comment during competition, “my stroke just doesn’t feel right tonight‚“ or “ I think I hurried my stroke on that shot.” These are things players say and feel when their timing is not right and is usually caused by starting the forward swing before the backswing slows to a stop. I refer to that as, “not finishing the backswing.” Check your own backswing; do you make it stop with a jerk at the end of the backswing or do you let it slow to a stop then accelerate through the cue ball? You can make it stop or you can let it stop. Which one do you think looks better? One of the biggest problems pool players have is developing a beautiful backswing with good timing. Sometimes when a player has a lot of trouble with timing, I will recommend that he or she takes a slow backswing and pauses for a second at the end of the backswing, then accelerates through the cue ball, because a little pause at the end of the backswing is better than a jerky swing. Remember, the backswing is an extremely important part of the stroke and the transition from the backswing to the front swing is what makes any stroke look good or bad. Now that you know exactly what good timing is, you can practice and master it. Work on your timing.
Good Luck! - Jerry 4
• August 2016