Most people who take golf lessons learn quickly that they are gripping too tightly and therefore unable to swing the club properly. Unfortunately, many pool players suffer from the same affliction and experience similar setbacks with the stroke. Problems associated with a tight grip in pool range from missed shots after directing the cue off line to weak position play from inadequate acceleration in the stroke. The natural tendency to grab and grip the cue too tightly proceeds from the logical yet unproductive view of the pool stroke as mostly an arm action. But, with all of the game’s subtle variations in force and acceleration, we must move the stroke into the hand—or more precisely, the fingers—for a proper grip, to deliver a consistently effective stroke and feel all of the game’s subtlety.
In the first photo we see a properly relaxed pool grip viewed from the rear. Note the hand wrapped around the butt of the cue to cradle it without squeezing, as shown by the space between the top of the cue and the palm of the hand. The cue rests in the front three fingers with the thumb and index fingers touching near their tips to keep the cue in place. Note also that the forearm hangs straight down with the hand hanging straight down from it. Aligning the elbow and wrist directly over the cue makes it possible to keep the arm relaxed for a straighter and more efficient stroke. A good grip is nearly no grip at all.
These two photos show us a rear view and side view of a grip that’s too tight. Both photos exaggerate the problem—look at the veins popping out of the hand—yet resemble the grips that many players employ. A grip this tight would make good pool very difficult, if not impossible, for several reasons. 1) Squeezing the cue tenses the
hand enough to move all the motion into the arm, thus killing the stroke’s acceleration and any cue-ball action that would proceed from that acceleration. 2) When we tense up the hand we make it too easy to move the cue off the line of the shot, and so we miss more shots. 3) Although I’m no anatomist, I believe that tension in the wrist and hand make it impossible to transmit all of the complex neural information we send to the fingers to manage all of the extremely sensitive changes that occur from shot to shot. In other words we lose our feel.
The next two photos show a hand turned out and turned in, two positions that require muscle tension in the wrist. Turning the wrist out or in also takes most of the acceleration out of the stroke while making it too difficult to move the cue straight along the line of the shot.
Many players, especially beginners, ask exactly where the grip should fall on the cue. Most of the books that address the topic fail to consider relevant facts such as the player’s height while misleading readers with some mumbo jumbo about the cue’s balance point. The truth is that the best spot varies from player to player and, for an individual, from shot to shot.
For most shots with a normal bridge length, about six to nine inches, the grip will probably land in the middle section of the cue’s wrap. To find its precise placement, put your tip about two inches from the cue ball and stop it there. Then move the back hand along the butt of the cue until the forearm is perpendicular to the floor from a side view. That is what I call the neutral position, the spot where the hand falls directly in line with the forearm just before it will move past it to hit the cue ball.
Because all shots do not employ the same setup we shall vary the grip position according to bridge length. For shots with a short bridge length, a snip-draw for example, the shooting hand will come toward the front of the wrap as shown in the first photo. Shots with a long bridge, such as the break, will move the hand toward the back of the cue as shown in the second photo. In any case the forearm should be perpendicular to the floor when the tip is about two inches from the cue ball to maintain consistent timing on all strokes.
Everything beautiful in this world—painting, music, sculpture—is made with fingers and it follows that pool, with all its delicate touch, should proceed with the same sensitivity. In order to move the game out of the arm and into the fingers we must practice the guidelines laid out here. The best place for that is in a mirror. While positioned next to or in front of a mirror, examine the grip from all possible angles. Look for consistently straight alignment through the forearm, wrist and hand while making sure to keep the elbow over the cue. Then, while standing alongside the mirror, practice with various bridge lengths and grip positions until the shooting arm falls naturally into a perpendicular alignment to the floor with the tip stopped two inches away from the cue ball. Note how a light, relaxed grip relates to a smooth, powerful stroke as you create more of your own art on the pool table.
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