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Better your shot in Cuesport

 cuesports better your shooting

image credit: Shutterstock.com

Most people believe that cuesports are not hard to play, but to play effectively and score as much points as possible is not quite as easy as it seems. Here are three easy steps you can follow to help improve your shooting technique and ensure that you manage to pot the balls consistently each and every time.


1. Hand Positioning
You should hold the cue stick with your dominant hand keeping in mind to grip it gently. Gripping the cue stick with too much tension might seem as though it provides you with more control, but increased tension can cause the ball to travel in the wrong direction.

You should also ensure that your bridge – whether open or closed – is stable and secure before attempting a shot. This can be done by resting your hand against the table and ensuring that the bridge is properly positioned before resting the cue stick on it for support. An unsteady bridge can cause weak shots, or even shots that do not travel the way it is supposed to.

2. Taking Aim
When aiming your shot, keep your head straight. Often, players tend to tilt their head so that it gives more visibility to their dominant eye, but this can result in the player only seeing part of the shot. Additionally, players should not close their non-dominant eye when aiming. While it enables the player to focus on a small target on the ball when shooting, it also restricts the amount of peripheral vision the player enjoys.

3. Shooting Stance
Before taking a shot, you should stand directly behind where you want the shot to come from and align your body towards the direction of the shot. Your legs can be both locked straight or bent, as long as the feet provide proper stability when taking a shot.

One good way of testing your stability is to ask someone to push you while you are in this stance, and if it is stable, you will not falter. Stability is the most important when it comes to your shooting stance, as a weak stance will provide an unsteady shot. Taller players normally prefer to keep their legs bent at the knee in order to bring their head closer to the table, so that they can aim better.

The cue stick should be positioned right underneath the dominant eye or below the centre of the head, with the head aligned perpendicularly to the aim line. While there is no fixed rules about the distance between the head and the cue, it is recommended that players keep their head around two inches above the cue while shooting, as it provides them with more visibility and accuracy than compared to having one’s head higher.

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