[FASTLARRY]

FOLLOW How to make a stroke with power. The 4 strokes of pool.

4-15-04, REV 1-28-05, 9-24-07, 11-14-08 2 pages, CR, Fast Larry Guninger all rights reserved. Published in DC, bpn, czm, upp, ppt, flp, btt.

An internet questions: Larry, my man. Give us a dissertation on the proper application of 'follow'. For some reason, and I figure it's me, quite often when I use follow I don't seems to get the cue ball to travel as much as I want. How bout a little advice from your stack of expertise.
Thanks, Pel
I shoot pool like I make love, I'm not very good but sure have a lot of fun trying.

FL RESPONDS: You have two main stroke methods and 4 basic strokes.

(One) Taught by the BCA instructors, shoots into the middle or top of the ball and allows the tip to dip down and end up impacting into the cloth. The elbow does not drop, in fact, they tell you to never drop the elbow, that this is bad. This method I am so violently opposed to caused me to resign from the BCA teacher’s school of which I graduated from because I refused to teach a flawed system I knew was wrong. The feature of this method is not to drop the elbow. Hitting down on the cue ball will always put some drag on the cue ball, slowing its natural roll. Hit that way very hard and you will jump the cue ball. This is how I teach the draw, hitting down on the cue ball. The facts are every pro drops their elbow on power shots. They push this because they have a lot of beginner instructors who don’t have advanced techniques and could not teach them. This method is also best for the beginner.


The BCA method is a hit and drop down through the ball which has to put back spin on the cue ball. I teach my students to become pure ball rollers, they teach theirs to become ball skidders. This is how I hit a drag shot. In golf the putt is taught to hit up over and through the ball. I teach the same method in pool. Tapes of Mosconi and Greenleaf and Hoppe reveal their cues actually rising up through the ball as I teach as a putt in golf is performed. A running ball with pure top spin runs purest. A chopped ball will slide off to the side and tail off at the end.

(Two, drop the elbow, level through the shot)

If I am wrong about this, then Golf is wrong. I am dead right and these teachers are dead wrong the way they are teaching. That is the center of the attack on me, I told them, they were teaching wrong and they respond to degrade me so you will not believe this. Both methods should be taught and learned at the same time, fixed pin, and drop the elbow.

When you go back and examine all of the films of exactly how Mosconi, Greenleaf, Hoppe, Caras, Crane, all of the greats, none of them played this way. Most of the modern champions do this as well.
I teach how these greats played and I played or observed all of them as I go back to being in play during WWII, so I know. You can acquire over 5 hours of actual footage from me seeing all of these greats playing in the 20’s to the 60’s on my 3 antique billiards DVD’s I sell and give away on www.poolchat.net I tell people, don’t argue with me on this, argue with Hoppe, Mosconi and Greenleaf because you are saying they were wrong. So who are you going to believe, some teacher in Wisconsin who has never been on tour, never won any events and never beaten any body of merit? Or do you believe your eyes when you see the entire hall of fame doing my methods. Somebody is dead ass wrong here, and it aint me?

The other thing I do not agree with is you see all these young players with these 12" long bridges stroking and putting the cue tip every time on the bottom of the ball and then hitting above that point. I teach a short bridge, a long follow through and the point you aim to hit on the CB is the point the cue tip comes up to each time.

(Third stroke, the stop ball)

You are slightly jacked up, hitting the cue ball about l/2 tip below center with a jab poke stroke with no follow through. This shot must be perfected so the CB stops in place.

I want my student to hit any follow above the equator with a perfectly level cue so the cue ball does not jump and a perfect follow through so the cue shaft stays on that same line parallel to the table bed and never drops even if the follow through is 2' long. This requires a drop of the elbow, but all the top pros do that any way. Drop and just shove the cue shaft down the line. This is a UN natural act and is an acquired manipulation of the cue stroke. To add power just follow through twice as far as you are now doing. I can follow through to the joint and to do that just keep going and don’t stop. To add big time power cock the wrist back and flick it through the shot. Remember you must stay perfect level to the table bed or the cue ball will jump and then lose its spin and power.
Trying to bring the cue back level with the bed and go forward level with the bed is UN natural. Going back allow the butt of the cue to rise up a little and on the down swing drop the elbow and just before impact it levels and you drive through the ball level with the bed of the table and then come up a little. I call this a wave action. Nick Varner does it beautiful. It is kind of like pumping water out of a well, pull up, push down, and shove forward.

On most follows using side English normally one tip up and one tip to the side works best but that will vary from shot to shot. You will see me, Mosconi, Greenleaf, Hoppe and many more greats making a follow through keeping the shaft parallel to the table bed at and after impact and then see the tip actually rise up another inch imparting pure over spin roll on the ball. This is an advanced stroke and it is not for beginners. The better player needs two distinct strokes and methods. I use the BCA fixed pin shot, degrade into the cloth on some shots, but when I need to grip it and rip it I use the wave drop the elbow stroke.

Power in the follow comes from the drop of the elbow; the cock and flick of the wrist into the ball and a long follow through. How far you go depends on the shot and the force you need to apply. For me it can be full foot, sometimes almost 2 feet.

(4th STROKE)
Not all shots are power grip it and rip it. In fact most are only sending the cue ball a foot or two. Many of these I may have no follow through. I hit a lot of what I call funky shots. I group all of these into the 4th category but there may be 4 or 5 distinct strokes here. Some have no follow through. Little nips, dinks, bunts, jabs, pokes, drags which shuts down, slides and controls the cue ball. Some have a follow through of an inch or two. When you chop down on the cue ball, it sends it in a different angle than from a natural follow through. The pokes also change the tangent angles as well as much as a foot off of the normal follow angle. I teach a 2.5 hour course on this subject.

The problem we have with beginner teachers today is they get in the student that has been making these funky strokes for some time and has acquired some skill with them. And what do they do, take them away telling him stroke it, don’t poke it.
Yo, El Wrongo: You take away what he knows and give him a new method he is terrible at and now he plays worse not better. You, the teacher suck here, not the student. Later he finds me and guess what, I give him back all of his pokes and dinks and teach him all over to make them again. Natural pool. We naturally figure out how to do things and lousy teachers take them away. There is a time to poke it. A time to stroke it. One is for shut down control, the other is for power. The student requires and needs multiple stroke methods and techniques. There can not be one way to hit a shot. There must be many.

To learn how to be a pure ball roller is something I cannot teach you over the net. Maybe on DVD, but most will have to see me on a private lesson. Most struggle with this new concept. For many, it may take an hour to get them doing it properly. Once they get it, they come back months later telling me this was perhaps the most valuable thing they acquired. It transforms you into a good player almost overnight. For the first time you begin to shoot straight. It is all about keeping the cue tip on the ball longer. Most of you can’t hit the CB high, or high enough and when you do, you slide off over the top of it losing power. Driving through, down the line level requires coaching, learning and a lot of practice. When you are using Side, English, most of you are again sliding off too much and not staying with the shot. When hitting with none or just a little English, most of you have some little twist through the ball which throws the object ball and is causing you to miss long shots. And 98% of you cannot hit the center of the cue ball. You do not have a clue how to and you have it grooved hitting it a tad right or left of center, again putting unknown and unwanted throw on the object ball. You all have these flaws and I have to go in and clean each of them up.

Once you get the feel of going into the ball and keeping that tip on the ball longer, then you know. The amount of English you now apply is more and the long shots begin falling because the unwanted throws are being eliminated.

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