Your Best Pool Stance
February 1st, 2010I got a question by e-mail from a beginner about how to stand when shooting pool. He said he had a lot of people comment that if his stance were better, he would grow as a player. Here’s the deal.
The first thing you need to understand is that none of this is helpful if you are not comfortable. If you are uncomfortable, you will become very distracted. Distraction in this game is to be kept at a minimum, for obvious reasons. I will give you some pointers, and some good examples, but in the end, you will need to experiment with this and figure out what works for you.
First of all, your stance should allow for two major components: ease of stroke and view of shot. Remember, your stance is not helpful to you if it impedes either of these two things. Don’t have such an awkward stance that your shot cannot be straight, clean, and smooth. There is also such a thing as standing too high or too low. If you are standing so high, you might as well be in a helicopter, hovering over the table, lean in. If you are so close to the table, the balls look big enough to live in, step back.
Your body should make an upside-down “L” shape. Before you begin forming your stance, make sure you are standing where you should. Stand about a foot away from the table to begin. Both feet should be flat on the floor. You should lean over the table lightly, so your body makes a nice “L” shape over the side of the table you are standing on. Your head should be cocked upward, so you can look head on at the shot. Feet should be spread apart, with one foot significantly in front of the other, preferably shoulder-width apart. If you are shooting right handed (right hand holding the wide end of the stick, your left foot should be in front, and if you are left handed, your right foot should be in front. Now, move the designated back foot back. Cock your body at about a 45 degree angle toward the side you are now favoring. When you close in your stance in holding the stick, your body will align itself toward the table. The back foot should hold a slight bit more of your body weight, though not like you are hitting a baseball, and as you shoot, a the extra weight should transfer from the back foot to the front foot, allowing for a smooth shot, with a steady force.
Most experts will tell you that you should point the toes of your front foot toward the pocket you are shooting at. I’ve found that it does remove a significant chance for error. Have you ever noticed, when driving, that if your eyes start to focus off the road, the vehicle can tend to shift in the direction you are looking? Feet can do the same thing in pool. Point your front foot at the pocket you are shooting at.
Now, we need to discuss how to hold the stick. Hold the stick loosely with the underside of your fingers and balance it. It should balance about one-third of the way in from the center of the stick on the wider end. Hold it in the palm of your hand where it balanced, and then move it back about five or six inches. It may seem a little weird at first, since a lot of people don’t hold their stick that far in, but experts agree that choking up on the stick a few inches can actually give you more control on your shot. Your grip should be about 8 inches from the butt of the stick, measuring to the pinky, if you are using a 57-58 inch 19 ounce regulation stick. Give an inch or two slack for any variations to these measurements, of course.
If you follow all these instructions, you should be standing nearly identical to this:

Photo courtesy of www.pbase.com/spepple.
Happy shooting, and please let me know how this works out for you or if you have anything to add. Please feel free to comment with your experiences and help out the visitors here.
Cheers,
Shooter







