The classic stroke is a gentle throwing motion. Throwing the cue forward makes it go straight much more easily than rigidly gripping the cue and forcing a perfectly straight path by muscle effort. Would you toss a ball forward to have it go straight ahead or squeeze the life from it and concentrate on making a rigid, straight motion with your arm?
The classic stroke backswing has just begun in this first photo. Note two points:
1: My cuestick is inches withdrawn from the cue ball, but my upper arm and forearm on my shooting arm are not yet forming a true 90° angle.
2: My hair resembles Joe Pesci’s in the movie Goodfellas (I needed a haircut when these photos were taken).
It is an enduring pool myth that a right angle is to be formed between upper and lower arms (the forearm hanging straight down from the elbow) at address, when the cue tip rests near the cue ball. Instead, most pros have their forearms angled forward at address (and at impact) as we’ll see demonstrated a few photos later in this stroke.
My cuestick is close to level, almost parallel to the table bed during this center ball stroke. The stick feels light in weight at address and throughout the stroke. If my grip was rigid, the cue would feel heavier in the shooting hand.
