A Way to Play
by Edward Charlton
Professional Player
(now retired)

One thing to keep in mind with the grip is that you never hold the cue in a strangle hold. You need to have a firm hold, strong enough to have control over the cue, basically so someone cannot pull the cue out of your hand with a gentle pull. Most shots you will play will have the same pressure. There are shots that I will cover later in the series where grip pressure has an effect on the cue ball.

To take hold of the cue, cup your cue hand and let the cue butt lie in the middle pads of the four fingers, thus pulling the butt up into the palm of the hand. The grip is taken with the first two fingers and the thumb only. Here is one very important tip, keep your thumb pointing straight down towards the floor, don’t wrap it around the butt. The other two fingers just close on to the butt without gripping.

When addressing the cue ball, tip close without touching, your cue hand should hang straight below the elbow. This is basically the middle of the stroke. Try not to have a long back swing, as it may cause the cue to go off line, 10cm (4”) is enough. Power shots, when needed, are to be controlled, not just hitting hard. Again this will be discussed later. The second part of a shot is the follow through. Every shot will have a follow through.

Like all parts of the stance, the grip of the cue is one of the main features that you will need to be very aware of and through practice become consistent.
As the grip is a major part of the entire cue action, I will re-iterate parts of the above when we cover the cue action.

Coming next time:    Aiming