Stance, grip and where your head goes.

Stand behind the shot first

Pick the line of the shot while you are still standing, put the cue on that line, and then step into it. Use the same stance on every shot.

What a good stance has to do

Dr. Dave Alciatore describes stance as highly individual. The priorities are stability, consistent alignment, room for the stroking arm to swing, and comfort. The often-repeated rule that your back foot must sit exactly on the shot line is, on his site, called mostly mythical; being stable and comfortable matters more.

• Get low by whatever route suits your body. You can bend at the waist, bend the knees or widen your feet. Dr. Dave, who is tall, prefers bending the knees.
• Keep the upper arm and shoulder still. The forearm should hang in the same vertical plane as the cue so the arm does not push the cue off line.
• Consider a lower head. With your chin near the cue, side-to-side misalignment is easier to see, you can sight down the cue like a rifle barrel, and it is easier to see where the tip will hit the cue ball, especially above or below center.

Instructor Florian "Venom" Kohler describes one common version: front leg slightly bent, back leg straight, body angle adjusted to the shot, and the chin used as a guide if that feels comfortable.

Find your vision center

Dr. Dave's site calls head alignment the most important fundamental in pool. Your vision center is the head position, relative to the cue, from which a straight-in, center-ball shot actually looks straight. It is different for different people: under the dominant eye, under the nose, or somewhere between or even outside the eyes.

Two ways to find it:

1. The shaft test. Lay a shaft on the table, centered on the cue ball along a straight-in line. Get into your stance and move your head sideways, without tilting it, until the tip looks centered on the ball and the shaft looks straight.
2. The stop-shot test. Shoot straight-in stop shots. If the cue ball keeps drifting right, your head may be too far left, and the reverse. The right position produces no side spin and a center-pocket hit.

Keep your face square to the shot and your eyes level. Players with very strong eye dominance, or one usable eye, often do best with the cue under that eye, though many top players center the cue between the eyes with it touching the chin.

Hold the cue lightly

A light hold lets the hand swing freely in a pendulum. A tight "death grip" stiffens the wrist, elbow and arm and gets in the way of smooth acceleration. Tensing up has two specific costs: it tends to lower the tip during the stroke, which causes miscues and scooped draw shots, and tensing the whole arm can lift the cue so the tip hits higher than you meant.

• Forearm position. Place the grip hand so the forearm is roughly perpendicular to the cue at the moment the tip meets the ball. That helps the cue travel straight through.
• Fingers or palm. Where the cue sits in your hand is a personal choice that depends on hand size and things like arthritis.
• The "V-grip." One approach published on Dr. Dave's site has the thumb and index finger pinching opposite sides of the cue like a hinge pin, the other fingers adding no pressure, and the hand hanging straight so the wrist pivots along the line of the cue. The same page prefers the word "cradle" to "grip," allows no slop between hand and cue, and adds pinch pressure only on harder shots.
• Where to hold. Kohler suggests holding near the balance point with a loose two- or three-finger grip, moving the hand farther back for long shots.

A simple check for relaxation: wiggle your fingers before and after the shot.