A weekend with Ron Vitello

M

mohrt

Student of the Game
Silver Member
I went to New York City last weekend to spend some time with Ron Vitello. Ron is a pool coach that teaches his 90/90 aiming system, banking/kicking diamond systems, among tons of other great stuff. He is full of interesting stories, one of which is the "Jump Rod" he and a friend created in 1992. It was the first jump cue to use a phenolic tip. It was designed to fit under your chin so you can easily line up the shot. It could jump balls no more than a dollar bill thickness apart. He took a few hundred of them to a pool expo and instantly sold out of them. They were promptly banned! Fear of the unknown? Here is a video of him explaining the rod, and demoing an early prototype. (excuse the poor sound quality, the place was loud and my phone's mic wasn't optimal.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xUO5Aw_o8k

The most crucial discovery of the trip was my eye dominance. I'm a right-handed player, and always assumed I was right-eye dominant. To my disbelief, I was very strongly left-eye dominant. After being conscious of this knowledge, I have practiced lining my left eye up over each and every shot. I can say for 100% certainty that this is why sometimes shots just don't look right, or I just can't seem to make a damn ball some nights. My right eye was trying to overtake dominance on many of my shots, and consequently making the brain work harder to figure out why the shot isn't working as visualized, and affecting every shot thereafter. This piece of information alone will be taking my game to new heights instantly.

To determine your eye dominance: look at a small object (with both eyes) at least 5 feet away. With both hands out in front of you, make a tight circle around the object. Now close one eye, then the other. Whichever eye can see the object, that is your dominant eye. When down on a shot, close one eye then the other. Be certain your dominant eye is over the stick looking down the aim line on every shot. You many need to tilt your head just a small bit to get in the right position (don't try to "shift" your head over.)

Another tidbit you may not know about Ron: he won a WSOP poker tournament in 2009. You can read about it here:

http://www.wsop.com/news/2009/Dec/2632/Making-the-Final-Cut.html

I highly recommend visiting Ron for a lesson. You will take away information you will use for life. Thanks for everything Ron!
 
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Thanks for that tid bit about the effects of the dominant eye. Can you always use the dominant eye for CTE/Pro-1?:)
 
LAMas said:
Thanks for that tid bit about the effects of the dominant eye. Can you always use the dominant eye for CTE/Pro-1?:)
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I would assume that after the pivot, you would want your dominant eye over the aim line. I own the Pro-1 DVD and I'm pretty sure that eye dominance is not mentioned. You may want to ask Stan about this.
 
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Eye dominance should not make any difference in a normal shot. I believe that we aim with both eyes at that distance.
randyg
 
randyg said:
Eye dominance should not make any difference in a normal shot. I believe that we aim with both eyes at that distance.
randyg
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At what distance? Getting the dominant eye over the stick affects every shot that I've inspected. Standing up and looking at a ball down the table, I agree you use both eyes to examine the shot. However down on the cue in stance for making the shot, everything is right under your nose (stick, cueball) extending out to the object ball. Where you put your eyes over the shot definitely changes the visual. At least it appears that way for me. :shrug:
 
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Mohrt-
each player is individual- especially on his physical given abilities. Everyone looks with both eyes- sure each will have one eye which is more dominant, but how RandyG shown up, this also depends on the distance from eye to target. Easy said- on lower distances one eye *might* be enough, but on longer shots it will be a bit different. you just have to find out what worksbest for you. Me for example is totally left eye dominant (couldn t see with my right eye-just for cosmetics- lol). But if i would close my right eye i see the shot not like before anymore-sounds crazy, but it is true :)

Glad for you, that you had such a big time with Ron Vitello and that he helped you also that much,

keep shooting,
Ingo
 
Ron is a great guy. He has so much knowledge. Once he starts talking it is hard to get him to stop.
 
randyg said:
Eye dominance should not make any difference in a normal shot. I believe that we aim with both eyes at that distance.
randyg
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Randy, I think it makes a huge difference.

Remember the movie "waynes world 2"? Remember when Wayne is laying in bed with Casandra doing the 'camera 1, camera 2, camera 1, camera 2'. The whole perspective changes. That is what pool looks like when my cue lined up between my eyes instead of under my left eye.

Now granted, some people do not have this problem. They are a right hander and right eye dominate and everything lines up perfect. It's gotta be hard for those people to even understand that this is an issue. Well, not everyone is blessed like that.
 
Would be very cool to meet RonV, but living in the UK, getting a lesson from him in person is not feasible. So many people rate him highly not only as a pool coach, but as a person.

Would love to hear his banking & kicking systems, as well as understand 90/90 better (I don't understand the "hip pivot" - anyone got a vid?)
 
mohrt said:
At what distance? Getting the dominant eye over the stick affects every shot that I've inspected. Standing up and looking at a ball down the table, I agree you use both eyes to examine the shot. However down on the cue in stance for making the shot, everything is right under your nose (stick, cueball) extending out to the object ball. Where you put your eyes over the shot definitely changes the visual. At least it appears that way for me. :shrug:
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Explain how Earl and Keith aim then?

The dominate eye is very good at close range, then we go into Binocular vision when our eyes triangulate at about an arms length
randyg
 
Ron is a lot of fun to talk to and loaded with pool info. I'd really like to see him put out a dvd with some of this knowledge and feed the fish. :grin-square:

Best,
Mike
 
mohrt said:
... To determine your eye dominance: look at a small object (with both eyes) at least 5 feet away. With both hands out in front of you, make a tight circle around the object. Now close one eye, then the other. Whichever eye can see the object, that is your dominant eye. ...
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That is certainly a standard way to determine the dominant eye. But Gene Albrecht, a well known poster on AzB and a highly skilled player, claims that the dominant eye when shooting pool shots may be different from the dominant eye determined in the conventional manner. There is more to this subject than I understand at present, and I'm kind of caught in the middle of experimenting with various eye positions. I think I miss equally well with all the alternatives. Anyway, it was interesting to hear that Ron seems to favor putting the dominant eye over the stick. That's certainly not an opinion universally held.
 
AtLarge said:
That is certainly a standard way to determine the dominant eye. But Gene Albrecht, a well known poster on AzB and a highly skilled player, claims that the dominant eye when shooting pool shots may be different from the dominant eye determined in the conventional manner. There is more to this subject than I understand at present, and I'm kind of caught in the middle of experimenting with various eye positions. I think I miss equally well with all the alternatives. Anyway, it was interesting to hear that Ron seems to favor putting the dominant eye over the stick. That's certainly not an opinion universally held.
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I'm not certain how it affects others but for me, placing my left-eye over the shot made an immediate and noticeable difference in my shot visuals. I am also cross-dominant, so it may be more influential for me than others. I read somewhere about 20% of people are cross-dominant.
 
mohrt said:
I'm not certain how it affects others but for me, placing my left-eye over the shot made an immediate and noticeable difference in my shot visuals. I am also cross-dominant, so it may be more influential for me than others. I read somewhere about 20% of people are cross-dominant.
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It makes a big difference for me.. Once I learned a bit about eye dominance and paid attention when lining up over my shot, my shotmaking immediately improved.

Can't say how it works for others, but a little help in this area made quite an impact on my game..Thanks to Geno!
 
MOJOE said:
It makes a big difference for me.. Once I learned a bit about eye dominance and paid attention when lining up over my shot, my shotmaking immediately improved.

Can't say how it works for others, but a little help in this area made quite an impact on my game..Thanks to Geno!
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I had a discussion on the phone with Gene yesterday. He confirmed my findings with the dominant eye, and backed up the importance of it. Maybe he can shed some light on how it affects different players.
 
Yup, Gene is a great man.. He's been very helpful with me even before I bought his Perfect Aim.. Glad you found him helpful as well.
 
MOJOE said:
It makes a big difference for me.. Once I learned a bit about eye dominance and paid attention when lining up over my shot, my shotmaking immediately improved.
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Same here. I started making more straight in shots. Stopping, following straight forward and drawing straight back. Just more accurate.
 
Cleary,

When are you going to get Ron to make a video.. I know you mentioned it a while back, I'd be in line if it ever comes to be!!

Peace!
 
randyg said:
Explain how Earl and Keith aim then?

The dominate eye is very good at close range, then we go into Binocular vision when our eyes triangulate at about an arms length
randyg
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Like I said, we are all different and see different. There is a reason John Morra lines up the way he does and I'm sure there is a reason Keith continued to line up the way he did (other than the... he learned to play young). People see differently, I know from experience.

I was getting some help from az poster "GMAC" one day last summer. He had me hitting long stop shots and was checking my form. Every time I lined up, my tip was off center to the left. My stroke would try to compensate for this, but it looked perfectly center to me. I never knew I lined up like this until that day.

Shortly after, I put 2 and 2 together and moved my cue under my left eye. Now, I'm dead center on the cueball and it actually looks dead center.

I'm sure if I put in 10 hours a day for 10 years I could learn to play great no matter where I line up.
 
MOJOE said:
Cleary,

When are you going to get Ron to make a video.. I know you mentioned it a while back, I'd be in line if it ever comes to be!!

Peace!
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I really want to, just short on time. The amount of projects I get for REAL work makes it hard to do other work.
 
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