Splitting The Difference Aiming System

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
Thanks to another member for sending a PM to me with this system he found on the internet called "Splitting The Difference". I'd like to post his name but I haven't cleared it with him so I won't unless he steps forward or OKs it with me.

He asked if this was the same thing I was teaching a while back in a thread. The answer is "yes" but I hadn't gotten to the point of how to use an "outside pivot" because I got so irritated at the negative attacks from the same destructive crew that inhabits the aiming forum. That's when I stopped completely and deleted most of what I posted in the thread.

So for the negative attackers, hammer this guy not me.

In his youtube videos he claims that it's his system and he invented it. Not true.

Hal Houle invented it about 7 or 8 DECADES ago and called it Shiskebob.
Hals's version started with an "inside cue tip" placement on the CB aiming to the same three spots on the OB as this guy and then pivoting back to center.

When I learned this from Hal over a decade ago, I started experimenting with a center of the CB placement pivoting to "outside" which is what is in this video.

It's also a way of a sure fire way of making cuts shots along with applying English at the same time.

Watch, learn, and practice for the benefit of your game. It DOES WORK and is as simple as a system can get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIUy9x_J410

And here he talks about category 1 again, and then about category 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpXs1OwtFY
 

nobcitypool

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Stan recently produced a YouTube video about the shishkebob system taught by Hal Houle. In the video he showed half to pivots to center versus pivoting from center to 3/4. The same for category 2 and 3.

I don't get how this split the difference system works for category 2 and 3. He must be looking at center to edge and edge to edge with some type of offset? How else would it make a 1/4 ball shot with a center to edge?
 
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SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
Stan recently produced a YouTube video about the shishkebob system taught by Hal Houle. In the video he showed half to pivots to center versus pivoting from center to 3/4. The same for category 2 and 3.

I don't get how this split the difference system works for category 2 and 3. He must be looking at center to edge and edge to edge with some type of offset? How else would it make a 1/4 ball shot with a center to edge?

He does show edge to edge shots it that's what you're referring to.

I've picked up on some loose ends and discrepancies also. In the beginning of the first video he starts off showing either aiming center to center and then pivoting the tip of the cue to 1/4 ball and then makes the shot. That's OK for the cut angle he has on the table or how he illustrates some of the other cut angles that are more acute. Or he aims a CCB to 1/4 OB with no pivot.

What he doesn't show are the lesser cut angles where a straight center to center hit would strike a rail two inches or more away from a pocket opening. With a pivot from CCB to 1/4 OB it would result in an overcut and hit another rail in front of a pocket.

This is when it has to be measured in cue tip width for a pivot from CCB to just outside of COB to make the shot and prevent an overcut.
 

nobcitypool

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What I'm asking is what is his solution for a 1/4 ball hit? If you aim center to edge or edge to edge, that doesn't make a 1/4 ball hit. Must be more to what he's doing than I picked up. I watched a little of the second video and he added another shot, center to 1/4 or 3/4.

But again, what he explained isn't the same shishkebob system Stan showed in his YouTube video.
 

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
What I'm asking is what is his solution for a 1/4 ball hit? If you aim center to edge or edge to edge, that doesn't make a 1/4 ball hit.

What I gleaned from it was aim center CB to center OB as if it's a straight in shot.
Then pivot the tip of your cue to 1/4 ball on the OB and that's where it will contact after being stroked.

It's in the start of the first video up to about 57 seconds. He goes beyond 57 seconds for a 1/4 ball aim and hit almost up to 5:00 before switching gears.
 
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paultex

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Ofcourse there is a offset. There's always an offset because any visual method involving edges or contact points lines you up thick from a mechanical standpoint unless you twist out of the shot to make the ball go in the hole.

You got to get the hell out of your own way some how to stroke truly down the line and I got no problem with twisting because it puts a different effect on the cb for needed position and is also user friendly for pocketing balls, but both have to be mastered, amongst a bunch of other things, because sometimes shooting down the true line is paramount for certain effects.

Stan is 100% right when he said that its inevitable that a player with no instruction, will eventually start offsetting from the side or angling their cue to make balls because that is the nature of dealing with spheres from the human side of things.

Stan is the only one ive seen who has addressed the truth that most good players, if not all, sweep into their shots and that is the truth.

Stan is a genius for noticing this and then delving deep into it and letting the natural progression through understanding, eventually lead to a efficient visual sweep because in reality, its not a mechanical demand, but a visual criteria that the eyes lead and the body follows.

But how much to offset or pivot as Stan said, and that's where the objectivety debate starts because imo, Stan fills that gap with something else in the form of what I call elbow in or out.

I would like to see Stan address this very important subject in a video because its a reality that is there and ive yet to see anyone address it in detail.

This I believe if done correctly eliminates alot of needed tweaking and I believe Stan when he says there's no tweaking needed or to the extent of most people including myself.

I be tweaking dat launch point platform like a mo'fo mang cuz my systems be complex, my style be impetuous, I wanna eat his children, praise be to ALLAH!

No, im not muslim or a canibal, just a Mike Tyson quote I found entertaining.

Enjoy. Have a nice day ya'll.
 

One Pocket John

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thanks to another member for sending a PM to me with this system he found on the internet called "Splitting The Difference". I'd like to post his name but I haven't cleared it with him so I won't unless he steps forward or OKs it with me.

He asked if this was the same thing I was teaching a while back in a thread. The answer is "yes" but I hadn't gotten to the point of how to use an "outside pivot" because I got so irritated at the negative attacks from the same destructive crew that inhabits the aiming forum. That's when I stopped completely and deleted most of what I posted in the thread.

So for the negative attackers, hammer this guy not me.

In his youtube videos he claims that it's his system and he invented it. Not true.

Hal Houle invented it about 7 or 8 DECADES ago and called it Shiskebob.
Hals's version started with an "inside cue tip" placement on the CB aiming to the same three spots on the OB as this guy and then pivoting back to center.

When I learned this from Hal over a decade ago, I started experimenting with a center of the CB placement pivoting to "outside" which is what is in this video.

It's also a way of a sure fire way of making cuts shots along with applying English at the same time.

Watch, learn, and practice for the benefit of your game. It DOES WORK and is as simple as a system can get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIUy9x_J410

And here he talks about category 1 again, and then about category 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpXs1OwtFY

Thanks for the links Dave. I went a step further and watched all of the pool related videos. Even got to see Jimmy Moore Jr. play.

Because I have been practicing CTE for the last month or so I was able to catch onto this approach pretty easy. I do the pivots in the air. His instruction was to use a manual pivot.

I would have attempted to follow your written instruction thread earlier on this shooting system but I am a visual learner.

Interesting. I'll practice some more using it.

And like all other shooting systems you have to be able to deliver a straight stroke on the shot line which in its self is a completely different topic which would probably be more beneficial to players than trying to learn an aiming/shooting system.

John
 
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SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
I would have attempted to follow your written instruction thread earlier on this shooting system but I am a visual learner.

Interesting. I'll practice some more using it.

John

If you're a visual learner, no better way than getting the visuals first hand by doing it on the table yourself.

Here's my suggestion for starters which I did more than a decade ago when Hal first
introduced it over the phone with me on the table.

Confine yourself to this ONE visual until you know it's limitations for shot angle.

Make it a few degrees to start off and keep shooting until you can't miss. Then increase the angle more and more as you go along to identify it's outer limits. When that happens you'll be undercutting the shots.

Aim center to center like you'll be aiming to hit the OB straight into the rail just outside of the pocket. Any pocket. Then pivot to the OUTSIDE so the tip of the cue is aiming at 1/4 spot on the OB. If it's a really minor cut it might even be short of !/4 ball between center and 1/4.

You can start with the two balls about a foot apart and increase the distance to as much as possible with everything else in between.

The accuracy and limitations will be something you'll learn on your own very quickly.

When you start missing short, that's when the original aim from center to center then moves to center to 1/4 where you'll hit it's limitations for cut angle and then have to move to center to edge.

Let me know how it goes.
 

hogie583

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In the first video.. it looks like dirty mike is lining up center shaft to 50% and then pivoting over with left edge of shaft to 3/4. To me it looks like he's hitting the cue ball with outside english. Anybody else pick up on that? There has go to be a bit more to this thats not being told. Like for a near straight I'd line up center to center then pivot to half way between cob and the quarter spliting the difference. Same for the his horizon shot center to edge. If i needed more cut from the spot shot id pivot from ob edge so my shaft edge is now aim at ob edge instead of center shaft. Same for edge to edge with this system. Gotta be more to it. Anyone have more info? Seem to me like its a combination of shaft aiming and fractional with a touch of outside on some (most)shots....
I have not tried this yet... my 9 footers just got superspeed rails reglued and new cloth. I ll try this tomorrow...
 

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
In the first video.. it looks like dirty mike is lining up center shaft to 50% and then pivoting over with left edge of shaft to 3/4. To me it looks like he's hitting the cue ball with outside english. Anybody else pick up on that? There has go to be a bit more to this thats not being told.

Like for a near straight I'd line up center to center then pivot to half way between cob and the quarter spliting the difference.

For a near straight with only a few degrees of angle, if you pivoted fully to halfway between center and edge (1/4 ball) you would overcut the shot. that's when you might be better off measuring the pivot by "slivers of tip width" to outside. In scientific terms this is known as a "smidge" or c*** hair."

Same for the his horizon shot center to edge. If i needed more cut from the spot shot id pivot from ob edge so my shaft edge is now aim at ob edge instead of center shaft. Same for edge to edge with this system. Gotta be more to it. Anyone have more info? Seem to me like its a combination of shaft aiming and fractional with a touch of outside on some (most)shots....
I have not tried this yet... my 9 footers just got superspeed rails reglued and new cloth. I ll try this tomorrow...

Yes, when pivoting from CCB to OUTSIDE, it does have spin as well as possible throw.

It's Hal's 3 line aiming system that blew the minds of all the scientists and know-it-alls on RSB who said it was impossible and started this entire mess for 20 years.

The 3 line aiming system is the basis for CTE, Hal's version and Stan's A, B, C.
This guy didn't invent it. He either stumbled on it by accident or read it in the forums over 20 years and is taking the credit as the inventor.

Try it. It works. Just do it as I described to OnePocketJohn. Hal figured it out 70 years ago and Stan has taken it to ultimate levels.

Hal always told me from the very beginning that CTE was the stronger than this and he's right.
 
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Vorpal Cue

Just galumping back
Silver Member
The shish-kabob system you introduced earlier this year is better. It allows the option of a center ball strike or outside english depending on the initial line up.

In the navy we called those tiny adjustments RCHs. (red curly hairs)
 

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
The shish-kabob system you introduced earlier this year is better. It allows the option of a center ball strike or outside english depending on the initial line up.

In the navy we called those tiny adjustments RCHs. (red curly hairs)

Damn it. I missed out by not considering going to Annapolis. I was terrified about the possibility of getting stuck in a submarine for months and months at a time with claustrophobia. ;)
 

One Pocket John

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If you're a visual learner, no better way than getting the visuals first hand by doing it on the table yourself.

Here's my suggestion for starters which I did more than a decade ago when Hal first
introduced it over the phone with me on the table.

Confine yourself to this ONE visual until you know it's limitations for shot angle.

Make it a few degrees to start off and keep shooting until you can't miss. Then increase the angle more and more as you go along to identify it's outer limits. When that happens you'll be undercutting the shots.

Aim center to center like you'll be aiming to hit the OB straight into the rail just outside of the pocket. Any pocket. Then pivot to the OUTSIDE so the tip of the cue is aiming at 1/4 spot on the OB. If it's a really minor cut it might even be short of !/4 ball between center and 1/4.

You can start with the two balls about a foot apart and increase the distance to as much as possible with everything else in between.

The accuracy and limitations will be something you'll learn on your own very quickly.

When you start missing short, that's when the original aim from center to center then moves to center to 1/4 where you'll hit it's limitations for cut angle and then have to move to center to edge.

Let me know how it goes.

Consider the above DONE.

Good information, nothing like knowing the limitations. I'll work on the above asap.

Thanks for the tip.

John :)
 

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
Consider the above DONE.

Good information, nothing like knowing the limitations. I'll work on the above asap.

Thanks for the tip.

John :)

For anybody else interested in getting on the table to experiment with initial low angle shots from a couple of degrees up to (you put in the angle # from your own discoveries), and you still don't quite understand how this works, here's the visual you should be seeing.

You'll be aiming center of the cue ball to the center of the OB with your cue like a laser to strike the shot to MISS the pocket. Unlike contact points, fractions, overlaps, GB. where you step in immediately to the correct impact spot to make the shot, you aim wherever a straight alignment takes you. A center to center alignment could have the OB missing the pocket anywhere from 1" to 1' or more. You have to get used to it. I can't emphasize the importance of this paragraph and description enough.

Then make your pivot with the cue to the outside so the tip points to the 1/4 spot on the OB. (1/2 way between center and edge). For very minor cuts of only a couple degrees, the pivot might be less which ends up between the center of the CB to the 1/4 spot on the OB.

If you can't get the initial low angle shots along with the visuals, you ain't gonna get the rest of it and will end up saying the entire system is garbage. It's NOT.
 
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BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
It's most interesting to see how if this is done properly, the shooter will end up right back at the 15-30-45 degree angles that Shuffett teaches in his CTE from Houle. Just a different way to wind up in the same positions.
To me, this absolutely PROVES that the 0-15-30-45 make every shot on the table, just as Shuffett says.
It further completely debunks the misguided Mosconi ideas of fraction this and fraction that...on and on with a 'dozen fractions'. (which he never used anyway)....his editor just wrote it in his books as filler to pacify the gullible masses.
That guy Hal Houle must've been one sharp cookie.....even though his discoveries are trashed as 'snake oil' and other such bull.
Of course as always, pioneers are usually ridiculed. Some people still believe the world is flat....or that "nothing will ever replace the flathead engine or the 45RPM record player or the payphone booth or this or that or this or that".
Keep on truckin'
Lowenstein.
:thumbup:

? Spidey, please explain to Mr. Lowenstein that using this pivot technique does not bring the shooter right back to CTE's 0-15-30-45.

And, once again as usual, Low500, you are doing an excellent job of trolling, drudging up the past, fanning the flames. Keep up the destructive, I mean "constructive", comments. Wouldn't want anyone to move on beyond the vintage flame wars.... :thumbup:
 

medallio

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have to give Brian some props here. Dirty Mike said the most difficult thing is recognizing if shot is 3/4 , 1/2 ball. Well poolology tells you what it is
 

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
I have to give Brian some props here. Dirty Mike said the most difficult thing is recognizing if shot is 3/4 , 1/2 ball. Well poolology tells you what it is

It isn't difficult once practiced and learned. They become pretty obvious. Poolology has it's downside and pitfalls which I would rather not get into or attack as has been done with CTE for 20 years.

It is what it is and you have to be the one and only one to decide which system is best for YOU.
Not for me, not for others, but for YOU because it's all that matters.
 

SpiderWebComm

HelpImBeingOppressed
Silver Member
? Spidey, please explain to Mr. Lowenstein that using this pivot technique does not bring the shooter right back to CTE's 0-15-30-45.

On this pivot technique, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. It brings them back to one of the three lines in Hal Houle's 3 Line aiming on the OB with the tip of the cue (most of the time but there can be exceptions) This IS different from CTE as Stan now teaches it but somewhat similar to Hal's Shiskebob except for the starting point and pivot to outside vs. inside pivoting back to center. This is a STICK and CCB aiming system to the lines vs. CB edge to those divisions. Big difference but still similar in certain ways.

And, once again as usual, Low500, you are doing an excellent job of trolling, drudging up the past, fanning the flames. Keep up the destructive, I mean "constructive", comments. Wouldn't want anyone to move on beyond the vintage flame wars.... :thumbup:

This part of your post is unnecessary and not wanted in this particular thread of mine. I'd appreciate it if you don't go in this direction again. If the need overcomes you, don't post at all.

Is it possible to have ONE friggin' thread without s*it breaking out? I guess not.
 
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