fastone371 said:

The big difference with golf is that pool is not a whole body movement swing, really only the break shot is and that's when I look at the cue ball. You are in position for a long time before pulling the trigger shooting pool and making relatively serene movements compared to golf. We don't look at the dart last when throwing darts, or the football, basketball, baseball, etc., we look at were we are sending the object. I think with golf and while at bat playing baseball the main goal of the activity is the ball strike so we focus on the ball, when we throw or shoot something the main goal is where the object is going so we focus on the point we are moving the object to. To me looking at the cue ball last is equivalent at looking at the tip of your rifle while target shooting.

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Mensabum said:

There be Dragons!!
And what's w all dem funky lights??

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Jesse Cool said:

I want to talk about cue ball last before stroke compared to other sports that involve striking a ball. Please read on…

I recently made a change to my game that has made a considerable impact to the consistency of my game. I switched from object ball last to focusing solely on the cue ball when striking the ball. I do change to object ball last on certain shots such as when the balls are close together but for the majority it’s cue ball last on 90% of my shots now. The accuracy and consistency of my game has gone up tremendously. This has led me to really start thinking about how others sports focus on the ball they are striking.

I grew up playing baseball and golf from a young age. Obviously these sports involve striking a ball with some type of club. These sports and many others that involve striking a ball, require sole focus on the object you’re hitting. The only difference in these sports compared to pool is, pool requires striking a ball into another ball. When I really think about it, there many things you need to do before the shot if you’re going to take the cue ball last route. One of the most important is to pick your line from standing position and get down into that same line. Although, this is still required even for object ball last. This then leads me to all my years spent in golf. Which I think might be the most closely related sport to pool that requires striking a ball with a club into a hole.

In golf, you must pick your line while standing behind the ball. Once you have done this you get into the same line of the shot with your stance, waggle the club like pre strokes in pool, look up and down from ball to line just like looking back and forth from cueball and object ball, set for a short pause, backswing, and then finally strike the golf ball while having complete focus on the golf ball until contact is made then looking up.

I just found this very interesting when you look at it from another view point. Obviously this subject has been touched on many times but I wanted to have a discussion based on other sports that solely focus on the ball you’re hitting.

To me, it’s really starting to make more sense to focus only on the cue ball when you’re striking it. Once you have made a decision about the whole shot picture, focusing only on the cueball in theory seems to be the most accurate way of hitting the cue ball especially when dialing in specific amounts of english.

I’d like to hear everyone’s creative thoughts. The goal is to use the information and ideas in this thread to improve all of our games.

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nataddrho said:

Pool is unique like in golf in that you have two simultaneous targets. The tip position on the cue ball and then some time later the CB-OB collision.

Because of your field of view and focal length differences, you can not “see” both targets. Golf is very obvious because your body is completely turned orthogonal towards your secondary target. Pool you can make a choice.

So it comes down to what you feel you have memorized and muscle memory of better… where the object ball is spatially or where your intended tip target is spatially. Either way you need spatial awareness in some capacity, because you can not compress the solution to the problem into a 2D visual plane.

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nataddrho said:

Pool is unique like in golf in that you have two simultaneous targets. The tip position on the cue ball and then some time later the CB-OB collision.

Because of your field of view and focal length differences, you can not “see” both targets. Golf is very obvious because your body is completely turned orthogonal towards your secondary target. Pool you can make a choice.

So it comes down to what you feel you have memorized and muscle memory of better… where the object ball is spatially or where your intended tip target is spatially. Either way you need spatial awareness in some capacity, because you can not compress the solution to the problem into a 2D visual plane.

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Mensabum said:

Damn. I need to wake up then!! Been under way too long.

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nataddrho said:

Pool is unique like in golf in that you have two simultaneous targets. The tip position on the cue ball and then some time later the CB-OB collision.

Because of your field of view and focal length differences, you can not “see” both targets. Golf is very obvious because your body is completely turned orthogonal towards your secondary target. Pool you can make a choice.

So it comes down to what you feel you have memorized and muscle memory of better… where the object ball is spatially or where your intended tip target is spatially. Either way you need spatial awareness in some capacity, because you can not compress the solution to the problem into a 2D visual plane.

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Mensabum said:

I love the custom shafts I have with a tomahawk ferrule. Good stuff!!

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wacokid9ball said:

Is this part of a three way with the guys who threw matches weeks ago. I thought most were people on here were being too lenient on them, but where this guys from, i think they cut off hands for less.
What is happening to the pool culture these days?

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