road players rarely survived in nyc. far too many just as good or way better than them, and that no one even knew their names.

plus east coast players knew to quit very early on if the game wasn't good. where the west players played until empty.

bbb said:

there a re few steos you do that i dont under stand
first you say
start from the opposite (pocket) side of the contact point
is that on the part of the ball you cant see?
if you mean equal from centerline opposite from the side the contact point is on
dont then have to see the distance from vertical axis the contact point is first
and then use that distance to determine your second point ie the point opposite the contact point
then if i understand you you go from that point opposite the contact point to the contact poin and then to the aim point
correct please what i am misunderstanding please....
last your X's are on a diagonal
shouldnt they be horizontal on the equator?

Click to expand...

1. "is that on the part of the ball you cant see?"

Yes, the opposite side of the contact point relative to CB center, so imagine like where the actual contact point is relative to CB center, then mirror that to the other side, that's the point I start at.

2. "last your X's are on a diagonal, shouldnt they be horizontal on the equator?"

Basically I am visualizing the following (points in 3D space) in this order: Opposite of contact point, OB center, contact point, GB center. All of those 4 points fall along the same line, which is (from the POV of the shot line for a non-straight shot) diagonal and not horizontal on the equator because I am not flattening them out, but rather considering where they are in the 3D space.



Here is a top-down view:
1: Opposite of contact point
2: OB center
3: Contact point
4: GB center

The key idea is that no matter what perspective you are looking at, the distance between consequtive points is always equal, so diff between 1<->2 is same as 2<->3 and 3<->4. I visualize where point 1 is, then work backwards from there by jumping my gaze to 2, 3 and then finally 4. The reason I start at 1 instead of just 2 which is the more common approach, is that this one extra step gives me a better feel for the distance, which is helpful because as the distance stays the same between jumps, getting more repetitions of this jump makes it easier to judge the final jump from 3 to 4, which is the hardest to judge, compared to e.g. judging OB center or the contact point.

Once I have my gaze on point 4, I will align myself to shoot towards that point (doing necessary adjustments for side etc. if needed), then go down on the shot.

This method obviously requires good visualization of the contact points, and it is effectively just a longer method of arriving at ghost ball, which if you can visualize well, makes it easier to just skip all of these steps and go straight to aiming at the GB center. But if you don't visualize the GB well (which is the case for me), this method can be a good setup for finding GB center reliably. The whole thing typically takes like 3-4 seconds, and it gets faster the more you do it.

Another way of explaining why using point 1 at the start instead of just doing 2->3->4 helps is that you are doing two jumps, 1->2 and 2->3 before needing to jump to the GB location. Let's say it's a tough shot and you misjudge the jumps slightly, with jump 1->2 being slightly longer than 2->3. This signals you that you did something wrong, and then you can either re-attempt from the beginning or just take the average of those two jumps to minimize the error for the final jumps distance. This will produce better results than just starting from 2->3 and trusting that the distance was correct for 3->4.

Hope I explained it more clearly.

Maybe it was mentioned at the time, but I don't remember it now: what event was the "alleged improper conduct" in?

If that event was not a sanctioned event, it's not clear to me that any sanctioning body has much interest in what happened. How would they even start investigating what happened in some unrelated event?

As for different organizations behaving differently, I'm sure that the procedures and policies related to suspension are different for the PRA and the WPA. In the past, the WPA has formed an ad hoc committee to consider disciplinary problems. It sounds like the PRA is more permanent.

i don't think that was steve's original balabushka. it was more plain like mine. except mine has a leather wrap.

but he wasn't that good yet and could barely run a couple hundred balls at will.

Oikawa said:

Been using double the distance as my primary aiming method for some months now and have had good results with it. I used to aim 100% by feel before it, but especially on close cuts and awkward angles (back-cuts, thin shots etc.) I am much more effective with this than just aiming only by feel.

View attachment 874033

My method is to start from the opposite (pocket) side of the contact point (furthest red cross from the aim point in the image), then move in equal steps from there (center OB, contact point, aim point). Movement between each point is the same distance in both X and Y axis. Using this extra step (opposite contact point) at the start allows for better feel of the correct distance for the last step, because you are doing three shifts instead of just two. To perform the system, I fix my gaze at the points, moving from one point to the next with a steady rhythm (slower for tougher shots, quicker for easy shots), once I am at the final aiming point I will perform an adjustment by shifting the aim point sideways if needed (e.g. accounting for throw/sidespin), and then go down on the shot.

More generally speaking about my own game, I used to think that feel-based aiming was the ideal way to go for me. And while it worked well some days, it has it's weaknesses under pressure. The issue is that with feel-based aiming, it often works the best the less you are conscious about it. And being under pressure sabotages that, turning competitive pressure into a negative feedback loop. But with a conscious aiming method, the extra focus/self-awareness under pressure will actually do me a favor, I can just channel that focus into the aiming method and trust it is correct, which turns into a positive feedback loop instead.

Just my two cents, not trying to make too general claims about conscious vs. subconscious aiming, everyone has their own way. But for me this shift back to conscious from subconscious seemed to elevate my game up a noticable amount.

The reason I find this method better than just using plain ghost ball is that I am horrible at visualizing the ghost ball. Some degree of aphantasia perhaps.

For context, I am playing at about 620-640 fargo speed. Probably improved like 20-30 points within the last year. No real rating because the tournaments I play in aren't registered to fargo, but this is based on relative performance compared to people that are in the system.

Click to expand...

there a re few steos you do that i dont under stand
first you say
start from the opposite (pocket) side of the contact point
is that on the part of the ball you cant see?
if you mean equal from centerline opposite from the side the contact point is on
dont then have to see the distance from vertical axis the contact point is first
and then use that distance to determine your second point ie the point opposite the contact point
then if i understand you you go from that point opposite the contact point to the contact poin and then to the aim point
correct please what i am misunderstanding please....
last your X's are on a diagonal
shouldnt they be horizontal on the equator?

Moe Szyslak said:

The Sid Banner book is available on Amazon for $29
The Carom Around the World patterns book on Kindle costs $9
Daly's Billiard Book goes for $10
Mister 100 goes for maybe $60
Berkend Biljarten goes for about $60 ...

Click to expand...

Daly's book in hardback with an original dust jacket will usually be a lot more than $10. If you are not a book collector, this collection is definitely not for you.