curious

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dirtydog48

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In the pursuit of repeatability and reliability, I have been trying to pay attention to my precise thought at the moment I pull the trigger. The question is, what do you think at that precise moment you pull the trigger?
Do you follow though with the tip to a specific point on the object ball? (aim the tip)
Do you aim the entire shaft at a point on the OB?
Do you aim the entire cue ball (ghost ball) at a point on the OB?
Do you do none of the above and just try to see the object ball into the hole?
Personally, I look at the cue ball until I get a precise feel for it, then use that feel to see the object ball into the hole. I stop a few seconds before pulling the trigger to be sure I am fully engaged with both these things before I actually release the cue.
I know a lot has been written about aiming, but I have seen little regarding the exact, repeatable thought process at the point of pulling the trigger.
I would be interested to see what other's thoughts are, especially experienced, consistent players.
 
I try to keep my body still as much as possible when I contact the object ball. Tip placement and speed of the cue ball are also on my mind as I make contact with the cb. As far as my aim point that some how takes care of itself when I set up for the shot.
 
During practice I have practiced all of the above...and a bunch more.

However...During actual play...The only thing I want to "think about" is the visualization of the shot and the OB's path to the open pocket.....If I am thinking about other things...I am not in the zone....When "anyone" is in the zone the only thing they are "thinking" about is "see shot...make shot....collect money"

Now reality...You are not "always" in the zone....so...then what?

What happens is you start to do the things you list...and more...Am I staying down? Is my stroke straight? Is my cue aligned? Am I seeing crooked? Are my feet wrong? Do they smell? Is my grip to tight? to loose? Is the music crap or what? Damn that chick is hot and is distracting me? .....man I could list these "thoughts" for hours.....so I will just say...etc.

Anyway...There is this famous Golfer...We will call him....Jack... What he does to solve the above problem and get "in the zone" is to use "1" swing thought....It really does not matter what that swing thought is...and it will be a different swing thought from time to time....You will find one that works for a while and then eventually it kind of wears off and you then will find another one...

The key is that the "1" swing thought you are keying on will distract you from thinking about the millions of other distractions........and put you "in the zone"

So basically all the answers you get will be correct....for them...It may be different for you...

I have used this one from time to time....I have used the "swing thought" of making my "grip hand" hit the contact point on the object ball...(no it does not actually) but it is similar to making the tip of the cue hit the contact point.

The other night I used the "swing thought" of keeping my bridge hand rock solid....It all of a sudden put me into stroke and I wound up getting 4th in the tournament.......next week it may be exhale before final back stroke......;)
 
nothing

If I am thinking anything when I pull the trigger I am had. Thought should have been finished before I ever bent over to shoot. The single thought idea is a crutch and thinking one thing is much better than thinking a thousand different things but it is still not nearly as good as shutting down the "verbal thought" part of your brain and just letting your quiet brain and body take care of business.

Hu
 
a lot of us

have obviously thought about this. Whether we are thinking about nothing or about some specific which may or may not distract us, we have to be connected to the shot somehow. Absent some 6th sense some pros seem to have to pocket balls, the rest of have to rely on the basic 5. Of the five senses that connect us with the real world: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, I can only imagine using 2, sight and touch. I have heard some pros say they also use hearing. I do agree that focusing on these can help block out distractions. So, I guess the question is, how do the best players employ which senses at the moment of truth. The most successful for me lately has been to fully engage the feel of the cue ball (including its speed and spin) and applying it to the sight of the object ball reacting to the hole.
 
ShootingArts said:
If I am thinking anything when I pull the trigger I am had. Thought should have been finished before I ever bent over to shoot. The single thought idea is a crutch and thinking one thing is much better than thinking a thousand different things but it is still not nearly as good as shutting down the "verbal thought" part of your brain and just letting your quiet brain and body take care of business.

Hu
Click to expand...

In general, what you said: Aim the entire shaft at a point on the OB. Doesn't matter what english is being used as long as the shaft is kept level the cue ball will end up where I'm aiming (unless shooting very soft or hard).

In particular, what Hu said: If I'm thinking of anything with my left brain verbal speech center, time to step back and go through my preshot routine again.
 
it is going to get confusing to many about here

Focusing is in itself a distraction. When you are trying to focus on anything you are taking away from making the shot. At some point in your preshot routine you have to turn loose of everything and let it happen. In pistol competition it was very easy because there was a standard set of instructions and a buzzer. When the last command was given I quit thinking verbally. When the buzzer sounded I reacted. even if the stage involved movement and reloads it didn't involve thought. I had planned everything minutes before. Dozens or hundreds of repetitions had conditioned me to do this. It should be the same when we get down on the shot in pool if we don't stay in physical mode from shot to shot. We have to release control and trust our training to carry us through.

In pool we do have to plan shot by shot at times, at most one runout at a time. However the same basic "switch" should flip when we bend over as when the last command was given on the firing line. We should be totally in the moment. Mental focus and verbal thought are neither part of being in the moment. We do most of our training with focus to execute without focus when the chips are down.

After all of the effort to learn to play pool it seems ridiculous to say just let things happen but that is the key to good pool.

Hu





dirtydog48 said:
have obviously thought about this. Whether we are thinking about nothing or about some specific which may or may not distract us, we have to be connected to the shot somehow. Absent some 6th sense some pros seem to have to pocket balls, the rest of have to rely on the basic 5. Of the five senses that connect us with the real world: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, I can only imagine using 2, sight and touch. I have heard some pros say they also use hearing. I do agree that focusing on these can help block out distractions. So, I guess the question is, how do the best players employ which senses at the moment of truth. The most successful for me lately has been to fully engage the feel of the cue ball (including its speed and spin) and applying it to the sight of the object ball reacting to the hole.
Click to expand...
 
I agree

with "letting go" in terms of thinking about stroke, position, etc., but we still must aim something. Tip, shaft, or ball. Otherwise, you should be able to make every shot with your eyes closed and trust what was planned before you bend over. That is the original question, do you aim the tip, shaft, or whole cue ball at the target on the object ball or something else. Even when you "let go" you must follow through with something to something.
 
how do you aim your vehicle?

dirtydog48 said:
with "letting go" in terms of thinking about stroke, position, etc., but we still must aim something. Tip, shaft, or ball. Otherwise, you should be able to make every shot with your eyes closed and trust what was planned before you bend over. That is the original question, do you aim the tip, shaft, or whole cue ball at the target on the object ball or something else. Even when you "let go" you must follow through with something to something.
Click to expand...

How do you aim your vehicle down the highway? Three to seven thousand pounds of machine moving at seventy miles an hour, you have to aim it somehow don't you? How about a race car driver approaching a turn at over 200MPH and hitting the same line within an inch or two lap after lap. How does he aim the car?

I no doubt do follow through with various things shooting pool but I'm not doing it on a conscious level any more than most people aim a car down a highway at a conscious level. Remember how hard it was to learn to drive when everything had to be handled by conscious thought that you were aware of? When I am playing well I am no more micromanaging than when I am driving a vehicle.

Driving my vehicle my vision, hands and feet are communicating at a level I am not even aware of. Even driving a short track car I let the car find the fastest way around the track and I handled the traffic chores and monitoring gauges. Obviously what was really happening is that my mind and body were handling the details at a lower level than I was aware of. Ideally playing pool is just like driving a car. I want the car to go from point A to point B dodging obstacles along the way. I don't really get involved in the details. Shooting pool I want to pocket balls and have the cue ball go to the point I want it to. For the most part I don't get involved in the details there either. I am far more likely to fail when I do involve myself with the details.

Hu
 
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