Hi there,
If you were to watch me shoot I appear to have the cue in the middle also. You could not tell which eye is doing the most work because the difference one way or another is so small. When you are seeing through your own eyes though the difference is huge.
If a player is real strong eye dominent then it is easy to tell but most of us are not like this. Or if you were one of these pheonoms that shoot with only one eye.
All the rest of us aim from this middle and the players that aim the best are the ones that do this naturally the best and get the eyes in the most correct position.
If I am playing a player I always figure out which eye is the stronger one. When I play safe or push out I try to make them shoot the shot the way that is more difficult to shoot. This will give me anywhere from a 10% to 20% advantage that they will not execute the shot the way they want to. This alone has won quite a few matches for me.
If this was so easy to see and understand alot of players would already know this.
Try this once just to prove a point. Look at an object. Put your hand over your right eye. Now move it out about six inches in front of your eye but make sure if you are only looking through this eye you cannot see the object.
Now keep your hand there and look at the object with both eyes open. You know that the object is blocked from your vision with your right eye but with both eyes open it appears you can still see through both eyes but you see kind of a ghost hand. Many people would argue that they are seeing the object with the right eye even though it is obviously blocked. You can prove it to them by just having them close the left eye and look.
This is what I do when I teach Perfect Aim. I don't just tell them but I show them so they understand it themselves. Otherwise there can be alot of confusion.
This is why it is so hard for a player to know which eye is doing what and have the eyes in this best position.
This is why some players aim great and others really struggle with aiming. The eye that is doing the aiming is just a little off. But in some cases the eye is way off. This is why there are 3 and 4 ratings in many leagues. There shouldn't be any 3 or 4's if they actually understood how to get the eyes in the right position.
In the APA league in Phoenix I worked with about about 10 players one week. Doug ran the league. I talked to him about a week later and he told me he had a complaint. I was screwing up his league. He was joking of course. He told me they needed the 3's and 4's in the league to keep their averages down for the team. Then he asked me when he could get a lesson.
Hi Doug if you read this. Doud and his wife are good people. They are right there every night helping with anything that needs to be done with their leagues. It's not a mistake that their leagues with the APA are doing so good. They enjoy doing what they are doing with everyone and it shows. Keep up the good work................
Can you imagine if you compared this aiming in pool with driving a car.
Driving a car is aiming also. It is just much easier to see naturally. Everyone aims a car real well. If they aimed the car like they aim a pool shot the road would not be a safe place to be.
Also with some players this middle is very small. These players can aim much better naturally than players with a small middle because there is less room for error when they are just naturally looking.
In the Perfect Aim video I just try to keep it simple and try to help players know where they need to get for themselves on all shots. There is still some guessing but at least they can get close to where they need to get.
Have you ever gotten down on a pool shot and the shot doesn't look right. Now you get back up and get back down and now it looks better. The first time the eyes were in the wrong spot. It might not be too far off but it doesn"t have to be to not look right. The second time it looks better in fact it looks great. If you would have shot the first time you might have missed because the eyes were not in the most correct position.
This middle I talk about is this area where the shot still looks OK to shoot but it is not the best if your eyes are in the wrong place and it is very easy to not have them in the best position.
Players have more trouble shooting to the right or the left. If you set up a 1/4 hit and shoot it 25 times to the left and 25 times to the right you will find one way will be much more difficult to shoot.
You will find that if you are right eye dominent your trouble will be cutting to the left. If the left is dominent trouble will be cutting to the right.
I'm not just blowing smoke here. I am teaching players this everyday with great success. This is why some players defend Perfect Aim so adamently. It is the way it is. Seeing is believing.....:grin-square:
Players need to know this to see the shots the best that they can. This is why so many players can't seem to get any better. They just keep making the same judgement errors with the eyes that they always make when all they need to do is just learn where that natural sight is and learn how to find it on every shot.
It's pretty exciting for the players that have learned.
I hope this clears it up for you.
Thanks for the comments Geno............
