Posted this in a thread about natural aiming and I realized it was in the wrong place.
I bashed Scott Lee and a few others over the whole CTE thing the other day. I was wrong in trying to lay blame. The blame game is a sport enjoyed by many. I don't support any specific system but I do see the light in that learning a system while not required may be substantially beneficial .
We all are trying to break thru plateaus and improve and this is my $.02
For years and years most players didn't use systems. Maybe they existed but noone woulda shared em unless it was with the guy they were on the road with and it might help em get home with their pockets a little fuller.
They hit a million balls and and when they were done they knew pretty much where to hit every shot. This is called the ROTE method of learning and is tried and true in every sport or skill that requires hand eye coordination.
I never made it to a million balls. Not even sure how many I have hit now at 20 years playing. I have taken major breaks over that time and every time I came back it was not fun realizing I had lost some of the ability to just naturally aim and make a shot.
The last time I came back I really couldn't see the point on the object ball that I needed to hit clearly. I had lost some depth perception due to a minor sight decline so I decided to try out a few new ways to aim to see if maybe there was a FASTER way to be right.
I didn't have the time for the ROTE method. I tried dbl the distance. I tried ghost ball. I tried fractional. I tried Joe Tucker's system. I tried a few systems that I can't even recall the names of.
At the end of it all I didn't completely change from natural but what I did do was give my self ways to dbl check where I was trying to hit the ball
and I was making the shots I used to make without having to play everyday. I could finally take some time off come back and just have to hit enough balls to get the rust of my stroke.
This was huge to me now that I am older and I can't devote the time I used to, just to stay at speed. I can play 2 nights a week now for a few hours and I can string racks well enough that it looks like I am playing all the time again. And no it's not on BarBoxes.
Granted it could be that after 20 years the pool god saw fit to throw me a bone. More likely is the fact that I found ways to enhance my natural ability thru the use of a cpl of systems as secondary checks.
Now lets take a player that hasn't hit many balls at all. We know how long natural ROTE takes. Give them a system and they WILL learn faster.
No system BY ITSELF is better than ROTE. If you start with a system or learn one early on and you use it all the time it will lead to ROTE, which is by definition memorization. It will just make memorization happen at light speed compared to the old way.
Feeling your way means that for the most part every shot is different
and you never really get to shoot the same shot twice.
ROTE means you get to shoot the same shot as long as it's fresh enough in your memory to be retrievable.
ROTE derived from a system means that when you get down on a shot you have a greater chance of shooting the shot from your memory because u can use the system that helped create and reinforce the shot in your memory to shoot it this time.
I am sure not all systems are created equally. I by no means can tell anyone which one would click in their brain. I can say that if you aren't using one and you haven't hit a million balls yet that it's time to find at least 1 or 2 as a dbl check.
Carpenters always say measure twice and cut once. In pool our tape measures are internal and have a way of not being consistent from day to day. That's why I always like to carry more than one at all times.
FYI I will be buying the CTE DVD... Will I use it? Who knows... Definitely not the guys I mow down like spring grass...
I bashed Scott Lee and a few others over the whole CTE thing the other day. I was wrong in trying to lay blame. The blame game is a sport enjoyed by many. I don't support any specific system but I do see the light in that learning a system while not required may be substantially beneficial .
We all are trying to break thru plateaus and improve and this is my $.02
For years and years most players didn't use systems. Maybe they existed but noone woulda shared em unless it was with the guy they were on the road with and it might help em get home with their pockets a little fuller.
They hit a million balls and and when they were done they knew pretty much where to hit every shot. This is called the ROTE method of learning and is tried and true in every sport or skill that requires hand eye coordination.
I never made it to a million balls. Not even sure how many I have hit now at 20 years playing. I have taken major breaks over that time and every time I came back it was not fun realizing I had lost some of the ability to just naturally aim and make a shot.
The last time I came back I really couldn't see the point on the object ball that I needed to hit clearly. I had lost some depth perception due to a minor sight decline so I decided to try out a few new ways to aim to see if maybe there was a FASTER way to be right.
I didn't have the time for the ROTE method. I tried dbl the distance. I tried ghost ball. I tried fractional. I tried Joe Tucker's system. I tried a few systems that I can't even recall the names of.
At the end of it all I didn't completely change from natural but what I did do was give my self ways to dbl check where I was trying to hit the ball
and I was making the shots I used to make without having to play everyday. I could finally take some time off come back and just have to hit enough balls to get the rust of my stroke.
This was huge to me now that I am older and I can't devote the time I used to, just to stay at speed. I can play 2 nights a week now for a few hours and I can string racks well enough that it looks like I am playing all the time again. And no it's not on BarBoxes.
Granted it could be that after 20 years the pool god saw fit to throw me a bone. More likely is the fact that I found ways to enhance my natural ability thru the use of a cpl of systems as secondary checks.
Now lets take a player that hasn't hit many balls at all. We know how long natural ROTE takes. Give them a system and they WILL learn faster.
No system BY ITSELF is better than ROTE. If you start with a system or learn one early on and you use it all the time it will lead to ROTE, which is by definition memorization. It will just make memorization happen at light speed compared to the old way.
Feeling your way means that for the most part every shot is different
and you never really get to shoot the same shot twice.
ROTE means you get to shoot the same shot as long as it's fresh enough in your memory to be retrievable.
ROTE derived from a system means that when you get down on a shot you have a greater chance of shooting the shot from your memory because u can use the system that helped create and reinforce the shot in your memory to shoot it this time.
I am sure not all systems are created equally. I by no means can tell anyone which one would click in their brain. I can say that if you aren't using one and you haven't hit a million balls yet that it's time to find at least 1 or 2 as a dbl check.
Carpenters always say measure twice and cut once. In pool our tape measures are internal and have a way of not being consistent from day to day. That's why I always like to carry more than one at all times.
FYI I will be buying the CTE DVD... Will I use it? Who knows... Definitely not the guys I mow down like spring grass...
