The best part of your book, and where it has tremendous value, is that it puts a lot of systems into place to aid learners in finding the way to look at the ball that makes everything click for them. A lot of times, the key aspect in learning is nothing more than coming across a certain aspect that makes everything come into focus. Often times, once the base concept is then understood, other methodologies can be used and/or refined to facilitate the goal.
What is feel aiming?
- Thread starter JoeyA
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The best part of your book, and where it has tremendous value, is that it puts a lot of systems into place to aid learners in finding the way to look at the ball that makes everything click for them. A lot of times, the key aspect in learning is nothing more than coming across a certain aspect that makes everything come into focus. Often times, once the base concept is then understood, other methodologies can be used and/or refined to facilitate the goal.
I hate it when someone promotes their wares in a answer.
Feel aiming is used by someone that has never hit a ball in their life. They have no idea about the interactions of the cue, cue ball and object ball.
They use trail and error to get a feel for these interactions. After time, meaning lots of proper practice, the feel needed for certain shots is replaced by knowing how to do the shots. Until a new aspect is used on that shot that was never practiced before or a new type of shot, then feel is used again however, not in the same manner is in the beginning of learning to shoot pool.
Now, there's experinces from practice that can be used to reduce the time feel is used on shots. Feel is used on the new shots until replaced with knowing how to do the shot, but because of past practice, time is greatly reduced to learn a shot. This is why nothing replaces quailty table.
There is a saying "It's not about quaninty, but quality that matters."
Some will go deeper into the whys and how comes of interactions of the cue, CB and OB, some could care less. However, the feel of these interactions can only be experinced at the table and not from reading. This is why someone who does not understand the whys and how comes of the interactions, let alone explain them or how they aim can play so well.
Feel aiming is never not used in playing pool, only how much and when it is used. Mainly in situations not practiced before or experinced. This is when ones action is solely based on feel but the feel comes from past experinces.
Feel comes from doing, not reading. The more doing, the more feel you experince to enhance your doing which increases your feel which enhances your doing which increases your feel which.........snowball effect.
Once I know where I'm gonna put the CB, I neither look at the OB nor the CB but somewhere in between such that I see the whole layout in my view. This helps me gauge my use of english and stroke speed and CB path.
Feel aiming is used by someone that has never hit a ball in their life. They have no idea about the interactions of the cue, cue ball and object ball.
They use trail and error to get a feel for these interactions. After time, meaning lots of proper practice, the feel needed for certain shots is replaced by knowing how to do the shots. Until a new aspect is used on that shot that was never practiced before or a new type of shot, then feel is used again however, not in the same manner is in the beginning of learning to shoot pool.
Now, there's experinces from practice that can be used to reduce the time feel is used on shots. Feel is used on the new shots until replaced with knowing how to do the shot, but because of past practice, time is greatly reduced to learn a shot. This is why nothing replaces quailty table.
There is a saying "It's not about quaninty, but quality that matters."
Some will go deeper into the whys and how comes of interactions of the cue, CB and OB, some could care less. However, the feel of these interactions can only be experinced at the table and not from reading. This is why someone who does not understand the whys and how comes of the interactions, let alone explain them or how they aim can play so well.
Feel aiming is never not used in playing pool, only how much and when it is used. Mainly in situations not practiced before or experinced. This is when ones action is solely based on feel but the feel comes from past experinces.
Feel comes from doing, not reading. The more doing, the more feel you experince to enhance your doing which increases your feel which enhances your doing which increases your feel which.........snowball effect.
Once I know where I'm gonna put the CB, I neither look at the OB nor the CB but somewhere in between such that I see the whole layout in my view. This helps me gauge my use of english and stroke speed and CB path.
Duckie,
I apologize for promoting my wares to you, perhaps your umberage isnt completely out of line but my intentions are probably not so self serving or evil. I wrote my book out of several reasons mostly for the people who wanted desperately to uncomplicate an issue they couldnt seem to get past and that is --aiming. This has been an interesting path and I have learned a lot about the subject, the people involved and people in general.
The subject is that very subjective, people tend to believe that whatever you have is no good for reasons they speculate and expound on without ever seeing what the product can produce and many people tend to be blinded by testosterone thinking they can do it themselves and just dont seem to be getting anywhere and wonder why. Men in particular are more prone and the occasional female but as a general rule the females willing to accept help outnumber the men probably 10 to 1 when speaking about their general willingness to be open minded and take a lot at what might help them.
I wrote the book as a stepping stone to get to a place where some great intuitive players have made it in a savings of some time. I cannot produce instant results but Im positive that if someone looks at what I have, actually practices it some that I can get them closer out of the gate than what a lot of them could do on their own.
I actually thought I was doing a good thing for the game of pool and thats what I wrote in the book and is what Ive tried my best to do.
I appreciate that some folks use cte because they are paying for their pool time and helping rooms stay open I am just trying to represent the other side of the picture that I call "natural aim".
I thought that might have some value to well lets just call it out--the naysayers---it seems to me that if someone stepped up and tried to represent the other side of the picture of using non-cte aim that someone might approve but it seems that even people such as yourself deny that any description of the art is useless and therefore wrong. Now wrong is as wrong does and I find that most of my detractors have not read my material so in my opinion that is just that wrong as well.
I do not deny that great players have great intuitions and have used them to develop great methods and just as this thread might be out there to expose is--What is feel aiming?--so descriptions could be involved and I am merely stating that this thread echoes the findings in my book.
I really dont know what to say except our own blindness, denials and attitudes towards learning hold us back more than anything and if I were out there trying to learn something I would hope someone wrote the book somewhere that might get me closer so I could fly on my own a whole lot sooner. I apologize for promoting but I am still selling a few books and I would really like to see this sport turn itself around and I try to make learning how to do it a good thing and it really calls for the things we need to turn pool around and that is some practice, a change in attitudes and some openess on the part of the player to be able to realize the answer is right there in front of his face. All I want him to be able to do is see it. So I show him how I found it.
336Robin :thumbup:
Robin Kelly
aimisthegameinpool@yahoo.com
http://274928807619529663.weebly.com/
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Brophog,
Thankyou so much for your comment. Im glad you enjoyed the material I can tell from your comment youve work with it.
336Robin
http://274928807619529663.weebly.com/
Wow! A very interesting post when I'd considered "feel" as something that we're all born with. I never thought that some people may not have been blessed with this ability. Can feel be learned as we mature or is it an individual trait we possess? Are there two camps or two extremes with most falling in between? I'd like to hear more about this, Joe.
Best,
Mike
I agree with this. Dismissing aiming as "feel" when a valid proof doesn't fit neatly into accepted geometrical diagramming is beneath our collective intelligence.
Best,
Mike
Mikjary,
I know you were asking Joe but Id like to at least tell you about feel from my experience when it comes to my pool experience. When I was young I couldnt tell you how I was nailing shots and spinning the ball but I did, I wasnt all that great but I was moving the cue ball where it was supposed to go. All this occured before 1983.
Then I had a long period over 10yrs of Pool Retirement before coming back to play for 8 months in 93. It took me a few months to get my act back together and for people to start hunting me down and I again quit due to stuff going on in my life and didnt come back until 2005 and Ive been playing ever since. This last time I felt disconnected to the game and was lost. I decided I wanted to understand why I did the things I used to know how to do so I began writing.
I think its possible to lose it. Ive lived it so probably some people dont have as good a chance to have a refined feel as some possibly more athletic types do.
That is all I can tell you from my own experience. Since I was able to get it back and left my pathway written down I feel confident I can get someone else there too. I think if you get them so close they have to see it they will because I did.
336Robin :thumbup:
http://274928807619529663.weebly.com/
Robin,
If you think you can lose "it", then it probably isn't a personality trait. Feel would possibly be a learned behavior. The phrase, "Use it or lose it", or being "rusty" at something you've done many times before, may fit.
Best,
Mike
Exactly Mike,
I agree that it is learned behavior. I try to get a player a way to find a reference point so he can learn the feel.
Its kind of like shooting a shot--- you know youre too wide this way so you adjust back the same distance other way and then you see your too wide that way and you adjust half way back the other way and then you say. Gosh If I had a way to get right here without those first two steps I might be onto something and you find a reference to be able to do that.
Then the adjusting steps you take with the new method are smaller, keener adjustments then you find another reference method where you walk up to the shot and see how to use the throw to sling the ball in right off the bat and youre shooting from feel and that is how it all happens a baby step at a time.
Yes learned behavior indeed. Thats what I try to do within my pages. I thought it was important to write down the pathway to this state of the game, now whether or not its viewed as valid is something to speculate about but the important thing to me is that at least its out there. Its up the player to come and get it if he cant seem to find it. With peoples preconcieved attitudes thats a tough call but wouldnt it be a shame that someone attitudes and thoughts were wrong and they spent a lifetime smacking balls and never attained the high level of proficiency in art that they could have simply because of testosterone blindness. Yes it is definitely able to be learned but you must want it above preconcieved notions.
336Robin :thumbup:
http://274928807619529663.weebly.com/
I think it is something like a thermometer. We all have some ability and the usual level can be set higher or lower depending on how we do (or do not) use it. The ability goes up and down based on circumstances but we all have some usual steady state.
Where I live there are dances about twice a month and some of the guys have taken dancing lessons (usually at their wives insistence) but they just can’t get it because they don’t have that “feel” for how to coordinate their body with a drum beat. There are others who simply watch some dance (like a Tango) and they immediately “get it.”
One of the more interesting displays is to watch a bunch of men doing some line dance with the women. You see all kinds of gyrations. When you are retired people often lose the usual social inhibitions and simply enjoy their lives. Some of thee guys are enjoying themselves but they have no “feel” for how to dance. And it is interesting to see that no matter how many lessons they take they just can’t get it – but they are having a lot of fun.
Probably one of the more interesting aspects of feel is the amount of effort required to improve one’s ability. It seems that it requires substantially more effort to go from a 95% pocketing rate to a 99% pocketing rate than it does to come from a 40 to a 50% pocketing rate. When we get to those upper regions of improvement - the pro level - personality factors kick in as it requires a substantial amount of tenacity and a willingness to tolerate slow progress over a lengthy period of time. I maintain that we all, in the end, play by feel but some people are much better at refining their skills because they have the personality required for professional level of play.
Joe,
The way you think and write about pool, makes me think that you could be an excellent coach at pool.
Back to "feel". You said something some people have it and some don't or at least that some people have it in greater or lesser amounts. This is true for sure but as one of the ones who never seemed to really have it, I have struggled and continue to struggle with "getting it". This "struggle" does get more difficult as you get closer to the pinnacle of success.
It is my personal journey that is a testament to the fact that you can improve your ability to "feel" regardless of your level of play at the moment. As I have taken to heart the task of learning to play pool better, I have learned that all of these directions in pool that I seem to gravitate to, have helped me to become a better player overall and to increase my "feel".
This steady state you talk about can be amped up depending upon the person's willingness and ability to open their mind to other tools and perspectives but most importantly a tenacity that is unyielding. For me it appears that I am finding a new improved level of "feel" that has been "developed" by turning over and inspecting every rock that I come across in my journey.
Even though I find I have improved my average level of "feel" in playing pool, I often find myself looking at disappointing performances for one reason or another. There's a lot more to pool than "feel" just like there is to dancing and while some of us possess certain natural gifts, I, like the dancers who don't get it, am having a lot of fun playing pool whether I win the next dance contest or not.
This "struggle" does get more difficult as you get closer to the pinnacle of success. It also seems to be harder to stay on top, even for those who "have it".
It is my personal journey that is a testament to the fact that you can improve your ability to "feel" and play pool at a higher level, regardless of your level of play at the moment or your age.
Due to this thread which was suggested by a former poster of this forum, I have learned some interesting things and I thank all of you for adding to my enjoyment and learning experience. It's been great fun reading all of your posts.
Recently, I have been experiencing another one of those Epiphanies about my pool game and it is inspiring me to catalog just what it is that I am seeing and what I am experiencing. Hopefully, some of these discussions will help others in their journey.
Over the past decade, I've written some incredibly ill-written things that I think I have experienced in pool and sometimes if I glance back over my musings, I have to laugh at myself and just remember that I am still having fun. I just keep writing them, putting them in a file folder, accumulating them and realizing all the while, how little I truly know about how to play pool.
JoeyA
One of the more important things I have learned over the last few years is difficult to explain, but I will try anyway. It seems that in my attempts to turn more and more of the shot making over to the sub-conscious processes I find myself looking at the relationship between CB, OB, pocket and positional play in different ways. It seems that I have to go through several stages of "how to see" the table and the shot. With each progession my ability to reliably pocket gets better. However, it is like a waltz, two steps forward and one step back. Learning what to keep and what to discard and then not losing the techniques that are useful is all part of learning to play well.
At one time I thought that simple practice and anyone could play at a professional level. I have come to learn that it is indeed a long difficult road that requires much thought, trial and error, and of course learning to train that sub-conscious process so that it can function at an optimal level.
Setting aside natural talent for a moment, it is astonishing that so many people who have little knowledge of how we learn can play so well. There is obviously a lot to be said for how we learn out side of conscious awareness. Kinda like learning to ride that bike and making use of what talents we have.
At one time I thought that simple practice and anyone could play at a professional level. I have come to learn that it is indeed a long difficult road that requires much thought, trial and error, and of course learning to train that sub-conscious process so that it can function at an optimal level.
Setting aside natural talent for a moment, it is astonishing that so many people who have little knowledge of how we learn can play so well. There is obviously a lot to be said for how we learn out side of conscious awareness. Kinda like learning to ride that bike and making use of what talents we have.
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