And yet Willie Hoppe signed off on it? Tjorbdorn Blohmdahl said in an interview once that he, 'like most three cushion players', learned aiming systems as a reference but that he, like most, does not use them in competition because the patterns are so ingrained as to be natural to him at his level. (major paraphrasing here).
McGoorty's quote is hearsay at best. He also said that Fats couldn't play at all and that there was a line of players willing to swim a river of shit to play Fats and we know that in fact was not true.
The book was highly entertaining though.
The whole point of the pro-aiming system crowd is that they exist for anyone who cares to try them. The whole point of the "aiming systems are bogus" crowd is that no one should ever try them.
These two camps will have a very difficult time coming together because of this fundamental difference.
And at the end of the day of course it's all "feel" in the sense that the human being having no measuring device that is accurately marked has to settle on his best estimate using the objects he does have available. Ultimately he has to get into the shooting position and pull the trigger based on a feeling of confidence using whatever techniques he employs.
Many years ago there was a pool cue on the market called the Sniper.
It was being sold for $2500.
This cue had an elaborate set up with multiple lasers. Using the instructions one could actually set all these lasers and get a 100% shooting line for direct shots and for bank shots. It really worked. But when you did all that and finally picked up the cue to make the shot there was no feeling at all. It was bulky and complicated and pretty much a pain in the ass. It was a marvel of engineering though and the posters had a real babe on it.
The point being that we humans use a club to make one ball hit another ball to send that ball into a small space. No matter how you do it there is going to be feel and estimation involved. The whole point of systems advocates is to introduce methods that reduce the amount of estimation involved. They find that by using particular methods they can improve their accuracy and simply let the world know that it works for them.
What is so goddamn wrong about that?
If I am at the pool room whacking away at bank shots using the trial and error method and Freddy Bentevegna comes up and says "hey, let me show you something that might help you to make those shots more accurately" then I am going to listen to what he has to say and try it and if it works I will keep it and if it doesn't I will not use it. Is that so hard for people to understand?
Is is so hard to understand that good honest people have spent time figuring out "other" methods than good old Ghost Ball to aim with? It's not these people have sat around thinking oh gee let me foist this method on everyone that I know doesn't work but I will get enough suckers to believe it and get filthy rich.........
We are ALL people here, people. If some guy spends his time on the table figuring out a bunch of methods that work to get players making more shots then WHY is this a problem????
Of course it's all feel EXCEPT for the results. You don't feel like you made the shot. You know that you did or did not by where the object ball is after you shot the cue ball.
So everything leading up to hitting the cue ball is in debate. Everything AFTER hitting the cue ball is not. The ball either went or it didn't.
Unless the player is deliberately LYING when they say that by using xyz system they get better results I think it's pretty safe to say that most of us would be alright to believe it.
There are no blind alleys here. There are only methods to try out which work well for some people and not so well for others. Ghost Ball does not work well for me. Why not? Well let's see I have bad eyesight which comes from not having glasses until I was eight. I had laser surgery in 2000 and while my vision is better I still have a slight bit of blurriness in one eye. So when I try hard to use GB I still miss balls.
When I use the aiming method I use now I make more balls. It doesn't get any simpler than that.
I still get my ass handed to me by people who use GB or pure point-and-shoot methods. But at the same time I also win my share against those people as well using what I use.
I know with 100% certainty that using the aiming system I use has helped me to find the right aiming line in critical game situations. I know that getting down on the shot with the feeling that the line is right has helped me to focus 100% on the delivery which has resulted in game and match and money winning shots.
So that's my personal testimonial. I don't really give a shit if any other person on the planet Earth ever tries what I use because I have it and it works for me. Every chance I get I will tell people it works because that's how I am and they can choose to try it or not.
I love the way pool feels when I am making balls and running out.
.:thumbup:
