consistency in misses

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ronscuba

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My shot making lately has been very inconsistent. It used to be my strong point. Last night I decided to spend a few hours on shot making drills.

Started with long straight shots. No problems here after a brief warm up.

Next I changed to long cuts. I found I was consistently overcutting cut shots to the left and undercutting cut shots to the right.

Any ideas ?
 
are you right handed??
im not an instructor so take my comments with that in mind
if so the easy solution is aim to the side of the pocket that makes you hit it a little fatter on the left
and aim for the part of the pocket that makes you hit it alittle thinner to the right
ill let someone else explain about outside the body vs inside the body shots
 
I'm no instructor, but here's a thought.... if you're inadvertently putting a little right english on your cut shots, the right cuts will under-cut and the left cuts will over-cut, and visa-versa.

Another thought is that I've noticed that for me I need to aim right cuts a little fuller then left cuts. I think it's just the way my eyes perceive the shots for the way I line up and I've learned to adjust. Maybe your head position has changed a bit?
 
As the previous poster speculated you may be applying English to the cue ball on these shots.

Try the same shot with a striped ball sit up the stripe straight up. Observe any wobble on the ball when you shoot it. If you use the 11 ball you can also use the space between the ones as a target for your cuetip to see if you are hitting the ball where you intended by observing the chalk mark.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Like Tony said :)
Could be caused, from that what you wrote, that you re not hitting dead-center on the cueball-seems you re hitting consitently the cb with english.
 
I am right handed.

Curious, if I am not hitting dead center, but with english, why are my long straight shots going in ?

Someone mentioned head position might be the reason ? If so, which direction should I shift ?
 
I'm not an instructor either.

You said this issue just popped up.

You may be trying to steer the cue ball. Or, your chin may not be in line with the shot. Or, a point on your grip hand may not be in line with the shot.

John
 
Head position is a likely cause... If your straight in stop shots are not showing evidence of sidespin you are likely getting a little crossed up on your vision....

Several cures for it but the easiest is a phone lesson from Geno... There is a post in the main forum about free phone lessons...

If you are a do it your selfer you can start out looking at DrDaves stuff on vision center......
 
Check your stance. Make sure your right foot hasn't drifted too far right of the line of the shot. You may get away with it on certain shots, but not on other shots where there is less margin for error.
 
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UPDATE:

My head position seems to be a factor. But not in the way I thought it would.

Head down low, chin on cue vs. slightly elevated chin off cue. With straight in shots, head down low worked well. On cuts, head down low, I consistently miss judged the cut. Head slightly elevated I judged the cut more effectively.

I think my 46 year old eyes are not what they used to be and being slightly elevated lets me see the cut angle better. Especially on long shots.
 
ronscuba said:
My shot making lately has been very inconsistent. It used to be my strong point. Last night I decided to spend a few hours on shot making drills.

Started with long straight shots. No problems here after a brief warm up.

Next I changed to long cuts. I found I was consistently overcutting cut shots to the left and undercutting cut shots to the right.

Any ideas ?
Click to expand...

Turn your head (rotate) a little to the right and reassess. Or, move your head a little to the right (slightly). Try both.

That will help if your problem is perceptual (either aiming or off-center CB contact --- both caused by a perception error).

If your prob isn't perception and it's stroke-related, that's a different animal altogether.

Most directional problems are perception-related, however.
 
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SpiderWebComm said:
Turn your head (rotate) a little to the right and reassess. Or, move your head a little to the right (slightly). Try both.

That will help if your problem is perceptual (either aiming or off-center CB contact --- both caused by a perception error).

If your prob isn't perception and it's stroke-related, that's a different animal altogether.

Most directional problems are perception-related, however.
Click to expand...

This is interesting. Haven't heard of the suggestion to rotate my head. I'll give it a try.

Visual perception is definitely a part of it, as my previous post explained I see angles differently depending on how low my head/eye is.
 
ronscuba said:
This is interesting. Haven't heard of the suggestion to rotate my head. I'll give it a try.

Visual perception is definitely a part of it, as my previous post explained I see angles differently depending on how low my head/eye is.
Click to expand...

I'm not an instructor:

Yeah, when rotating your head in the set position you should notice while staring at the OB that your head passes over the line of aim. Its pretty noticeable.

How did you decide that the cue had to be directly under your chin? Your eyes tell your cue where your grip hand and bridge need to be, don't line the cue under your chin unless your eyes are telling you to. Also your vision should be centered (square with the shot)


John
 
One Pocket John said:
I'm not an instructor:

Yeah, when rotating your head in the set position you should notice while staring at the OB that your head passes over the line of aim. Its pretty noticeable.

How did you decide that the cue had to be directly under your chin? Your eyes tell your cue where your grip hand and bridge need to be, don't line the cue under your chin unless your eyes are telling you to. Also your vision should be centered (square with the shot)


John
Click to expand...

If my head is square to the line, cue under chin looks straight. If I rotate my head slightly right, cue on right side of chin looks straight.
 
just a different perspective.....i had same problem, always missing the OB to the left of the target. instructor told me i was sometimes curling my wrist slightly inwards just before impact of the CB. this took all of 5 minutes to find the problem! at walmart i bought a wrist "sling" for someone that had a sprained wrist for $15 versus buying one from a billiard supply house for $25. this keeps the wrist straight while stroking. IT WORKED! i am going to use it for a couple of weeks to retrain the brain and mucles memory. it worked for me but then my problem was with the wrist. maybe try an instructor and find out what the real problem is rather than experimenting............just saying
 
This post makes the most sense to me. Worrying about which way to put your head, so that you "see" the shot correctly won't help much if you can't strike the CB accurately, on demand, under pressure, in one try. There are far more players who don't have a repeatable stroke, than can't get their alignment down. Correct stroke flaws first...then work on alignment, which is a perceptual issue.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

oldplayer said:
just a different perspective.....i had same problem, always missing the OB to the left of the target. instructor told me i was sometimes curling my wrist slightly inwards just before impact of the CB. this took all of 5 minutes to find the problem! at walmart i bought a wrist "sling" for someone that had a sprained wrist for $15 versus buying one from a billiard supply house for $25. this keeps the wrist straight while stroking. IT WORKED! i am going to use it for a couple of weeks to retrain the brain and mucles memory. it worked for me but then my problem was with the wrist. maybe try an instructor and find out what the real problem is rather than experimenting............just saying
Click to expand...
 
I have taken lessons from a very very good instructor. I re-read the after lesson notes. Although there is always room for improvement, my fundamentals seem to be sound. I re-empasized some tips from my instructor and had a very good practice session today.

I have a tendency to over think things. Sometimes it's as simple as making a decision, clearing my mind and executing.
 
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