The Truth about Aiming!

David Marcus

David Marcus

"not bad,for a blind man"
Silver Member
Aiming pool may be reduced to this fact of locking on target before bending to shoot.

Photo (c) Matt Sherman, licensed to About.com, Inc.
I'm going to tell you the real story on aiming pool. This is the pro method to ensure better play at billiards today, immediately, with your next shot. I'll get right to the point, as I often try to do here at About.com.
The main difference between the pro and the amateur in aiming pool is the beginner (and most intermediates) bend over the cue ball and fiddle with their aim in place, where the pro not only 1) locks into their stance without changing their aim again (unless they feel they need to change their aim and they stand up, begin once again, and settle in to lock position) but 2) sets their stance to begin with, ensuring the cue ball is locked on the target before they bend to the shot.

Read the previous paragraph 20 times if you must to absorb it fully. More I will not say right now (unless you are paying my usual lesson fee starting at $100 for a session). Although another hint I can give you, as shown on articles elsewhere here at this GuideSite, is this--my stance is designed so that nothing is in the way of making pure center ball contact to sink the next object ball.

That's about as close as I can come to telling you my secret aiming pool system for better billiards!

Have fun and shoot me an e-mail if you want to discuss this

Matthew Sherman
Pool / Billiards Guide
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Thank you to Matt Sherman. Check him out @ About.com
 
Great tip. I do all my aiming standing up. I try my best to have perfect alignment on every shot.
 
There are many truths......and then there are stepping stones on the way to truth.

You've discovered a stepping stone. I think you'll be really surprised when you get to the "truth".
 
I can't hear the video in that link (at work)..

As a player brought up on snooker myself with probably a classic snooker stance etc.. I tend to line the shot up standing up and then:

1 find the line of the shot
2 draw an imaginary line back from the object ball, through the white across the table and down on to the floor.
3. walk into the shot and stand on the line with my right foot, thus my right shoulder is directly over the line and my arm can move up and down naturally along the line of the shot.

Mind you, I'm crap... Don't listen to me.
 
There is another one that I heard (I think) Buddy Hall use.
"Don't shoot in the thinking position and don't think in the shooting position".

I show everyone that I give pointers to on how to play pool how to line up with the shot before getting down in the stance. I always find it funny how things I read on here usually is something I ran into just a day ago. I went to play pool with some co-workers at lunch and was showing them this exact thing, how to look at your aiming point, line up the cue with the arm and then drop down into the aiming line.

That thing from about.com is true, but it really separates the D and some C players form the B and up players, not so much the Pro level players. I think any B level player approaches the shot this way of dropping properly into the stance.
 
hang-the-9 said:
That thing from about.com is true, but it really separates the D and some C players form the B and up players, not so much the Pro level players. I think any B level player approaches the shot this way of dropping properly into the stance.
Click to expand...
I think that the discipline to do it for every shot, or at least knowing which shots you can get away with not lining up correctly and still make 99% of the time, is one of the differences between A/B players and the Pros.

Any time I watch Pros playing a serious match, I take note of how deliberately they line up the shots and cue the ball and remind myself that is part of the reason they are pros. They are all perfectly capable of running a rack here and there by running around the table just whacking balls in the hole, but the ability to do it consistently is at least partly due to the level of concentration and discipline they bring compared to most amateurs.

The use of the word "deliberately" above was, well, deliberate. It doesn't necessarily mean "slowly". Some pros play at a pretty good pace, but you can see that they are following their routine in a purposeful and unhurried manner; they just happen to have a faster tempo than average. There's a big difference between that and rushing shots by skipping steps.

The real difficulty I have, and I think this is pretty common, is that a decent player can be lazy and skip steps and still make the shot and get a workable leave most of the time. For me, that's usually good enough for recreational play, and it doesn't feel like work the way a disciplined approach to every shot can. In some ways, it seems like pros have an edge just by their designation as a pro; the title carries with it the expectation that they are going to have to put in more effort and discipline than an amateur, so it comes as no surprise to them.
 
voiceofreason said:
I can't hear the video in that link (at work)..

As a player brought up on snooker myself with probably a classic snooker stance etc.. I tend to line the shot up standing up and then:

1 find the line of the shot
2 draw an imaginary line back from the object ball, through the white across the table and down on to the floor.
3. walk into the shot and stand on the line with my right foot, thus my right shoulder is directly over the line and my arm can move up and down naturally along the line of the shot.

Mind you, I'm crap... Don't listen to me.
Click to expand...

I find that someone that studies the right way to do something is more qualified to teach it than someone that just knows how to do it the right way. Watch the SVB instructional video, great player, but a C level instructor.

I've often explained certain shots or suggested a correction to someone when I had a tough time demonstrating that shot myself.
 
The truth about aiming is that it doesn't matter that much. Aiming is the easy part.

Getting the cb to the spot you want is the hard part. This involves your stroke and stance and body position.

In the wide range of pool games, you will need to shot from many different positions. The shot maybe best shot with the cue behind your back, jacked upped shooting over a ball, the ball locations on the table do not allow for getting in the normal stance and so on.

The truth is your stroke/stance are the most important factors in consistent shot making.
 
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