How Do You Aim?

CJ Wiley said:
No "aiming system" is effective unless it allows you to get down on the shot as if you've already made it. This means the "pre shot routine" must rehearse almost all aspects of the actual shot to enable this to happen.

"if a pool player can see farther than others it's because they've stood on the shoulders of giants" - unknown
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Agreed

The two necessary ingredients to pocketing balls imo are 1) having a clear picture of the results you want and 2) believe that you can do it. When you miss, one of those two ingredients were likely missing.

The key to finding an aiming system for someone therefore is finding one they believe in. Finding a way to "aim" you believe works is the start but it still takes practice to become confident in your ability to use it, and with that confidence comes consistency.

I also think that progressive practice is the best. Start with shots you can easily picture and fully believe in and slowly progress in distance and cut angle. It may be boring and take time but it is effective and frankly, if someone doesn't have the drive to practice then frankly they just don't have the desire it takes to play good anyway.
 
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Straightpool_99 said:
I'd wager that most of the people actively debating on this forum are at least close to having hit a million balls.
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Maybe, maybe not. I kinda think that most of the actual million ball hitters are lurking instead of posting here, laughing on the sidelines at our pitiful antics.:o

A million is a lot of balls. Like 30 racks of 9-ball every single day of the year for 10 years in a row. When you read stories of young McCready beating everybody in town while still in his early teens, I'd have to doubt he'd have had the time to hit anywhere even close to that amount by the time aiming shots became second nature to him.

I don't think I've come anywhere near close to that, and I first picked up a cue almost 50 years ago. I'll admit, I misspent my youth trying to get an education, then develop a career, raise three kids and help them follow their dreams. Plus, I played way too much guitar, and fished my brains out for years when I should have been working on my million hits. Call me a slacker. :rolleyes:

Mostly, when someone mentions HAMB I don't take it literally. I just think of carefully trying to make lots of balls within a very short span of time. I really think that is the key to learning to shoot well, or to learn to do just about anything well. The learning process has to be concentrated into a short time frame, and the practice has to be as focused as you can bring to the table. A awhile back Fran Crimi came on here and made a compelling case that a certain player had "cheated" his way to to great skill by using substances that allowed him up to 20 hours per day at the table, a feat mere coffee drinkers couldn't match.

I'm not sure I agree with her assessment of this constituting cheating, but there is something magic that can happen somewhere between, say, 12 hours and 20 hours of repetitive practice that has the potential to catapult you to a new level, especially for those of us not imbued with prodigious quantities of natural ability. I know my greatest advances in guitar playing happened after marathon practice sessions where I woke up at 11AM with the guitar in bed with me.
 
Anyone shoot clays or skeet? What do you aim at? There is nothing there.

You are estimating where the clay is gonna be ie leading it before you pull the trigger.

But there is nothing there to use for aiming like the bull of a target.

I used to shot bottles floating down a river with 22 rifle. When I pulled the trigger, the bottle was no where near the cross hairs as in target shooting. So, what was I aiming at?

So are you really aiming when shooting clays as compared to putting holes in paper?

How bout a pass in football? Is there aiming there?

Or is it estimating how to execute the pass from hours and hours of practice?
 
duckie said:
I used to shot bottles floating down a river with 22 rifle. When I pulled the trigger, the bottle was no where near the cross hairs as in target shooting. So, what was I aiming at?
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Shooting a .22 rifle, at bottles floating on a river, not knowing where you were aiming?
Who cares what you were aiming at? .22 bullets ricochet off water and travel 1/2 mile.
 
duckie said:
Anyone shoot clays or skeet? What do you aim at? There is nothing there.

You are estimating where the clay is gonna be ie leading it before you pull the trigger.

But there is nothing there to use for aiming like the bull of a target.

I used to shot bottles floating down a river with 22 rifle. When I pulled the trigger, the bottle was no where near the cross hairs as in target shooting. So, what was I aiming at?

So are you really aiming when shooting clays as compared to putting holes in paper?

How bout a pass in football? Is there aiming there?

Or is it estimating how to execute the pass from hours and hours of practice?
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Are the balls moving when you aim a shot?
 
duckie said:
Since there is nothing to aim with, I don't aim.

What do you use to aim with? And I don't mean what you see in your minds eye, but what is in the real world.

With a rifle there are sights and then the target, things you can touch and see.

But in shoot making, there is nothing to use.

So, you really are not aiming but just estimating where to put the CB.

With more experience, you get better at estimating.....HAMB.....
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centers and edges. objective references.
 
duckie said:
Anyone shoot clays or skeet? What do you aim at? There is nothing there.

You are estimating where the clay is gonna be ie leading it before you pull the trigger.

But there is nothing there to use for aiming like the bull of a target.

I used to shot bottles floating down a river with 22 rifle. When I pulled the trigger, the bottle was no where near the cross hairs as in target shooting. So, what was I aiming at?

So are you really aiming when shooting clays as compared to putting holes in paper?

How bout a pass in football? Is there aiming there?

Or is it estimating how to execute the pass from hours and hours of practice?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what billiard games you play, but the ones I play the targets are not moving.
 
BasementDweller said:
Maybe they are moving for him. Maybe this is why Duckie uses the arrow.

Remember no two people see exactly the same.


***Potential Slogan***

CTE / Pro One --- Use this system and your balls will stop moving.
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Or lay off the drugs, either way.
 
i just realized this yesterday, but when i get down on shots, im actually lining up on contact point to contact....ive been struggling previously trying to get consistent spot on chin for center ball hits (why is obvious now)....I think im gonna continue to line up on shots like this, the downside is the stroke line of stick is gonna very GREATLY depending on degree of cuts and english...this is mostly how ive been shooting for quite a while anyway, but now that i am conscious of it, i wont be fighting to put the stick over here, instead of over there.

I dont know that i would recommend this to anyone else though :)
 
duckie said:
Anyone shoot clays or skeet? What do you aim at? There is nothing there.

You are estimating where the clay is gonna be ie leading it before you pull the trigger.

But there is nothing there to use for aiming like the bull of a target.

I used to shot bottles floating down a river with 22 rifle. When I pulled the trigger, the bottle was no where near the cross hairs as in target shooting. So, what was I aiming at?

So are you really aiming when shooting clays as compared to putting holes in paper?

How bout a pass in football? Is there aiming there?

Or is it estimating how to execute the pass from hours and hours of practice?
Click to expand...
you are in fact aiming. the moving target is your reference and you aim in front of it. any time you point something at something else or throw something you had to aim.

acting as if aiming doesn't exist is silly. and you say aiming can only be done with sights but the claim you can't aim using the balls.

you aim using all references and senses you can and need to use. that's why we have the optics we possess and the computer to translate it.

I guess it hasn't occurred to you that if the brain can make sense of something like ghost ball then it can process cte as well.

aiming is learned. your biology orients you in the right direction and your knowledge does the rest. confidence comes from figuring out whatever gives you the most consistent results.
 
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