Oh man. Please don't go there! Why do people make statements about things they are not thoroughly knowledgeable about. It's like telling a physics teacher that quantum mechanics doesn't exist just because you think its ridiculous. Do make a blanket statement like that you would have had the have tried a aiming systems and found them to be fundamentally incorrect in application, which certainly is not true for all aiming systems. Sometimes people say this just because they don't like the idea of an aiming system or they have a hard time getting it. You really can't call them a myth, especially when such a huge amount of played use one. I for instance have used CTE (plz don't stsrt a CTE war) since Stan's DVD came out, and can now say without question that it works, so I really don't like a blanket statement like this. Oh...and btw, Shane can be seen on a video interview describing the aiming system he uses.
Pool Myths Explained
- Thread starter JoeyA
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Oh man. Please don't go there! Why do people make statements about things they are not thoroughly knowledgeable about. It's like telling a physics teacher that quantum mechanics doesn't exist just because you think its ridiculous. Do make a blanket statement like that you would have had the have tried a aiming systems and found them to be fundamentally incorrect in application, which certainly is not true for all aiming systems. Sometimes people say this just because they don't like the idea of an aiming system or they have a hard time getting it. You really can't call them a myth, especially when such a huge amount of played use one. I for instance have used CTE (plz don't stsrt a CTE war) since Stan's DVD came out, and can now say without question that it works, so I really don't like a blanket statement like this. Oh...and btw, Shane can be seen on a video interview describing the aiming system he uses.
Ron Swanson
Banned
Huge amount of players? Like who? There was a recent thread in the aiming forum asking who used them, and the answer was hardly anyone, and nobody any good at that.
Not a single snooker player in the history of the game has ever used an aiming system. Not one. What does that tell you?
That you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Many snooker players do use aiming systems of some type. You just aren't knowledgeable enough to know that.
edit: I just went back to the beginning of the year. Where is this recent thread you are talking about? I saw no such poll.
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Do a poll in the main forum and look at the number of players that use it. I'm not necessarily saying pro players, but too many pool players use them with enough success to feel they are worth using to simply discount them. Again I will reiterate that SVB himself says he uses an aiming system, Darren Appleton uses the see system if I am not mistaken, and Stevie Moore uses CTE. Their are many more people using them and playing at a solid level. The point is not an argument for or against them, but to suggest that they are prevalent enough in the pool world that they can't be considered a myth.
Please excuse all the typos in my previous post. I typed it on my phone and was in a hurry, so I couldn't proof read it.
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Well, I finally finished my list. I've included brief explanations for each myth along with links to resources (info, videos, and instructional articles) that provide supporting proof. I've also categorized the myths and listed them in what I think are priority order (in order of importance) within each category.
I managed to come up with a total of 100! Some people might consider some of them a little weak as "myths," but all of them are certainly claims or opinions I have heard (often numerous times) over the years.
Here it is:
Top 100 Pool and Billiards Myths ... Debunked, Busted and Explained
Great thread,
Dave
PS: I'm not sure all of the myths offered in this thread are on my list, but I think many of them are (along with many more). Enjoy!
Joey A., Dr. Dave, you guys are great AZers. Good idea, good work, thank you.
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Ron Swanson
Banned
That you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Many snooker players do use aiming systems of some type. You just aren't knowledgeable enough to know that.
edit: I just went back to the beginning of the year. Where is this recent thread you are talking about? I saw no such poll.
Which snooker players use aiming systems? Name them. I have difficulty accepting the word of someone who cannot spot a multi-paged thread on the first page of the Aiming Forum.
Which snooker players use aiming systems? Name them. I have difficulty accepting the word of someone who cannot spot a multi-paged thread on the first page of the Aiming Forum.
If you are basing your thinking on the thread "How do you aim?", you are way off base. First, only 20 people even posted in that thread. Second, if you base your theories on that thread, then nobody else even aims. It wasn't asking just for systems, but one actually aims. So, by your reasoning, most people don't aim.
As far as snooker aiming, have you even bothered to google "snooker aiming methods"? I'm not going to list all the options here.
Doesn't everyone who aims use an aiming system. Just some of their aiming systems suck.
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Neil:
If you're trying to say any method to aiming -- whether that be ghostball (or "dummy ball" as it's known in snooker), fractional aiming, back-of-ball, or even pivot-aiming -- is an aiming system, then I would agree with you. *Any* method you use to aim, even if it's just simply "seeing the shot line and aiming fractionally to put the cue ball 'there'" -- is a system.
However, knowing that you're a CTE/pivot-aiming advocate, if you're trying to "hint" that there are journeyman- or pro-level snooker players using CTE/pivot-aiming, I would aggressively disagree with you. There isn't a one.
Every snooker player -- even those that play in snooker clubs -- come from a well-established snooker training syllabus. Yes, even the informally trained. Go to any snooker club worldwide, and you'll see among the pictures of the greats on the walls, posters that detail the basics -- everything from stance and bridge and grip and cueing, to, yes, sighting and aiming. There isn't the pivot option. It just isn't there.
I'm not one to shoot down the pivot aiming methods (you should know that by now, as I believe there are merits to them). However, I *do* think they came about because the problem of inconsistency in a pool players' performance was incorrectly troubleshot to aiming, and not to fundamentals. One of the great benefits of pivot-based aiming systems is a well-established shot approach (i.e. that visuals thing and how to approach the shot line to see those visuals), and this applied a "band aid" to a pool player's loosey-goosey non-regimented stance, alignment, and shot approach. Of course if you fix the alignment issue, you're on the road to better delivering the cue ball where it needs to go.
Anyway, just thought I'd lean in on what I think might be the beginnings of "if 'A' [all methods of aiming are a system], and 'B' [CTE is an aiming system], then 'C' [some snooker players are using CTE]" type of reasoning/deduction/inference. It just ain't happening.
-Sean
The first part, yes. The second part, no. That's a fallacy from incorrectly troubleshooting a player's inconsistency to "aiming." Pool players are conveniently blind to how non-regimented and actually loosey-goosey their fundamentals are. They think a miss is all because of "bad aim." I would venture to guess that more than 75% of misses are due to bad fundamentals -- not delivering the cue ball where it needed to go, even though the person selected the correct aim point.
Next time you're watching an amateur (especially one that complains of bad aim), get behind them and watch their cue action. You'll notice big-time hitches, pulling, yaw, "lassoing," "grabby-grabbies" in the grip hand, etc. This is pure fundamentals, not aim. Straighten those out, and watch the dramatic transformation.
Myth: I missed that because I aimed bad.
Truth: You missed that because you hit it bad.
-Sean
He said "aiming system". Why is it that any time an aiming system is mentioned, you and several others always assume CTE? Did I say anything about CTE? NO. So, why put those words in my mouth? I also use 90/90 a lot. Why not get down on that too?
There are many, many aiming systems. NO ONE that pockets a ball on purpose did so without using one of them. So, to say that no pro snooker players use an aiming system is ludicrous at best. But, go ahead and keep defending the ludicrous.
Ron Swanson
Banned
He said "aiming system". Why is it that any time an aiming system is mentioned, you and several others always assume CTE? Did I say anything about CTE? NO. So, why put those words in my mouth? I also use 90/90 a lot. Why not get down on that too?
There are many, many aiming systems. NO ONE that pockets a ball on purpose did so without using one of them. So, to say that no pro snooker players use an aiming system is ludicrous at best. But, go ahead and keep defending the ludicrous.
Defending the ludicrous? That sounds exactly like what you are doing to me. 99% of snooker players aim by feel. Call that a system if you must but it is palpable nonsense to those of us in the real world. To the inhabitants of planet earth, a system is divots and pivots, sooty and sweeps, and rubbin' rabbits' feet.
Your country will never be competitive whilst you put your faith in such drivel.
Ron Swanson
Banned
The post is called "name the pros that use CTE" or something similar, and is towards the top of the front page. A smattering of shortstops and very low ranked pros are named. Wow!
Er, you won't. At all.
"Doctor, doctor; it hurts when I do 'this'." So stop doing that.
Read: unfortunately, Neil, you made your bed on that one. Most of the time when you're referring to "aiming systems" you *ARE* referring to CTE and 90/90 -- which are both pivot-based aiming systems. Again, you made your bed with this one.
There are many, many aiming systems. NO ONE that pockets a ball on purpose did so without using one of them. So, to say that no pro snooker players use an aiming system is ludicrous at best. But, go ahead and keep defending the ludicrous.
Ah, I see. Trying to turn the tables on me with putting words in *MY* mouth. That's true, I didn't say that either -- that snooker players "don't" use an aiming system. They *DO* -- it just ain't the pivoting kind. Read my post more carefully next time.
-Sean
Ron Swanson
Banned
Big fat nope here, too. The fact is, this is a uniquely American cultural phenomenon. Thankfully...
And who would copy the Americans when it comes to cue sports?
Big fat nope here, too. The fact is, this is a uniquely American cultural phenomenon. Thankfully...
And who would copy the Americans when it comes to cue sports?
I wouldn't say "uniquely American cultural phenomenon" because I've seen this in Canadian rooms and in France. But -- oops -- there's that French thing, which might be a misnomer.
And no, I wouldn't copy the Americans when it comes to cue sports. Blessedly, I saw that light a long time ago.
-Sean