I am about to throw in the towel...

Sbrogdon

Sbrogdon

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My eyes problems are seemingly too hard to overcome. I run a rack and then miss easy shots. I find something that works and it works for a couple hours, then its back to missing easy shots.

I have tried everything.....ughhhh..

My left eye is just so dominant that trying to aim with my right eye will not work. I thought i had it figured out in my stance by coming into the shot with my left eye leading, moving my foot over, etc etc.....

This is so frustrating......
 
Sbrogdon said:
My eyes problems are seemingly too hard to overcome. I run a rack and then miss easy shots. I find something that works and it works for a couple hours, then its back to missing easy shots.

I have tried everything.....ughhhh..

My left eye is just so dominant that trying to aim with my right eye will not work. I thought i had it figured out in my stance by coming into the shot with my left eye leading, moving my foot over, etc etc.....

This is so frustrating......
Click to expand...

I have the same problem. I've recently started cueing across my face. So my cue is directly under the center of my chin, and pops out under my dominant eye. I use CTE, and stan refers to it as shooting with an angled cue. Since I play with center ball, I've also started looking directly down the shaft, through the cue ball (pretending it's sort of invisible), and pointing at the contact point. Its giving me good feedback on whether a shot looks right or not. But I understand your pain on when a shot looks right but you miss by a mile.
 
tonythetiger583 said:
...I've also started looking directly down the shaft, through the cue ball (pretending it's sort of invisible), and pointing at the contact point.
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I think pointing the cue at a specific target on or near the OB is good aiming technique, but your final aim should hardly ever be pointing it at the OB contact point.

pj
chgo
 
Try seeing the line with your left eye while standing & keep locking at the OB until you are completely down & set. Stay on that line & only then give a glance to the CB to set you tip & then trust that line & shoot.

That has been working well for me since finding out that, for pool, I am left eyed.

Good Luck with it & Shoot Well,
Rick
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I think pointing the cue at a specific target on or near the OB is good aiming technique, but your final aim should hardly ever be pointing it at the OB contact point.

pj
chgo
Click to expand...

I'm not using the cue, pointed at the contact point as a way of aiming, but as a way of having a reference of whether I'm correctly aligned after I've landed. I'm not suggesting to aim this way, just using it as a way of making sure everything looks okay. All the aiming should have been done before landing.

Also if he's having a dominant eye issue, maybe it's time to explore different routes, that involve landing on center ball, and then making the according adjustments for english once everything is line up (Back Hand English, and Front Hand).
 
ENGLISH! said:
Try seeing the line with your left eye while standing & keep locking at the OB until you are completely down & set. Stay on that line & only then give a glance to the CB to set you tip & then trust that line & shoot.

That has been working well for me since finding out that, for pool, I am left eyed.

Good Luck with it & Shoot Well,
Rick
Click to expand...

I tried that for a long time, but at the end of the day, despite how precise you are at landing on the shot line, unless you're a robot, you can't get it perfectly every single time. I feel like unless you can check that it looks correct or incorrect while down on the shot, no matter how much dedication you have, you will always be at a disadvantage to someone who can tell they're off, and reset.
 
Your eyes are not telling the truth.

I am right handed and my right eye is the strongest.

Because our eyes are separated approx. 2 1/4" pupil to pupil we have a built in parallax error when objects are close to us. This error does not exist at a distance of approx. 30'.

If your strongest eye is your right eye you would do well to line up your body based on what your left eye is saying is straight in.

When this is done properly it will make no difference which eye you open or close the shot line will look straight in from the standing position. The parallax error, has for the most part, been corrected. And now, you can put your body on the proper shot line.

There is more to this and it has to do with when you bend over into the shooting position.

If I am cutting a ball to the right I line up my body based on what my right eye is seeing. On shots to the left I use what my left eye is seeing. This is all done from the standing position.
This is to get your body in the correct position for the shot and has nothing to do with how you aim a shot.

When you bend over to shoot the cue will naturally fall somewhere between your left eye pupil and the bridge of your nose. The eyes lead and the body follows.

This isn't something that can be perfected in a few weeks. Many hours of practice will be required before it becomes automatic.

Hope this helps..........put the towel up..........your not done yet. :smile:

John
 
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tonythetiger583 said:
I tried that for a long time, but at the end of the day, despite how precise you are at landing on the shot line, unless you're a robot, you can't get it perfectly every single time. I feel like unless you can check that it looks correct or incorrect while down on the shot, no matter how much dedication you have, you will always be at a disadvantage to someone who can tell they're off, and reset.
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I hear you. Just last week while playing one pocket I got down a couple times on shots & they just did not feel right. So... I closed my right eye & it was way off. I closed my left eye & it was on but to one side of the pocket. I made the slight adjustment with me left eye & then shot the shots.

Over a period of time of trusting the line that you see while standing & then down on the shot, one should build a good subconscious file bank & 'feel', 'see', 'know' or whatever when it's off. Sometimes we will just shoot it anyway if it's not too important as another means of conformation that the off feeling was correct.

Most of the time when I miss now it's because I did not stay with what I went down on & made some slight change. Sometimes I catch myself & go back to what I went down with & most often that works out. I don't like getting back up, but... that is what I/we should probably do.

The reason it looks bad sometimes when down is because the vision has switched from the left eye that sees the straight line correctly to the right eye that does not see it correctly.

If I now know that I am seeing the shot line with my left eye, I trust it. If I'm seeing it with my right eye it might me right & might not & that ain't good.

Anyway, I wish the Best to each individual trying to work out such issues.

Rick
 
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One Pocket John said:
I am right handed and my right eye is the strongest.

Because our eyes are separated approx. 2 1/4" pupil to pupil we have a built in parallax error when objects are close to us. This error does not exist at a distance of approx. 30'.

If your strongest eye is your right eye you would do well to line up your body based on what your left eye is saying is straight in.

When this is done properly it will make no difference which eye you open or close the shot line will look straight in from the standing position. The parallax error, has for the most part, been corrected. And now, you can put your body on the proper shot line.

There is more to this and it has to do with when you bend over into the shooting position.

If I am cutting a ball to the right I line up my body based on what my right eye is seeing. On shots to the left I use what my left eye is seeing. This is all done from the standing position.
This is to get your body in the correct position for the shot and has nothing to do with how you aim a shot.

When you bend over to shoot the cue will naturally fall somewhere between your left eye pupil and the bridge of your nose. The eyes lead and the body follows.

This isn't something that can be perfected in a few weeks. Many hours of practice will be required before it becomes automatic.

Hope this helps..........put the towel up..........your not done yet. :smile:

John
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Hi John.

I had trouble making the switch back & forth for the cutting direction so I just stay with the eye that sees the straight line correctly in the standing position & maintain that all the way down. It's working, but I still think any misses are more when cutting to my right.

Another good post & I agree, The OP should not be done yet when there are still options to explore.

Best 2 You & All,
Rick
 
Here is a really good example of placing your lead foot parallel with the shot line and bringing your body and back foot onto the shot line. There is no argument as to how these two players get onto the shot line.
They do not step into the shot. The lead foot is planted and the back foot steps back and adjusts to the shot line to get the body out of the way. But some part of the back foot (the toes) are on the shot line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_a2zMFGMQE

Takes time, but it works.

John :wink:

Enjoy.
 
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Sbrogdon said:
My eyes problems are seemingly too hard to overcome. I run a rack and then miss easy shots. I find something that works and it works for a couple hours, then its back to missing easy shots.

I have tried everything.....ughhhh..

My left eye is just so dominant that trying to aim with my right eye will not work. I thought i had it figured out in my stance by coming into the shot with my left eye leading, moving my foot over, etc etc.....

This is so frustrating......
Click to expand...

Ok, so what's your question? You're posting in the ask the instructors forum so I'm guessing there's something you want to ask the instructors?

Here's my question for you ---- Why were you trying to aim with your right eye?

I still would like to know your question, though.
 
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Sbrogdon...My guess is that you need to have your stroke analyzed by a qualified instructor who uses video analysis. You have one not far from you, about 50 miles north of Dothan (Tim Majors)...or I can come to you in your home or poolroom. PM me if you're interested.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Sbrogdon said:
My eyes problems are seemingly too hard to overcome. I run a rack and then miss easy shots. I find something that works and it works for a couple hours, then its back to missing easy shots.

I have tried everything.....ughhhh..

My left eye is just so dominant that trying to aim with my right eye will not work. I thought i had it figured out in my stance by coming into the shot with my left eye leading, moving my foot over, etc etc.....

This is so frustrating......
Click to expand...
 
You're probably moving off of the shot line as you get down on the shot. You won't be able to tell easily unless you check your head/eye position when you're down.

I stand above the shot on the aiming line. I lower down deliberately, very slow, and make sure my eyes maintain the same shot picture. You'll be able to tell if you move out of alignment if you go slow enough and focus on keeping your eyes in the same place. It sounds too simple and basic to be a flaw, but it affects lots of players.

Best,
Mike
 
The Towel

Please listen to Scott! Blindly patching things when you don't know exactly what is wrong will only frustrate you.
 
Ty

Thank you for all of the replies.

Fran, my question, I guess, is how is an effective way to overcome my cross dominance issue? If I line up with my right eye, which keeps me on the proper side of the shot being right handed, I land with my cue angled on the shot line, no matter how hard I try to correct it. My left eye is so dominant that it takes over no matter what.

When I line up with my left eye, which is forcing my body to the right of the shot line a bit, my neck and shoulder feels like they are gonna twist off after a rack or so.

It's just frustrating.....
 
Sbrogdon said:
Thank you for all of the replies.

Fran, my question, I guess, is how is an effective way to overcome my cross dominance issue? If I line up with my right eye, which keeps me on the proper side of the shot being right handed, I land with my cue angled on the shot line, no matter how hard I try to correct it. My left eye is so dominant that it takes over no matter what.

When I line up with my left eye, which is forcing my body to the right of the shot line a bit, my neck and shoulder feels like they are gonna twist off after a rack or so.

It's just frustrating.....
Click to expand...

Okay. Got it. You have to adjust your stance to make room for your cross dominant eye to be over your cue.Start by placing your back foot on the shot line and then experiment with the placement of your front foot. You will find that as you place it more forward, it opens your torso towards the cue stick to allow the cue to fit under your inside eye. The key is that as you adjust your front foot, you will have to tweak your back foot slightly along with it. The back foot tweak is usually slightly to the left of the shot line.

It's a little tricky and I wish you were in NYC so I could show you, but that's the basic idea. You can do it yourself if you keep at it and don't give up.

Just remember this: Always, always, always, bring your head to your cue as you get down over the shot. Make sure your cue is on the line of the shot and keep it there as you get down. Never bring your cue to your head or you can wind up angling it as you did before.
 
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