The ULTIMATE aiming system.
- Thread starter boogieman
- Start date
I prefer see the shot, drink the shot
I prefer something closer to carpentry. Find the points. Rule the lines. You only get one pass with the saw.
Do you measure twice and shoot once
Ideally yes. I'm way short on facilities (nada poola rooma} and time. When I have 24/7 to just hit balls I do spend time laying out the whole contact matrix on every shot. This includes the cue ball exit lines etc. I'm a precision nazi as far as that goes. Last time I worked at a pool room was in the early 90s. I proved to myself then that the system is sound. These days I'm lucky if I get an hour myself at a bar. That's the serious answer anyway...
Ah! But if the player cannot SEE the shot, they cannot shoot it. Therefore, both aiming systems and corrections (misperceptions about cheating the pocket, help to reduce unwanted throw, etc.)SEE THE SHOT... then SHOOT THE SHOT.
I'd like to explain a bit further. Quite a few players have days where "they make everything they see" meaning they're really seeing the spot or fraction or what-have-you crisply.
Other days their line of sight/vision center/head/eyes are out of position. So that's not an aim system per se but a stance issue. But then they use one of a variety of quality aiming systems and they start to have many more of those days as their stance accommodates sighting...
Other days their line of sight/vision center/head/eyes are out of position. So that's not an aim system per se but a stance issue. But then they use one of a variety of quality aiming systems and they start to have many more of those days as their stance accommodates sighting...
I believe good and bad days playing pool can be attributed to what's going on in the mind, not to the stance or the aiming method.
Mindset is a major factor when it comes to performance. I'm sure every person here has tripped over a crack in a sidewalk or whatever at some point in their lives. Does that mean we need to work on our walking fundamentals, our walking skills? Lol...absolutely not. We just need to pay more attention to what we're doing, mentally.
Tor Lowry's new YT video on the subconscious is up.
Great analogy of Efren too.
No BS pivot second hand stories
Great analogy of Efren too.
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Agree- but even if i got your point Brian: Both parts ( aka the physical and the mental part) have to be "practiced" so that they can unconcsiouly run in the "correct"order
I think that s what you re saying. You can have the straightest stroke on the planet- but if you have just negative bullshit in your mind.....the outcome will be bullshit. So these famous "amounts of overlearning" aka practicing things in practice are necessary. And the mental part is the by far most "not practicied" part.
You are what you think you are- What you see/think is what you get.
dendweller
Well-known member
Agree, when I'm playing really poorly it's easy to look back at what I was thinking about while shooting, and it was not pool.
Think that explains why I sometimes experience shooting great for the first couple racks and then go down hill. Stop thinking pool and you're dead in the water. I guess that's called lack of focus.
Yep... The working area of the mind is similar to a doorman at a concert or a nightclub. The doorman does a great job checking ID's one person at a time, but when several people are coming up at once, invading his working area, someone will inevitably slide through unchecked.
When you're playing great pool, your doorman is doing a great job checking conscious and subconscious thoughts and actions, ensuring that everything matches up perfectly before allowing any action to take place.
You see what needs to happen and consciously decide how to make it happen, and at the same time your subconscious is automatically offering solutions and actions to make it happen. All of this info gets checked by the doorman before any action is allowed to take place. If the doorman is juggling too much (too many thoughts or distractions cluttering the working area), he will likely allow some actions to go through unchecked, which could lead to mistakes. If the working area is not cluttered the doorman does a much better job ensuring that what you're going to do matches up well with what you're seeing and thinking.
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To some extent only--proof, stand on one leg or shoot all the time with eyes closed.
Tom Simpson, for example, observed that because of the angled stance with our legs, moving the head vertically tends to move it laterally--that's right, players with differing head heights day to day get parallax looks at cut angles.
Interesting. I would still say the #1 factor for good or bad play on different days is mindset, especially among well-experienced players. You simply won't play your best game if your head is somewhere else, cluttered with thoughts that have nothing to do with playing pool.
For me, being distracted means I am allowing tension and unnecessary speed to enter my stroke. If you are deliberate and relaxed it is hard to be distracted.
100%... I'd wager the only major flaw in my game is confidence. Which is comically funny because it's the one thing I should have in spades considering the amount of time I have on a table.
Sure I miss shots. I am human after all. However, the garbage I've been sweating over while working through a pattern is down right sad lately. Usually I'll park the noise somewhere in the back of my mind, but some days I just can't shut up. This passed league night I had so much doubt front and center I would end up pulling the trigger way before I felt comfortable. I don't recall missing anything critical so that's another testiment to how the subconcisous game can bail you out.
I normally play a bunch more than I have been lately. I'm writing off the mental noise to a lack of table time that would normally provide me with the confidence I usually play with.
On well expirienced players I agree 100% Brian-
But this topic about the parallax error is existent- more than the most think. -- discussed this with 3 eye doctors and they ve been amazed how big the percentage number was, which i told him ( from 40 students- 12 had a clear parallax error/problem)- and to change this stuff after years of playing is terrible tough.
What is teasing me personally: this is so easy to detect immediatley right at the beginning- and some "so called qualifed instructors/players" just don t look at it (or don t know?). Would it be detected right at first time, it s so much easier to "heal"- but as i said- after years it s a monster-act.
I like to say VISUALIZE, and shoot. Map shot, and place C/B will be post shot.