Stan and his followers believe that CTE is objective and requires NO understanding of when a shot "looks" on. In other words, there is no subjectivity in aiming when the CTE steps are learned and applied precisely. Generally speaking, shallow angle shots are "A" perceptions, larger angles near half ball hits are "B" perceptions and shots near 45 degrees are "C" perceptions. Stan often labeled these as 15, 30 and 45 degree perceptions as a quick way to reference them. CTE people think that all A shots can be pocketed with the exact same instructions and every shot will go CENTER POCKET until that perception doesn't work any more and you have to go to the B perceptions. So, to be clear, when you can't get a center pocket result with the A perception you can switch over to B and start getting that center pocket again. Inside and outside pivots make this possible, so that a 15 degree outside pivot is the same as a 30 degree inside pivot.
The above flies in the face of physics, geometry and plain common sense. You can't get different results unless you pivot differently or set up to the shot differently. But, not to have a closed mind, many of us were eager to understand how this could possibly work. The answer is a garbled, confused mish mash of terms like visual intelligence, stepping the cue ball, round barns and so on. The question cannot be answered because it doesn't really happen. What does happen, most likely, is that the player, over months and months of practice, finds a way to make the shots go even when they are lined up wrong. Some probably pivot different amounts depending on the shot (like mohrt in his videos) and others might simply set up a little different each time depending on the shot. In other words, and I've said this before, I think the more precisely you follow the CTE steps the worse your results will be because you will be getting the results you should get: Sometimes the balls will match up with the different perceptions and the ball will go in, and other times it won't. If you allow yourself a little breathing room, such as doing away with the rigid manual pivot in favor of more subjective methods like visual sweeps or stepping, then you will give your subconscious the ability to make the shot go.
You yourself have said many times that you "don't give a shit" how it works. It just does. Well, respectfully speaking, if you have that attitude then in my book you forfeit the right to have these kinds of discussions. The fact that it works for you is meaningless. That does not prove that the system is objective or that it works in any way close to what Stan says. It simply means that you shoot well with CTE as a pre-shot routine for whatever reason. Maybe it forces you to slow down or pay more attention or keeps you out of some other bad habit that lowers your pocketing percentage. Whatever it is, I'm quite sure that it isn't some phenomena that "was never meant to be" and that has never been identified in 20 years.
This is why I invented the jelly bean method "JBM" TRADEMARK (just kidding) to illustrate these fallacies. The method instructs you to put two jellybeans in your left pocket and tap on the pocket before you get into shooting position. You set up a series of 1/4 ball, 1/2 ball and full ball shots at various places on the table and then you put in some serious table time. Put in a minimum of 20 hours per week for 3 months and the JBM will have you shooting lights out. Just make sure you tap those jelly beans and, oh, one other thing. You MUST have a straight stroke in order for this to work. I contend that this method has improved my game immensely. It's like stealing. I don't really give a shit how the jelly beans are able to transfer their mojo to my cue but they do. The proof is that I play so much better using JBM. It has nothing to do with the fact that I put in many hours of structured practice. It all has to do with the jelly bean mojo even though I don't care what that is.
Do you understand the argument now?
