Discussion: Focusing on the cue ball compared to other sports

pool isnt like other sports it is more like shooting a rifle. you get down on it and line up the back sight with the front one. just as you do in pool. it doesnt matter much which one you are looking at as long as they are lined up and you pull smoothly.

quick shooting most will just put the front sight on the target and pull.

similar to what many pool players do. they get down on the shot and see the spot they want to hit and then look at that.

others get down on the shot and see both or line up both and keep their eyes on the spot to hit on the cue ball. works fine.

all depends on the straight stroke if you have that then you can turn your head and make almost all shots looking at your arm pit. which is proven by those gamblers that play 5 or 10 stroke no look. that was one of my games years back.

some shots where i need to hit an exact spot on the cue ball i look at that throughout the stroke. most i keep both in sight if i can and follow it up to the object ball last.


here is eddie taylor shooting without looking.
 
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maha said:
pool isnt like other sports it is more like shooting a rifle. you get down on it and line up the back sight with the front one. just as you do in pool. it doesnt matter much which one you are looking at as long as they are lined up and you pull smoothly.

quick shooting most will just put the front sight on the target and pull.

similar to what many pool players do. they get down on the shot and see the spot they want to hit and then look at that.

others get down on the shot and see both or line up both and keep their eyes on the spot to hit on the cue ball. works fine.

all depends on the straight stroke if you have that then you can turn your head and make almost all shots looking at your arm pit. which is proven by those gamblers that play 5 or 10 stroke no look. that was one of my games years back.

some shots where i need to hit an exact spot on the cue ball i look at that throughout the stroke. most i keep both in sight if i can and follow it up to the object ball last.


here is eddie taylor shooting without looking.
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That rifle analogy is more like a sniper getting specific with a live target. I mean real specific like left side, right side, graze an artery - hey its a analogy. Not only that, the victim has to neuro tox the EMT working furiously on him - not because the EMT is the mark but so the top secret guys can move on the EMT's widow and save or destroy the world.

Stop using gun analogies.

:ROFLMAO:
 
Chili Palmer said:
The only time I look at the CB last is when jumping or tree topped, it helps with putting excess english on the CB.
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Funny that's how I started doing it. I had the hardest time drawing off cuts down the side rail from the end rail. Finally arrived at testing the stroke first, right next to the cue ball - like golfers do with puts. Since the idea was watching the the last three inches of the stick, the whole process paralleled right over to the shot itself. I started nailing those like they were two footers. It worked so well I tried it on everything that gave me trouble. It's more than a theory.
 
Master the simple stuff first. Kiss
Ooops sorta off topic rant. 😉
I have in my experience seen oh so many that wanted to run before walk. 🤷‍♂️
Off handed, well training the second hand is a game building opportunity. Pluss it helps balance. Just as in politics a left / right balance is a huge advantage. Just watch Ronnie. He slides into the other hand so smoothly. His waltzing around the table is worth study. Occasionally the commentary points it out. 🤷‍♂️
 
There's always eyes closed in Practice. It helps build a solid foundation/ platform / and balanced mechanical delivery of the tip to ball. Where the rubber meets the road comes to mind. 🤷‍♂️
Don't open the eyes until I hear .....something, hopefully the dropping ball.
 
Finding the uh trigger finger took a while but that's when my spot shot finally fell. Learning the steps to the dance. Right down to fingers and toes.
 
Mark Williams is another Good Study for every student of the game.
I saw Cole knock the back off the pocket while locked eyes with the cute waitress. His platform and mechanics were a study for me. His tri pod of feet and bridge hand was the widest possible. The long range precision he was capable of was....well like Quigley.
 
gregcantrall said:
Watching Mark Selby reminds me of The Man With No Eyes, you have watched Cool Hand Luke.....Right?
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That's an odd one. I saw it ages ago and I wanna remember reading the book (not even sure there is a book) and of course I don't remember what it was about. Jail, labor crew, some eggs, that's it. :ROFLMAO:
 
Jesse Cool said:
I want to talk about cue ball last before stroke compared to other sports that involve striking a ball. Please read on…

I recently made a change to my game that has made a considerable impact to the consistency of my game. I switched from object ball last to focusing solely on the cue ball when striking the ball. I do change to object ball last on certain shots such as when the balls are close together but for the majority it’s cue ball last on 90% of my shots now. The accuracy and consistency of my game has gone up tremendously. This has led me to really start thinking about how others sports focus on the ball they are striking.

I grew up playing baseball and golf from a young age. Obviously these sports involve striking a ball with some type of club. These sports and many others that involve striking a ball, require sole focus on the object you’re hitting. The only difference in these sports compared to pool is, pool requires striking a ball into another ball. When I really think about it, there many things you need to do before the shot if you’re going to take the cue ball last route. One of the most important is to pick your line from standing position and get down into that same line. Although, this is still required even for object ball last. This then leads me to all my years spent in golf. Which I think might be the most closely related sport to pool that requires striking a ball with a club into a hole.

In golf, you must pick your line while standing behind the ball. Once you have done this you get into the same line of the shot with your stance, waggle the club like pre strokes in pool, look up and down from ball to line just like looking back and forth from cueball and object ball, set for a short pause, backswing, and then finally strike the golf ball while having complete focus on the golf ball until contact is made then looking up.

I just found this very interesting when you look at it from another view point. Obviously this subject has been touched on many times but I wanted to have a discussion based on other sports that solely focus on the ball you’re hitting.

To me, it’s really starting to make more sense to focus only on the cue ball when you’re striking it. Once you have made a decision about the whole shot picture, focusing only on the cueball in theory seems to be the most accurate way of hitting the cue ball especially when dialing in specific amounts of english.

I’d like to hear everyone’s creative thoughts. The goal is to use the information and ideas in this thread to improve all of our games.
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I also switched to focusing on the CB last during the entire stroke for the past few years with considerable success, after having been OB last for 55 years.

It’s not for most, but if you are struggling with your shotmaking consistency and commit to CB last for a period of time, you might find it works for you!
 
straightline said:
That's an odd one. I saw it ages ago and I wanna remember reading the book (not even sure there is a book) and of course I don't remember what it was about. Jail, labor crew, some eggs, that's it. :ROFLMAO:
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Google search provides this;
The movie is famous for its themes of individualism, authority, and the human spirit,
With the movie coming out in 1967, I was in high school and a favorite teacher made the movie a classroom topic.
Paul Newman provided another academy award worthy performance.
I could certainly enjoy watching it again just for the nostalgia .
 
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