Left handed chalk - for left eye dominant players

It was mentioned above that getting properly positioned over a cue can lead to an unnatural feeling position (in so many words). Since learning correct position of my eyes over the cue I found it at first very unnatural, but only because I had never done it properly. Keep doing the same wrong things and you will get bad results. I shoot much better now.
 
Rackaday said:
Let’s see if garczar follows his own advice. I don’t blame him for being snarky, as I am sure life was hard for a boy/girl during the Great Depression. He/she could still be working out his/her feelings. On a positive note, in the quote above is the best use of grammar and punctuation that I have seen from garczar. One exception, use “an” before a word that starts with a vowel 😉. Example, this is an OPEN forum.
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Exception: an honor. Words starting with a silent 'h', AN should be used.
 
For archery and rifles, I switched to using my left hand - archery was the easiest switch. I am definitely more accurate. I can shoot pool lefty for those hard to reach shots (I am only five feet tall so they come up frequently) but the OB must be relatively close to the pocket. I can't shoot lefty with long accuracy or speed - I am sure I could practice and get there.... I can tell you I am naturally more accurate shooting lefty so maybe I should be the time in.
 
8onthebreak said:
For those of you who are left eye dominant and play right handed…read on. There is hope.

I’ll start with “WHY”. My Fargo rating has dropped from 603 to 587 in the past year despite my exhaustive increase in practicing. I recently met with an eye doctor and explained that the balls look dark and blurry at the other end of the table. I said I want to be able to see like a could 30 years ago. After checking everything out, he said, it’s not your eyes.
So I started researching “AIMING” Thinking it has to be an aiming problem. I landed on the topic of eye dominance which led me to “center vision” topic, and I realized that I am left eye dominant and I play right handed…so I suspected that I was not putting my eyes over the cue correctly.

Now that I have corrected my stance, I can see the balls clear and I now have “tone” when I’m down on a shot. It’s a lock. I’m back! Haven’t had that in years.

The problem: I find that it’s very awkward to get my head over the cue correctly, it feels like I have to stretch my neck uncomfortably to get my head across the cue, and I can feel it pulling on muscles in my neck and on my right side of my abdomen. I see why I “default” to bad posture/head eye alignment because it’s so uncomfortable to get in correct position. I can see that I’m going to have to make conscious effort to check myself on every shot that I’m in alignment…so I needed to somehow work it into my pre-shot routine to try to remind myself, so I have named the chalk “left handed chalk”.

Now, before every shot, I grab some left handed chalk, and the chalk reminds me of my need for alignment, this also means that I now chalk before EVERY shot. WIN-WIN.

I feel like being left eye dominant and playing right handed is a disadvantage, It’s an un-natural posture. I haven’t had “tone” on cut shots it seems, for years. It feels great to be able to see the balls again. If this can help someone struggling with the same thing, then it was worth posting. Just grab you some left-handed chalk and it’s a lock!

Credit to AZ community for threads helping me find “center vision” …something I didn’t even know existed!
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John Morra had the same problem, he took a year off and learned how to play left handed, check out his story
 
Update
Thanks AZ for the constructive responses. I've Been working on proper eye alignment and revisiting some basics and fundamentals, and I have actually found, after stumbling on Mark Wilsons EXCELLENT 3-part mini training series...The culprit was my foot placement. Unbelievable. Been playing pool 40 years and not sure how I got so far out of alignment. Having my foot placement and body mechanics in place is now allowing my eyes to fall over the cue more natural. It will take time to get comfortable but it really helped accuracy. I was treating my symptoms, vs the underlying cause. Hope it helps others. Hope to enroll in some actual training in the future after BCA Vegas this year. I gotta say, It feels really good to be rebuilding my stance and stroke. I haven't done any remodeling to my stance/stroke in probably 30 years. I got to be a good player by building my fundamentals, but didn't realize that you need to remodel or rebuild them every so often. Guess you gotta be honest with yourself, you're never as good as you think you are, and you're never as bad as you think you are. I learn every day.
 
Congratulations on figuring out you're need to adjust your stance , I've done the same a few times since the 1990's when I had my neck fused the first of two times . with the help of my good friend Frank McGowan we settled on a American / European combination stance that can and will vary at times depending on the next shot .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance ha ha ! Or should I say HO HO HO
 
I can chalk with either hand and shoot a few select shots in pool with either hand as long as no one is watching to closely and chew on a lifesaver which is a got to have thing since II quit chewing Copenhagen on Dec 2 2017 when I was in the middle of chemo and radiation treatments !
 
Rusty in Montana said:
I can chalk with either hand and shoot a few select shots in pool with either hand as long as no one is watching to closely and chew on a lifesaver which is a got to have thing since II quit chewing Copenhagen on Dec 2 2017 when I was in the middle of chemo and radiation treatments !
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These were my favorite.

IMG_9365.jpeg
 
SmoothStroke said:
Sports & Hobbies:
Many shooters (archery, firearms) or photographers try to switch dominance to match their handedness, which can improve accuracy.
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I don't have a strongly dominant eye although I am right eye dominant. Shooting a pistol fast I kept both eyes open and exercised to strengthen the right eye's dominance.

Then I started shooting benchrest rifle. Now the weak eye needed to be stronger to read wind flags so I strengthened it.

What is confusing is that the eyes don't see anything. They create signals and send them to the brain. Then the brain turns the signals into images. That allows for some really strange things to happen sometimes!

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
I don't have a strongly dominant eye although I am right eye dominant. Shooting a pistol fast I kept both eyes open and exercised to strengthen the right eye's dominance.

Then I started shooting benchrest rifle. Now the weak eye needed to be stronger to read wind flags so I strengthened it.

What is confusing is that the eyes don't see anything. They create signals and send them to the brain. Then the brain turns the signals into images. That allows for some really strange things to happen sometimes!

Hu
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Eye, Brain, Hand coordination.....
 
great stuff. I have hit 900 balls since remodeling my stroke and stance. I just put up my first respectable score in Fargo practice game, a 148. that's not great for me, but acceptable. Im normally in the 138-165 range. I was averaging about 125 shortly after the changes. I can see the numbers increasing, and I think after another 600 more balls, I should be better than ever. I am committed to the new stance and stroke. Although uncomfortable, It feels amazing doing something to get better instead of making excuses and accepting mediocrity. I will improve and it won't be an accident. The stance is worthy of serious time and energy investment. It's the foundation of everything else we do. Being in proper alignment is critical, and that's Impossible if your feet are in the wrong place.
 
8onthebreak said:
great stuff. I have hit 900 balls since remodeling my stroke and stance. I just put up my first respectable score in Fargo practice game, a 148. that's not great for me, but acceptable. Im normally in the 138-165 range. I was averaging about 125 shortly after the changes. I can see the numbers increasing, and I think after another 600 more balls, I should be better than ever. I am committed to the new stance and stroke. Although uncomfortable, It feels amazing doing something to get better instead of making excuses and accepting mediocrity. I will improve and it won't be an accident. The stance is worthy of serious time and energy investment. It's the foundation of everything else we do. Being in proper alignment is critical, and that's Impossible if your feet are in the wrong place.
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Change is always uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable and then natural, before you get to far into stroke and stance, get your vision center straight, once all those things are aligned your progress will come much faster, it has for me.
 
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