An Annika Sörenstam clinic perspective
I saw a video of Annika Sörenstam giving a clinic to a group of amateur ladies. She used a variety of clubs and swing lengths to send the ball to targets. She stood with her body in different positions and explained that the stance wasn’t as crucial as many thought. She stood facing the fairway with a wood and sent the ball to a target 70 yards straight ahead. The keys to her were the swing direction through impact and how long the swing was determined the distance.
The description I gave about the stance needs to be taken with the same idea in mind. You can simply lower your face and look down the cue length/aim line from the butt. Finding the center alignment vision picture matching Dr Dave’s center alignment photo is the key.
I’ve chosen that as my consistent starting point. How you get your body into a stance to maintain that centered perspective and get the body in position to deliver the cue through impact on that same plane is entirely personal. That is called functional intent, the desired outcome.
Every seeming principle can be ignored, even eye alignment. Consider a fine player like Niels Feijen who aligns his aim while standing, then positions his body to deliver down the line. His head while in deliver position is not looking down the cue line. The alignment while standing’s, functional intent is to find the positioning for the cue for the desired shot. His functional intent of his stance is different though. Once the cue is placed every move now is designed to organize his body to deliver the cue precisely down that line. His head placement has two advantages that I can see. He has a sideways perspective of the cue plane relative to the horizontal and he can see the exact height his tip will be contacting the ball.
I don’t have to be aligned directly behind my key in order to unlock a door. We can learn precision. I’m not really aware of my fork or spoon when eating, yet I don’t miss and hit my lips. That said, I find it easier to get the tip to contact the cue ball precisely when I start from a consistent position. Feijen and Strickland are aware of precisely where they have positioned their eyes and head. That is their consistent starting point. Perspective and alignment are two different things. Synchronizing them is a functional intent of its own, arriving at a consistent starting point.