Quiet Eye

mnShooter said:

I remember quite a few years back when I was taking my driving classes that they pointed out one thing where good drivers' eyes moved less than new drivers. They only looked at the things that mattered and had a lot less eye movement.

I've been noticing lately with my game that after a couple of hours my eyes can focus much better and they feel a lot less jittery. Anyone have any tricks to make this happen faster that don't involve drugs or alcohol?

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While your opponent is shooting, never look at anything except the table and the layout. Your constant focusing on the table layout will help you condition your eyes and will keep you instroke waiting for you turn.
JoeyA

mnShooter said:

Funny you should say that. Seems like when I am focusing on the table while my opponent is shooting then they hardly ever miss. It is like I'm visualizing all the shots for them and they keep making them all.

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That's like saying that looking at the table when you're not shooting is bad luck.

Visualizing shots is what you want to keep doing over and over. Imagine you are the one making those shots and since you are visualizing you will never miss.

Wait until he misses, then take control of the game with a reinforced confidence earned from making all of those shots in your mind's eye.

Good luck.
JoeyA

JoeyA said:

Wait until he misses, then take control of the game with a reinforced confidence earned from making all of those shots in your mind's eye.

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And when he misses you say to yourself, "You dolt!!! I made that shot...it was easy...come on!!!"

It takes time for your brain to acquire and process visual information. Your gaze must be be long enough to allow this to happen successfully. An effective and consistent eye pattern accomplishes this. Developing a consistent and reliable eye pattern should be a part of your practice sessions so that it becomes a natural part of your shooting routine.

You can also practice gaze control, which is different from an eye pattern, anywhere. Choose several small well defined objects in you view. Look a one object and focus your attention on it for a few seconds. Smoothly shift your gaze, and attention, to each of the selected objects.

Personal Eye Patterns (PEP) are one of the critical things we emphasize in pool school. As you are going through your shooting routine, your brain is collecting different bits of information. When you have an eye pattern that is designed to send the images to the brain that it needs, when it needs them, the flow of information to the brain is smoother. If you incorporate a routine PEP into your shooting routine, it becomes a habit, just as much as the fundamentals of your stroke.
Steve

Absolutely! As I've said a number of times, incorporating a conscious PEP into your standard operating procedure, will probably produce the greatest improvement in your overall game! Like pooltcher said, it must be consciously and diligently practiced, in order to become a habit.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

pooltchr said:

Personal Eye Patterns (PEP) are one of the critical things we emphasize in pool school. As you are going through your shooting routine, your brain is collecting different bits of information. When you have an eye pattern that is designed to send the images to the brain that it needs, when it needs them, the flow of information to the brain is smoother. If you incorporate a routine PEP into your shooting routine, it becomes a habit, just as much as the fundamentals of your stroke.
Steve

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Watch this PBS Quiet Eye. ENJOY and leave some rep for me... I'ma po' boy.

Scott Lee said:

Absolutely! As I've said a number of times, incorporating a conscious PEP into your standard operating procedure, will probably produce the greatest improvement in your overall game! Like pooltcher said, it must be consciously and diligently practiced, in order to become a habit.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

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Maybe I should watch those dvd's.

SlickRick_PCS said:

Watch this PBS Quiet Eye. ENJOY and leave some rep for me... I'ma po' boy.

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OK Slick Rick, you've earned it. That was a very good video and I enjoyed it immensely. Please send a note to the moderators and owner of AZ to take this thread down. This is top secret info and should only be shared when REP is provided.
JoeyA

SlickRick_PCS said:

Watch this PBS Quiet Eye. ENJOY and leave some rep for me... I'ma po' boy.

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Great link. Thanks for posting it. Rep to you!
Steve

mnShooter said:

I remember quite a few years back when I was taking my driving classes that they pointed out one thing where good drivers' eyes moved less than new drivers. They only looked at the things that mattered and had a lot less eye movement.

I've been noticing lately with my game that after a couple of hours my eyes can focus much better and they feel a lot less jittery. Anyone have any tricks to make this happen faster that don't involve drugs or alcohol?

Click to expand...

Jittery??

Are you talking about your eyes or your concentration.
It sounds to me like your situation is more one of not focusing your
ATENTION, not anything directly related to vision.

If it is indeed a concentration problem, I can improve your
performance by 40% instantly<with an asterisk>.

You can PM me if you care to.
Dale

mnShooter said:

I remember quite a few years back when I was taking my driving classes that they pointed out one thing where good drivers' eyes moved less than new drivers. They only looked at the things that mattered and had a lot less eye movement.

I've been noticing lately with my game that after a couple of hours my eyes can focus much better and they feel a lot less jittery. Anyone have any tricks to make this happen faster that don't involve drugs or alcohol?

Click to expand...

That driver ed teacher was totally incorrect. In pilot training, we ALL use the "Air Force Scan" which is shifting the center of gaze (what you are focusing on) in about 15 degree increments within a 180 arc.

That's too wide an arc in normaly highway driving (except at intersections) but the issue is that a sweeping eye doesn't focus on ANYTHING but it also shifts the are of peripheral vision where there is "focus" but not "gaze" but where MOTION is detected quite well.

So a driver who is not actively scanning across at least a 90 degree arc is a statistic about to be recorded.

But taking it to the pool table...many top instructors teach the benefits of a specific, repeated eye pattern during the warm up and final forward stroke with the last eye movement being an intense focus on the OB.

I agree that a specific pattern as opposed to a random unplanned pattern has sigfificant benefits.

Regards,
Jim

Scott Lee said:

Absolutely! As I've said a number of times, incorporating a conscious PEP into your standard operating procedure, will probably produce the greatest improvement in your overall game! Like pooltcher said, it must be consciously and diligently practiced, in order to become a habit.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

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Right Scott. And as a student of yours I know that your views on PEP are not always accpeted as fact. This video should put all doubt to rest.

In addition, IMHO...the Quite Eye video also confirms one of the several benefits to the pause at the back. The scientist made a point of stating that movement attracts the eye ( distracts it from its point of gaze) and the pause virtually eliminates the constant motion...and therefore, distraction of a continuously moving stroking pattern.

A purposeful pause (AT LEAST one second) takes the moving cue out of the visual loop. By the time the cue re-enters the center of gaze, the shot is virtually set in stone.

I am STILL working on my PEP but don't have it totally internalized...but I'll get there and it IS HELPING...no doubt about it.

THANKS!

Jim

PS: I have no financial interest in any pool school or instructor but I just want to say that spending just one day with a top instructor will provide bed rock foundation mechanics that will last a lifetime and simply CANNOT be duplicated in reading any of the great books or viewing any of the great videos because they don't depict YOU and you can only GUESS as to whether you are actually adopting the instruction you read or view.

So divide a few hundred bucks for world class instruction by your remaing years as a pool player and you will see that the "expense" is ridiculously cheap.

Jim

Excellent video, rep well earned. I especially loved the comment about something that has never been measured before, "lifting up the carpet and seeing what's underneath".

Dave