Agreed. I was specifically talking about the aiming process, Part A only (pocketing balls), where the goal is to send the ob into the pocket. Of course pool requires more than this -- Part B, moving the cb from one shot to the next. Keeping Part A working well and successfully incorporating Part B is the nuts.
I don't think I've explained it properly.
When you play instinctively or aim with a 'direct' (ghost ball, contact to contact, railroad tracks, etc...) aiming system you can make teensy adjustments to get the CB path and speed you want and still make the ball.
When you use a proxy system (Poolology, edge of cue, CTE or any other pivot system, etc...) then there is a different way to adjust because your perception of the shot is not direct.
If I'm aiming CP to CP then I'm looking directly at where I'm going to hit the CB to make the shot.
If I'm lining up Center to Edge and then pivoting, I'm not even looking at anything directly. In fact, in Shish-ka-bob you are supposed to keep your head still during and after you pivot so your perception is different. Your eyes are now looking at the tip of the cue from an angle. That is a key part of the system and that perception is what helps you get angles in between the major pivot points. So you are not looking at the true or direct shot.
That's why you can miss a seemingly easy shot if you do the pivot wrong.
Because I haven't had enough practice time with CTE or Shish-ka-bob I can't tell if I'm a little off or on so I just have to trust the system. Which is great except that I'm not sure what part of the pocket the ball is going in. And so I'm not entirely sure how my cueball is going to travel after contact.
I can play English and I completely understand BHE, I've been doing it since the first year I played pool. I also completely understand and use parallel English when it makes sense to.
I wasn't asking for help on how to play better, I was offering an observation about what I experienced when I tried to use CTE exclusively for an evening of leagues. Like I said, relatively easy to pocket balls but it takes time to really get used to it. Especially position play with applying English and adjusting your aim slightly to cheat the pocket etc...
I think there is a difference between how I do CTE and how you and some of the others have tried it. I could be wrong and I'm completely open to that possibility.
When I pivot, I don't say to myself: "Ok, now I've pivoted and that has put me in the straight, perfect alignment to make this ball." And then reset around that alignment. Instead I pivot and disconnect myself from the aim alignment because I don't want to make subtle subconscious adjustments.
The visuals after I pivot do not look correct to me. At all. But I've learned to trust them. I just haven't learned how to adjust them correctly yet for different things.
