After reading some of the posts here I thought about some of them. Maybe it's not just aiming that causes misses.
A while back 1pocket John posted some pics of his weighted cue extension to help get the feel of pulling the cue.
I made an extension to try to see what he was saying about pulling the cue. The extension does help that feeling.
What I am thinking is some folks may be aiming correctly, but don't execute a shot as they think that it's being executed.
Some folks who play well at times, and play erratically at other times, may not have a repeatable stroke without knowing.
Something to try would be to line up the shot as usual, but think about pulling your stroking hand toward the Object Ball.
Doing this keeps your stroking arm and cue from swaying off line, thus making CB contact more precise with your stroke.
Play well....
.
Thanks for the mention Carl.
Ask yourself this question, is it easier (less effort or use of muscle) to pull the cue mass forward (mass/weight being behind the grip hand) in a straight line to and thru the cue ball. Or is it easier to push the the mass of the cue forward in a straight line to and thru the cue ball.
Pushing the cue forward involves quit a bit of tension in the grip and shooting arm.
Pulling the cue forward only involves the use of your grip hand fingers with no tension in the shooting arm.
Reminds me of something Lee Brett said in his DVD. The cue is held in place buy the index finger and thumb is the steering wheel the second finger, ring finger and little finger act as the engine.
I'm 6'-2" tall and have a wing span of 6'-2". Using a normal cue (58") my grip hand, while down into the shooting position was almost on the butt cap. This resulted in my having to push the mass/weight of the cue forward to and thru the cue ball. This caused tension in my grip hand and shooting arm. I also would like to mention that I'm 72 years old. Playing this game with less effort is great.
A good example of what I have noticed is that small players grip their cue some where in the middle of the cue wrap. Gripping the cue there has moved the mass/weight of the cue behind their grip hand allowing them to pull (maybe unknowingly) the mass of the cue forward.
My cue these days is 70" long (with the butt extension and mid-cue extension installed)
The weight of the cue is 24oz. (keeping in mind the balance of the cue is at 24" as measured from the butt cap. The extension is 8-1/2" long and has a weight of 5.7oz, the internal weight of the extension is located in the last 3" of the extension.
The extension design is a slip-on type extension allowing for me to easily pull it off (and stick it in my pocket) when faced with lack of room to stroke the cue or to deal with jacked up shots.
The factory weight was removed thus allowing for better feel of the weight behind my grip hand.
I'll tell you what Carl, email me a shipping address and I'll send you an extension for your use. (at no cost) I will send you my email address via PM.
The extension design is for taller players like myself. For smaller players its just a matter of changing the weighting system in the butt of the cue until they can feel the weight of the cue behind their grip hand.
Once again, thanks for the mention.
Have a good day.
John