Practicing with eyes closed - thoughts?

I could see using it as a warmup tool or a way to get back into stroke when something is off, not sure I'd spend a lot of time doing it though, since you are going to be playing with your eyes open normally.

Only Couple of Times

I've been doing that for 45 years. My dad taught me pool and he told me when your stroke is true, you don't even need to look at it. He also said you'll know when your stroke is smooth and steady in practice that you can easily verify by shooting some simple shots with your eyes closed.....don't open your eyes until after the object ball drops. You'll learn to recognize by just the sound of the click between the cue ball and object ball when you've hit it perfect and then the next sound you hear is the object ball dropping into the pocket.

Don't shoot with your eyes closed to develop a better stroke. Use it as a confirmation your stroke is perfected to the point that your can rely and trust it without any doubts whatsoever. But don't expect shooting balls during practice will help your stroke improve. You can still hit the ball poorly and it goes in the pocket and you don't learn anything from that....how could you when you didn't even see where you hit the cue ball or the cue ball's contact point with the object ball. All you learn is you've missed the shot and so you try until you make it....once, twice, ten times in a row......no reason to do that. Practice with both eyes wide open and focus your aim on the object ball, not the cue ball unless you have to shoot a masse shot.

I have beenin a terrible slump which is primarily caused by steering the stroke to the outside on right hand cuts and to the left on left hand cuts. I though I got it worked out for a week or so but today it appeared again. This eyes closed drill may be a solution and I'll certianlly give it a go..but if there are any other ideas on getting rid of this stroke motion please advise. When it starts I don't always recognize it and start changing my aiming point ot accomodate the sterring. Then it all goes to hell in a handbasket!

I used to do this a lot. I still do it occasionally when I feel like something is a little out of whack. It will really teach you to trust your stroke, and keep you from "steering" shots. You'll be surprised how well you can actually play with your eyes closed. I've played matches like this, and I was surprised how well I did even attaining position by using english with my eyes closed. It might be something to consider doing if you're going through a slump. It will make you focus on your fundamentals and alignment. By the way, I used to hit range balls with my eyes closed as well back when I was playing competitive golf.

One of the trick shots I used to show around was,,set up a straight in shot from corner to corner across the table,,duck my head and take a few practice stokes and while this was going on--a freind would be standing beside me. I would keep my head down and hand the cue off to my buddy,,he would hand it back and I would fall back into stroke and make the ball--long straight in from corner to corner...Earl had a fit with this one--he thought it was a trick--but it was from hours of practice shooting long straight in shots --from off the rail that honed that skill....

I think its very good for developing feel and creating shot images inyour mind.
My golf instructor taught me a putting drill where you close your eyes, make a putt, and then keep your eyes closed and guess where the ball ended up, for example five inches short and to the left of the pin. It was amazing to see that after a while I could guess where the ball was quite accurately.

I posted a similar thread a while ago.

Only that I have been closing my eyes as soon as my bridge hand touches the table.
It's more challenging, but shows you how important is lining up for a shot while standing up. I make a good percentage of long straight in shots that way.

I am going to try your method tonight.

Cheers.

Serves no purpose what so ever..............

When we shoot a pool shot you actually steer the shot until the end of the stroke. This is why we need to look at the object ball when we make the final stroke.

If your eyes are not in the right position you can't even see if the stroke is straight.

If we close the eyes we are missing a vital part of the aiming. it might even create a bad habit of not looking at the object ball when we pull the trigger.

Closing your eye serves no purpose at all except how well you can do it.

Sounds cool though.

Pay Attention To The V Groove

When you grip the cue, your thumb and index finger wrap around the cue grip and form a V groove. Hopefully you are also keeping your knuckles pointed at the ground when you stroke the cue ball. Just try to keep the back of your griping hand flat, i.e., knuckles down.

Back to the V groove formed when your grip the cue. Keep a relaxed grip on the cue butt and when you stroke the cuball, if your knuckles are indeed kept pointing downward, the V grove will be perpendicular to the table and pass under your chin during the stroking motion. In other words, after you stroke the cue ball, stay in the down position frozen with no backstroke motion......then glance at the V groove on your pool grip.....it should be directly below or in front of your chin after you stroke thru the cue ball, not behind it otherwise you didn't follow thru on your stroke.

If when you look at your V groove, it isn't perpendicular to the table felt, i.e., it would be canted either to the left or right, it indicates you didn't maintain the proper position of your hand/grip while completing the stroke. You're torqueing or twisting the cue instead of keeping it stationary and straight imparting unintended horizontal English on the cue ball. Your V groove position will tell you if it was left or right rotation but it was nonetheless unintended so you really need to correct this mechanical flaw. Let the V grove act like a pendulum ball and examine its position after stroking the cue ball. It will tell you what you're doing wrong. Your shooting platform has to be mechanically solid and the more flawless it is, the better player you become. No head movement, solid stationary shoulder position, balanced pendulum stroke and realize you are going to make mistakes. Just recognize mechanical errors when it happens, know what to do to correct the problem, and keep the mistakes to a minimum since mechanical mistakes are totally avoidable by the player.

The only time I do it is when I am having some sort of breakdown on my final stroke. When that happens, it isn't me but my brain that is doing it. If I try to stop it can make it worse and more frequent. If I am sure it truly is that final stroke only and that it isn't anything else I will do the closed eyes thing a few times but that is it. I figure that if my brain can't see it then it has no opportunity to "help" me out somehow. I noticed that in that case, it works for me and probably is a sort of check on my brain from expanding its role and trying to control mechanics which would be bad for me because I have enough brainmates messing with my game.

Eyes wide shut

Baxter said:

I used to do this a lot. I still do it occasionally when I feel like something is a little out of whack. It will really teach you to trust your stroke, and keep you from "steering" shots. You'll be surprised how well you can actually play with your eyes closed. I've played matches like this, and I was surprised how well I did even attaining position by using english with my eyes closed. It might be something to consider doing if you're going through a slump. It will make you focus on your fundamentals and alignment. By the way, I used to hit range balls with my eyes closed as well back when I was playing competitive golf.

Click to expand...

Yes. I use it as a teaching tool for those who are not "naturals". When they execute a shot or technique successfully, I have them immediately repeat the shot with their eyes closed...to teach them "feel". Some call this training the subconscious mind.

I call it learning with "Eyes Wide Shut".