Hi guys,
I've spend the last few years working mostly on my fundamentals on my home table, as kids, work & other hobbies prevent me from finding the time to compete at the moment.
I'm quite satisfied with the basic stuff (feet, shoulder, elbow, grip, bridge, etc.) and am confident that I move the cue in a straight line for the majority of shots. I visualize the line of the shot, walk into it, get down. Very repetitive.
But there's one thing that I cannot get right:
It's the (ultra) precise alignment of the stick relative to the line of the shot. Assume for simplicity that I intend to shoot a stop shot (no side spin) on a perfectly straight-in shot. The moment I'm down, and only when I pay particular intention to it, I realize that the tip may be a quarter of a millimeter left or right of center ball (no preference to either side noticeable). Similarly, the cue is often angled ever so slightly from the perfect line, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. I don't know if it's my bridge hand or my grip hand, or both, that cause this small misalignment.
I stress that these errors are really tiny and require special attention from my side to even notice them, and for the majority of shots that come up in a race against the ghost or when working on drills, they do not cause me to miss the pot or screw up position. But it bothers me especially on straight in shots when the cueball spins for a short while instead of stoppping dead, and becomes an issue on delicate longer shots (spin induced throw, swerve).
I've practiced to stand up, re-adjust my aim, and get down again. That isn't leading to me landing in line perfectly. If I get up & down four or five times, eventually I might land very very close to perfect. But it seems more random than anything else, and not very practical.
What does help are micro adjustments. When the tip is a tiny bit left of center (or in general where I intended it to be), I simply move my bridge hand thumb every so slightly to the right to compensate. When I notice the stick is slightly angled, I move bridge thumb and grip hand together until the cue is (what I perceive to be) perfectly on line.
If I do these tiny adjustments when down on the shot, I can get the perfect stop shot much more reliably, and in general feel much more confident in the outcome of the shot ahead.
But it does increase my average shot time noticeably, and in general I feel it goes against my natural rhythm.
So what are your opinions on this matter? In textbooks you always read "do your aiming while standing" or similar, and in some I've read statements such as "only very small adjustments are valid when down on the shot". Does what I describe as very small adjustments? Do you do do micro adjustments when down on the shot? Should I do them only on the rare shots that require the extra bit of precision?
Looking forward to your responses,
Fritz
I've spend the last few years working mostly on my fundamentals on my home table, as kids, work & other hobbies prevent me from finding the time to compete at the moment.
I'm quite satisfied with the basic stuff (feet, shoulder, elbow, grip, bridge, etc.) and am confident that I move the cue in a straight line for the majority of shots. I visualize the line of the shot, walk into it, get down. Very repetitive.
But there's one thing that I cannot get right:
It's the (ultra) precise alignment of the stick relative to the line of the shot. Assume for simplicity that I intend to shoot a stop shot (no side spin) on a perfectly straight-in shot. The moment I'm down, and only when I pay particular intention to it, I realize that the tip may be a quarter of a millimeter left or right of center ball (no preference to either side noticeable). Similarly, the cue is often angled ever so slightly from the perfect line, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. I don't know if it's my bridge hand or my grip hand, or both, that cause this small misalignment.
I stress that these errors are really tiny and require special attention from my side to even notice them, and for the majority of shots that come up in a race against the ghost or when working on drills, they do not cause me to miss the pot or screw up position. But it bothers me especially on straight in shots when the cueball spins for a short while instead of stoppping dead, and becomes an issue on delicate longer shots (spin induced throw, swerve).
I've practiced to stand up, re-adjust my aim, and get down again. That isn't leading to me landing in line perfectly. If I get up & down four or five times, eventually I might land very very close to perfect. But it seems more random than anything else, and not very practical.
What does help are micro adjustments. When the tip is a tiny bit left of center (or in general where I intended it to be), I simply move my bridge hand thumb every so slightly to the right to compensate. When I notice the stick is slightly angled, I move bridge thumb and grip hand together until the cue is (what I perceive to be) perfectly on line.
If I do these tiny adjustments when down on the shot, I can get the perfect stop shot much more reliably, and in general feel much more confident in the outcome of the shot ahead.
But it does increase my average shot time noticeably, and in general I feel it goes against my natural rhythm.
So what are your opinions on this matter? In textbooks you always read "do your aiming while standing" or similar, and in some I've read statements such as "only very small adjustments are valid when down on the shot". Does what I describe as very small adjustments? Do you do do micro adjustments when down on the shot? Should I do them only on the rare shots that require the extra bit of precision?
Looking forward to your responses,
Fritz
