Hitting at the cue ball rather than through
It’s common for players to hit at a ball rather than through the ball, in all ball target sports. If I ask you if you are right handed or left handed you will sense a physical answer to the question. Language just gives us an embodied description of the stroke not the actual stroke. Just like a map is a representation of the road, not the road. Many descriptions of the stroke involve feeling acceleration through the contact. Closing your eyes and stroking allows you to feel the stroke. I’m going to assume that your deceleration description comes from your body sense. That’s good. You are tuned to the right channel. The feel and description are simply feedback. Your feedback comes from the body and where focus is targeted. My comment of at rather than through would let you know when you hit the ball if that is the case for you. Consider a normal stroke. The elbow closes and how far does the cue travel past the point of impact. That focus gets you feeling about the role of the elbow in finishing the stroke. Each were separate parts but less than the whole. They are inward oriented technique thoughts. During the actual shot you need a clear accurate picture of what you want to achieve. One school of thought about skill development describes the stages as:
Unconscious - incompetence
Conscious - incompetence
Conscious - competence
Unconscious - competence
The final stage is where you need to be during a game. You need to trust that experience and practice will allow you to produce your highest level of competence available by turning execution over to the unconscious mind.
Stage three is where you go when working on your game. You bring your focus onto something by bring it into consciousness. A mental picture of the stroke, from finding the contact point the tip must hit, to seeing the level plane the cue travels to the end of the stroke, gives feedback on that part. Players often think incorrectly about a level cue stroke. They envision the table bed as the reference for level. In fact the plane created by the situational factors on the table dictate the initial cueing angle. Keeping the cue on that line through impact and as far past that point, on the same plane, as possible is what is meant as maintaining a level cue.
At one point in my development my mental picture of what I wanted to accomplish during the shot was to imagine the cue on plane stopping at a specific end spot at the end of the shot. My body’s job was to put the shaft through to that point on plane. Adding the plane to the simple shot/shaft line gave me more of a 3D sense of the shot. By closing your eyes and even adding ear plugs, your physical sense of execution can be enhanced. The unconscious mind can develop a new awareness.
Trust that the unconscious has learned when you transition to games. Broaden your focus to the details of the game. See the shots from both sides. Sense the flow of the pattern of play from ball to ball. Immerse yourself in the emerging sensory river of sensations your body will transition through in the process. See your opposition play. Get a sense of his weaknesses. Stalk him strategically.
Turn the page on this shot and move on. Write a new, more competent chapter as a result. Let it go. Take the learning and move on. Create epic stories of triumph. Follow a wrong result with several versions of a corrected version. Revisiting mistakes over and over is like a mental rehearsal each time. Correct execution is the mental picture to follow with, after you get a different result than you wanted. And, several versions of different executions with more desirable outcomes.
Hope this helps.
