Aiming/alignment

Sorry I count copy and paste from my tablet but
Look up vision center from dr Dave

nine_ball6970 said:

I am trying to figure out how to start with the cue on the correct line and be able to see the aim point correctly 7 feet away. I hope this all makes sense. Any thoughts are appreciated.

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Assuming your fundamentals are solid (i.e. you can cue in a straight line), it sounds like your head is in the wrong place.

I suggest you do the following: lay the cue along the center line of the table. Freeze an object ball to the rail on the second diamond of the short rail. Put the cue ball in front of the cue.

Take a little care to line this up accurately so that the the line of the the cue goes through the centers of cue ball an object ball. Note: you can line up any straight shot, it doesn't have to be along the center of the table, but I think it helps if you don't add a pocket because that will trigger your potting instincts.

Now, without touching the cue, bend down as if you were going to shoot the cue ball full into the object ball. Are cue ball and object ball on a vertical line in your perceived vision? Is the cue also on that line? If you answer yes to both questions, your head is in the right place.

If you experiment, you will find out that there exists multiple ways for you to hold your head to have everything on line. If I have the cue centered between my eyes, I need to look more or less straight. If the cue is more under the left/right eye, I have to rotate my head to the right/left. The trick is to find the right position and orientation for your head so that what looks straight to you is in fact straight, and remember that particular pose. Because in a normal game situation, you don't normally have the luxury of knowing everything is straight before you put down your head.

This video may help with your sighting and alignment issues.

https://youtu.be/ZKoMZrg1MAg?t=1

John

With the feet in stance position, moving the body vertically tends to move the head laterally as well, so consider at what height your line of sight is solid, to help you lock in.

nine_ball6970 said:

I would prefer to post this here. My game is plagued by consistency issues. Sometimes I run rack after rack and sometimes I rattle the second shot. I have always played by instinct/feel so sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. After a couple hlll hill losses in which I gave away 4-5 games per match due to rattling the 8 ball or 9 ball I am back to basics.

I know something is off visually and alignment. Doing the drill where I shoot cue ball straight down the center of the table and back to my tip. I don't want comments on whether or not that is a good or bad drill.

When I line up first getting down on the ball, it appears to me as if the cue is angled slightly right to left. I make an adjustment to center the cue behind the cue ball. Now looking down that line at my target it appears that I am aimed about 1" left of the center of the table. The cue ball comes straight back to my tip though.

I am trying to figure out how to start with the cue on the correct line and be able to see the aim point correctly 7 feet away. I hope this all makes sense. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Click to expand...

Feel players (and I'm one too) have a lot of sub conscious triggers because that's mainly how we play. That's what playing by feel really means. We trust our sub conscious minds to see and feel the shots for us. However, not all of our triggers are good ones. Your problem may not be in your aiming at all. It may be when a certain situation happens. Look for patterns in your behavior on the table. Try to figure out what circumstance triggers the bad shot.

Our sub conscious minds don't know right from wrong. They only know what their taught by habit. It's a must for feel players to understand their tendencies at the table and have a check list to address them when they arise during a match.