Odd or Little Known Aiming Methods / Techniques

Patrick Johnson said:

Maybe you've heard of one or use one... maybe you invented it. Maybe it's a full blown "system" or just a technique for part of your aiming process. Cool. What odd or little known aiming system / method / technique do you have to share?

Here's mine - I forget where I heard about it, and I only heard it mentioned that once. I was impressed enough with the concept to make a diagram of it, but it looks like too much "math" for me to use. Anybody recognize it? Anybody see any worth in it? Anybody use it?

This isn't a complete aiming method, only a technique for visualizing the OB contact point - you still have to figure out how to hit it.

pj
chgo

View attachment 524721

Click to expand...

Interesting. Also, from the cb's perspective, the contact point on the ob is always halfway between the ob center and the fractional aim point on the ob that is needed for the shot.

You are officially an aiming system junkie.

Patrick Johnson said:

The OB contact point is also always midway between the edges of the overlapping balls. Here's a graphic illustrating both versions of the same technique: the one on the left is double offset; the one on the right is double overlap (easier to see for cuts thinner than half ball).

pj
chgo

View attachment 524782

Click to expand...

This one always works. Always has, always will. I've always used it. I stand behind the object ball and pick the contact point. I visually freeze the point on the object ball. I then get behind the cue ball, look over it, and look at the contact point on the OB. I can see the distance from the contact point to outer edge. I measure that exact distance and take that to the other side of the contact point. I look down the line from the inside edge of the cue ball to the inside point on the object ball. I then allow the Univac between my ears to do its magic and I shoot.

It's like a pair of shoes. They are exact opposites.

It's the shooting part, however, that makes success possible. I always ask myself what I'm there for...what is my reason for being? I get one mystical millisecond on every shot. That is the ONE AND ONLY moment in time when I can do anything at all to effect the outcome. When I hit a golf ball, I am not looking at the flagstick. When I kick a fieldgoal, I am not looking at the uprights. When I hit a baseball, I am not looking at third base. When I hit a tennis ball, I am not looking at my opponent. I know instinctively that if I'm going to propel the cue ball to the exact spot on the object ball that will achieve my desired goal, I must strike the cue ball EXACTLY where I want. I can't do that looking at anything but the EXACT spot I want to strike.
For me, surgical striking and microscopic precision require deep concentration and an almost hypnotic focal state. Harvey Penick said, "Take dead aim." I was a young impressionable kid. I believed him.