3rd Eye

[Flex]

My thanks go out to Egg McDogit for suggesting I try the 3rd Eye Stroke Trainer. Guess what? It really works.

I had already watched Joe Tucker's video on his website where he explains about sighting and vision flaws and was convinced, and just trying to adjust after watching that video helped a lot.

However, was I ever in for a surprise when I got the thing. I admit I was skeptical, but the very first time I put it on the shaft I could see that what I thought was straight was crooked as all get out. Well, at least it LOOKED straight to me.

So, a few days ago I traipsed over to the local pool hall and started really using it. Joe's right when he says your eyes may be feeding you incorrect information to your brain and what looks straight sometimes isn't.

I found that using the stroke trainer has made shooting those long straight in shots a whole lot easier, as I know now what the alignment is supposed to look like when I shoot, as opposed to what it looks like when I'm standing up.

I found that my most accurate position for shooting is not super low over the cue ball. but with my chin maybe 10 inches over it. And that shorter strokes definitely improve my accuracy on those long straight in shots, and that the cue moves straighter over the shorter distance, which in total from backswing through follow through is probably something like 8 inches or so for me.

I also found that getting the cue ball to draw even on longer shots is much easier now, probably because I'm hitting closer to center ball most of the time.

One awesome device!

Thanks Joe for inventing this. The version I have has the white arms, and makes it very easy to see what's going on.

While at the table when first trying it out, and having shot with it for maybe ten minutes or so, who comes in but a loudmouthed player, whose ego is pretty big. He shoots a pretty mean stick. He says, "Hey, what's that??! I've never seen that before... did you make it?" He said this in a sort of mocking tone of voice. I told him it's a stroke trainer, to help me straighten out my stroke, and that I bought it. At that moment, I had a long straight in shot, with the object ball smack in the middle of the table, the cue ball about 3 diamonds away, and shooting diagonally across the table to the corner pocket. While he was watching, I stroked a few times and popped the cue ball hard into the object ball which shot STRAIGHT into the pocket, the cue ball stopping dead in its tracks, with no spin on it whatsoever. I just looked up at him... He got this funny sort of look on his face and left...

Nuff said.

Flex

 

[cuetechasaurus]

It also helps you see and correct if you have any twisting in your stroke/wrist/grip. If you see the bars moving up and down as you are stroking, that's exactly how much you are twisting. If you can keep the bars parrelel to each other, it means you arent twisting, and that already has a positive effect on your stroke.

 

[mnShooter]

Be careful when putting it on. One of the arms snapped off of mine. I had to jimmy rig it back together.

 

[Flex]

It also helps you see and correct if you have any twisting in your stroke/wrist/grip. If you see the bars moving up and down as you are stroking, that's exactly how much you are twisting. If you can keep the bars parrelel to each other, it means you arent twisting, and that already has a positive effect on your stroke.

One thing that I have found helps is to line up while standing and hold the cue stick up in the air with the prongs covering the part of the pocket you want the object ball to go in, then to lower the stick so the prongs are lined up perfectly parallel over the object ball and then to drop it down to the cue ball, all those parallel lines of the tongs should line up. When that happens, you know you're lined up straight.

Then when moving down on the shot, in the transition phase, the most important part, at least for me, is to make sure the parallel lines of the tongs are headed straight at the object ball.

Then get down on the cue ball, stroking until the stroke is perfect, and let er rip.

Son of a gun if that ball doesn't go down almost every time. The slight "looseness" of the tongs alongside the cue ball may partially be responsible for that, but it's necessary to pay a lot of attention to keep the cue ball smack dab in the middle of them. When that happens, and no twisting occurs, and the follow through stroke is "on" the object ball goes down.

Awesome invention.

Afterwards, when the stroke trainer isn't on the stick, I just imagine those tongs and where they'd be if they were on the stick, and set up accordingly. Visualization of the tongs.... That's the key.



Flex

 

[Raodwarior]

MNshooter...just send it back to Joe and he will replace it ASAP.