Aiming at "Center Pocket"

Do you need to know precisely where center pocket is in order to aim center pocket?

  • Nope. All you need is the general location, but precise locations of OB/CB.

    Votes: 37 39.4%

  • Of course. Anything else defies logic.

    Votes: 57 60.6%
  • Total voters
    94
the center of the pocket is really only available when you are directly in front of the pocket (for example the "spot" looking into the corner pockets). after you rotate from that point, shooting at the "center pocket" will be a miss. finding the object balls pocketable path (if that makes any sense) is best. some instructional books and im sure instructors spend some time on "eye conversation" with the object ball and its intended pocket. this will find what i guess could be called 'center line'=center pocket........why does it feel i just explained an equation.
 
When people are talking about center pocket, what they are really saying...

gpeezy said:
the center of the pocket is really only available when you are directly in front of the pocket (for example the "spot" looking into the corner pockets). after you rotate from that point, shooting at the "center pocket" will be a miss. finding the object balls pocketable path (if that makes any sense) is best. some instructional books and im sure instructors spend some time on "eye conversation" with the object ball and its intended pocket. this will find what i guess could be called 'center line'=center pocket........why does it feel i just explained an equation.
Click to expand...

When people are talking about center pocket, they are referring to a point a half balls width directly in line with center pocket from the edge of the grid. That's the place that almost any pocket ball should go to.

They aren't really talking about the center of the back of the pocket. I pointed out that many shots would be missed if they were always pointing at center pocket...

Jaden
 
The ctel, reference lines, pivoting, the pool table dimensions, pocket dimensions. Some genius figured out a system to shoot center pocket, some how?!!!
 
Q. How high is a mice when she spins?

A. The higher the fewer ( of course, silly)

The question was submitted by Scotty Adams. Congratulations goes to the Mad Hatter , the only reader who answered correctly.
 
Who cares since a good number of shots are intentionaly not shot to center pocket for the best angle to approach the next shot.
 
Hi all,

I am Andrew, from Romania, nice to meet you all, great forum. This is a very popular sport in Romania at amateur level and also poorly represented at Federation Level. There is no legal entity to represent the interests of the players in any official competitions.

Enough about me for the moment...
I wanted to add that i usually (unless playing for pure leisure) try to aim the center of the pocket at every shot i take. I think it gives you a larger error margin. English may also help if you hit the pocket first. But if you aim the pocket with no precise target, and you are not accurate, the shot may be missed. This is no big news...
 
Andrei8 said:
Hi all,

I am Andrew, from Romania, nice to meet you all, great forum. This is a very popular sport in Romania at amateur level and also poorly represented at Federation Level. There is no legal entity to represent the interests of the players in any official competitions.

Enough about me for the moment...
I wanted to add that i usually (unless playing for pure leisure) try to aim the center of the pocket at every shot i take. I think it gives you a larger error margin. English may also help if you hit the pocket first. But if you aim the pocket with no precise target, and you are not accurate, the shot may be missed. This is no big news...
Click to expand...

The pocket's center has nothing to do with it. Accuracy has nothing to do with aim. Missing a shot is not due to not having a target. The shot may always be missed, even if you're a few inches from the pocket. Betcha didn't know that.

If you've played darts or shot an arrow you would know that accuracy has very little to do with good vision.
 
@fabfastfredyy

I agree with everything you say. However, you may have misunderstood me:

When I take a shot, I always try to send the OB to the center of the pocket. I don't argue about all the factors which influence the accuracy of the shot. Did you really think i don't know all this? :)

But if I only choose the pocket itself as a target I think, and you also know this, that o.5mm can make a difference especially when you choose to put a lot of English on the CB.

The accuracy of the shot, is indeed depending on a lot of other things, cloth, cue tip, CB, vision, hand stability, etc.

That's why we get to vote. As I said, i always choose to aim the very center of the pocket in order to improve that part of the accuracy which relies on this aspect. All other aspects must be taken into consideration at the same time. This aiming is included and, therefore, not excluded by any other part of the accuracy of a shot.

My humble opinion. Now that I'm about to end this post I see something else: "Accuracy has nothing to do with aim". This doesn't sound right. As a matter of fact I think we're talking about two different things.

Of course every shot may be missed even if you're a few inches from the pocket.How can you bet i didn't know that?

Imagine you're throwing a stone in a lake...that's easy. Now imagine you're throwing the same stone in a bucket from a reasonable distance. In my opinion, if I aim the center of the bucket from the first place, I'll have fewer chances to miss compared to someone who doesn't. But, of course, that doesn't mean that a poor vision, a shaky hand or a pigeon, can't make me miss.
 
Andrei8 said:
@fabfastfredyy

I agree with everything you say. However, you may have misunderstood me:

When I take a shot, I always try to send the OB to the center of the pocket. I don't argue about all the factors which influence the accuracy of the shot. Did you really think i don't know all this? :)

But if I only choose the pocket itself as a target I think, and you also know this, that o.5mm can make a difference especially when you choose to put a lot of English on the CB.

The accuracy of the shot, is indeed depending on a lot of other things, cloth, cue tip, CB, vision, hand stability, etc.

That's why we get to vote. As I said, i always choose to aim the very center of the pocket in order to improve that part of the accuracy which relies on this aspect. All other aspects must be taken into consideration at the same time. This aiming is included and, therefore, not excluded by any other part of the accuracy of a shot.

My humble opinion. Now that I'm about to end this post I see something else: "Accuracy has nothing to do with aim". This doesn't sound right. As a matter of fact I think we're talking about two different things.

Of course every shot may be missed even if you're a few inches from the pocket.How can you bet i didn't know that?

Imagine you're throwing a stone in a lake...that's easy. Now imagine you're throwing the same stone in a bucket from a reasonable distance. In my opinion, if I aim the center of the bucket from the first place, I'll have fewer chances to miss compared to someone who doesn't. But, of course, that doesn't mean that a poor vision, a shaky hand or a pigeon, can't make me miss.
Click to expand...

I can imagine the spectra of outcomes with all the rocks I can pick up at a lake, but we're talking about a cueball. Its action is predictable and constant much like that of the pockets...or even a dart-it's build to fly straight when thrown with proper mechanics.

Imagine throwing a knife. Now think of the dynamics of a knife throw by someone trained to kill....

Who cares...goodnight.
 
Based on what you said so far I'd rather think of the dynamics of a knife throw by someone trained to kill who has no target. ("Missing a shot is not due to not having a target.")

Yet again, I agree, that's just the way I see things. You're different approach is no problem to any of us.

So yep...have a good night. I'm still at work :(
 
Lol.
I'm new to this forum but pretty active on many other and as far as I know, off-topic isn't a good thing.
But if nobody has a problem with this yet, no, we don't have vampires here in Romania :)

I could tell you a really nice story but not here, maybe in a PM if you like.

However, it all started when a medieval ruler, Vlad Tepes (The Impaler) started playing pool with the Otomans making them his OBs.
 
Scott Lee said:
jsp...I'm not going to go into detail, but CTE works on the basis of just a few "angles" which cover almost all shots (for some varieties of CTE, it is just one angle). These angles are all primary to the half ball aim (30 degree cut), which is the most common angle on a pool table (and the angle that every pro desires to fall onto), for either a cut or bank. Therefore, the exit angle refers to the half ball aim, or one of a couple of others (1/4 ball or 3/4 ball). If someone covers the table, as Dave described (and Hal Houle did with Randyg years ago), and tells him what the exit angle is to the pocket, he would just have to line up on that angle. He would, obviously, need to know the location of the pocket (which is fixed), in order for the exit angle to work to pocket the ball. He personally would not have to be able to see the pocket.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...
Scott, see picture below. You have the CB and OB locations as shown. You want to hit the OB in the side pocket, but for argument's sake let's say you don't know the precise location of the side pocket. All you know is that it lies somewhere in the window shown, and that the "exit angle" of the shot is approximately a half-ball hit. And for completeness, let's say the centers of the CB and OB are exactly 5 ball widths apart. That's all the information you have.

According to the logic of the first answer (A), you have ALL the information you need in order to locate the EXACT center of the side pocket. So given the diagram, what colored star represents the side pocket's center? Does it lie somewhere in between two of the stars?

And the side pocket MUST lie at only one point, and one point alone. According to the logic in answer (A), it's not possible for the pocket to be in more than one spot in that window, given the precise CB and OB locations.

2j3m9mx.png
 
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Andrei8 said:
Lol.
I'm new to this forum but pretty active on many other and as far as I know, off-topic isn't a good thing.
But if nobody has a problem with this yet, no, we don't have vampires here in Romania :)

I could tell you a really nice story but not here, maybe in a PM if you like.

However, it all started when a medieval ruler, Vlad Tepes (The Impaler) started playing pool with the Otomans making them his OBs.
Click to expand...

Andrei, sometimes off-topic or a small hi-jack is the only way to make fun of ourselves for debating the intricacies of a sport as if no other topic in the universe really was of any consequence. If you have a good story and somehow, even remotely connected to pool then fire a way.

How about this: Vlade (the impaler)( who by the way played for the L.A. Lakers) walked into the Forum Bar with a three-legged pig. He went over to the pool table to put his quarter in when an an automan from a local garage walked in. .....well Andrei, feel free to finish the story.

And welcome to the Forum. By the way,do you us CTE? If you truly want impaled , answer that question. :welcome:
 
Scott Lee said:
[...] If someone [...] tells him what the exit angle is to the pocket, he would just have to line up on that angle.
Click to expand...

That SOMEONE is usually the player himself.

He personally would not have to be able to see the pocket.
Click to expand...

I doubt anyone in this poll regardless of answer they chose thinks a player has to see the pocket while shooting. I think all would agree that someone could cover up the pocket when the payer is ready to shoot.

Answering YES in this poll is a far more extraordinary act than that! It's the outrageous statement that a player can know the exit angle ACCURATELY without knowing where the pocket is ACCURATELY. I have no clue how someone can say this. It's the same information
 
Andrei8 said:
But if nobody has a problem with this yet, no, we don't have vampires here in Romania :).
Click to expand...
I'm much more likely to believe in vampires than believing that you can always shoot at center pocket without first knowing where center pocket is. :thumbup:
 
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