Im a little bit of a pool nut/geek and what I wanted to talk about is something that has been wrongly discredited by what I would call esoteric knowledge builders who oftentimes say things that are correct but have little to no value to you as a player and is completely the wrong way to play this game. People such as Bob Jewett and Dr Dave do fall into this category and your both in your own right intelligent people however you just don't know how to play the game, im sorry im just trying to be honest as it is how I feel when I read your stuff online and here on these forums which I've read for a long time. This is my first post and I feel like participating in this discussion with anyone that is willing.
Now I'm going to explain how you use this as a process to getting better at potting in pool in the real world so it makes perfect sence to you and
I'll explain to you what the Full Ball, 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 ball Fractional Ball Aiming technique really is.
Imagine your Joe x., he's a low down league player who can kinda cue in a straight line with enough precision where he has the accuracy to pot the easy balls but can't pot a ball if his life depended on it just because he doesn't know where to aim.
First thing he needs to do is shoot every cut angle as a 1/4 1/2 or 3/4 balls. He makes the decision up high before he shots perhaps visualising with a ghost ball technique as to which he thinks is closest until he knows where these references shots go. Sure his game is going to go down as this obviously is not enough angles, nobody is disputing this but what he's learning is basically reference points. He needs to do this for a few months until he learns exactly where the OB is going with all of these reference points as well as he does Full Ball. Even an idiot isn't going to cut the OB on the wrong side because the full ball straight reference line is there and its intuitively and empirically obvious. The same goes for these other hits if you learn them.
At this point the player will recognise if one of these reference points is totally on or whether he has to play within a zone. He has improved his accuracy to within the quarters of the object ball. He has gotten that much better and chances are he'll be potting the easy to medium difficulty shots consistantly. When he needs to improve his aiming again and he can do the same process to divide the hits into eighths with the added bonus that his game won't go down quite as far as it did the first time through.
It also allows you in practice to set up your reference shot and just control cue ball speed and spin so much better as you'll have a mental register from your reference shots of how the cue ball reacts to that cut angle. Even knowing and acknowledging these reference cut angles burned into your memory, you'll start seeing the cue ball deflection angle in your mind and your position game will get that much better too. A player should do this primarily with the full ball, 7/8, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 shots. Theres basically six shots you need to master all around the table to be amazing at position. You got to ask yourself questions like, if I hit this a 1/2 tip above center what happens.
Thats how you play pool, not some vague ghost ball visualisation which is intuitive guessing when your down on your shot. Pretty soon you don't even have to think about it - you know the shot or the zone and you let your mind do its thing to concentrate on other matters like position and speed.
From this point, the player should be pretty good by now and be getting a little respect in his pool hall, can then move from vertical ball striking now he has the ability to keep the ball in line without english so he doesn't need to use side on the cue ball to get it to do what he needs it to do if he is clever enough to play the correct routes with the correct speed and because he is used to moving in specific amounts this ability will also help him learn to adjust for the deflection when he does have to hit those shots that needs side spin.
Man, guys like Bob Jewett and Dr Dave (sorry just using you guys as the classic example) are just so out of touch of reality. I mean for crying out loud nobody is saying there is only three cut angles, one of which will line up to the pocket yet you created that strawman arguement to back up your opinion without even understanding what it is you were critiquing.
This is what is written in pool magazine
"#12 ranked Nesli O'Hare explains
what she was taught. "The technique I use
was taught to me by Efren Reyes.
According to Efren, there are three kinds
of hits on any object ball. First, there's
looking at the center of cue ball to the
point of aim if the shot is a full ball hit. If
not, you can divide the object ball into four
quarters, sighting your cue ball edge to the
point of aim"
Now if Efren Reyes is saying this, you should listen. You must realise when it comes to playing this game in comparision to him you are a school boy and when he says something, you have to listen. Do you seriously think that someone of Efren Reyes class and intelligence thinks there is only three cut angles, one of which will line up to the pocket???? I mean by your actions, you think your better than Efren Reyes for critiquing things he says and you use strawman arguements to achieve this. Let me tell you this, Efren Reyes would wipe the floor with you on the pool table every day of the week and twice on sundays. You don't even put the effort in to understand. Get a grip and get a reality check... You want to be working out what the best players are doing... not your over-theoretical hogwash.
Thanks - I got that out my system
been wanting to write this for months.
