Aiming depends on stroke...

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King Jehu

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I received some pretty good advice recently. It involved a drill where you line up on mid table, drop the object ball into the side and scratch into the other side. My mentor said that the cue ball needs to roll true with no sidespin. I thought I was doing pretty well until I started using the measle ball. That exposed a sidespin. I increased difficulty by using diagonal corners for the same drill. My table has 3-5/8" pockets so it's great for drills.

This exercise exposed a problem with my stroke. I pulled out the Rempe Practice Ball and started checking every shot. I found that I'm consistently a half to a full tip right. Although my mentor was able to help me find the problem, I'm not sure how to fix it. I've tried figuring it out myself but could use some suggestions.
 
I was placing the cue ball just outside the corner pocket, placing the object ball center between the side pockets. Basically a long shot with the object ball in the middle of the table. I was missing every time until I dropped my line of vision down a few inches. So now my chin is closer to my cue. Still a several inches away. Anyways it seemed to help with my accuracy.
 
I am no pro or trainer but I am going to guess that you line up good initially and even practice stroke pretty good, but when it comes time to actually stroking the ball you are making a subconscience change to the stroke line.

I personally thought I had a good stroke as well until I recorded my self stroking from the view of the object ball with that same cue ball. I now see that I do the exact thing you speak of by having right side spin on almost ever shot and I can see in my stroke how I am not actually going straight back and forth on that final shot no matter how many times I do it well in the practice strokes.

One thing I have tried is to get my line and close me eyes just as I start my last practice stroke away from the cue.
 
King Jehu said:
I received some pretty good advice recently. It involved a drill where you line up on mid table, drop the object ball into the side and scratch into the other side. My mentor said that the cue ball needs to roll true with no sidespin. I thought I was doing pretty well until I started using the measle ball. That exposed a sidespin. I increased difficulty by using diagonal corners for the same drill. My table has 3-5/8" pockets so it's great for drills.

This exercise exposed a problem with my stroke. I pulled out the Rempe Practice Ball and started checking every shot. I found that I'm consistently a half to a full tip right. Although my mentor was able to help me find the problem, I'm not sure how to fix it. I've tried figuring it out myself but could use some suggestions.
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Buy Joe Tucker's Third Eye stroke trainer. It will help you find center cue ball very fast and you can work on how to align to center. It will also tell you if your tip is starting to the right or if you are steering.
 
Well, aiming depends on aiming and stroke depends on a lot of things. First and foremost if it looks like you are hitting centre cue ball, and it looks and feels like you are cueing straight it will most likely be a sighting issue. Having the vision centre off slightly can make you apply anywhere upto a tip and a half of unintended side spin. Check out the 'Ask The Instructor' sub-forum. There is a thread on there about sighting correctly in which I detail and provide a link to a more in depth thread I started on the matter.

Without seeing you play I would then have to assume your alignment isn't quite right. If the elbow and grip aren't both in sync with each other and on the same line...the line of aim...then it adds a slight 'arc' either left to right or right to left into your stroke. Other possible causes can include gripping too lightly or too firm, movement in the head, having a wrist that is too wobbly or having the grip too far back or forward. That's a lot to look out for, so it is easier to just stroke as slow as possible and really pay attention to what the tip is doing. Slow the back swing right down, make a conscious effort of focusing on the tip, pull it back nice and slow and make sure it comes back perfectly straight. Then pause slightly and switch your focus to the OB whilst trying to keep as still as possible then accelerate through the cue ball. If that cures the problem then its your backswing. You aren't pulling the cue back straight. The forward swing is a direct result of what you did on the back swing. Pull back straight and you will cue straight.

Don't have the cue ball following or drawing back from the OB when trying to figure this out. Just hit medium range stop shots firm with the measles ball and this will tell you what your stroke is doing. After you master the stop shots then work on trying to follow the cue ball into a pocket with no side spin.i have a little stroke test of my own I do when I play snooker. Blue on the spot, white in baulk dead straight into the corner and force follow the white into the pocket with the blue. Its a tough tough test of your stroke. My record is 9 in a row. If you can do this 9 times in a pool table you have nothing to worry about with regards to your stroke.
 
King Jehu said:
I received some pretty good advice recently. It involved a drill where you line up on mid table, drop the object ball into the side and scratch into the other side. My mentor said that the cue ball needs to roll true with no sidespin. I thought I was doing pretty well until I started using the measle ball. That exposed a sidespin. I increased difficulty by using diagonal corners for the same drill. My table has 3-5/8" pockets so it's great for drills.

This exercise exposed a problem with my stroke. I pulled out the Rempe Practice Ball and started checking every shot. I found that I'm consistently a half to a full tip right. Although my mentor was able to help me find the problem, I'm not sure how to fix it. I've tried figuring it out myself but could use some suggestions.
Click to expand...

King Jehu,
I think I can help you with this one. It almost sounds as if your dominate eye is different than the arm you stroke with....regardless you are not seeing that you are a bit off. Ive been there and as far as I know there is one way to cure it.

Shoot some straight ins but its the way you shoot them that is the key.
Start at about 4 diamonds of distance from the object ball. Get down on the shot see the ball between the pocket points dont look at the cue ball but try and match the sides of the cue ball to the sides of the object ball, stroke and drive the cue through the cue ball not looking down to check it.

The only time you will look down to see if you are lining up on the cue ball right is at the inception of the shot as you get down shoot straight ins like this making adjustments in what you do. When you stop spinning the ball back up a diamond distance.

I play right handed and Im left eye dominant which can make things a bit tricky on some shots the only thing that will fix that is a bit of repetition. I can shoot one or two and Im back to trusting my instincts. Its easy to line up a bit off when your eye dominance is on the other side from the cue. If you doubt whether or not you lined up straight its a big deal but the fix is easy regardless of what eye you are dominant with.
 
Joe Tucker's third eye IS a great tool that I recommend and I have a few things I add to his use of it that might help.

But you can also line up a perfectly straight shot than place a couple of golf tees just outside the limits of your cue stick for a dead center stroke. Then get down in your stance. If you hit the tee to one side, there are some alignment issues. See this drill by Todd Leveck.
 
Two things:

1. I never want to scratch, not even in practice or drills

2. Joe Tucker's device I think is better than the golf tee thing, but one can still make slight mis hits off center & still put a significant amount of spin on the ball.

Just use a striped ball instead of a cue ball & you'll see the
results & perhaps even start to feel it.

Good Luck with finding the cause & solution.

Best Wishes,
Rick

PS It could be a vision thing, I think everyone should make sure it's not that first. You may want to check out Gene Albrecht's Perfect Aim.
 
English is right--Joe's device will help you learn about your own visioning deficiencies--even if you see 20/20 aiming at white sphere and other spheres can be a challenge bent into your stance...
 
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