aiming low on warm up strokes

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bizzy

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Hallo everyone!

Everytime I watch some great players like Reyes, Bustamante, Strickland and others I wonder why do they aim with the cue so low and sometimes low left and sometimes low right even when they hit the cue ball dead center! Someone told me it's a specific aiming system. Is this true? How does it work?
 
hey -- good question... i've always wondered that too!
curios to see what comes up...
 
bizzy said:
Hallo everyone!

Everytime I watch some great players like Reyes, Bustamante, Strickland and others I wonder why do they aim with the cue so low and sometimes low left and sometimes low right even when they hit the cue ball dead center! Someone told me it's a specific aiming system. Is this true? How does it work?
Click to expand...

Itz magic, brotha... MAGIC!! j/j

I have been a recipiant of doing this and the main reason that this occurs is to find their aiming point. 'Nuff said there... more information and the CIA will haunt me... Boooo!!! :p
 
Many players find aiming low makes it easier to find the center of the cueball. As for Bustamante aiming off center, he does that because of an anamoly of his stroke. His plane alignment is off kilter, so he delivers the cue right of where he addresses the cueball. His "center" is the left side of the cueball.
 
I asked basically the same question in a thread a few months ago.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=39672

Here is a summary of the answers; not in any order.

1. Some people who do it, don't realize that they do and don't know why. Others know they do it. But, again, they don't know why.
2. It is an aiming method - one of which is to find the exact center of the cue ball by where it touches the table.
3. It is an aiming method where you don't want to aim at the center of the cue ball.
3. It is some other aiming method that was not elaborated on.
4. It helps when you make the actual stroke to more consistently draw the ball better or hit where you actually aim.
 
It's easier to find the center by aiming at the darkest shadow at the bottom of the cb.
It makes it easier to see the hit or the ghost ball.
I think.
Santos and Efren are a little strange b/c they change tip location on the LAST stroke.
 
bizzy said:
Someone told me it's a specific aiming system.
Click to expand...
At the very bottom of the cue ball, the center line touches the table. This allows you to find the center of the cue ball so that your brain can calculate how much english you will be applying. Placing the tip of the cue at this low point (where the cue ball actually contacts the felt) is what many people refer to "centering." It is a technique often taught to students that have a tendency to hit one side of the cue ball consistently due to their head placement. I.e., those people who think they are hitting the center of the cue ball (due to misperception of their eyes) when they are actually a tip off to one side.

-td
 
I had an old timer once tell me he did it so people watching couldn't learn what he was doing as quickly.:rolleyes:
 
bizzy said:
Hallo everyone!

Everytime I watch some great players like Reyes, Bustamante, Strickland and others I wonder why do they aim with the cue so low and sometimes low left and sometimes low right even when they hit the cue ball dead center! Someone told me it's a specific aiming system. Is this true? How does it work?
Click to expand...

Not always low. Watch Danny Basavich. He cues over the cueball and then comes back down on his final stroke.
There is also a link to a video with Efren in here somewhere which clearly shows he is aimed off center(left) and then comes back to center on his final stroke.

Different strokes for different folks :)
 
I just did a reply & it went into the middle of this thread...Halloween haunts.
Also minutes ago...I sent one pm & it said I had to wait 10693 seconds before sending another pm...I know you have to wait 1 minute...but 10693 seconds?:eek:
 
I think, when watching players that use this technique, it's important to see what else they may have in common. Efren, along with every other player I can think of that does this, tends to have an unusually loose grip on the cue. This would kind of make sense since gripping the cue would raise the tip. It might be their way of staying relaxed but then again, I'm only speculating.
 
dont know

bizzy said:
Hallo everyone!

Everytime I watch some great players like Reyes, Bustamante, Strickland and others I wonder why do they aim with the cue so low and sometimes low left and sometimes low right even when they hit the cue ball dead center! Someone told me it's a specific aiming system. Is this true? How does it work?
Click to expand...


dont know why they do it or how it works but if your in the dfw area of texas you should watch fat ralph play somtime. it is the most pronounced example of what you are talking about i have ever seen. if he is hitting top english his practice strokes are into the felt at the bottom of the ball, if he is hitting bottom english his practice strokes are into the felt about two or three inches in front of the ball...........have heard that he is no champion on an 8 or 9 foot table but almost every champion i talked to up there say he is ( or was at one time ) virtually unbeatable on a bar box......
 
bizzy, thanks for posting this thread. I've often wondered the same thing; i.e., why so many good player aim low on practice strokes. I think td873's explanation makes a lot of sense and during my next practice session, I'm going to see how this works for me.
 
On the Run said:
bizzy, thanks for posting this thread. I've often wondered the same thing; i.e., why so many good player aim low on practice strokes. I think td873's explanation makes a lot of sense and during my next practice session, I'm going to see how this works for me.
Click to expand...

It is called hitting accross the ball. Many do it. Why? Most are afraid of aiming at the middle of the cue ball. They feel they are shooting half a shot.

Learning to play from the middle of the cue ball is near torture for many GOOD players. As Buddy once said, "in a bad position and need help, go see the middle of the cue ball".
 
Just another observation:

Has anyone ever noticed that the players who do this also have a "pump" or "violin" stroke. These 2 elements seem to be synonomous (sp?), otherwise aiming straight at the felt or cb/felt contact point with a dead straight stroke would almost be impossible to execute.
 
I am kind of opposite and people think it is weird. I line up pretty close to hitting middle ball and on my final stroke I hit what english I want to use. Just the way I learned from being a middle ball ball making 8ball player to playing 9ball on the big tables. People always ask "How can you get so much draw and english on the cueball hitting it in the middle all the time", I just say "I got a good stroke". They see the slow warm up strokes and where the tip stops prior to the cueball, not where I actually hit the ball on the shot. :rolleyes:
 
bizzy said:
Hallo everyone!

Everytime I watch some great players like Reyes, Bustamante, Strickland and others I wonder why do they aim with the cue so low and sometimes low left and sometimes low right even when they hit the cue ball dead center! Someone told me it's a specific aiming system. Is this true? How does it work?
Click to expand...

I heard a qoute fro Busta say "I can see more of the ball" I believe he shoots with BHE.
 
On the Bert kinister deflection tape he talks about this. They line up and then on the last stroke apply the english.
 
Just go straight backwards and forwards!

With all due respect to the number of great players that do it, I would strongly recommend against trying to learn this technique or incorporating it in your game. Like most machines, the more moving parts there are in your stroke, the more chances there are for it to break down. Although I acknowledge that cueing at the bottom of the ball allows you to see more of the cue ball (thus one reason why in general, many people have less accuracy on follow shots than on center or draw), the best practice is simply to determine where you're going to hit the cue ball and then stroke straight backwards and forwards through that particular spot. It may take more work to get this down, but your game will be more fundamentally solid.

In the end, I've found that the two greatest things that hold player's development back are lack of knowledge and failure to improve their mechanics. For most players, I believe, the best thing is to straighten out the stroke instead of relying on pump handle strokes and last second stroke corrections.
 
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