Aiming System revisted

pete lafond said:
Most top poolpayers I know find the spot on the OB to the pocket and use feel to get the CB to that spot. Never saw a top pool player yet that does not lock onto the spot of the OB. Pay attention to their eyes as they pull the trigger.

It's all experience in my opinion. There is nothing magical that gets you there fast. Most players I have seen proposing systems can only run a few racks and lack CB feel.

Black Widow actually practices looking at rounded objects at times when not playing and picking out the tiniest spots.

Just my opinion.

Exactly...I look at the spot on the OB that is directly opposite of the pocket...that's my aiming system and from there I let experience and feel for the shot take it from there....
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Originally Posted by TheConArtist
Hey Koop, i have been chatting with Ron V. going over his system and i must say i can see some good things from it. Just thought i would let you know Bro.


Koop said:
By all accounts he is one of the VERY best. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Koop


Who is Ron V and whats his system all about?
 
JasonDevanney said:
Originally Posted by TheConArtist
Hey Koop, i have been chatting with Ron V. going over his system and i must say i can see some good things from it. Just thought i would let you know Bro.





Who is Ron V and whats his system all about?

Ron Vitello out of New York. He teaches the pivot or swivel method of aiming.
 
CaptainJR said:
What I'm saying here is that I'm wondering if people believing in playing by feel and people not believing in playing by feel are really talking about the same thing. Are we talking before the shot, during the stroke, at impact or some particular combination of these.

To me, this is the gist of the entire conversation. No matter if you know the particular name of a system is moot. What isn't moot is the fact that playing by feel only relates to playing shape. Aiming or playing by sight is used to pocket balls.

In response to Jal and I'll leave it at this because it appears we could go on forever and get nowhere with regards to this.

Jal said:
I think this is semantics.
Probably so since one of the definitions of semantics is: "loosely, deliberate, distortion or twisting of meaning".
Jal said:
I aim by feel, memory, judgement...whatever you want to call it. That is, my eyes tell me where I am aiming, but experience (aka feel/memory/judgement) tells me if I'm aiming in the right direction. This is as opposed to using a ghostball or some other explicit geometry. The same with position.
You aim by guesswork, foggy memory, and sometimes incorrect judgement at times, correct? If that statement wasn't true, you would make 100% of all shots.

Jal said:
When people use the term "feel", they mean, generally speaking, that they are not employing any conscious system. As with any skill, these things get assigned to the subconscious with repetition. This process can even be seen with PET scans.

Jim

When people use the term "feel" they mean, generally speaking, that they are not employing any conscious system which is known to them by name or procedure. Usually their knowledge base is extremely small and limited in scope regarding the subject, therefore they just throw in a universal "catch word" that is fairly meaningless and non-transferable. How many different aiming systems would you be able to identify by name, explain to someone else in finite detail, and know how to perfectly execute at the table for exhibition purposes with another person or use when playing? What if #26 or #33 would make more balls than you ever realized could be made accurately far beyond guesswork, memory, and judgement but you just didn't know that they existed between #4 to #50? Would you be interested in learning them and using it if they made your pocketing sky rocket?

How many chess moves and gambits are there by name or number that are learned and employed by the Grand Masters which would destroy a player with none of this knowledge in a matter of minutes that played solely by "feel or intuition"?

Kind regards,
Koop
 
Koop said:
To me, this is the gist of the entire conversation. No matter if you know the particular name of a system is moot. What isn't moot is the fact that playing by feel only relates to playing shape. Aiming or playing by sight is used to pocket balls.

Disagree, At impact I feel the direction of the cue ball as well as the speed and the spin. So feel is not restricted to position.
 
When most players are in the zone, they play by feel. Playing by feel is natural, and anyone with enough talent will enjoy the highest performances of their life, based on feel. Playing well by feel indeed helps the mind and they work as one.
 
CaptainJR said:
Disagree, At impact I feel the direction of the cue ball as well as the speed and the spin. So feel is not restricted to position.

Last post for me on this because obviously it could go on forever but I would like you to clarify something for me.

How do you FEEL the direction of the shot? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Speed and spin, yes, but direction?
 
Koop said:
How do you FEEL the direction of the shot? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Speed and spin, yes, but direction?

You recognise when the cue is pointing in just the right direction. There is, by definition, only one correct direction for any shot, all other possible permutations being wrong, and equally recognisably so. Does that make more sense? That's feel.

I can't tell you which synapses are firing at the time, but I can guarantee it's an ability we all share if we allow ourselves to trust it. I'm sure a ZX Spectrum could have worked out the correct angles to pot a ball. But a supercomputer would struggle to compute how to make a wobbling bag of jelly keep it's feet when it slips on a blob of custard. Your brain does that calculation instantly, accelerating the flailing arms and feet to the required positions needed instinctively. Don't you think it can recognise instinctively how to pot a simple ball?


Boro Nut
 
Koop said:
....How do you FEEL the direction of the shot? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Speed and spin, yes, but direction?
As you said in an earlier post, the word "feel" is ambiguous and can mean many things. "Judgement" is better, but "feel" is short and sweet.

I believe you can and do feel the direction of the cue. It's called "proprioception". It's the sense that tells you how your body is oriented in space. Since there's a lot of distance between your bridge and grip hands, if your brain knows where these are positioned relative to each other, it can then figure out where your cue is pointing to a pretty high degree of accuracy, I think. In fact, I believe I rely on it just as much if not more than eyesight to establish the direction of the cue. My eyes, more or less, just report where my bridge hand, the tip, and the object ball are located.

It's kind of hard to know what's really taking place deep in one's noggin. When you try to think about it while setting up for a shot, you're doing something other then aiming. :)

Jim
 
Koop said:
Last post for me on this because obviously it could go on forever but I would like you to clarify something for me.

How do you FEEL the direction of the shot? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Speed and spin, yes, but direction?


The analogy that comes to mind is quick draw competitions. I use to dabble in this years ago. You shoot a pistol from the hip. The pistol is not even in your peripheral vision but you feel where it is pointing and hit the target.

I can feel the relationship between the cue stick and my hands and know where it is pointing. At impact I can usually tell if I hit the cue ball the way I meant to or not. I know if I have missed or made the shot without even watching the result. But I do watch hoping that I get lucky LOL. You have probably felt that yourself. You hit it and immediately know that it didn't 'feel' like it should have, to pocket the ball. You say "shit" before the cue ball goes 2 inches because you know you hit it wrong. One thing I must work on is not moving away from a shot to quickly when it feels right. The swing can feel so right coming toward the cue ball that you are already coming away from the shot before you hit the cue ball. Anyone ever heard of or done that? Yup, we all have. "Coming up on the shot" The result is a miss.

Don't get me wrong Koop. We are not in that much disagreement here. I'm not one of these folks that say "play by feel" or "I don't use an aiming system". I know where I want the cue ball to hit the object ball every time I attempt a shot. The feel comes into play when accomplishing this. If I have played that shot often enough I automatically know where that contact point is and don't have to consciously think about it, but I know it is there! There is no way that a decent, good or great player will ever convince me that they don't aim or all they do is shoot by feel. They aim at where they want the cue ball to go. And they know where they want the cue ball to be when it hits the object ball.
 
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CaptainJR said:
Don't get me wrong Koop. We are not in that much disagreement here. I'm not one of these folks that say "play by feel" or "I don't use an aiming system". I know where I want the cue ball to hit the object ball every time I attempt a shot. The feel comes into play when accomplishing this. If I have played that shot often enough I automatically know where that contact point is and don't have to consciously think about it, but I know it is there! There is no way that a decent, good or great player will ever convince me that they don't aim or all they do is shoot by feel. They aim at where they want the cue ball to go. And they know where they want the cue ball to be when it hits the object ball.


Follow up…..

Maybe it is just a matter or pride LMAO. When I said above "They aim at where they want the cue ball to go. And they know where they want the cue ball to be when it hits the object ball." No matter how much they think they are playing by feel, they must know where they want to cue ball to be when it hits the object ball. Maybe they just don't want to admit that they are using the baby aiming method, the "ghost ball". That is what it is called when you aim simply by knowing where you want the cue ball to be when it hits the object ball.:D
 
gromulan said:
Aiming systems are mostly crap. They may be worthwhile in theory but in practice the only way to play is to figure out the place on the object ball you want the cueball to hit and then make it go there. Of the two, the second part is the tricky bit :)

I tell students it's a little like competitive target shooting. Any numbskull can figure out how to aim a gun, making the bullet go where you aim it is a whole other thing. That's why they give Olympic medals for it.

If you are missing shots it's about 99% likely that it's not because of how you're aiming, but rather the result of not making the cue ball go where you aim.
I totally agree with this statement!
After years of playing pool I now understand why most of the shots are missed. Aiming is very simple for most of the people (some use a certain system others play by feel). The hardest thing is to deliver the cue ball to hit the object ball exactly where you want. This is hard because when you hit the cueball you don't look at it and if you don't have good fundamentals you can't have a streight shot.
I understood that when i found why I miss easy shots. The problem wasn't aiming but my shot .
I'm a very tall player (6' 8ft) and the 58 inch cue I played 5 years was the problem! It was to short for me. This is the answer at 99% of my missed shots. The proper cue for me is a 67 inch cue!
For every player that is taller than 5' 11 ft the 58 inch cue is the problem for them.
 
laser2507 said:
When most players are in the zone, they play by feel. Playing by feel is natural, and anyone with enough talent will enjoy the highest performances of their life, based on feel. Playing well by feel indeed helps the mind and they work as one.


Everyone aims or otherwise you will miss most shots. How you aim is your aiming system. When in a zone, your aiming is in autopilot.

As mentioned earlier, aiming is motionless and deals with what you intend to do to make the shot. Feel is used when executing your shot. Two different things here.
 
pete lafond said:
Everyone aims or otherwise you will miss most shots. How you aim is your aiming system. When in a zone, your aiming is in autopilot.

As mentioned earlier, aiming is motionless and deals with what you intend to do to make the shot. Feel is used when executing your shot. Two different things here.

Tap Tap Tap. Today i was working on aiming half ball, shish ka bob, and small ball all in one step and the balls were just dropping. Can't put it in words but i was using all these system as a one aiming system together and i think i finally have my aiming system. For those who shoot with a aiming system(s) have you tried doing it this way?
 
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