JB Cases said:
I, for one, am glad to see top level players weighing in on the subject and WISH that they had done it much sooner. We have top level players here like you and Shawn Putnam, Danny Harriman, John Schmidt and Corey Harper, and others.
The thing is that you are aware that most people on this site want to be better players. So we try to find what works.
Instead of going over the validity, claims, counter-claims, and so on I just have some questions for you that only top players can answer.
1. When you aim how do you do it?
2. If you can remember back to when you began learning this game were you taught how to aim? If so what did they teach you? [QUOTE/]
JB, you make some very good points. I would prefer not to dwell on my accomplishments, but on those I've tried to emulate. I have been more fortunate than most, to have seen the best, at their best. My association with them has elevated my game over the years, to the point where I have a level of confidence that is (was) unshakable. Sure, I've missed balls I should have made, I've missed many game balls for the cash. That is not a sin, it better prepares you for the next time it comes up.
My whole point in this thread is not to discourage the beginner, but to try and point him in a more benificial direction.
Learn the basics. If you think aiming systems will help you, go for it! But I know from experience that there is no "magic bullet". Once you learn the basics of pool, you either have the drive and desire to excell, or you don't.
It ain't rocket science.(well maybe it seems like it) You will need a certain amount of hand/eye coordination, and a good dose of guts and competetive spirit to overcome the competition you will encounter.
Some have it some don't. But don't think its like learning how to dance, its much tougher than that.
Dick
I think my wife, the ballet dancer, would disagree with you that learning pool is tougher then learning to dance
No one is claiming that an aiming system is a magic bullet. However I ask you again what are "the basics" as pertains to aiming? I have lots of guts and determination and "heart" - just ask Dave "12 Squared" Gross. How does that competitive spirit make up for the fact that I am lining up wrong on a lot of my shots, or compensating wrong?
I have great coordination - I was a high diver diving off of 1ft square platforms 90ft in the air into 9ft of water inside of an 18ft circle - in between two diving boards. Still I spent most of my pool playing days missing a lot of shots that I thought were dead.
After Hal I started making a lot more of them and had more success. My stroke was still fishy, I still jumped up a lot but not as much as before thank to another habit I developed to help me stay down - I still twist my body a little trying to add body english but not quite as much.
For whatever reason Hal's aiming system clicked with me and it works and I make more balls, and particularly more "tough" shots.
I also use a technique Jimmy Reid showed me in the early 90s in Germany for shooting when the cueball is frozen to the rail or for shooting over other balls. A lot of times when I use it and players see me nail a tough shot they ask me why I did what I did. Before Jimmy showed me this technique then my percentage of making shots where the CB is frozen was quite erratic at best. Now it's at least 50% maybe a little better.
Now, again I am not asking about your accomplishments.
I will repeat the questions for the last time and if you don't want to answer them then that's fine but please don't Palinize me by ignoring them and talking about things I haven't asked you.
1. When you aim how do you do it?
2. If you can remember back to when you began learning this game were you taught how to aim? If so what did they teach you?
I don't see how you are pointing the beginner in a more beneficial direction by stating things like it just to be there for a person to get good, and persistence and guts are the key.
You state that you are not interested in teaching a person how to stroke, aim, or any of the basics, yet you want to keep them away from those that do. You won't define what those basics are or what you think the proper way to teach them is just that no one who teaches a "system" will be teaching your grandkids. What about Buddy Hall's Clock System for applying spin?
http://www.cuesight.com/redvbh.html
Is he qualified to teach your grandkids?
Is CJ Wiley not good enough?
How about Joe Tucker, he has taken down lots of champions, is he placed on the "do not train" list as well?
I know you can dab it - that's clear - but to imply that those who attest to the merits of these "aiming systems" are deluding themselves is a bit ridiculous. Some very smart people who can actually play a little have put some mental effort into these things and have found them acceptable to teach.
You told Steve (Pooltchr) that he has a lot to learn about pool if he thinks that there are only two things that affect whether a shot will be missed or not. That may or may not be true, what Steve said or what you said, but one thing is perfectly clear - if you don't have the right line then the prettiest stroke, the most guts, tons of heart, and pure determination are NOT going to help you to make a ball when you are out of line.
Good and great players learn to lock onto that line by whatever means they can. They see it as they are waking to the table. SOME people however have a harder time of it and although they can see it for the most part sometimes they have a disconnect between the path they see standing up and the path they lay the cue down on. Call it perception, dominant eye, left brain illusion, whatever you want to call it, but it happens and you know it happens.
A lot of these players are the ones who plateau and you think "Harry will never get any better". And then they learn a new way to approach the shot and suddenly what they see standing up connects with what they see bending down and sure enough they get better.
What is WRONG with that?
