Hi,
I think CJ’s TOI system is often conflated with his “Ultimate Aiming System”, which is covered in his instructional videos, but doesn’t seem to be discussed much online. It took me a long time to unpack his stuff, but its arguably a form of CTE also. My take is that his aiming approach is basically a varient of basic 1/8th ball fractional aiming, implemented in a sort of parallel aiming manner, around center CB, like Joe Tucker’s stuff and similar. He indexes to the 1/8th positions (slices), using fractions of tips, always referenced to inside of center CB. The quite unique thing about his approach is that he’s always aligning to only 1 of 2 reference points on the OB; center or edge. Coupled of course with strong fundies, this results in extreme simplification of shot lines, and enables a consistent visual and physical alignment to the balls. The physics of this approach are that the cue tip edge will always be slightly to the inside of the center CB, effectively chipping balls into the pro side of the pocket and the CB takes a very flat/natural path (no side spin), post OB collision. Reducing the visual/mental complexity of the game and boosting consistency are obviously huge things.
Personally, I’ve worked with all variants of CTE (thru pro1, haven’t bothered with latest Center Pocket Music stuff, anything that needs 450 pages to explain is not very widely helpful in my opinion, and the author & sycophants seem pretty unaware of much visual/cognition science that has been prevalent in sports/performance psychology for many years). Anyway, they all work, and quite well, if one fully delves in. CJ’s approach has definitely been the best result for me. One huge thing is that I can teach it easy to my daughter and friends. If one can teach something to kids pretty easily with good results, IMO thats a very good indicator.
Of course any of these approaches are simply tools to get us close & consistent in PSR. Final 1 mm or so of accuracy, personal/table variables when down on the shot, and CB control - will always require huge amount of feel & subjective calibration & personalization.
A few personal notes, on my journey thru aiming systems.
There is an extremely useful & simple (but not intuitive) mathematical relationship between 1/8th ball fractions (assuming 2.25” usa balls), avg cue tip size (12.5 mm) and table diamond system. This connects aiming, spin, and banking in ways that can’t be explained in simple text. And I’m not an instructor or author, and I think some of this stuff can only be gleaned through open minded and rather intense personal deep explorations into these systems dealing with both the right/left brain aspects of the game.
By creating angles on the CB to only 1 of 2 visual objective references on the OB, this brings shaft aiming aspects into the picture also, like SVB apparently uses. Tip fractions aligned to clear, simple objective visual references on both CB & OB, yields some very consistent ways to see, align to, and directly drop onto shot lines. A simple subset of CB/OB visual perceptions, can be built using CTC, CTE, and tip fractions on the CB. This approach can essentially eliminate all the confusion around fine tuning the final alignment & pivoting that most versions of CTE struggle to explain or teach.
I think one of CTE’s most useful components is the concept of primary & secondary visual reference lines (eg CTC, CTE, ETE, ETC) to align our bodies to the CB/OB relationship. These are really very simple derivatives of 1/4 ball fractions, and can be used with any system.
I think one of the biggest struggles with these systems for people new to the concepts is how to recognize the discreet alignment angles which are closest to the actual shotline. CTE guys have their views on this problem. But IMO, Poology is unparalleled, what a great little book of knowledge! However, I see Poology as an explaination of what the angles are and how they work; the mental process involved for using his system is IMO way too complex and ultimately unnecessary. I think the author actually agrees, and sees his approach as more of a “learning system”; eventually a shot library/database is built through experience and its all a non issue. But here again, CJ’s system of using 1 of 2 initial alignmemts (CTC or CTE) then tip fractions on the CB to index into the inside 1/8b fractions to only one of 2 ref points on OB - reduces angle recognition/selection to a super simple, intuitive process. In computer science this is a well known, simple algorithm called binary search.
We all evolve, one way or another (hopefully)? I call my own aiming system “Index CTE” (iCTE), which could roughly be described as 75% CJ’s stuff, 10% CTE Pro One, 10% SVB, 5% Poology.
Hoping for civil discussion not religious/political rants.
Cheers,
p
