Blind shot problem

Myk

dorkfish
Silver Member
I have been away from pool for around 6 years. 6 weeks or so ago, I decided to get back in. I found my stroke to be VERY rusty. With several hours of practice, and jumping in to several tournaments, I have a good bit of my former game back, and even placed second in an eight ball tournament this past Thursday. I pay attention to my results pretty well, and noticed that about 90% of the shots that I miss are the ones where you can't see the pocket when you are aimed up and stroking the shot. It seems I almost cant miss if I can see the pocket in my line of sight. I know I didn't used to have that much problem with those shots, but I don't remember what I need to do to improve now that I seem to have "lost" those shots. Can anyone give me any insight on the problem?
 
I'm not quite sure what you mean, but there is no reason the pocket needs to be a part of your sighting when you are shooting. Once you determine where you need to deliver the cue ball to send the object ball to the pocket, there are only two things you need to be looking at...where your tip is going to contact the cue ball, and where you are aiming the cue ball (your target). Your target is going to be either a place on or very near the object ball, or in the case of a kick shot, a point on the cushion. You aren't shooting at the pocket, you are shooting at your target.

Steve
 
Well, Maybe I'm the only one, or maybe some others know what I mean, but when I'm in stroke and pocketing well, I automatically SEE the line from the pocket through the object ball. Literally in my head the table looks like an instructional diagram in a book. When I get there, I rarely miss any open shot. But now if the pocket is out of sight, I am missing a little less than half of those shots. I was over cutting them consistently, so I assumed I was misreading the necessary angle. So I tried to change my aiming point to correct the problem, and instantly started undercutting them. I am going to the poolhall this afternoon and do the best thing to improve my shortfalls, and thats PRACTICE!
 
There's a lot of information on this system here. I use it on most of my shots, especially on shots where it's hard to see the line. Makes the pocket irrelevant, if you can see the edge correctly and and hit it, the balls go in. For me, it's a paradigm shift in the way I play the game.

CTE Aiming Video
CTE Shot Circle

I have been away from pool for around 6 years. 6 weeks or so ago, I decided to get back in. I found my stroke to be VERY rusty. With several hours of practice, and jumping in to several tournaments, I have a good bit of my former game back, and even placed second in an eight ball tournament this past Thursday. I pay attention to my results pretty well, and noticed that about 90% of the shots that I miss are the ones where you can't see the pocket when you are aimed up and stroking the shot. It seems I almost cant miss if I can see the pocket in my line of sight. I know I didn't used to have that much problem with those shots, but I don't remember what I need to do to improve now that I seem to have "lost" those shots. Can anyone give me any insight on the problem?
 
I checked out the links you posted, and the CTE aiming system looks very interesting. I think I wil have to try that out sometime soon.

One ??? though: Does adding draw, follow, or spin adversely affect this system?
 
Sounds like we see things in a similar way, Myk.

What to do? For me, I don't see the OB as a 2-D object all that well, so the various methods that ask me to do that didn't make the immediate positive impression on me that Joe Tucker's "Aiming by the Numbers" did.

If we do see alike(!), I recommend getting Joe's Aramith CB/OB set for Aiming by the Numbers.

As with a lot of things, one's mileage may vary, but I do know exactly what you're talking about.

Mitch
 
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