I am on my 7th day of CTE. After watching Stan's video several times I hit the table and started practicing.
Day 1: Confident I understood CTE but once I hit the table I obviously didn't
Day 2: Started to think I would just give up on it but I did make a few balls
Day 3: I started to make about half the shots and redoing my misses until I figured out the correct pivot
Day 4: The day it "clicked' in my brain. I started to really visualize my lines, slide into position, pivot and like magic the balls slammed into the backs of pockets.
Day 5: Concentrating on making balls, not worrying about position.
Day 6: Shooting 9 ball and working on position, bit of a struggle since I am used to extreme outside/inside english but I am running 4 to 6 balls. I start to add a little backhand swerve to move the CB around.
Day 7: Combination of CTE and backhand swerve only when I really need it. Running a few racks now and then, making more shots than I miss.
I've been hitting balls around 4 hours a day.
The thing I like most about CTE is when I am down on a shot and locked in I absolutely know the ball is going into the pocket. It's not 95 percent sure due to 30 years of experience. It's 100 percent sure if I chose the correct angle out of 3 possibilities, pivoted correctly and stroke through center the ball has to go... it has no choice.
Another strength of CTE so far is the ability to make long cut shots. It's amazing how accurate I am now. I'm talking cue ball stuck to the end rail, object ball past the head spot on the other end. Lock in the shot, stroke through center and the OB ball goes into the heart of the pocket.
The path to an object ball appears to just barely be blocked by another ball. 9 times out of 10 if I ignore the 'blocking' ball and focus on the OB using CTE the cue ball clears the blocker and I make the shot. The reason is that all these years my visual perception tells me the shot won't clear but in reality it will.
CTE removes the subjectivity and perceptual errors of shot making.
The only regret I have regarding CTE is that I didn't implement it when Hal Houle called me in 2004 and told me to get with it.
Day 1: Confident I understood CTE but once I hit the table I obviously didn't
Day 2: Started to think I would just give up on it but I did make a few balls
Day 3: I started to make about half the shots and redoing my misses until I figured out the correct pivot
Day 4: The day it "clicked' in my brain. I started to really visualize my lines, slide into position, pivot and like magic the balls slammed into the backs of pockets.
Day 5: Concentrating on making balls, not worrying about position.
Day 6: Shooting 9 ball and working on position, bit of a struggle since I am used to extreme outside/inside english but I am running 4 to 6 balls. I start to add a little backhand swerve to move the CB around.
Day 7: Combination of CTE and backhand swerve only when I really need it. Running a few racks now and then, making more shots than I miss.
I've been hitting balls around 4 hours a day.
The thing I like most about CTE is when I am down on a shot and locked in I absolutely know the ball is going into the pocket. It's not 95 percent sure due to 30 years of experience. It's 100 percent sure if I chose the correct angle out of 3 possibilities, pivoted correctly and stroke through center the ball has to go... it has no choice.
Another strength of CTE so far is the ability to make long cut shots. It's amazing how accurate I am now. I'm talking cue ball stuck to the end rail, object ball past the head spot on the other end. Lock in the shot, stroke through center and the OB ball goes into the heart of the pocket.
The path to an object ball appears to just barely be blocked by another ball. 9 times out of 10 if I ignore the 'blocking' ball and focus on the OB using CTE the cue ball clears the blocker and I make the shot. The reason is that all these years my visual perception tells me the shot won't clear but in reality it will.
CTE removes the subjectivity and perceptual errors of shot making.
The only regret I have regarding CTE is that I didn't implement it when Hal Houle called me in 2004 and told me to get with it.
Last edited: