Contact Point Aiming Illusion

[boogieman]

I look at angles. I do look at the cotactt point but I primarily look at the angle where the line from the pocket extends through the object ball and the angle of my entire cue stick to that line. It’s hard to explain but what you’re doing is setting up your cue stick to the intersection of that line from the pocket. Too much emphasis is put on the cue tip and not the entire cue stick

Good description. I think I do something quite similar. There's no way I can describe everything, but about the cue on the shot line, I try to "feel" it as I'm getting into the shot. I may do a few strokes in the air while up to help get a feel. Once down, I'll do a couple feather strokes to confirm that I really did get down on the line. The feather strokes should not waver. You can do a slight adjustment while down, but unless it's absolutely minuscule, I'm much better off getting up and resetting.

That line of the stick is super important. Being off of that line is also why you see such strange strokes in people or feel them in yourself. It's common for players to be off line a bit and try to steer or swoop the cue into a straight path. The oddball strokes that you wonder "why did I hit it like that" often come from your subconscious actually trying to drive the cue on a straight trajectory when it's off line. Much less adapting and risk of error when the stick is straight to begin with. Feathering tells you a lot of info if you pay attention.