Cosmic Aiming

[Poolshark719]

Tangent lines!

I draw an imaginary line from the object ball to the pocket and the pocket to the object ball and focus on the point of the object ball with the cue ball.
Also, the diamond system works for bank and carom shots.

 

[drivermaker]

O.K. Doomsy...I got a little rest so let me try to address some of the things you said one by one. First of all I think the first 3 words, "I totally disagree" will become your mantra regarding ANYTHING I say between now and eternity, so let's face reality on that. And I agree, there are many people that play pool and have never been told about aiming systems, but how good are they and how effectively do they play? They may in fact have stumbled onto an aiming system on their own and thought that it was their own invention that was going to revolutionize pool, however, it was probably written about decades ago. Jennifer Barretta discussed in her ask the pro site about discovering the ghost ball system on her own and how it allowed her to just see the shot to aim it. She didn't invent it, it already existed. Submit something to the patent office that you want to bring to the marketplace and you'll soon see after doing a search that there were probably 1,000 more before you with many being much better.

Golf, like pool, at the highest level is a game of feel. Superfluous thoughts about positions, angles, stroke, swing, etc. are certainly potential destroyers of a shot during the execution. You can't have that crap floating through your mind in golf OR pool. However, AIMING, ALIGNMENT, and SETTING UP properly prior to the shot is a CONSCIOUS and CALCULATED EXECUTION prior to each shot by all professional golfers. THEY ARE METICULOUS ABOUT AIMING ON EVERY SHOT AND THE PROCESS. All you have to do is watch it on TV to see how long they take on EACH shot to aim and line up properly. Some even have their caddies stand behind them to verify if they're aimed correctly to the target prior to their full swing or putting stroke. AIMING correctly gives you the confidence to make a confident and relaxed motion through the ball because knowing that is one LESS thing to consider or worry about. I could walk you through it as done by the pro's, but this is about pool. Let me know if you're a golfer.

As far as music goes, I'm not a musician, Capt JR is and maybe you are too. But aren't the 12 notes telling you what to AIM for? If you were trying to play one of Beethoven's Concerto's and had the music score for it, wouldn't you be AIMING to hit those notes? It's something there for you to see...It's how to DO it without trying to reinvent the wheel on your own and trying to create or duplicate his particular method of getting that concerto to come out correctly. If you didn't have that music score to AIM for, you'd probably NEVER discover it on your own. Stevie Ray Vaughan was a great musician that didn't know how to read music, he played by ear and feel. I love Stevie Ray Vaughan's music...but that doesn't mean that what he played was totally different than anything else on Earth. The fact that HE couldn't identify what he was doing based on notes, doesn't mean that nobody else couldn't identify what he was doing. A trained musician versed in writing could just take Stevie's music, put it down on paper after carefully listening to it and identify each and every note that he was playing so that others could also do it. And it all came back to those same 12 notes that you mentioned, that's it. There weren't 20 million...just 12. (or somewhere around that).

You're supposed to be a writer/instructor/pro? in pool, how would you instruct a newbie in the game to set up, align, and aim either the balls, their cue, or paths to the pocket to pot a ball? Surely you would have SOMETHING to say on the subject other than..."Well, hit that ball over there with a stripe on it with this white ball and let's see what happens when you try to get it in the pocket. If you miss and it doesn't go in, we'll just try again".

I'm not sorry...pay backs are a bitch for a long post. (Phewww...I'm plumb tuckered out again...I'm getting too old for this shit)

 

[chefjeff]

There seems to be some confusion here between "aiming" and "set-up."

Aiming occurs before set-up. Set-up is the physical positioning of the body/cue in relation to the aim. Therefore, aiming must ocur before set-up.

Now, one aims while in the set-up position, but only after one has first thought through where/how to aim.

Perhaps we need to break it down into these two catagories first, then come back to the exact "aiming" styles we each possess.

Jeff Livingston

 

[Jon]

There seems to be some confusion here between "aiming" and "set-up."

Aiming occurs before set-up. Set-up is the physical positioning of the body/cue in relation to the aim. Therefore, aiming must ocur before set-up.

Now, one aims while in the set-up position, but only after one has first thought through where/how to aim.

Perhaps we need to break it down into these two catagories first, then come back to the exact "aiming" styles we each possess.

Jeff Livingston

Good idea Jeff,

I knew a guy that would "set up" or "get down" on a shot (whichever) straight on the ball, as if it was a straight in shot. Then he would just move his back arm to the correct angle, and fire away. And he runs out that way. It's weird to me, but everybody is different.

I think you should have everything figured out before you get down on the shot, then all you have to worry about is giving a good stroke....

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Stretch]

Good idea Jeff,

I knew a guy that would "set up" or "get down" on a shot (whichever) straight on the ball, as if it was a straight in shot. Then he would just move his back arm to the correct angle, and fire away. And he runs out that way. It's weird to me, but everybody is different.

I think you should have everything figured out before you get down on the shot, then all you have to worry about is giving a good stroke....

Thanks,

Jon

Absolutely Jon! As the saying goes "do all your thinking standing up". St

 

[thirtyeyes]

I knew a guy that would "set up" or "get down" on a shot (whichever) straight on the ball, as if it was a straight in shot. Then he would just move his back arm to the correct angle, and fire away. And he runs out that way. It's weird to me, but everybody is different. Jon

I do it that way for shots that are within a certain cone. I use a different pre-shot routine for cut shots. I guess I use two aiming systems.

I don't think that the top pros use aiming systems per se. I think they have a pre-shot routine and once they are down they let it rip.

When you are very good at something you just know how to do it without conscious thought. An aiming system, in my opinion, resides in your conscious thought processes. When you ask the pros what aiming system they use they might tell you what system they used when learning the game, but I doubt they are still applying the aiming system. At that level it is all in the subconscious. I would also conjecture that the only thing on their minds is where the cueball needs to go.

 

[LastTwo]

Trying to send the cueball to a certain spot on the object ball is aiming, and it is a system, therefore it is an aiming system. The simplest form of aiming is defined as an aiming system. Even when you play by feel, you are still trying to send the cueball to the point on an object ball you are aiming at. I play completely by feel, but the way I aim is still a system. I hope this clears things up. When I first started playing, someone taught me an aiming system which is supposedly a "secret". I used it, and once my mechanics became grooved, it worked. This taught me to play by feel, and although I do, subconciously I still use the system without even realizing it.

 

[drivermaker]

Trying to send the cueball to a certain spot on the object ball is aiming, and it is a system, therefore it is an aiming system. The simplest form of aiming is defined as an aiming system. Even when you play by feel, you are still trying to send the cueball to the point on an object ball you are aiming at. I play completely by feel, but the way I aim is still a system. I hope this clears things up. When I first started playing, someone taught me an aiming system which is supposedly a "secret". I used it, and once my mechanics became grooved, it worked. This taught me to play by feel, and although I do, subconciously I still use the system without even realizing it.

That's exactly right. Everybody that is anti-aiming system that says they don't exist is using an aiming system. YOU HAVE TO AIM to hit a spot on the ball. And it is a known system. It's like throwing darts, sure you can hit the dart board and not miss, but if you're going to throw a triple 20 with multiple darts, you have to really focus and AIM to hit that tiny wired off area. If you aren't AIMING to hit a certain section of the OB, contact point, edge, fraction, or whatever, you're more than likely just a ball banger. Aiming systems eventually become so second nature and ingrained that you really don't think much about a "system" per se, but you MUST aim and focus. When I'm just practicing by myself for long periods of time, I can and do go around the table like Luc Salvas, seemingly without any thought or time taken for the shot. And I also get in the groove where I will run a good number or racks consecutively at any given time.