Concession:
Sean:
I can't respond to all of your points without several posts. You and both have the capacity to write novellas on any subject we tackle.
So I will condense it to a few points:
1. Snake-Oil: CTE and like systems are wonderful to the person who gets them. Coupled with Backhand English they are, too me, as far from Ghost Ball and Shifted English as one can get on the spectrum of how to aim. It is my opinion that Ghost Ball aiming is inferior to CTE and similar systems. The reason I feel that it is inferior is that I think it is difficult for most people to visualize an imaginary ball sitting in space at the right distance and on the correct line to the pocket. Hence the plethora of ghost ball aim trainers which exist to show people a physical representation of the ghost ball concept.
Thus it is natural for people who have freed themselves from using the ghost ball method and who find great success with CTE and similar systems to be exuberant about it.
So yes, it's inaccurate to claim that CTE WILL improve everyone. Because there is no way to know that. However it's free to learn it so it's not as if someone is out to con people out of money here.
Stan Shuffet includes a version of CTE in his course but it's not even the centerpiece of his course and he doesn't even go into detail on his website about what it is.
So the comments from people that CTE users are acting like snake-oil salesmen is way out of line and uncalled for in my opinion.
2. Perception vs Reality: Because all people have varying degrees of depth perception and dominant eye differences as well as just different visual acuity the reality is that most people "see" things differently than the next person. Cognitive recognition allows people to synchronize what they see with what they know it should be so that they can be on common ground with the person beside them who also sees it differently but knows what is expected.
In a sport like pocket billiards, which is really unlike any other in that one has to use an implement to control two balls with great precision and spin, being able to align oneself to the correct corridor is the number one task because failing that one means that the turn is over.
So it's quite easy for people to get down on a ball using the ghost ball method and say to themselves "I see it, it's perfect," and then they miss, because to them what they see is not perfectly aligned.
Take a system with multiple points though and give that to the same person and suddenly it can bring things into focus much clearer and bring them to the correct corridor. In other words where their perception using ghost ball brings them to a false reality, using a system with multiple points of alignment can bring them to the correct and real corridor even though their vision/mind computer is telling them that they are "wrong".
Snooker Fundamentals: Your statement about me never having played snooker is wrong. I have played plenty of snooker Germany on 6x12 tables. I have played in England, Hong Kong and China. I have also played nine ball and one-pocket on 5x10 American Snooker tables as well as on 6x12 British snooker tables. I full understand the accuracy required to play on that equipment.
On top of that I coached Kelly Fisher for a while on the subject of pool and she coached me on the fundamentals of snooker. If I wanted to stand and align myself like a snooker player then I can do so.
Being in Germany for ten years I watched snooker every few days as it was on more than pool. Here in China snooker is on every month as they broadcast every major tournament.
I play pool regularly with Snooker players. These guys make all the shots but they often leave themselves out of position because they don't really know how to cheat the pockets and use the rails.
So enough about snooker style vs. pool style. It's clear that the top level in both sports are equal competitors on a pool table.
3. Change (so-called Sales Pitch):
I am not asking you to change. I am not pitching you on changing. I am giving you my own experience and opinion. You are the one who asked me the question, 'why should I throw away what works for me?' and I gave you my reason why I think you should try CTE as an answer to that question. Neither I nor any CTE advocate has said you or anyone else should throw away any method that is working for you.
Frankly I don't care about your ability in pool other than it helps me to know how to talk to you. I find you to be someone I like, I like your writing and the way you think but I could care less if you can run three balls or not. I am here in this thread as an advocate of alternative methods to ghost ball not as a teacher. If I am "selling" anything then it's my own experiences with this subject in real life. I am here to support the concept as one who has tried it and found it to work.
4. Increase in Ability (So-called Sales Pitch continued):
You couldn't help but to insult me right? Calling me a "cog"????
First you are completely discounting my own experiences. To state this more clearly I have now 30 years of playing experience starting at 12 years old. I have devoured Byrne, Martin, Matthews, Accu-Stats, Instructional Articles in Mags, and countless books and DVDs. I sold a healthy collection of such six years ago. On top of that I have been an instructor and taken personal lesson from world champions. I have been "on the road" by myself and with partners, I have gambled all over the world playing long sessions, and I have played in countless tournaments.
On a more vicarious level I have sponsored many champions, been able to hang out with them and talk pool, been on long drives with them, attended many tournaments with a front row seat, had them working in my booths and generally had a lot "rub-off" on me that the general public is not privy to.
Despite all that I am still just a slightly above average player but one who has more experience than just about 99% of people playing.
So please don't attempt to label me as if I am some clueless rube.
If I say that I believe learning CTE will help any player, including you, to improve then that is my belief based on my experience with such systems.
Taking a step back though, if I teach a person who can't aim to use ghost ball and they are able to understand and implement it then their game just improved by at least "a ball". (for those who don't understand the reference a "ball" improvement means that they need one less ball handicap to be even with a better player).
So if I made the general proclamation that learning Ghost Ball would improve any beginner's game by at least a ball or two you probably wouldn't take much exception to it.
However when I, or others, make a similar claim that learning CTE will improve any player's game it's based on our experience of CTE doing just that with already decent players. OF COURSE we are extrapolating and of course there is no way to say that EVERY player would do better but the sentiment is clear and easily understood.
Now having said that I would bet that IF you had learned CTE first that you would be equally as good now if not better because of your ability to see circles and lines in their accurate positions. I have no doubt about that. It's like when I hand a jump cue to a player who already can jump really well with a full cue. Suddenly they can do more with the jump cue in minutes than I can do despite my ten years of practicing with it.
Secondly, you have completely misinterpreted this statement of mine. What I meant was that if you had NEVER learned Ghost Ball but instead some other method of aiming, CTE, fractional methods, numbers, etc... then it is my contention that you would be as good as you are now because of your particularly exceptional ability to visualize. In other words if I hand you, an exceptional gifted person, a better system (my contention) then you should be able to use it far better than most and get more out out of it.
To simplify this, giving the best hammer to a novice carpenter will increase their nailing ability somewhat. Giving the best hammer to a master carpenter allows him to increase his ability quite a bit because he has already mastered the technique of efficient hammering. In both cases more nails get hammered accurately in less time only the master can still do much more and may even discover how to improve the hammer even more due his already high level of skill.
5. Open Source: Information doesn't "want" to be free. It's free to acquire if shared and made accessible. There is always a price to acquire it whether paid in just time, or paid in money on top of time. As it stands the information to learn CTE is free of charge but not free of time. And as with any "open source" project the information is diluted, divergent, incomplete, and fractured. A few people have a really good handle on it while others are still floundering. This is what is leading up to "the video" which is long overdue. Ghost Ball was not "free" until the Internet came along. Someone might have been benevolent and shown it to you but somewhere in that lineage someone had to pay to learn it. Now the price of learning ghost ball is reduced to the time it takes to search out how to aim in pool on Google plus the time it takes to read, absorb and practice the concept. If one cannot "see" the ghost ball no matter how thoroughly they understand the concept then they can buy any number of devices which act as visual aids to place the ghost ball. Or if they have enough time they may stumble upon a few places which teach them how to make such devices on their own.
If the originator of the information asks that the information not be divulged in it's entirety then that is to be respected. You are an author, should I have the right to reprint your book without permission because I believe that the information contained inside should be free.
I am a big advocate of open source and copyright revisions proposed by Creative Commons. I think that you can see how much of my case making techniques I freely share with people. But I don't share all my secrets because I believe that some things we do give us a competitive advantage and I would like to keep that edge as long as possible.
So if the CTE people won't give up the spoon-fed version for "free" then that is no reason to condemn them. The "false wrappers" you claim are there are in response to the people who claim that it doesn't work. CTE does feel like a "cheat-code" and it does work for just about everyone who gets it. CTE people have tried to put the information out there.
Look at the start of this thread. A person comes on and asks for information concerning CTE and immediately the skeptics jump all over it and ruin any chance of the discussion being about CTE and how it works. Turn that around and make it about Ghost Ball and you won't have the CTE people, or Joe Tucker jumping in with his aiming by numbers or anyone else jumping in to condemn the ghost ball method and all who swear by it. This thread died in the first ten posts.
Ok, I think that about covers the main points. It's just too much work to go in and answer each paragraph because we easily hit the 13000 character limit that way. I need to practice the art of being concise.
Best,
John
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