As I was teaching my regular "pool school" class today (free lessons for beginners at my local pool hall), I was reminded that I regularly mention the center-to-edge alignment in the "beginning aiming" part of the course.
I teach beginning students the ghost ball concept because that's the most straightforward and easiest concept to understand (and for which "aiming aids" like Dr. Dave's Ghost Ball Template are readily available). I teach them that there are a few simple concepts that prescribe the correct CB/OB alignment - Ghost Ball is one of them, Double-Distance and Parallel Lines are two more - but that each player must learn through practice how to use them accurately. I don't teach any of them as aiming "systems".
I also mention that there are a few aiming "systems" that don't prescribe the correct CB/OB alignment but assist the player to find it. I don't mention any of these systems by name.
I teach beginners that aiming is a process of learning by experience and memorization and the ghost ball visualization is an aid to visualizing the end point in that process. I teach that center-to-center (straight shot) and center-to-edge (half ball) alignments are visual aids of another kind, that don't show how to align the CB/OB but give a convenient, fixed starting point for orienting the CB/OB and adjusting from there until they "feel" they've reached the shot alignment that the ghost ball visualization would show.
I describe the center-to-edge starting place as an improvement over the center-to-center starting place because it's located in the middle of all the shot alignments rather than at one end of them, and breaks the aiming alignments down into two "categories" (fuller or thinner than half ball) for easier estimation and memorization.
All of my students seem comfortable with the knowledge that there are no aiming "magic bullets" and it's something they'll just have to learn by practice and experience, with some helpful visualization aids to make the process a little easier. None of them have ever asked about pursuing actual systems, but if they did I'd tell them where to find some and remind them that aiming systems are just another, more complicated "reference" tool that doesn't substitute for practice.
pj
chgo
P.S. One of my students today brought a prototype of his new ghost ball aiming aid to demonstrate. It's a clever device that hangs a "pointer" over the ghost ball center spot as a visible aiming target. It's a little hard to see the pointer in these pictures, but it's hanging right over the ghost ball center high enough for the cue ball to pass under without hitting it.
Mitsuru "Mits" Yamada and his "Cut Shot Coach":
I teach beginning students the ghost ball concept because that's the most straightforward and easiest concept to understand (and for which "aiming aids" like Dr. Dave's Ghost Ball Template are readily available). I teach them that there are a few simple concepts that prescribe the correct CB/OB alignment - Ghost Ball is one of them, Double-Distance and Parallel Lines are two more - but that each player must learn through practice how to use them accurately. I don't teach any of them as aiming "systems".
I also mention that there are a few aiming "systems" that don't prescribe the correct CB/OB alignment but assist the player to find it. I don't mention any of these systems by name.
I teach beginners that aiming is a process of learning by experience and memorization and the ghost ball visualization is an aid to visualizing the end point in that process. I teach that center-to-center (straight shot) and center-to-edge (half ball) alignments are visual aids of another kind, that don't show how to align the CB/OB but give a convenient, fixed starting point for orienting the CB/OB and adjusting from there until they "feel" they've reached the shot alignment that the ghost ball visualization would show.
I describe the center-to-edge starting place as an improvement over the center-to-center starting place because it's located in the middle of all the shot alignments rather than at one end of them, and breaks the aiming alignments down into two "categories" (fuller or thinner than half ball) for easier estimation and memorization.
All of my students seem comfortable with the knowledge that there are no aiming "magic bullets" and it's something they'll just have to learn by practice and experience, with some helpful visualization aids to make the process a little easier. None of them have ever asked about pursuing actual systems, but if they did I'd tell them where to find some and remind them that aiming systems are just another, more complicated "reference" tool that doesn't substitute for practice.
pj
chgo
P.S. One of my students today brought a prototype of his new ghost ball aiming aid to demonstrate. It's a clever device that hangs a "pointer" over the ghost ball center spot as a visible aiming target. It's a little hard to see the pointer in these pictures, but it's hanging right over the ghost ball center high enough for the cue ball to pass under without hitting it.
Mitsuru "Mits" Yamada and his "Cut Shot Coach":
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