CTE Stepping Cue Ball.

tonythetiger583

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm still confused on the exact steps of stepping the cueball. I read morhts article but I would like further clarification.

A lot of my terminology might be a little outdated but once you lock in your visuals, what is the precise order of stepping the cueball?

Step 1. Lock in perception.
Step 2. Focus on Center Cueball?

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to:

Look at CB edge and then shift my attention back to new CCB and land

OR

Do I keep my eyes fixed on Edge of CB while landing into CCB.

OR

Do I physically move my body left or right to align myself straight on with the CB Edge, then move into CCB?

Am I picking up the new CCB with my vision focus, or does it appear in my peripherals as I focus on the CB Edge?
 
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JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
I'm still confused on the exact steps of stepping the cueball. I read morhts article but I would like further clarification.

A lot of my terminology might be a little outdated but once you lock in your visuals, what is the precise order of stepping the cueball?

Step 1. Lock in perception.
Step 2. Focus on Center Cueball?

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to:

Look at CB edge and then shift my attention back to new CCB and land

OR

Do I keep my eyes fixed on Edge of CB while landing into CCB.

OR

Do I physically move my body left or right to align myself straight on with the CB Edge, then move into CCB?

Am I picking up the new CCB with my vision focus, or does it appear in my peripherals as I focus on the CB Edge?
Stand at the center of the table and look at the cueball on the kitchen middle spot until you can see the line that connects the two diamonds, the center of the cueball and the foot spot. You will be looking at four objective references. Now, turn your head slightly to the left and focus on the fartherest left edge of the cueball that you can see. Let your eyes ONLY come back to center cue ball and from there go into shot position. Your cue should not be on the center line of the table but it will be pointing at the center of the cueball. Stand up and do the same thing with your head slightly to the right. This visual move is called stepping. It is so-called because Stan learned from Hal a story about a round barn and the fact that if you shoot at the center of it from one spot and take a step to the right you cannot aim at the same center line from the exterior to the core. You will have move several degrees in relation to the entry hole of the first bullet. In pool just using the eyes for this in the manner I have described creates a new center to align to. Mohrt got me doing this and I understood it with that exercise. Stan has been teaching it for a while in private sessions.

Your first answer is correct with the exception of moving your head slightly in the direction of the cut. Don't ask me why this works, stan says gearing. Just try it and don't worry about the how. Stan used to call it a visual sweep. I never 'got it' when he described that to me. I don't know why, the instruction just wasn't resonating. But with stepping my accuracy went up and is still up. Mid table shots are more consistent. Anyway my experience is mine. Hopefully yours is as good or better.
 

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
Silver Member
Stand at the center of the table and look at the cueball on the kitchen middle spot until you can see the line that connects the two diamonds, the center of the cueball and the foot spot. You will be looking at four objective references. Now, turn your head slightly to the left and focus on the fartherest left edge of the cueball that you can see. Let your eyes ONLY come back to center cue ball and from there go into shot position.
Geometrically, that results in a new CB center less than 1/100" from the original. Pretty fine-tuned stepping.

pj
chgo
 
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tonythetiger583

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Stand at the center of the table and look at the cueball on the kitchen middle spot until you can see the line that connects the two diamonds, the center of the cueball and the foot spot. You will be looking at four objective references. Now, turn your head slightly to the left and focus on the fartherest left edge of the cueball that you can see. Let your eyes ONLY come back to center cue ball and from there go into shot position. Your cue should not be on the center line of the table but it will be pointing at the center of the cueball. Stand up and do the same thing with your head slightly to the right. This visual move is called stepping. It is so-called because Stan learned from Hal a story about a round barn and the fact that if you shoot at the center of it from one spot and take a step to the right you cannot aim at the same center line from the exterior to the core. You will have move several degrees in relation to the entry hole of the first bullet. In pool just using the eyes for this in the manner I have described creates a new center to align to. Mohrt got me doing this and I understood it with that exercise. Stan has been teaching it for a while in private sessions.

Your first answer is correct with the exception of moving your head slightly in the direction of the cut. Don't ask me why this works, stan says gearing. Just try it and don't worry about the how. Stan used to call it a visual sweep. I never 'got it' when he described that to me. I don't know why, the instruction just wasn't resonating. But with stepping my accuracy went up and is still up. Mid table shots are more consistent. Anyway my experience is mine. Hopefully yours is as good or better.
So my current approach atm is:

1. Offset head
2. Lock in visuals
3. Shift to CCB
4. Shift eyes only to focus on CB Edge
5. Shift eyes only back to CCB
6. Move straight in with offset cue.

Results are meh.

I'm wondering if Offsetting my head at the beginning, then stepping the CB is making me double step.

If I already have my head offset, should I just move into CCB with an offset cue?

Or should I lock in the visuals with my head pointing straight on, then offset my head physically by focusing on CB edge?
 
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BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
Geometrically, that results in a new CB center less than 1/100" from the original. Pretty fine-tuned stepping.

pj
chgo

This prompted me to take some experimental measurements on the pool table. Check this out...

I put the cb in the center of the table and then measured the distance from cb center to the middle diamond on the foot rail. The distance was 48.5". Then I stood at the head of the table and looked straight through the vertical ccb line to that middle diamond, as JB suggested. I turned my head about 10° to the left (focusing on the corner pocket now), then shifted my eyes back to the cb. The vertical centerline then looked to be hitting about 1 inch right of the middle diamond. (I had a tapeline on the rail to look at). That 1" change equates to a 1.2° change in cb perspective.

The change in perspective gets bigger, of course, the closer your eyes are to the cb, and also gets bigger the more you turn your head. But I can see how this head turn can be manipulated to give different ccb's when needed. The player just has to know which exact head turn and distance works for different shots. Or maybe the same head turn and distance works for most shots. Don't really care, just thought it was interesting and would maybe shed some light on the "mystery".
 

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
Silver Member
I put the cb in the center of the table
John described it as being on the head string.

I turned my head about 10° to the left (focusing on the corner pocket now)
John's instruction was to turn your head to face the left edge of the CB, a considerably smaller sideways movement of the eyes even with the CB closer.

Not sure what you're demonstrating...?

pj
hgo
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
John described it as being on the head string.


John's instruction was to turn your head to face the left edge of the CB, a considerably smaller sideways movement of the eyes even with the CB closer.

Not sure what you're demonstrating...?

pj
hgo

Lol.....I admit that I filtered through John's post and failed to grab those details. However, when watching Stan the man perform the shots he turns his head quite a lot more than what John said with the edge of the ball.

My little experiment just showed that the angle can be manipulated quite a bit by varying the head turn and the distance between the eyes and the cb. And that might actually explain a lot of the unexplainable.
 

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
Silver Member
My little experiment just showed that the angle can be manipulated quite a bit by varying the head turn and the distance between the eyes and the cb. And that might actually explain a lot of the unexplainable.
The latest in a long history of guesstimates described as "perceptions". Every method has 'em, but CTE has the best euphemisms for 'em.

pj
chgo
 
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Dan White

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Lol.....I admit that I filtered through John's post and failed to grab those details. However, when watching Stan the man perform the shots he turns his head quite a lot more than what John said with the edge of the ball.

My little experiment just showed that the angle can be manipulated quite a bit by varying the head turn and the distance between the eyes and the cb. And that might actually explain a lot of the unexplainable.
In Stan's youtube showing the stepping effect he lines up the cb with a rail diamond, placing the cb about 1.5 diamonds from the rail. He said at that distance stepping moved center ball perception by half the width of a rail diamond. That's not half a diamond as in half of 12.5" inches, but half of the diamond itself, which on my table would be 1/4 inch. I tried myself and came up with the same results awhile back. I don't have the exact measurements in front of me but IIRC it worked out that stepping the cb with the eyes made a difference of about 0.6 degrees. I don't see any reason this value would change other than distance between the eyes and the cue ball. Note that this demonstration from Stan was done without turning the head at all, only the eyes.

Regarding the bold, CTE "worked" just the same when stepping was just a twinkle in Stan's eye. The two fudge factors that have remained for the entire life of CTE are the perception of two lines and the pivot. Seeing the pocket along with the ob/cb/shaft in the shot picture identifies the target. The two variables are there to play with as needed, and apparently subconsciously.

FWIW...
 

JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
Geometrically, that results in a new CB center less than 1/100" from the original. Pretty fine-tuned stepping.

pj
chgo
Yep, that's called accuracy.
CTE-GB-along%20a%20string.png


Exit%20Distances.jpg



 

Dan White

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yep, that's called accuracy.
CTE-GB-along%20a%20string.png


Exit%20Distances.jpg




Again, why does this metric matter a hill of beans? It is the distance between center to edge and the shot line AT THE OBJECT BALL that matters. There are large differences between the CTE line and the shot line when you get to the object ball.
 
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