Darren Appleton explains aiming

Here's Darren's idea....
This is a great aiming tool for any shooter to add to the arsenal. (y)(y)
It works very well.
I had forgotten all about using it. (that's an old man for you)
I know Ronnie Allen and Don Watson were using this back in the sixties and I think (?) Grady Mathews took it up from Don. (Grady and Don were kinda' thick at one time and shared a lot of heavy duty moves)
It goes without saying you BETTER have a straight stroke though.
 
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Also note that he does not use a huge stroke. He just about taps it. I think sometimes people get a little anxious on long shots and think they have to hit the shot harder. In reality, adding a foot or two of distance doesn't require any harder hit. Just overcome any table roll.

I learned something similar on shots where the cue ball is frozen to the rail. Pick out the spot on the ob where the tip has to aim to pocket the ball. Put a little downward pressure on the cue against the rail and then pretend you are going to hit that spot on the ob with the cue tip. Forget the cb.
 
He's using disguised pivot .
Same one taught to Parica, Efren, Shaw, Mosconi, Lassiter and Greenleaf.
The "Master Pivot" as taught to Johnny Layton by Alfredo de Oro? As received by de Oro in the Old City of Salamanca from the Knights Templar? That Disguised Pivot? I thought you understood you were not supposed to talk about that.😡 🔗🔗 The chain has been broken.
 
Try this drill to see how straight you are cueing. Put object ball on head spot and cue ball on foot spot. Strike the OB as dead center as you can with the CB. The OB should hit rail, bounce off and hit the CB. It's hard enough to even have contact between the two balls but when you get better at it they can actually stay in a line sometimes. If can't do that, put CB in center of table and try it a little shorter. Really amplifies hits off center on the OB.

Hard to argue with the guy with all the trophies :p
 
Does he do a backflip in the intro or fall backwards?
Dude! He obviously didn't keep his moment of inertia low enough to maintain a high enough omega to get 2PI rotation before he hit the floor, given the value of g. Not even close.

So, fall backwards. You could call it a kind of pivot.
 
I tried Darren's shot tonight. I made the CB slightly easier, it was a few more inches away from the pocket. I nailed it the first try. Dead heart in the pocket.

Then I missed the second try:( I shot it maybe 6 or 7 times and made it about half.
 
Never really thought about it this way but makes perfect sense. I will definitely try this method. Many players told me that they look at the object ball at the moment they shoot the ball.
 
what if the object ball isn't bang straight to the pocket? I like the idea of looking (or not looking) at things differently, tho
 
The "Master Pivot" as taught to Johnny Layton by Alfredo de Oro? As received by de Oro in the Old City of Salamanca from the Knights Templar? That Disguised Pivot? I thought you understood you were not supposed to talk about that.😡 🔗🔗 The chain has been broken.
Settle down, your showing too much 2022 excitement of finally getting back, into the pool room. :)
 
I enjoyed Darrens perspective/explanation of shot making.

Having taught this game for 10 yrs I found that DA explained one aspect of ''shot making'' in this video that's at the core of all ''good players''.


''pick out my line, before I get down on shot''
 
I use this for combos that are nearly straight in. I find the spot on the rail I send the first OB then I just fire away, no reason to think about the combo anymore, you're just shooting an OB into a rail. Works pretty good for combos that are inline, gets a bit harder when they're way out of line.
 
I use this for combos that are nearly straight in. I find the spot on the rail I send the first OB then I just fire away, no reason to think about the combo anymore, you're just shooting an OB into a rail. Works pretty good for combos that are inline, gets a bit harder when they're way out of line.
Not having a clearly visible pocket to aim the first OB at is the main difficulty for me, but I use it anyway, especially for double checking sharper cuts.

pj
chgo
 
Not having a clearly visible pocket to aim the first OB at is the main difficulty for me, but I use it anyway, especially for double checking sharper cuts.

pj
chgo
It's ghost pockets for me, at least playing 9B. If it's call pocket anything I have to have a pinpoint contact point on the OB. You don't have to trust/see a blind pocket if you have a pinpoint contact aim on the OB. You see it or you don't. I can't explain it in fractions or any other aiming systems. Play more pool. :) The more I play, the luckier I get! ;)

Depending on how froggy I'm feeling I might just pick a pocket zone, usually center, and shoot it without ever looking closely at the OB. How can a guy explain it? It splits the pocket but I'd be hard pressed to explain it in 10,000 words. Pool is easy, you see it or you don't. Aiming systems are for fish.

DA is close. Better than I could explain it.
 
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