Developing Expertise In Pool

[CJ Wiley]

When using the aim line as my starting point instead of using the straight shooting alignment CJ suggests, I didn’t start with my foot on the line.
I stood square with the cue pointing at 90° to my hip line.
I then rotated my hip line by moving my left foot forward, moving my head back over the aligned cue.
The right hip slides back slightly, bracing my right leg at the knee, as I fold my left side over to align the rest of the right side with the cue, by hinging at the hip joints.
My back remains flattish, never hunching, if anything curling and arching backward slightly to accommodate a level head.

Like you my initial setup has my right hand next to my hip and my mind now experiences dissonance trying to replicate your setup with my heel/instep under the cue.
I would have to lean my right leg to the left to make room for the cue and hand.
Now getting my head over the cue while leaning left is awkward.
My instinct would be to advance my left foot well ahead so that my right leaning leg rotates into more of a sitting position, allowing me to bend over to the cue line and sight along it turning my head sideways.

Forget the aim line.
Find the spot where your cue, bridge, head and cue arm from vision center to shoulder to vertical forearm to grip with a vertical thumb can deliver a straight stroke using the elbow hinge.
Where are your feet when you are comfortable and balanced with that upper body alignment?
I doubt that your hip is in the way.
My initial right foot position pointed parallel to the cue opposite my hip.
The rotation of my hip plane towards the cue line, as my head moved to the line, rotated my right hip back and away from the cue.
My change to my right foot position kept my heel the same with my toes rotating about 20-30° to the right.
The rotation of my hip line and my shoulder line initiated by the head movement to align the entire right side is restricted somewhat when the right foot is initially pointed straight ahead.
Starting with my hips square, then rotating my right foot slightly allows my head and shoulder line to rotate to a perspective line opposite my right side.
I move my left foot forward at the same time allowing my bridge hand and grip to find the same plane as the perceived head and right shoulder alignment.
Moving the cue tests that where the eyes are looking down the cue and the cue travel are the same, that is the aligned cue.

Setting it on the table and anchoring the bridge hand and arm is ideal position for straight delivery.
The process of slotting the cue then finding the aim line lets you forget your lower body.
The delivery part just needs to be put on the aim line.

Align and aim separately, in that order, to reproduce CJ’s methodology.

When I'm above the cueball, seeing the shot in my "mind's eye" my chest is square to the target line and shoulders are level, like I'm talking to someone on the other side of the shot line. This is the best way for anyone to see something centered, with both eyes, at this point there is no dominant eye, they are both working together.

I'm not standing at all sideways to the shotline, that's the key to connecting to the shot the absolute best. Then, you must initiate the downward motion with your hips, which causes a chain reaction and you'll drop down to the shooting position with the feeling you are shooting out of the CENTER of your chest. The human body is perfectly designed to make this motion and from the two alignment positions (center/center or center/edge) you can make any shot naturally and many of your shots will feel like you're shooting Straight In, even with an angle.

The left foot is very important because it controls the left side of the body, including the left hand position. I suggest making the left foot perfectly parallel to the shot line, then your left side is also on the line, which puts your left hand automatically on the line.

Shane and SKY do this really well, Shane steps more forward and holds the cue further back than SKY but SKY does is almost identical to how I do, his left foot is parallel to every shot unless there's a ball or the table is in the way.

This takes some time but I'm soooo glad I learned this, it's made a noticeable impact on my game though the years, after learning this I played an entire year, 15 pro tournaments and didn't finish less than 9th with the best players in the world. Anyone can do this, but it isn't easy at first, because it's new and most players don't know how to use their hips to go down to the shot which is vital from my experience.

The Game is the Teacher

 

[BilliardsAbout]

Howdy All;

It's taken awhile to wade through this, even taking the majority of side roads that were linked.
Like the old joke "Just flew in from DFW, boy are my arms tired."

Gobs of good information and some even makes sense.

What makes no sense is how one can align with something unseen. As in CJW's mentioning how
he sets his feet before determining a shot line/pocketing line might be. I'm not a world class any-
thing, unless you ask any of my ex's. (They have their opinions and I have mine). But one thing I
know to be true is we will go where we are looking. Drive down a road, look to the right, how long
before the vehicle starts to follow? Good lesson learned in Navy SAR school was not to look down
when exiting the helicopter. You'll land on your face. Look at the horizon, you'll land feet down.
Don't believe me? Sit on a 6 foot fence and try it both ways. Long way around to say you have to
"See" what you are aiming at before you can align to it.

That's all I got for now.

hank

My post 497 gives you real targets in space to align your body erect, then the shot line, then step in to the shot line.

 

[plague]

also most champion players, (that I have worked with) have a misperception/-alignment
center vision on line first, then right leg needs to go forward and slightly left to make room for hips yeah

 

[CJ Wiley]

also most champion players, (that I have worked with) have a misperception/-alignment
center vision on line first, then right leg needs to go forward and slightly left to make room for hips yeah

it's better to initiate the motion with your hips.....and keep your left foot parallel to the shot line while using your right foot as the anchor.

 

[CJ Wiley]

My post 497 gives you real targets in space to align your body erect, then the shot line, then step in to the shot line.

When you use the shot line you have no reference to triangulate the shot angle that's why I align Every shot either Center/Center or Center/Edge then the aiming is easy and every shot will be almost identical.

 

[Imac007]

When you use the shot line you have no reference to triangulate the shot angle that's why I align Every shot either Center/Center or Center/Edge then the aiming is easy and every shot will be almost identical.

Took me a while to get here but the difference isn’t as subtle as it sounds.
The pivot from extreme left and right cuts, without moving your feet is about 4 inches.
By starting the foot position, at the edges, the extreme cut pivot is about an inch.
The hips know the difference, I’ve discovered, as I’ve oriented to each edge and the center.

I think a lot of players line up ball to ball then try to shift to the aim line, followed by a dance and shuffle as body feedback subconsciously creates a feeling of something not being quite right.
We see it at the table when the upper arm angle doesn’t match the cue direction.
On some shots their hip is in the way and on others the cue is dangling away from the body.
The upper body struggles to hold a single upper body position that only needs to pivot an inch or less.
If the elbow hinge has to move through a 4” lateral space to stay in line with the cue, it’s relationship to the body and the role of the feet, without repositioning, isn’t impossible, but an impediment to consistency.

This thread started with the idea that the road to expertise is often found through making finer and finer distinctions, subtle nuances and finding out what they are.

Thanks for telling us about this difference that makes a difference.

 

[Imac007]

I'm not standing at all sideways to the shotline, that's the key to connecting to the shot the absolute best. Then, you must initiate the downward motion with your hips, which causes a chain reaction and you'll drop down to the shooting position w

For those players who start their stance from the aim line then get down only to find you need adjustments.
The tendency, for center ball players is to get down on that line.
If their mental picture says they need to cut the ball more or less they pivot the cue in the bridge cutting the ball more or less.
While that does increase or decrease the cut, they are no longer on the ghost ball line, since they have diverged from cb center ball.
By finding the straight cueing line first then dropping the whole down towards the shot line, subtle shifts and adjustments don’t require lifting the bridge hand from a static table position.
The cue line, whether center ball or a deliberate off center choice, is lowered to the table, once set, for stability.
A turret type pivot, as a previous analogy stated, keeps intended alignment and aim contact intact.

 

[BilliardsAbout]

Took me a while to get here but the difference isn’t as subtle as it sounds.
The pivot from extreme left and right cuts, without moving your feet is about 4 inches.
By starting the foot position, at the edges, the extreme cut pivot is about an inch.
The hips know the difference, I’ve discovered, as I’ve oriented to each edge and the center.

I think a lot of players line up ball to ball then try to shift to the aim line, followed by a dance and shuffle as body feedback subconsciously creates a feeling of something not being quite right.
We see it at the table when the upper arm angle doesn’t match the cue direction.
On some shots their hip is in the way and on others the cue is dangling away from the body.
The upper body struggles to hold a single upper body position that only needs to pivot an inch or less.
If the elbow hinge has to move through a 4” lateral space to stay in line with the cue, it’s relationship to the body and the role of the feet, without repositioning, isn’t impossible, but an impediment to consistency.

This thread started with the idea that the road to expertise is often found through making finer and finer distinctions, subtle nuances and finding out what they are.

Thanks for telling us about this difference that makes a difference.

Yes, amateurs tend to both falsely align ball-to-ball or ball-to-half with a foot forward, head tilted and/or rotated, then shift everything to the (falsely) perceived aim/shot line which is one the factors that causes most misses to be overcuts.

There is a bias to aligning CTC or CTH with body, mind and cue that keeps the tendency to "miss" on the thick side, slowing down the c.b. and better controlling both balls.

 

[Imac007]

Yes, amateurs tend to both falsely align ball-to-ball or ball-to-half with a foot forward, head tilted and/or rotated, then shift everything to the (falsely) perceived aim/shot line which is one the factors that causes most misses to be overcuts.

There is a bias to aligning CTC or CTH with body, mind and cue that keeps the tendency to "miss" on the thick side, slowing down the c.b. and better controlling both balls.

Update:
I’ve spent about a month now bringing CJ’s process into my game.

To summarize what the process he outlines is in order we get:
Place your feet in a neutral position that allows a turret like turn of the upper body in either direction and still maintain a straight shooting alignment.
That allows the player to drop down on target with a minimum of movement by careful placement of the feet, to further minimize any chance of being pulled out of alignment.

The scope of movement remains centered when the outer edges and center of the ball become the arced pivots from where the final aim is taken with the straight alignment.
Adding fractional sliding turret points refines starting foot placement further, keeping the aim line centered.

By telling us that it all starts with the feet a parts mentality is initiated.

CJ revealed he prioritizes straight cueing alignment over aiming.

By drawing attention DOWN to the feet, the flow of attentional energy is being drawn in the wrong direction.
CJ described a flow moving up and out through a straight cue and connecting to the impact area.
That dynamic is a “from* flow.

He said it STARTS with the feet.

 

[Imac007]

By drawing attention DOWN to the feet, the flow of attentional energy is being drawn in the wrong direction.
CJ described a flow moving up and out through a straight cue and connecting to the impact area.
That dynamic is a “from* flow.

He said it STARTS with the feet.

Awareness starts somewhere and needs to move with the action.
When we hang onto anything in consciousness, we give it added importance.
There is always an attentional cost when we hold onto awareness of anything, something else from the flow of sensory experience is missing, or background.
Being preoccupied with the feet, divides attention at best and tethers it rather no allowing it to flow.

 

[arnaldo]

A lot of self-directed incremental improvement steps towards mastery of any worthwhile endeavor or ability has to do with deliberately having a methodically-acquired subconscious storage bank thru having observed specific things that didn't work for you. Periodically recording your testing/trials of minute changes and resulting positives is huge for building that subconscious storage upon seeing the visual images + intellectually processing the positives and dismissing the negative approaches. What you're doing in these trials of small changes is essentially intentionally being on some point along the spectrum of monitoring/learning the technique(s) that works for you. Even without a camera, a trained and then instinctive memory process enables ingraining what is happening. Top-level champions all have high-quality observing/memorizing ability specific to their sport.

The value of deliberately enabling subconscious storage by whatever personal means, was captured memorably (for me anyway) years ago when I read of an interview between operatic tenor, Placido Domingo and a Boston Globe entertainment reporter:

Reporter: "I've heard from friends of yours, that besides your flawless, world-class delivery of everything any operatic roles require, you are regarded as a tennis player with extremely high-level skills. How were you able to master skills so radically different as singing opera and masterfully playing tennis?"

Placido: "My approach is identical for performing both of those things well and it's very simple -- learn the technique . . . then get out of the way!"

Arnaldo ~ His version of cultivating the subconscious storage base to such an an extent that the conscious mind is far less likely to interfere with the acquired near-automatic well-trained judgments and free-flowing skills during each performance.

 

[CJ Wiley]

Update:
I’ve spent about a month now bringing CJ’s process into my game.

To summarize what the process he outlines is in order we get:
Place your feet in a neutral position that allows a turret like turn of the upper body in either direction and still maintain a straight shooting alignment.
That allows the player to drop down on target with a minimum of movement by careful placement of the feet, to further minimize any chance of being pulled out of alignment.

The scope of movement remains centered when the outer edges and center of the ball become the arced pivots from where the final aim is taken with the straight alignment.
Adding fractional sliding turret points refines starting foot placement further, keeping the aim line centered.

By telling us that it all starts with the feet a parts mentality is initiated.

CJ revealed he prioritizes straight cueing alignment over aiming.

By drawing attention DOWN to the feet, the flow of attentional energy is being drawn in the wrong direction.
CJ described a flow moving up and out through a straight cue and connecting to the impact area.
That dynamic is a “from* flow.

He said it STARTS with the feet.

You're on the right track, there's definitely a complexity to champion level fundamentals, to teach the kinesiology took me literally thousands of hours. One of the main challenges for most pool players is overcoming their own programming that keeps them from improving substantially.

The foundation of any structure is the foundation, in pool it's the feet. The right foot controls the angles of the Entire right side of the body and the left foot controls the body angles of the left side Including the left arm and hand.....which is essential for consistent aiming. When a player understands and implements how the body aligned to each shot the aiming because more precise, natural and does have an amazing flow.

 

[chefjeff]

Fwiw, I've found that when I place my front foot, it is pointing directly at the cueball.

Nice thing to have as a reference, don'tcha think?


Jeff Livingston

 

[Imac007]

You're on the right track, there's definitely a complexity to champion level fundamentals, to teach the kinesiology took me literally thousands of hours. One of the main challenges for most pool players is overcoming their own programming that keeps them from improving substantially.

The foundation of any structure is the foundation, in pool it's the feet. The right foot controls the angles of the Entire right side of the body and the left foot controls the body angles of the left side Including the left arm and hand.....which is essential for consistent aiming. When a player understands and implements how the body aligned to each shot the aiming because more precise, natural and does have an amazing flow.

In language there is a concept called nominalization.
It’s when we treat an action like it is noun.
We go for a run, instead of going running.
We say aim instead of thinking through the process of aiming and create a static rather than dynamic reality.

In the CJ process I am aligning starting from the same platform (Foot position).
Then taking that alignment into an aiming/stroking dynamic that frees the feet to reposition relative to the ball position.
My left foot finds a parallel position since that was its original alignment position, whenever possible.
The dynamic between my feet just shifts my right foot to its alignment position, with my hip angle returning to mirror the initial
alignment.
With everything from aligning to aiming flowing together, the flow returns to the feet and the alignment/aiming become one piece, with the whole dropping into position.
The stance now anchors while the feeling settles into the ebb and flow of the stroking rhythm, with the body being absolutely still until stroke completion.

I remember Richard Bandler taking a client through the cycle by which he created a phobic response.
The feeling started somewhere and moved.
They tracked the movement within his body and it cycled through, then started over, giving the response a rebirth.

Replicating that sense of flowing from one action into the next transitioning in a flowing pace not just from shot to shot but then the moving coordinated syncing stroke activity through impact, within each act of shooting.

My cycle of movement flows up then through an alignment finding the straight cue action slot.
With that, in a standing vertical cue position, the aim line is found.
The left foot can now find the alignment position relative to the straight cueing line that allows the foot position to drop into position, in my case parallel.
So once alignment can incorporate the aim line, the cycle through from the feet can start again with that left foot placement.
The upper body moves as the hip line and and right foot completes the repositioning while dropping into place.
A strong bridge anchors the body as everything moves over into the shot transferring all movement impulse to the cueing, while quieting the body.

Bringing everything to a complete stop, a still point, then starting again with the stroking impulse and cycling through its process.
The end of stroke should return to a quiet spot, seeing the shot play out, getting real time feedback.

Then it all starts again once you go through the deciding, planning and committing to the next shot.

Note all the words ending in”ing” in this description.
That helps retain the idea of flowing action which was the theme for this comment.

 

[bbb]

I think you guys are over thinkING

 

[boogieman]

I think you guys are over thinkING

See ball. Hit ball. Repeat until they all do what you want them to.

 

[Imac007]

I think you guys are over thinkING

This is not a thinking description, it is a doing one.
That is the point of recognizing the preshot routine as a flow, not a bunch of nominalized checkpoints, that stall the rhythm of the cyclical action.
Checking off a list is the overthinking version of the process.

 

[Imac007]

See ball. Hit ball. Repeat until they all do what you want them to.

If your game is getting better doing that, stick with it.
If it has stalled, regressed or plateaued…..
incorporated into my game during league play only has been a challenge.
Seeing progress beyond my previous level, leads me to disregard your pov.
Others are free to follow your so cogently put tired recommendations.

 

[ShootingArts]

This is not a thinking description, it is a doing one.
That is the point of recognizing the preshot routine as a flow, not a bunch of nominalized checkpoints, that stall the rhythm of the cyclical action.
Checking off a list is the overthinking version of the process.

Reading your longer post it seems that you have a preliminary foot placement then modify it if it needs altering. It now also seems the confusion between cj and the rest of the world pretty much, is that he is using a different starting point without making that clear. I use a different starting point when I am playing well also, starting before the first shot in an inning. If search is working well for the forum and archive you can read many places where I say that the entire inning should be planned before the first shot of the inning and an inning should be one continuous action. While I haven't worked out every foot placement on the conscious level, like a bowler, javelin thrower, baseball pitcher, on and on, my unconscious has recognized where my entire body will need to be including my feet to perform as one continuous action.

I don't see the old dancing school foot decals in my mind to picture every foot placement before I start but that unconscious mind supercomputer that is far more powerful than the conscious mind already knows where my feet and every part of my body will be as the action that was started when I first addressed the table flows to a finish. That finish may be sinking the money ball, it may be a safety that was planned before the first shot, it may need restructuring when I fail to execute as intended, but the entire inning was planned as one continuous motion before I moved up to the table the first time.

Hu

 

[Imac007]

Reading your longer post it seems that you have a preliminary foot placement then modify it if it needs altering. It now also seems the confusion between cj and the rest of the world pretty much, is that he is using a different starting point without making that clear. I use a different starting point when I am playing well also, starting before the first shot in an inning. If search is working well for the forum and archive you can read many places where I say that the entire inning should be planned before the first shot of the inning and an inning should be one continuous action. While I haven't worked out every foot placement on the conscious level, like a bowler, javelin thrower, baseball pitcher, on and on, my unconscious has recognized where my entire body will need to be including my feet to perform as one continuous action.

I don't see the old dancing school foot decals in my mind to picture every foot placement before I start but that unconscious mind supercomputer that is far more powerful than the conscious mind already knows where my feet and every part of my body will be as the action that was started when I first addressed the table flows to a finish. That finish may be sinking the money ball, it may be a safety that was planned before the first shot, it may need restructuring when I fail to execute as intended, but the entire inning was planned as one continuous motion before I moved up to the table the first time.

Hu

There is a separation between the aligning and aiming.
Aligning is finding the body configuration that delivers the cue straight.
Aiming is finding the ball path that achieves an intended outcome, using a straight stroke.

In my case I had already found the foot positions and hip angle, for me to align.
For a right handed player, as stated here, a consistent repeatable left foot position is a good place to start.
Aligning the cue parallel to the foot, is my spot and CJ’s.
Now find the right leg position that clears the hip for the cue and test at what hip plane angle, width of stance, using a body bend from the hips, results in a natural straight cueing alignment using a neutral grip.

Using body memory move the vertically aligned version and find the shot line while standing.
Now replicate the foot position starting with its parallel orientation, followed by mirroring the aligned right foot position.
The alignment can now fold, or drop into place, retaining alignment.
Where CJ starts by dropping to either edge or ob center, through the cb shot plane, I choose to attempt to drop, as close a possible to the anticipated shot line.
From there only miniscule adjustments will be needed, holding the straight cueing alignment intact.

The flow that goes with the process, once a feel for replicating alignment is ingrained, gets lost when static descriptions of foot locations, create static locations, losing the coordinated synchronization, of transitioning through the different stages to achieve a merged alignment on the shot line.

As to planning, I use a planned in reverse format.