Fake it till you make it.

[whitewolf]

I was watching Bert Kinnister?s first video tape the other day. In one of his shots he has the student shoot from the end of the table, over the corner pocket and slow roll the cue ball to pocket an object ball in the opposite corner. The interesting aspect was in the idea that he was teaching about the ?fat? side of the pocket by having the student place a piece of chalk in the object ball pocket before shooting.

From a psych perspective I like this idea becasue it teaches in a physical way that pockets are indeed quite large and that the ?fat? side is what should be aimed at as needed.

I think that one of the reasons that Kinnister is so popular is his high level of energy and his obvious enthusiasm for the game.

However, the pockets get smaller the longer I play in a tense game --- why is that?

I saw the same tape and I believe Bert is trying to make one improve one's aim by aiming at a tight pocket.

Also, under stress, one's vision changes. Forgot where I read this. Don't your pupils contract or something? Anyway, everything is actually smaller - a physical fact brought on by being scared etc.

As a matter of fact I am pleased that you are here Joe to verify what I learned 30 years ago in phyche 101:

Our teacher said that your mind adjusts for far away images and close up images. Granted, most of this is due to your eye focusing, but follow this simple drill:

With your right hand 6 inches from your eye and your left had a foot away and shifted slightly to the left, and your left eye closed, focus on the closest hand. See how big it looks, and how small your left hand looks.

Now focus on the left hand and notice how small the right hand gets and how the left hand actually grows in size. Your mind has something to do with this also according to my teacher.

So to answer your original question from an additional point of view, I will bet that as the game goes on and the tension is building, you are scared of making a mistake so you start focusing more on the object ball during your warm-up strokes. Thus the pockets start to get farther away and tighter.

Now, myself being the Rodney Dangerfield of the AZ Billiards forum , would you be so kind as to verify what I am saying? No one has ever thanked me for this bit of advise, and you could be the first .

 

[JoeW]

If Rodney Dangerfield got respect he would lose his way of making a living.

Indeed you are right, aaa hmmm thanks, and that leads to another idea that needs more thinking. Perhaps one should focus on the pocket for a few seconds before focusing on the object ball to make the pocket bigger. Neat idea really.