frankncali said:
After reading the thread I have a couple questions/comments.
This may sound retarded but how do you know that you are seeing all the shots differently from your actual line?
Is there a test to find this out that I could perform?
Can you really make adjustments of 1-3mm on any given shot?
I have the third eye stroke trainer and think that its great for what it teaches. I have always wanted something that would teach me to line up
dead straight with where I would like to line up. In truth I dont think that
I lineup correctly on all shots but dont really know if its possible to do 100% on the longer shots.
I think that a person can be aligned perfectly and not even hit the OB.
Being straight and having a nice straight stroke is great but its assuming that we can all just line that up perfectly in the direction of the shot.
Have you ever seen a person lineup an inch or so from where the contact point needs to be and their body/stroke swerve to try and hit it right.
How can we decifer if it was the persons eyes that misled them or that the person just can not get aligned in the right direction.
I know on some days in my followthru I tend to follow through a little crooked or a little to my left. Other days I feel perfectly straight. Could my eyes be misleading me and my head trying to overcome my error in alignment?
I dont profess to be very technical with the game. I understand contact points and what happens to the cueball and object ball during and after.
Beyond that I try to control my aim and alignment but have not found anything that would give me positive feedback on whether I was actually lined up correctly or not.
What are some good ways to test the vision and alignment portions to know which one is causing misses?
Hi Frank,
The way I test is basically to hit the CB in the center. I trust my stroke. If I really want to make sure I put my chin on the cue, with tip at center of CB and slide the cue along the exact same part of my chin.
I practiced this a lot in the past and have used lasers a lot to test the straightness of this method and it is almost perfectly straight and hence a very reliable guide of my real alignment.
Actually I believe the amount of error that is caused by accurate stroking is far less than most imagine. On many shots, even if we stroke so badly that we hit 2 tips of center of the CB, then the pot is often not deflected a great deal anyway, due to the compensatory component of deflection. Still, for higher accuracy, striking the CB where intended is important.
What I'm talking about with the eye's perception, is that if you look down your shaft and visualize the shot (choose a straight in shot to study this), you should at some point perceive that your cue is pointed through the center of the CB and the OB. When you perceive this, freeze the bridge solid and make sure not to move it.
Then stroke making sure to hit the center of the CB, not sweeping across the line. Observe what happens. People often find the OB misses to the same side by about the same amount over and over again. This is a fair sign that your eyes are giving a false perception of alignment.
Many players just avoid looking down the shaft if this is the case for them.
These contrasting lines of perception when looking down the shaft and then looking ahead at the OB are often the cause of second guessing during the stroke. Something doesn't feel right and the player sub-consciously (well almost) pulls or pushes across the line, or jumps up and shifts his bridge, trying to get the OB to get where he wants it to go.
Now if you know everything is lined up. You can just stroke through smoothly and without tension. It's actually very easy to stroke straight and accurately when you feel confident about the alignment.
