Hal Houles CTE in detail

[mohrt]

That's the "long lever" concept, explained in more detail in the original Colin Colenso video, circa 2006. (FYI, it's poor video quality because it was done from his cell phone, but the material is very helpful):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xW1tsONEI_U

-Sean

I have added a link to the video, thanks for pointing that out!

 

[dr_dave]

Getting Power into the Break Shot

"This is an interesting little gem to try. Line up on your break shot as usual. Then, stand up and move closer to the table. Keep your shooting arm straight and pivot at the shoulder to break. You will notice that pivoting at the shoulder instead of the elbow gives you a tremendous amount of leverage without any extra effort/power on the shot. It takes a bit of getting used to, the toughest part is staying in line on the shot while you stand up. Give it a try and see what you think"

FYI, some excellent advice from Colin, along with his video demonstration, can be found with related advice here:

power break equipment and technique advice resource page​

Enjoy,
Dave

 

[John Brumback]

I know they are not the shot lines. Like I said it's the effect. When I look at the balls I see them going into the hole. lol

I will add something that is totally off the wall here. And it's about practice and learning theory. I'll keep it simple.

The brain learns by absorbing all possibilities and recognizing those that don't work. In other words, missing shots may be frustrating, but they too serve their purpose. It's why when you are over the ball and can't get comfortable, the brain is yelling: "I remember this you damn fool, you're gonna miss."

When you get this feeling, simply back off, reset, put your left hand down where it should be again and listen up. There are parts of the brain that are smarter than what we are conscious of.

Use your aiming system. Practice it. And be aware of what your practice has taught you.

It's why you miss shots that you should make. That part of the brain that knows you're gonna miss is yelling at you and you ain't listening. Reset and make it comfortable. Your confidence level will go way up.

btw, that's what being in the zone is. Putting that unconscious part of the brain in charge. Making it comfortable. When it's in control, nothing else exists.

I'll talk more about this as I pay my visits.

You might get flamed for having to much comon sense though,JK Very well said imo.You should be a head coach.Lots of people need it.John B.

 

[sfleinen]

You might get flamed for having to much comon sense though,JK Very well said imo.You should be a head coach.Lots of people need it.John B.

I agree as well, John. Some people are just too analytical for their own good. Let the subconscious brain do what it does best -- associate two spheres in a way that makes one collide into the other to put that other in the pocket, store away all those successes and failures, and repeat the successes ad infinitum at will.

Too many people have control "issues" -- whereby the conscious brain "has" to be in control. Like they say, paralysis through analysis.

-Sean

 

[champ2107]

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[mohrt]

I agree as well, John. Some people are just too analytical for their own good. Let the subconscious brain do what it does best -- associate two spheres in a way that makes one collide into the other to put that other in the pocket, store away all those successes and failures, and repeat the successes ad infinitum at will.

Too many people have control "issues" -- whereby the conscious brain "has" to be in control. Like they say, paralysis through analysis.

-Sean

I'll just throw this out there. I used the feel approach to aiming for a solid 10 years and my shot making got to a certain point, then never really progressed. I'm sure if I HAMB and shot more often, I could have went a lot farther. After switching to CTE, my shot making has gone straight up the chart in under a year's time. Now my shot making is once again subconscious, just far better with the same amount of effort. With better shot making ability, the rest of my game is accelerating along with it. ie. I can focus on other parts of the shot and not hear my brain yelling "It ain't going in!" I can't claim this will be the same result for everyone, that is just mine. CTE is now out there for anyone to try, no strings attached.

 

[peteypooldude]

I have added some new terminology to the article:

1 = thick cuts
2 = thin cuts
3 = very thin cuts

You can apply these to a left or right cut, so the whole system boils down to 1L, 1R, 2L, 2R, 3L, 3R. This will make it much easier to call out pivots in demonstration videos and in paragraphs of text. It is important to emphasize the L and R are the direction of the cut, not the pivot. All pivots are the same direction in this system.

This is the system I use, All pivot are left to right and half ball. You are the
only other person I know other than Spidey that use this method

 

[champ2107]

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[mohrt]

i had about an hour to try this system seriously tonight and the impression i came away with is this system needs more and more feel to work it once you start moving away form the thick cuts.

You need to be exact.

 

[champ2107]

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[peteypooldude]

You need to be exact.

Exactly,just as exact as pro 1, Stan will tell you in the video his is equal to and based on a half ball offset. Imo there is nothing better than this.
I was using this before the pro 1 dvd came out and I still use it.

 

[the chicken]

Don't mean to take a jab at anyone, but...
I read the premise of CTE and, for me, it required more processing power than I have available. That is, I don't quite understand it.
Having said that, it did open my eyes to aiming cut shots by using the side of the cue ball as aid (repeat, aid). Since doing so for the past few days, I find that cut shots are much easier to aim. Please accept my thanks for helping me improve this aspect of my game.

 

[sfleinen]

its a great system and i like it and when mastered like spidey has its hard to miss but it needs feel to work. It reminds me how i used to shoot cte before cte/pro1 came out. i used to use just the ctel and feel to pocket the balls.

Champster:

Why do you feel "the system" (CTE, I assume?) needs feel to work? Did you try this on a snooker table? (And if so, why did you remove the video on YouTube? I was really curious if you tried my "shooting a center-spotted clue from the 'D' area" shot on a snooker table, so I clicked the link you provided, only to be met with a "sorry, the owner has removed the video" message...)

Curious,
-Sean

 

[sfleinen]

You need to be exact.

That's right. With *any* aiming system, you have to be exact, but that also enters the realm of diminishing returns. How exact can you get, before the player's own fundamentals (read: lack of) get in the way? Rationale: the bigger the table is, the more important cue delivery (i.e. execution) becomes. In fact, the ratio between aiming|execution favors the latter more and more as the table gets bigger. One can demonstrate CTE on a barbox all day long (and the "demonstration videos" look compelling to the uneducated eye), but take that aiming system to a 9-footer, or even a snooker table, and watch how that ratio swings in the other direction.

Aiming systems are good, but they, by far, are NOT a panacea. Once you find that spot on the object ball to hit, you now have to hit that target. This is why execution in snooker is so important, any why only in pool will you find such voluminous discussion on "aiming systems."

-Sean

 

[mohrt]

That's right. With *any* aiming system, you have to be exact, but that also enters the realm of diminishing returns. How exact can you get, before the player's own fundamentals (read: lack of) get in the way? Rationale: the bigger the table is, the more important cue delivery (i.e. execution) becomes. In fact, the ratio between aiming|execution favors the latter more and more as the table gets bigger. One can demonstrate CTE on a barbox all day long (and the "demonstration videos" look compelling to the uneducated eye), but take that aiming system to a 9-footer, or even a snooker table, and watch how that ratio swings in the other direction.

Aiming systems are good, but they, by far, are NOT a panacea. Once you find that spot on the object ball to hit, you now have to hit that target. This is why execution in snooker is so important, any why only in pool will you find such voluminous discussion on "aiming systems."

-Sean

Agreed, with any aiming system you must be exact, and with any aiming system it will only be as accurate as the fundamentals you back it up with. CTE is not anything magical, bigger tables require better fundamentals. As for "feel" I'm not going to try to argue what that means. What I know is once you reach a certain point you don't have to think about all the details, just get in line with the shot, slide in and pivot. Your subconscious mind learns how to execute the pivot. It takes time and practice to get there. As the chicken just noted above, he read through it and didn't understand it. That is expected... just as you can't read a golf manual and expect to golf even par, you can't apply a new concept of aiming just by reading about it. It takes some practice, and eventually it gets way easier.

 

[champ2107]

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[BasementDweller]

Now im not saying there is no feel needed in pro1 because there is but that half pivot system needs a lot of feel to master like spidey has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41UA8bo-czY

:yikes::yikes::yikes::yikes:

Oh no he didn't!

You may have just voted yourself off of the CTE Island with that comment. Didn't you know that CTE (all varieties) requires absolutely NO FEEL?

That's been the sticking point of all the CTE arguments from the very beginning.

 

[champ2107]

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[mohrt]

:yikes::yikes::yikes::yikes:

Oh no he didn't!

You may have just voted yourself off of the CTE Island with that comment. Didn't you know that CTE (all varieties) requires absolutely NO FEEL?

That's been the sticking point of all the CTE arguments from the very beginning.

lol I knew that one was coming judging by his video, he is no where near figured out how to do the half ball pivot. He has to "feel" his way around to find the pocket. With enough practice the pivot becomes subconscious. Then for the conscious mind it is just a matter of execution: line up, slide in, pivot, shoot. Is there feel involved? What is feel? I don't really care to examine, define or argue it. What I know is for the effort put in, you get extremely accurate ball pocketing. The hurdle is, learning the pivot.

 

[champ2107]

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