I've been practicing a lot and trying a bunch of stuff and found what works. Again...calculating the amount of deflection, throw, etc comes with experience but you can only learn from your experience if you know what you did (what you were aiming at.)
I found that without using English, I would site right down the shaft and visualize where the tip of the shaft, extended through the cue ball would hit the object ball. This is what was messing me up when using English.
I figured out that if I visualize a track the same width as the cue ball going to the aim point on the object ball, then when my cue is left or right of center, it is still parallel with this imagined track...then I can better visualize where exactly I'm aiming.
I have improved my results dramatically by using this visualization. Before, I would miss almost every shot with English and now I'm becoming so comfortable that I'm not missing because I don't know where I'm aiming....now I can start getting experience judging deflection and throw.
