I think I am weird...

T

tallygreys

Registered
So...when line up for a shot, I like to get first aim dead on straight on to the OB. Dead on straight. Then, I "rotate" my cue and body to the correct shooting angle. When I watch anyone else play, they just line up and aim with the correct shooting angle. But I line up/aim dead on straight on first. I fell like it gives me a reference point from which I then rotate into the correct angle.

Does anyone else do this? Conversely, why doesn't everyone do this! :) Again, to me, if I don't do this, I feel like I have no reference and feel sorta like I am shooting blind.

Curious for your thoughts.

Mike
 
This is how I started out shooting. I would get down straight on the ball and than lift my head up to see the cut shot and than get back down and adjust for the cut. If you are tired of doing it, start phasing it out with cut shots you are more confident in. I noticed myself phasing it out, mostly because when I was nervous or not confident, I would find myself standing up to re examine the cut shot and getting down straight and adjusting.

If you aren't worried about it, do your thing.
 
You are weird. Do you have a video to post of you shooting? Do you move your feet and lower body too or just your upper body?
 
tallygreys said:
So...when line up for a shot, I like to get first aim dead on straight on to the OB. Dead on straight. Then, I "rotate" my cue and body to the correct shooting angle. When I watch anyone else play, they just line up and aim with the correct shooting angle. But I line up/aim dead on straight on first. I fell like it gives me a reference point from which I then rotate into the correct angle.

Does anyone else do this? Conversely, why doesn't everyone do this! :) Again, to me, if I don't do this, I feel like I have no reference and feel sorta like I am shooting blind.

Curious for your thoughts.

Mike
Click to expand...
I just tried your method on a 6 inch 85 degree cut shot, fell over and broke my cue. :eek:

But seriously, that is one of the problems with your method. It can require a lot of body movement on closer shots with wide cut angles especially.

I have at times used similar dialing in across techniques. Usually dialing left to right as I'm sliding the bridge into place. It's an easier direction to move to for a right hander I find. That said, sliding straight into the line is preferable imho and the choice of most great potters.

Colin
 
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Allen Brown said:
You are weird. Do you have a video to post of you shooting? Do you move your feet and lower body too or just your upper body?
Click to expand...

Ha! The title of the post was supposed to be "I think I aim weird" not "I think I am weird". Guess it was a Freudian...

To answer: I just move my upper body, unless the angle and my position over the table require lower body movement, in which case I move upper and lower.

I don't really have an issue with it, it just seems a bit inefficient because I spend additional time. It's like the opposite of Ronny O'Sullivan :) Although I do indeed realize that comparing my shot routine with the Rocket's is, well, you know... :)

Mike
 
Colin Colenso said:
I just tried your method on a 6 inch 85 degree cut shot, fell over and broke my cue. :eek:

But seriously, that is one of the problems with your method. It can require a lot of body movement on closer shots with wide cut angles especially.

I have at times used similar dialing in across techniques. Usually dialing left to right as I'm sliding the bridge into place. It's an easier direction to move to for a right hander I find. That said, sliding straight into the line is preferable imho and the choice of most great potters.

Colin
Click to expand...

Colin, I was wondering how he kept his balance and kept from falling over.
 
tallygreys said:
Ha! The title of the post was supposed to be "I think I aim weird" not "I think I am weird". Guess it was a Freudian...

To answer: I just move my upper body, unless the angle and my position over the table require lower body movement, in which case I move upper and lower.

I don't really have an issue with it, it just seems a bit inefficient because I spend additional time. It's like the opposite of Ronny O'Sullivan :) Although I do indeed realize that comparing my shot routine with the Rocket's is, well, you know... :)

Mike
Click to expand...

Are you not sore from doing all of that awkward bending after a few hours of playing? I'm a bigger guy and I'm not all that flexible.......so once I'm down on a shot I'm not moving anything on my body except the portion of my arm at the elbow down.
 
Allen Brown said:
Are you not sore from doing all of that awkward bending after a few hours of playing? I'm a bigger guy and I'm not all that flexible.......so once I'm down on a shot I'm not moving anything on my body except the portion of my arm at the elbow down.
Click to expand...

I'm not in amazing shape (although I just got back from a 20 mile bike ride at lunch), but really, moving my upper and sometimes lower body a little bit is not that tiring or exerting.

I was more curious about my seeming dependence on getting a "straight on reference point" before rotating into the shooting angle. ...And what others thought about the aiming, as opposed to physical exertion, aspect of that. That's all.
 
Actually now that I think about it, there is an aiming system called 90/90 where you line up the edge of the cueball to some spot on the objectball and pivot to center cueball. 90/90 was developed by Ron Vitello.
 
Can you see the line that you need to be on while you are standing at the table?......Or do you need to get down on the shot and find the line while you are lower on the table? Do you pivot your bridge hand with your stroking hand to make sure you have a straight stroke?
 
tallygreys said:
So...when line up for a shot, I like to get first aim dead on straight on to the OB. Dead on straight. Then, I "rotate" my cue and body to the correct shooting angle. When I watch anyone else play, they just line up and aim with the correct shooting angle. But I line up/aim dead on straight on first. I fell like it gives me a reference point from which I then rotate into the correct angle.

Does anyone else do this? Conversely, why doesn't everyone do this! :) Again, to me, if I don't do this, I feel like I have no reference and feel sorta like I am shooting blind.

Curious for your thoughts.

Mike
Click to expand...

I used to do something like that......line up for a straight shot, then shift over for the angle......but only when I was standing, not while I was down on the ball.
 
Hi,

nice little post, glad to see that :)
As for your "problem", please go and watch Tor Lowry's video on fundamentals on youtube (free). Pay special attention to stance and stroke and try his approach.
You do not need to do it exactly and 100%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzjousgGLjU#t=6m30s

I was having the same problems and missing quite a few shots because of this.
Now I first imagine the OB going into the pocket and how I need to strike it, even for a few seconds to imprint it into my mind.
Then I go down on this exact aiming line, no changing aiming after that and build the bridge and pre-strokes. If something is amiss I reset and start again.

It has gotten much better after that!

Also - keep the cue as level as possible (90 degrees versus CB) and really go down on the shot.

Have fun and good luck, cheers!
M
 
I do something pretty similar to your method on a lot of cut shots. Difference is I use English to make the ball. I line up dead on straight, get down on the shot, and then use English to cut it in. So on a cut to the left I'm using some right hand English. It's a "feel" thing on how much to use. Works pretty good for me though.
 
tallygreys said:
So...when line up for a shot, I like to get first aim dead on straight on to the OB. Dead on straight. Then, I "rotate" my cue and body to the correct shooting angle. When I watch anyone else play, they just line up and aim with the correct shooting angle. But I line up/aim dead on straight on first. I fell like it gives me a reference point from which I then rotate into the correct angle.

Does anyone else do this? Conversely, why doesn't everyone do this! :) Again, to me, if I don't do this, I feel like I have no reference and feel sorta like I am shooting blind.

Curious for your thoughts.

Mike
Click to expand...

Welcome to the game. Keep working on it. The better you get the more interesting the game becomes. Play in poolrooms on 9 footers against better players. Hit em well. After you've hit a million balls, if your lucky, you'll stop thinking and just do.
 
tallygreys said:
Ha! The title of the post was supposed to be "I think I aim weird" not "I think I am weird". Guess it was a Freudian...

To answer: I just move my upper body, unless the angle and my position over the table require lower body movement, in which case I move upper and lower.

I don't really have an issue with it, it just seems a bit inefficient because I spend additional time. It's like the opposite of Ronny O'Sullivan :) Although I do indeed realize that comparing my shot routine with the Rocket's is, well, you know... :)

Mike
Click to expand...


After reading that I'm starting to feel weird myself but the only thing that matters is this - do the balls go in the holes? If the balls go in the holes then don't worry about whether or not it is weird or unusual.
 
tallygreys said:
So...when line up for a shot, I like to get first aim dead on straight on to the OB. Dead on straight. Then, I "rotate" my cue and body to the correct shooting angle. When I watch anyone else play, they just line up and aim with the correct shooting angle. But I line up/aim dead on straight on first. I fell like it gives me a reference point from which I then rotate into the correct angle.

Does anyone else do this? Conversely, why doesn't everyone do this! :) Again, to me, if I don't do this, I feel like I have no reference and feel sorta like I am shooting blind.

Curious for your thoughts.

Mike
Click to expand...

Hmm...Well if it works, it works. I will ask you this though: When you get tired or lose focus, do you tend to hit the shots too thickly? Also, do you struggle with unwanted sidespin on power draws and follows? More than most others, that is. Everybody has this problem to some degree, unless their stroke is perfect. If the answer to these questions are both no, then I won't bother to diagram what I think the problem with this kind of aiming is, because its a huge pain in the posterior to do these things in "paint". I don't have a better program for drawing, and I suck at drawing to boot. But it might be worth it if these things are problematic for you.
 
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tallygreys said:
So...when line up for a shot, I like to get first aim dead on straight on to the OB. Dead on straight. Then, I "rotate" my cue and body to the correct shooting angle. When I watch anyone else play, they just line up and aim with the correct shooting angle. But I line up/aim dead on straight on first. I fell like it gives me a reference point from which I then rotate into the correct angle.

Does anyone else do this? Conversely, why doesn't everyone do this! :) Again, to me, if I don't do this, I feel like I have no reference and feel sorta like I am shooting blind.

Curious for your thoughts.

Mike
Click to expand...

If you are doing this while down on the shot then lining up "straight on" first is not a "reference point" at all. How could it be as it is essentially just a random wrong aim line (random because every shot comes with a different cut angle and will have a different angle of deviation from the "straight on" line). It is not a reference if the "reference" is wrong and there is not a systematic way of getting to right based off of the wrong.

Maybe by "reference point" you mean that through much experience you now know that from the straight on shot line, on say a 1/4 ball cut to the left that you will have to shift you left foot to the left about 1 inch, and also angle it more to the left by about 5 degrees, and your right foot will have to be shifted to the left about 2 inches and be angled more to the left by about 5 degrees. And if it is about a 1/8th ball cut to the left, through experience you have learned that you left foot will have to be moved about 5/8th inch to the left and about 2.5 degrees angled more to the left, and your right foot will have to be moved about 1.25 inches to the left and angled more to the left by about 2.5 degrees. If this is the case then you can just do all of this before you get down on the shot which is highly preferable.

You don't really want to be moving your feet around too much after you are already down on your shot because it is harder to get them in the exact right placement and they will be a little more off a little more often resulting in a few more misses than you would otherwise have if you take care of it while standing and get back up and readjust if you didn't get it right the first time. When your feet aren't perfect you have less than ideal balance and unnecessary tension that will lead to more misses. And you especially don't want to just twist at the waist or just move the cue over with your rear hand only to get on the correct shot line without even moving your feet because these causes tons of tension. Your body wants to naturally "uncoil" back to its natural relaxed state and your arm wants to return to its natural pendulum track line and it will be very difficult (read impossible) to consistently stroke straight on every shot. It will cause lots of unnecessary misses guaranteed.

What you need to do is stand in front of the shot and place your feet where you think they need to go, then get down on the shot. If your stick did not fall *exactly* onto the correct shot line, raise back up and readjust your feet and try it again. Do it however many times it takes until the stick comes down exactly on the shot line and with you feeling solidly balanced and steady and with no unnecessary tension anywhere. It won't take long before you will be coming down exactly perfect the first time the vast majority of the time. Don't settle for anything less than coming down perfect. There are even pros that will get up and back down 5 or 6 times on occasion before they finally got all their placements exactly right for the shot. Don't do any of the adjusting while you are down, you will never be nearly as accurate that way. If it isn't perfect, get back up and do it again until it is.
 
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I'd wager that almost everybody uses a "starting reference" like you do - they just aren't aware of it like you are. But they might make the "shift" to the actual aim line "visually" before getting down.

You might try using a half ball alignment as your initial reference alignment - it's as easy to see as lining up straight on, but has the advantage of being closer to the actual aim line for most shots - so smaller adjustments.

pj
chgo
 
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