Interesting Observation

R

Rod

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Today decided to go hit a few balls. All is pretty much ok except early in my practice (playing 14-1) I over cut a longer shot, it missed a fair amount. Well ok, I must have had a brain fart. A little later at a run of 40 something I missed another one very similar. I'd managed my racks fairly well but once in a while I'd have to take a little longer shot.

It seemed a little strange because the balls were a bit fuzzy. I'm use to this because I need to wear contacts but today I actually took the time to put them in. I'll admit there not strong enough my prescription changed on my glasses and I never got a new one for contacts.

A fellow come along and asked to play and I said sure. We switched to 9 ball. During this time I missed a few cut shots and at one point I said, man I'm not seeing the angles right or something. Play continued when another one of those longer slight cut shots come up. At this point I made dead sure I was focused on the exact angle. Well what the hell, I missed the damn thing a couple of inches. I knew I was dead focused but at that point I didn't have an answer. What's odd is I shot the exact angle but the c/b went off on another direction. I wasn't going to analize my stance & swing while playing this fellow.

Late this afternoon at home I went in to take out my contacts. Guess what? The one in my right eye wasn't there. I found it on the counter all dried up. It's hell when you can't see well enough to put in your contacts. LOL

I play with my eyes centered and at times I have put one in just the right eye. That works fine since it is my dominant eye. Only having one in the left eye though must have changed my head position over to the right which explains those missed shots.

Have any of you experienced similar? I'll tell ya when whitey goes off on another direction other than where your aiming it's really weird.

Rod
 
Rod said:
Today decided to go hit a few balls. All is pretty much ok except early in my practice (playing 14-1) I over cut a longer shot, it missed a fair amount. Well ok, I must have had a brain fart. A little later at a run of 40 something I missed another one very similar. I'd managed my racks fairly well but once in a while I'd have to take a little longer shot.

It seemed a little strange because the balls were a bit fuzzy. I'm use to this because I need to wear contacts but today I actually took the time to put them in. I'll admit there not strong enough my prescription changed on my glasses and I never got a new one for contacts.

A fellow come along and asked to play and I said sure. We switched to 9 ball. During this time I missed a few cut shots and at one point I said, man I'm not seeing the angles right or something. Play continued when another one of those longer slight cut shots come up. At this point I made dead sure I was focused on the exact angle. Well what the hell, I missed the damn thing a couple of inches. I knew I was dead focused but at that point I didn't have an answer. What's odd is I shot the exact angle but the c/b went off on another direction. I wasn't going to analize my stance & swing while playing this fellow.

Late this afternoon at home I went in to take out my contacts. Guess what? The one in my right eye wasn't there. I found it on the counter all dried up. It's hell when you can't see well enough to put in your contacts. LOL

I play with my eyes centered and at times I have put one in just the right eye. That works fine since it is my dominant eye. Only having one in the left eye though must have changed my head position over to the right which explains those missed shots.

Have any of you experienced similar? I'll tell ya when whitey goes off on another direction other than where your aiming it's really weird.

Rod
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Unfortunately, yes I have. I have played with every conceivable combination of contacts. People watch you play and then wonder why you miss some easy shots and say, "Why does everyone say she can play?". LOL

I am finally getting the courage up to have the surgery. In fact, all day today, I took one contact out that was bothering me and couldn't see close up or far away!
 
rackmsuckr said:
Unfortunately, yes I have. I have played with every conceivable combination of contacts. People watch you play and then wonder why you miss some easy shots and say, "Why does everyone say she can play?". LOL

I am finally getting the courage up to have the surgery. In fact, all day today, I took one contact out that was bothering me and couldn't see close up or far away!
Click to expand...

Please please please, Linda.. If you get the surgery, tell us how it works out. I have been thinking about getting it done before I start my year of practice... Scared to death, because of that possible halo effect around lights.

And good luck!

Russ
 
UGGGG I'm sticking with my glasses!!!!!!!!!

I know some people who've gotten the lasik done, but i dont want anyone going near my eyes with a lazer!!!

But yea i would hate having to shoot with my contacts in, expecially if they get blurry during the middle of a match.

A few days ago I seen a friend of mine shooting with someone on a table, well my friends father was there too, and we talk all the time, and he's telling me the guy he's shooting with usta play pro many years ago, but lost one of his eyes in a accident. And had to quit. So Imagine having to deal with that!

The guy still shot pretty nice on a 9ft. But nothing like what he usta be able too. I didnt catch his last name but i think his first name was Frank? i'd hafta ask. But he did have some good stories about his traveling days, and about Keith McCready which we all got a good laugh about.

But it made me really think about how important it would be to have both eyes fixed on your shot instead of just one.
 
personally i can't imagine how you didn't notice one was missing - when i just put the one in (either one), I feel like i'm blind drunk and my brain is upside down! but that's probably cause my eyes are worse than yours.

i did have a problem the other day though - I was playing and the left one was really rubbing very badly and it really hurt. i persevered but eventually as i was taking a shot half the contact lens dropped out of my eye and onto the cloth! the thing had split in my eye.

the day before I'd gone to bed and for some inconceiveable reason I hadn't put the left one in it's solution so it dried up all night. next day i left it to soak a few hours see if if i could bring it back from the dead and fix it. I thought it was perfect, but being as it split a day later it obviously wasn't... :rolleyes:

apart form that i don't experience any problems playing with contacts, apart from when people are smoking around my table then they start to dry out. :S
 
rackmsuckr said:
Unfortunately, yes I have. I have played with every conceivable combination of contacts. People watch you play and then wonder why you miss some easy shots and say, "Why does everyone say she can play?". LOL

I am finally getting the courage up to have the surgery. In fact, all day today, I took one contact out that was bothering me and couldn't see close up or far away!
Click to expand...
Are you thinking of having Lasik surgery?

I think Efren Reyes had Lasik surgery less than a year ago...and now he just won 500K just this past weekend! :)
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
Are you thinking of having Lasik surgery?

I think Efren Reyes had Lasik surgery less than a year ago...and now he just won 500K just this past weekend! :)
Click to expand...

Well, I doubt my results would be so stupendous, ROFL. Anyway, as Russ mentioned, I had heard about the halo effect from Geiler and just was squeamish about getting the laser in the eye thing from watching the procedure on the internet.

Right now, I wear bifocal contacts, which seem to be ok, but they do dry out, itch, rub, scratch, etc. and I am getting tired of them. So I am at the point where there may not be such a bad tradeoff by having LASIK.

I have heard many positive things about it, but I want to know if Efren had his eyes cinched to 20/20 or something more in the range of seeing only 10-15 feet. I would rather be able to see the whole table and wear glasses for vision beyond that, than being able to see a gnat's behind from 100 paces.

One time I got a new prescription and picked them up and put them in on the way to BCA Nationals and exclaimed how bright and beautiful and sharp everything was in the distance. When I got there, I couldn't make a ball on a 7 footer, because my eyesight was cranked too far out. My whole team was offering me their glasses to shoot with! It was horrible.

So I want to be able to just read/see the computer and shoot pool. Anything out in the distance such as driving, I am willing to wear glasses for. ;)
 
worriedbeef said:
personally i can't imagine how you didn't notice one was missing - when i just put the one in (either one), I feel like i'm blind drunk and my brain is upside down! but that's probably cause my eyes are worse than yours.

i did have a problem the other day though - I was playing and the left one was really rubbing very badly and it really hurt. i persevered but eventually as i was taking a shot half the contact lens dropped out of my eye and onto the cloth! the thing had split in my eye.

the day before I'd gone to bed and for some inconceiveable reason I hadn't put the left one in it's solution so it dried up all night. next day i left it to soak a few hours see if if i could bring it back from the dead and fix it. I thought it was perfect, but being as it split a day later it obviously wasn't... :rolleyes:

apart form that i don't experience any problems playing with contacts, apart from when people are smoking around my table then they start to dry out. :S
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When I put the right one in (or so I thought) it seemed to go very smooth. I blinked a couple of times and thought well that was easy. The left one gave me problems and burned a lttle when I put in. Normally after there in they don't bother me unless they get dry. I forgot to take a bottle of rewetting drops but it wasn't a big deal for four hours. Stuff happens, now I'll know to do a check to be sure.

Rod
 
rackmsuckr said:
Right now, I wear bifocal contacts, which seem to be ok, but they do dry out, itch, rub, scratch, etc. and I am getting tired of them. So I am at the point where there may not be such a bad tradeoff by having LASIK.

I would rather be able to see the whole table and wear glasses for vision beyond that, than being able to see a gnat's behind from 100 paces.

So I want to be able to just read/see the computer and shoot pool. Anything out in the distance such as driving, I am willing to wear glasses for. ;)
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A question for ya. How do bifocal lenses work for pool? How do they work period? What I mean is do you use the stronger part for pool? Other than the usual getting dry etc are they ok? I need to see doc real soon to get some new ones. Maybe I should try some.

I'd have lasik if I could, but I don't think that is an option, I've never actually checked. My thoughts are though if I still have to wear glasses for close up (I'm far sighted) is it really worth it. However my distance vision has started to fade in the last three years.

Um, getting old is the pits, everything is slowly falling apart. LOL

Rod
 
Yes ...

Rod said:
When I put the right one in (or so I thought) it seemed to go very smooth. I blinked a couple of times and thought well that was easy. The left one gave me problems and burned a lttle when I put in. Normally after there in they don't bother me unless they get dry. I forgot to take a bottle of rewetting drops but it wasn't a big deal for four hours. Stuff happens, now I'll know to do a check to be sure.

Rod
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Except your eyes must not be very bad to have not noticed it. I couldn't drive with 1 contact, because mine are mono-focused (1 for distance, 1 for close-up), plus I have to wear hard contacts. (which are way more comfortable than soft - no matter what they say). But, I lost a right contact, and had to go back to old contacts I kept around (not knowing how long I had them), and use a right lense from one of the old ones, which isn't the best thing to do.
 
Rod said:
A question for ya. How do bifocal lenses work for pool? How do they work period? What I mean is do you use the stronger part for pool? Other than the usual getting dry etc are they ok? I need to see doc real soon to get some new ones. Maybe I should try some.

I'd have lasik if I could, but I don't think that is an option, I've never actually checked. My thoughts are though if I still have to wear glasses for close up (I'm far sighted) is it really worth it. However my distance vision has started to fade in the last three years.

Um, getting old is the pits, everything is slowly falling apart. LOL

Rod
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They can see up close on the bottom, and normal on the top part. I still need readers sometimes for closeup work. There are no visible lines or adjusting to go from one to the other. I am near-sighted, so I'm not sure how they would work for you. They are the best contacts for shooting pool though!
 
Fwiw

When I was about 22 (I'm 51 now), I began needing glasses for distance. Had an awful time trying to shoot pool with them. Because of that and other demands, I gave up the game.

Fast forward 23 years, I decided to get Lasik done. I didn't need glasses for reading, just distance. They told me that after having Lasik, I would need to wear reading glasses. That didn't sit too well with me, so I asked what alternatives I had. One was to have only one eye done. So that's what I did. I now see distance out of my right, dominant eye, and read with my left eye. I never notice it, though. The brain sorts it all out.

A couple of years after having the Lasik done on one eye, I picked up a cue for the first time in all those years. I could see perfectly, and I was able to get back into the game at a higher level than ever.

So...it worked for me. FWIW
 
Andrew Manning said:
What do you mean, only has one eye? Is one of them prosthetic, or disabled? Because in the picture, I see two...

-Andrew
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I see him from time to time in Chicago, at Chris's and elsewhere. Someone told me he is blind in one eye. I haven't gone up and asked him if it's true. Think I should?

When I heard he only had one eye for shooting, the person who told me said there were some other excellent players who are "one eyed" too... Should've taken note of those names, but I didn't.

Flex
 
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rackmsuckr said:
Right now, I wear bifocal contacts, which seem to be ok, but they do dry out, itch, rub, scratch, etc. and I am getting tired of them. So I am at the point where there may not be such a bad tradeoff by having LASIK.

I have heard many positive things about it, but I want to know if Efren had his eyes cinched to 20/20 or something more in the range of seeing only 10-15 feet. I would rather be able to see the whole table and wear glasses for vision beyond that, than being able to see a gnat's behind from 100 paces.

So I want to be able to just read/see the computer and shoot pool. Anything out in the distance such as driving, I am willing to wear glasses for. ;)
Click to expand...
Before you go the surgical route, have you explored all the options that you may have with contact lenses, i.e., hard contacts vs. soft contacts, astigmatism correction, different brands of contact lenses?
 
One of my pool league teammates had lasik a few months ago. He's a very cautious kinda guy, very risk-averse, so he waited several years for the tech to mature to the point that he thought it was up to snuff.

His eyes were pretty bad - he'd always wore contacts when playing (and otherwise - I never saw him with glasses, and never knew his eyes were that bad 'til he told me he was getting lasik). It used to be that your eyes had to be a certain amount off 20/20 to get lasik, but nowadays, I think, that limit has shrunk significantly so folks whose eyesight isn't THAT bad can still get lasik.

Anyhow, he goes in for the proceedure. They tell him it'll take maybe a week, tops, for his eyes to adjust - his vision to start with will still be kinda bad, but improve as his eyes heal. Well, his vision improves - but it doesn't get to where he was expecting it. As it turns out, it gets to about the point MY vision is. I even offered him the use of a spare pair of glasses. :D

He went back to the clinic, kinda worked up - apparently sometimes the first proceedure doesn't nail the vision target 100%. They told him to let his eyes heal up for a month or two, and come back and they'd do it again. He waited, he went back, and now is QUITE happy with the results - they got his vision back to where he doesn't need glasses/contacts.

And on the pool-related front, he had a 100% winning percentage for the summer session. :P

Now me, I wear contacts when playing these days - got'em just under a year ago. They really help me, vs. wearing glasses. I hated looking over the rims of the lenses, due to bending down and the position of my head/neck in relation to the table surface. Meh.

I dunno if I want to go through the whole lasik thing - my prescription is pretty weak (-.75) and hasn't changed in six years, so I don't see my vision declining more anytime soon and don't think my vision's so bad that the expense of lasik is warranted.

Rod, you say you don't know if you can get lasik - take some time and find out! At least you'll know for sure one way or the other.
 
Scott, your right I should get checked out. Until recently I played very little and now I have to wear glasses for driving. I don't mind for driving but I'll never wear them for playing pool. I have a pair of Decot for pool that just sit in a drawer.

Rod
 
Rod said:
Scott, your right I should get checked out. Until recently I played very little and now I have to wear glasses for driving. I don't mind for driving but I'll never wear them for playing pool. I have a pair of Decot for pool that just sit in a drawer.

Rod
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You can get checked out for free. (I did and found out I was not a candidate)

I have not been able to get used to the glasses thing.

I am back to messing with different contacts. I am going to try a toric lens in my left eye and a regular -75 or -1 in my right eye....(they can't seem to find a contact that does not feel like sand in my right eye)

Your inital post just confirms how beneficial good eyesight is for pool....and there are cetain people that have the ideal vison set up for pool.....(although they usually take it for granted and play it off)
 
I had Lasik done over a year ago, and it's the best money I've ever spent. I used to wear big dorky glasses for pool, then I switched to contacts, then switched back to the big dorky glasses, and finally just did the research and had the surgery. My vision is now 20/10 and I couldn't be happier.

I've seen some of you posting about a halo effect, but my night vision has gotten progressively better as time passes. The first few weeks of driving after the surgery were a little dodgy, but now I don't see any halos at all. That's pretty good, considering I had astigmatism in both eyes and I was used to seeing halos.

I'm not sure if it's because of the surgery or practice, but I'm definitely a better player today than I was before the surgery. If you're a viable candidate, I highly recommend the surgery.

-djb
 
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