I've been contemplating

Pidge said:
I think that those who have a hard time aiming are those that are out there seeking the Holy Grail aiming system. They have a hard time aiming not because aiming is difficult but because their mindset and outlook on aiming is all wrong.
Click to expand...
Aiming becomes easy with experience/repetition. Initially, aiming is not easy, not intuitive, at least not for most people.

Watch beginners play pool for 15min. Poor strokes and poor form, of course, but also poor estimates on aiming. Watch the average weekend bar room players. Their strokes, stance, form might start looking a bit more consistent, compared to beginners, but they still miss far too many shots.

I'm not a believer that every miss is stroke-related. Plenty of misses simply occur due to poor estimates of where/how to aim particular shots. Or misses occur because of poor aiming compensations when using english, which is part of aiming.

I did an aiming experiment years ago with a novice player. She probably played 10 games of pool about every month,, and she could make 2 or 3 shots in a row every now then. I had her shoot a few dozen balls by aiming each shot intuitively (guessing/estimating the ghostball), her normal way. Then I had her shoot a few dozen by aiming exactly where I showed her to aim (fractional aiming). The results weren't even close. When she wasn't estimating/guessing the aim line, but rather had a 100% known aim line, she pocketed balls at a much higher percentage.

Her stroke didn't miraculously get better all of a sudden. The only change was giving her a point of aim, rather than having her estimate where to aim.
 
Last edited:
BC21 said:
Aiming becomes easy with experience/repetition. Initially, aiming is not easy, not intuitive, at least not for most people.

Watch beginners play pool for 15min. Poor strokes and poor form, of course, but also poor estimates on aiming. Watch the average weekend bar room players. Their strokes, stance, form might start looking a bit more consistent, compared to beginners, but they still miss far too many shots.

I'm not a believer that every miss is stroke-related. Plenty of misses simply occur due to poor estimates of where/how to aim particular shots. Or misses occur because of poor aiming compensations when using english, which is part of aiming.

I did an aiming experiment years ago with a novice player. She probably played 10 games of pool about every month,, and she could make 2 or 3 shots in a row every now then. I had her shoot a few dozen balls by aiming each shot intuitively (guessing/estimating the ghostball), her normal way. Then I had her shoot a few dozen by aiming exactly where I showed her to aim (fractional aiming). The results weren't even close. When she wasn't estimating/guessing the aim line, but rather had a 100% known aim line, she pocketed balls at a much higher percentage.

Her stroke didn't miraculously get better all of a sudden. The only change was giving her a point of aim, rather than having her estimate where to aim.
Click to expand...
I get these results daily when teach..
 
Pidge said:
After many years of cue sports followed by many years out of cue sports followed by a few months back in cue sports I've come to a realisation - aiming, by a long way, is the easiest part of any cue sport.

Playing with friends and family that have little to no experience it's apparent to me that they easily find the line of the shot, but for a multitude of reasons deviate off the line between getting down and striking the cue ball.

Why are people, especially beginners so quick to criticise their aim....MY AIM SUCKS!...We've all heard it. I never hear anyone shout that their PSR sucks, or they're terrible at keeping their head still.

It's a strange one.
Click to expand...
I got totally different encounters. All claim they can aim any shot but they "just need stroke". Especially when medium level player get lessons..
 
Pidge said:
...aiming, by a long way, is the easiest part of any cue sport.
Click to expand...
I suspect you mean finding the object ball contact point is "easy". But that's not all there is to "aiming" - knowing how to hit the OB contact point with the matching CB contact point is the hardest part of aiming. That's where most shots go wrong.

pj
chgo
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I suspect you mean finding the object ball contact point is "easy". But that's not all there is to "aiming" - knowing how to hit the OB contact point with the matching CB contact point is the hardest part of aiming. That's where most shots go wrong.

pj
chgo
Click to expand...
And some people think the object ball contact point is the point on the surface of the object ball that is the farthest from the target pocket. It's usually not.
 
Bob Jewett said:
... some people think the object ball contact point is the point on the surface of the object ball that is the farthest from the target pocket. It's usually not.
Click to expand...
Unless you use spin, a whole other aiming headache.

pj <- don't get me started
chgo
 
Last edited:
They unlike many other players think that their hitting is consistent. HOW LITTLE DO THEY KNOW. I've been playing for over 20+ years and one thing that i have been doing the last few years is trying to hit the ball consistently down to the milimeter. I can say for myself today I hit very consistent. But one thing is that i can get lazy and if i don't concentrait on where i am hitting the OB i will miss the shot.
 
Its not just aiming, delivery is important.
I had problems playing at b league tournament here. Its a one day tournament, with 35 ot so players. After a couple of games my back got tired and i unconsciously started to lean on my bridge hand to much and that coused misalignment and a miss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top