Learn with an aiming system or not
- Thread starter Mike81
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You feel like you're getting worse because drills suck. When you do them you consciously, and subconsciously, know it and your game suffers. Drills were invented by authors who needed to fill up pages in an otherwise short book, and by instructors who need to milk more time out of a pupil.
There are two exercises (I don't call them drills) that help. The first is the Cosmo. Put the one through nine on the table and space them a few inches part from each other. No clusters. Begin with the one and pay close attention to your position play. When you run your first nine balls go buy yourself a beer.
The second is Put Another One Out. Put the nine ball on the table and make it. Place the nine back on the table along with the eight. Make the eight, and then the nine. Put the eight and nine back and add the seven ball. Make the seven, eight, and nine. Put them back and add the six. Do you see where I'm going with this?
If you miss anywhere along the line, start over. When you run them all, buy yourself a beer.
Most of all, play pool. Play anybody and everybody. Pool should be fun. Good luck.
Probably
The Kentucky Colonel, HOF er, he should be 68 or 69 yr old. We both played each other in the Midwest Collegiate finals at IU.
He's thee only player that went to the Phillipines and over a three day period beat Efren in his prime on his home court.
Thx for the link, kid had no chance.
The Kentucky Colonel, HOF er, he should be 68 or 69 yr old. We both played each other in the Midwest Collegiate finals at IU.
He's thee only player that went to the Phillipines and over a three day period beat Efren in his prime on his home court.
Thx for the link, kid had no chance.
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You feel like you're getting worse because drills suck. When you do them you consciously, and subconsciously, know it and your game suffers. Drills were invented by authors who needed to fill up pages in an otherwise short book, and by instructors who need to milk more time out of a pupil.
There are two exercises (I don't call them drills) that help. The first is the Cosmo. Put the one through nine on the table and space them a few inches part from each other. No clusters. Begin with the one and pay close attention to your position play. When you run your first nine balls go buy yourself a beer.
The second is Put Another One Out. Put the nine ball on the table and make it. Place the nine back on the table along with the eight. Make the eight, and then the nine. Put the eight and nine back and add the seven ball. Make the seven, eight, and nine. Put them back and add the six. Do you see where I'm going with this?
If you miss anywhere along the line, start over. When you run them all, buy yourself a beer.
Most of all, play pool. Play anybody and everybody. Pool should be fun. Good luck.
Yeah man thats where Im at. Drills are boring as hell to me. Id rather play
The same. Nick won a race to 3 in a funsie event and Landon won 15-3 in a tough professional event against Strickland.
I was there at the funsie Durbin Cup and everyone was joking and having a great time.
That said the players were trying to win and so it was competitive. Nick, like Earl is a world champion who can certainly win a race to three against any other human at any time. He could also win a race to 15 against any other human but it would be tougher for him now than it would have been in his prime.
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I am of the belief that most of us here actually aim better than we think. It's the whole process of actually shooting that short-circuits us from time to time.
One way to test this is to arrange some balls about a half-diamond away from the foot rail, and place the CB about a diamond or two away, just so that you cannot reach and make a bridge. Now, attempt to pocket the balls one-handed. You'll have to hold the cue near the end of the butt, and hit the CB dead center. With a little practice steadying your hand and just pushing the cue tip straight through the center of the CB, you'll find you'll make a majority if not every shot, regardless of thinness of cut.
Sometimes, it's when we add the bridge hand that things change, mainly because we haven't aligned our bodies to the shot, whereas with the one hand drill, you can take body alignment out of the equation somewhat. When I first came back to shooting, I would jiggle balls in pockets that I thought I stroked well. Turns out I was compensating my stroke because my body was not always in the proper alignment. Which to me means having my back foot in the same plane as my aim line and my front foot parallel to that line. Once my body was in better alignment, those jiggles became clean shots, at least more often than not.
I also find for thinner or longer cut shots, a longer bridge seems to work better for me (I have some theories on this related to the exercise above.) I also find it better to actually set the shot up in reverse - aim the cut as if I was shooting it one-handed while in stance, then build an open bridge below the cue and drop the cue to the bridge.
One way to test this is to arrange some balls about a half-diamond away from the foot rail, and place the CB about a diamond or two away, just so that you cannot reach and make a bridge. Now, attempt to pocket the balls one-handed. You'll have to hold the cue near the end of the butt, and hit the CB dead center. With a little practice steadying your hand and just pushing the cue tip straight through the center of the CB, you'll find you'll make a majority if not every shot, regardless of thinness of cut.
Sometimes, it's when we add the bridge hand that things change, mainly because we haven't aligned our bodies to the shot, whereas with the one hand drill, you can take body alignment out of the equation somewhat. When I first came back to shooting, I would jiggle balls in pockets that I thought I stroked well. Turns out I was compensating my stroke because my body was not always in the proper alignment. Which to me means having my back foot in the same plane as my aim line and my front foot parallel to that line. Once my body was in better alignment, those jiggles became clean shots, at least more often than not.
I also find for thinner or longer cut shots, a longer bridge seems to work better for me (I have some theories on this related to the exercise above.) I also find it better to actually set the shot up in reverse - aim the cut as if I was shooting it one-handed while in stance, then build an open bridge below the cue and drop the cue to the bridge.
Don't get fixated on aiming and don't listen to every aiming gimmick out there. It's just as much feel and using your subconscious. I've spent over 50 years in pool halls and there are guys and gals looking for the golden grail. Don't pay any attention to them.
I've played both ways. I was taught aiming systems by Hal Houle directly. I will tell you that they work. I will also tell you that, for me personally, I played my best pool when I was playing all the time and by feel more than by system. I would occasionally, on very difficult shots, use a system because I trusted it more than my eyes. In normal situations I would usually play by feel. I remember even telling Hal that some of the pivots felt too mechanical for me and he understood. He showed me about half a dozen different systems. I truly believe there is a place for systems and I believe they are especially good for beginners. The more you play the more you will probably drift in and out of them but they are definitely useful.
All the debates over systems vs non-systems are, to me, overblown. There is no reason you can't learn them and deploy them when you want. I haven't leaned ProOne from Stan but I would love to. Being a student of the game I think it could only help. Even if you only used 10% of what you learned. It's still 10% more than you had when you started.
All the debates over systems vs non-systems are, to me, overblown. There is no reason you can't learn them and deploy them when you want. I haven't leaned ProOne from Stan but I would love to. Being a student of the game I think it could only help. Even if you only used 10% of what you learned. It's still 10% more than you had when you started.
I absolutely agree with this post. I personally use an aiming system that i think works very well, and has definitely increased the percentage of balls I make. However, I would start out just learning the angles by sight first, and emphasize stroke development in my drills. Once you become solid in the fundamentals, then you can try and decide if an aiming system is the way you want to go.
As someone that practices and does use one handed shots, I never hold the cue near the butt, but more toward the balance point as this makes it easier to balance the cue whereas having all the cue weight in front of the grip makes it harder to steady.
That's pretty easy to prove.
Place a ball on the foot spot.
Place the cue ball a foot away at different angles.
A novice player will pocket the balls ok.
Now same angles and place the cue ball 4 feet away.
Novice players will start missing a lot .
With distance, the mistakes in stroke and delivery get magnified.
Delivering the cue ball at the correct spot from a distance requires better skill.
We all know know how to aim a spot shot. The pros make it at over 80% clip.
The amateurs, not so.
Is it because of aiming ? When you all you have to do is aim the center of the cue ball to the edge of that ob?
Nah, delivery.
Any pool school or instructor who spends more time teaching aiming systems to pupils who have whacked stroke and psr is doing a disservice imo.
PS
I don't like long bridges anymore. Sorry.
I feel the hit on the cue ball a lot better with 8" bridge or less.
Yes, but there is a reason... the farther you hold the cue from the tip, as long as you hit the center of the CB the angle error of the cue is minimized as much as it can. Thus it's as pure a test of aim as possible.
That is my point... just because somebody missed doesn't mean they aimed wrong. But you can do this text regardless of how far the OB is.
As far as "hit" or "feel" I do everything I can to divorce myself of it if the results are what I want. So, no, I don't particularly like the feel on a long bridge, but if I pocket more balls, screw the feel!
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There are only a few places where the right shot line is a half ball hit with the object ball on the spot.
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Plenty enough.
Placed the ghost ball aim trainer on the foot spot.
Straight line to the kitchen. About two balls to the inside of the 2nd diamond.
Some 50".
Plenty to gauge.
Let's say it's not even a true half ball hit.
Dun't matter.
From short distance, we make it a lot more often.
Take the cue ball away on the same angle/line, percentage goes down.
Same aiming line. Same hit.
This is where a dead level stroke's and follow through's importance are magnified.
No, there are in infinite number of places (which are more commonly known as points).
And those points constitute 12 lines; two lines for each of the six pockets. And each of those lines has an infinite number of points, all of which can host a cue ball for a half-ball cut shot.
Dave
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Can ya post a pic of a 1/2 ball hit?
duckie - I don't understand your obsession with the 1/2 ball hit. It's just a figure of speech for a shot where you direct the center of the cue ball to the "edge" at the equator on the object ball. Yes, I know there are no edges on a sphere, but it is the same thing as a 1/2 ball hit. It's just an expression.
What would you call the shot where the object ball is sent at a 30 degree angle after contact, and how would you describe to another person how to achieve this 30 degree shot repeatedly? (Hint: most everybody calls this a half ball hit. How else would you describe it? Are you saying this shot does not exist?)
Yep, and this is why FOLKS never improve. For every monster that never took a lesson, nobody ever told him nuttin, he just hit a million balls, there are THOUSANDS who can't run 3 balls, who can't bank, kick, jump, draw, or do a consistent stop shot, or even know about the tangent line.
But yeah, keep shooting for decades until they finally figure out the tangent line all by themselves. Sorry, folks want to get better today, not in 10 years. They are not trying to be pro's, just want to play better.
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Try telling those same thousands of folks that they should start by practicing some fundamentals of stance and stroke, and I bet 90% will think it's boring, unnecessary, repetitive, and not helpful. When it's probably the last thing they learn, yet probably the most important? They try to bank, kick, jump, and draw, yet they can't even make a straight-in with stun? You have to HAMB, but you have to hit them the right way. Even a blind chimpanzee could pocket 5 in a row given enough time.