Looking at the Cueball

Fatboy

Fatboy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have a friend who plays real good, and he almost never misses he runs 150-200's in straight pool at will, 6 packs playing 9B etc. or better. Pls I cant say who.

Anyways he has been playing good not great, his good is bettter than most people anyways but he said something the other day to me "I'm just not looking at the CB enough, And when I do miss I'm throwing the OB because i'm not hitting the CB where i want to"

So I got to thinking about that and me, he has a good point, think about it for yourself it cant hurt,

so heres what I did in the past 2 days, i'm in the mood to type,



I played almost 8 hours 2 days ago and was focusing on the CB and I started to play a bit better, i got sick on a trip and went from playn good to bad, real bad in 2 weeks of not playing. I lost 2 sets to a better player 8-4, 8-4 then played by myeslf really concentraiting on the CB, the played 1p for a couple hours and lost every game. Anyways I noticed that if I didnt force myself to look at the CB I was taking it for granted, and like my king kong strong friend when I did miss it was because my CB was throwing the ball most of the time on easy shots, hard shots I just missed unlike my friend. I was just glancing down at it and focusing an everything else and not hitting the CB accurately enough, especially on easy shots,,,,,slow down Fatboy...

Last night I played a good friend for about 4 hours, i'm the better player, probably hit more balls thanthe 8 hours the day before and wasnt bearing down super hard, it was more social and I had fun, normally I dont play like that(real social) but since I'm not 100% and he is a great friend, I thought it would be a good game it was fun I won 4 of 5 sets, made 99% of my key shots I was strying to win but keep it close, stalling practice we wernt playing for $$$, it was about fun but being competitive I wanted to manage the game and control the score, i did a very good job of that. I did lose one set hill-hill he ran out which he is very capable of, the night before he drilled me at 1P-thats his game. But I did focus more on ther CB the second night automatically but I still need more work on that, somehow with all the elbow drop, this, that the other thing I somehow forgt about the CB, we all know there is alot to do to make it look easy, and when a champion says pay closer attention to the rock-speaking for himself I listened and i'm still not in top form but will be soon, i can feel it.
 
Hey Fatboy,

I was doing the same exact thing, not seeing the true center of the cueball. You can get away with on shorter shots, but it really affects those long, straight in shots. It's easy to take for granted since we are dealing with millimeter size differences here. What looks like the center may be a half tip off.

If you continue to have problems, bring out the trusty old stroke drill where you hit the cue ball down table and have it bounce back into your cue.

Good post.

PS. Can't wait till you play the Tooth! I play 1-2 Holdem on Stars, maybe you'll send a fish my way?
 
This is interesting because when I bought a set of Super Aramith, they came with a Rempe cue ball. I never really used it because I thought I hit the ball in the center. A couple weeks ago I tried the Rempe ball and it was a total suprise. I was hitting a tip to the right based on the chalk marks.
 
To me it sounds like the importance of the Personal Eye Pattern is coming up again. My PEP is as follows:
- line up cb to ob to ensure that I am pocketing the ball (in my case I use SAM, so I pick my 1,2,3,4,5,6 shot).
- Now I switch focus to only the CB. I take two warm up strokes focusing on exactly where I am going to hit the CB
- Then I go into Set
- I switch my eyes to the OB
- then Pause, Finish... only looking at the OB.

This PEP routine has really helped my game!
 
midnightpulp said:
Hey Fatboy,

I was doing the same exact thing, not seeing the true center of the cueball. You can get away with on shorter shots, but it really affects those long, straight in shots. It's easy to take for granted since we are dealing with millimeter size differences here. What looks like the center may be a half tip off.

If you continue to have problems, bring out the trusty old stroke drill where you hit the cue ball down table and have it bounce back into your cue.

Good post.

PS. Can't wait till you play the Tooth! I play 1-2 Holdem on Stars, maybe you'll send a fish my way?
Click to expand...

Yup.. Knowing where center ball is pretty important. When Scott Lee met up with me a few months ago, he had me show him where I thought center ball was, and I got it right... (Yayyyyyyy!)

He surprised me by saying the majority of people he has worked with have a hard time finding center ball..

Russ
 
Snorks said:
To me it sounds like the importance of the Personal Eye Pattern is coming up again. My PEP is as follows:
- line up cb to ob to ensure that I am pocketing the ball (in my case I use SAM, so I pick my 1,2,3,4,5,6 shot).
- Now I switch focus to only the CB. I take two warm up strokes focusing on exactly where I am going to hit the CB
- Then I go into Set
- I switch my eyes to the OB
- then Pause, Finish... only looking at the OB.

This PEP routine has really helped my game!
Click to expand...

PEP is probably one of the most important workshops we teach. Sounds like you got that part nailed down.
Good Job!
Steve
 
I have a pre shot routein, and its good, but somehow really looking at the CB just kinda faded away, its just not the center or long shots its on all shots, I was setting my hand looking at it and focusing on the OB and pocket, shape etc, not paying much mind to the CB after I was down on the shot, my game went bad because I got sick but when my friend mentioned it, I went to the poolroom and noticed I was doing the same thing, thats pool even the champions dont do everything right all the time, it was just a coincedence that he mentioned it and I was not watching the rock enough. if it isnt one thing its another, but when it all comes together there is no feeling like it,
 
here's my personal eye pattern
starting with my hand touching the table, I look at.


(cueball, at least 2 seconds) get the tip close/focus on the tip's contact point,
2x practice strokes, stop all movement
(aim line, at least two seconds) final back swing, and sink it
(cue tip) for diagnostic purposes.

when you find your pep, you find the zone.
when you know what it is, you'll find it more often.

PEP's are the most powerful tool I have.
Thanks Scott!!
 
discovered this a couple months ago

I was doing some testing at home and discovered that I didn't hit center ball consistently. As a matter of fact, I very consistently hit high and a touch to the right when aiming at center ball. With corrections to stroke and stance I hit high and a touch to the left and finally just high. The only way to rid myself of hitting a little high was to adjust my aim point.

When I got a few local players to try to hit a target on a cue ball, including one that is pretty strong, I found that they didn't consistently hit center ball or where they meant to on the cue ball either. Hard to prove it but I'd make a small bet that when you see folks like Efren, Bustemonte, or Allison Fisher miss those easy shots that they make 95 times out of a hundred it is often because they didn't hit the cue ball where they planned to.

For myself, these results were from looking at the object ball last. The other people that could say were looking at the object ball last. On the other hand, when I looked at the cue ball last I hit exactly where I meant to 100% of the time. I also tested a very occasionally playing bar room banger who might play three or four times a year. He hit the target on the cue ball 100% of the time. Not knowing any better, he looked at the cue ball last all the time.

After correcting where I hit the cue ball I went and practiced some on a real table. My accuracy was absolutely in the pits on longer shots, telling me I had been hitting the cue ball in the old location for a long long time.

Hu


Fatboy said:
I have a friend who plays real good, and he almost never misses he runs 150-200's in straight pool at will, 6 packs playing 9B etc. or better. Pls I cant say who.

Anyways he has been playing good not great, his good is bettter than most people anyways but he said something the other day to me "I'm just not looking at the CB enough, And when I do miss I'm throwing the OB because i'm not hitting the CB where i want to"

So I got to thinking about that and me, he has a good point, think about it for yourself it cant hurt,

so heres what I did in the past 2 days, i'm in the mood to type,



I played almost 8 hours 2 days ago and was focusing on the CB and I started to play a bit better, i got sick on a trip and went from playn good to bad, real bad in 2 weeks of not playing. I lost 2 sets to a better player 8-4, 8-4 then played by myeslf really concentraiting on the CB, the played 1p for a couple hours and lost every game. Anyways I noticed that if I didnt force myself to look at the CB I was taking it for granted, and like my king kong strong friend when I did miss it was because my CB was throwing the ball most of the time on easy shots, hard shots I just missed unlike my friend. I was just glancing down at it and focusing an everything else and not hitting the CB accurately enough, especially on easy shots,,,,,slow down Fatboy...

Last night I played a good friend for about 4 hours, i'm the better player, probably hit more balls thanthe 8 hours the day before and wasnt bearing down super hard, it was more social and I had fun, normally I dont play like that(real social) but since I'm not 100% and he is a great friend, I thought it would be a good game it was fun I won 4 of 5 sets, made 99% of my key shots I was strying to win but keep it close, stalling practice we wernt playing for $$$, it was about fun but being competitive I wanted to manage the game and control the score, i did a very good job of that. I did lose one set hill-hill he ran out which he is very capable of, the night before he drilled me at 1P-thats his game. But I did focus more on ther CB the second night automatically but I still need more work on that, somehow with all the elbow drop, this, that the other thing I somehow forgt about the CB, we all know there is alot to do to make it look easy, and when a champion says pay closer attention to the rock-speaking for himself I listened and i'm still not in top form but will be soon, i can feel it.
Click to expand...
 
I have a tendancy to have a tired stroke arm/shoulder that wants to dip. This brings the cue tip up and to the left of center (I shoot left handed). Accuracy goes way way down.

I'm practicing more... hitting table length shots up and back potting from 120 to 300 balls a day. Every shot is focused on mechanics so my stroke is getting to be reliable and the dropping of the shoulder is not happening nearly as often as it used to.
 
When I feel myself going a little off my game, paying more attention to how I'm addressing the cue ball is one of the most reliable fixes.

There are so many little things to get right and keep right- I don't know how many times I've "remembered" some critical part of my stance, stroke or aim that I'd let slip. It takes constant maintenance, and the best tool I've found for that is to check each critical part of my stance, stroke and aim with each shot, leaving nothing to chance. One example of it is my first couple of strokes, which I use to check my tip/ball placement, elbow and head position, and stroke straightness.

By building this "checklist" into my pre-shot and setup routine and practicing it like any other aspect of my game, I get faster, better and more intuitive about it and my game goes off much less frequently.

pj
chgo
 
Fatboy,
I feel that my best results for pocketing the balls comes when I stare hard at the OB. I get down, take a look at the CB to make sure I'm cueing where I want, and then I focus hard on the OB and let my minds eye tell me where the pocket is.
I've played around with focusing on different things, including more on the cue-ball, but that has been my best results. I'll try focusing more on the cue-ball and see how it goes...

The way I read your post, and maybe it's just me, it seems like you're saying to really focus more on the CB than anything, am I reading wrong?
 
I really concentrated on my PEP last night... Thanks for this thread and Coopdeville for reminding me about the importance of the 2 seconds! Finally, I think I'm coming out of my 9 ball slump :) Of course I went back to actively using SAM also :)
 
Hmmm, I read that many of you tend to hit the cueball a little right above center (right handed). I think that's natural. I do that to. Someone told me, my alignment isn't 100% correct. When stroking, your hand will move to your body, that's why you will hit the cueball a little to the right.

So I've tried to figure out how to correct it. I figured out that, when you do some practicing stroke, your brain will correct your arm to move straight. But when you pull the trigger, the movement is so fast, that it's not possible for your brain to correct your stroke anymore.

When I'm bending over the table. I do some fast practicing stroke, before pulling the trigger. When doing some fast practicing stroke, I will not let my brain the time to correct my stroke. You will see if your allignment is correct or not. When it's correct, I will slowdown the speed, an move a few slow practicing stroke, and than pull the trigger. It helps me shoot more straighter, and hit cenberball.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
By building this "checklist" into my pre-shot and setup routine and practicing it like any other aspect of my game, I get faster, better and more intuitive about it and my game goes off much less frequently.

pj
chgo
Click to expand...

An easy way to build your check list and pre-shot routine
is to use trigger words like set, pause, finish, for example.
 
AZE said:
Fatboy,
I feel that my best results for pocketing the balls comes when I stare hard at the OB. I get down, take a look at the CB to make sure I'm cueing where I want, and then I focus hard on the OB and let my minds eye tell me where the pocket is.
I've played around with focusing on different things, including more on the cue-ball, but that has been my best results. I'll try focusing more on the cue-ball and see how it goes...

The way I read your post, and maybe it's just me, it seems like you're saying to really focus more on the CB than anything, am I reading wrong?
Click to expand...

i have been on the OB too much and taking the CB for granted, when I got back from Brasil, i was sick and fell apart completely, i'm comming back now, but even before I left i was thinking of my game and O was spend ingtoo much time on the OB, there are some great posts above hee that outline the proer way to do , i was taught that by Roy Futternick 20 years ago, but no mattr who you are you can slip into bad habits
 
ShootingArts said:
I was doing some testing at home and discovered that I didn't hit center ball consistently. As a matter of fact, I very consistently hit high and a touch to the right when aiming at center ball. With corrections to stroke and stance I hit high and a touch to the left and finally just high. The only way to rid myself of hitting a little high was to adjust my aim point.

When I got a few local players to try to hit a target on a cue ball, including one that is pretty strong, I found that they didn't consistently hit center ball or where they meant to on the cue ball either. Hard to prove it but I'd make a small bet that when you see folks like Efren, Bustemonte, or Allison Fisher miss those easy shots that they make 95 times out of a hundred it is often because they didn't hit the cue ball where they planned to.

For myself, these results were from looking at the object ball last. The other people that could say were looking at the object ball last. On the other hand, when I looked at the cue ball last I hit exactly where I meant to 100% of the time. I also tested a very occasionally playing bar room banger who might play three or four times a year. He hit the target on the cue ball 100% of the time. Not knowing any better, he looked at the cue ball last all the time.

After correcting where I hit the cue ball I went and practiced some on a real table. My accuracy was absolutely in the pits on longer shots, telling me I had been hitting the cue ball in the old location for a long long time.

Hu
Click to expand...


i can find the center of the rock easily , something i noticed is when I draw a ball, , real good it comes back to my left about 1/2" for every 2' I draw it, more if i'm playing bad, perfectly straight when i'm in stroke, funny how things like that work.
 
Last edited:
I only look at the object ball when i'm sighting the shot. Once i've got the complete shot sighted down (where the object ball needs to go, where on the cueball i need to hit) i then only look at the cueball

I always thought this was right, but alot of people say i'm wrong & that i should be looking at the object ball when i pull the trigger, but the thing is, i am pretty good a pocketing balls. It's probably the strongest part of my game.
 
its the age old debate - which do i look at last, cueball or object ball?

seems as if the prevailing attitude is to look at the object ball last. personally, i have tried and tried and tried to adapt this way, but i simply cannot do it. and i've yet to have anyone completely convince me its 100% wrong to look at the cue ball last, and that you cant play top notch pool by looking at the cue ball last.

my PEP as adapted from the training lesson with Scott Lee, and other instructors? well, ok, here goes:

1) step into the shot, focusing on where you want to hit the cue ball
2) sight the object ball for a couple of seconds
3) eyes back on the cue ball, and take a couple of practice strokes
4) glance back at the object ball one last time to insure everything is still aligned
5) eyes back on the cue ball, and fire.

DCP
 
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