Looking where you want to go

[duckie]

In motorcycling, there is a concept called target fixation. Target fixation is when you hit something you were trying to avoid because you were looking at that object and not where you needed to go.

In motorcycle racing, I've seen racers follow another racer off the track because they were watching the riders in front them instead of watching where they needed to be going on the track.

It is a skill learned over time to avoid target fixation.

Even though I talk about the ghost ball concept of aiming, which is nothing more than using a ghost ball to illustrate the geometry of a shot.

From practice and watching the hit of the OB and CB, I have learned to see where the cb needs to go. When using contact points, if you are looking at the OB, most times it's s not where the CB needs to go.

So you are looking offset from your stroke also since the stroke is how you get the CB where it needs to be.

Overtime, the visual database of what a good shot looks like and bad shots looks like build up over time. It becomes easier to just see where the CB needs to be. There is no need imagine a contact point, patch or Ghostball or anything. Just see where the CB needs to go and then stroke it there.

I was kinda wrong in that all shots were straight in. If you just considered pocketing the ball, I was correct, but when you consisder CB position for the next shot, then all shots really are carom shots and where the CB needs to go for the next shot does matter.

FWIW

 

[Pidge]

I was advised years ago to change my eye pattern. Before I would concentrate on the contact point when down. On some shots this would cause me to steer the cue towards the contact point adding side.

Now, I look directly ahead of where my tip is pointing. This could be a part of the object ball if my tip is pointing at it. For thinner than half ball shots my tip points outside the object ball so I look at the point on the rail where my tip is pointing to. This helped my cueing tremendously after a months practice or so getting used to it. I went from the occasional 50 breaker to a regular 50 breaker in snooker.

 

[ENGLISH!]

I was advised years ago to change my eye pattern. Before I would concentrate on the contact point when down. On some shots this would cause me to steer the cue towards the contact point adding side.

Now, I look directly ahead of where my tip is pointing. This could be a part of the object ball if my tip is pointing at it. For thinner than half ball shots my tip points outside the object ball so I look at the point on the rail where my tip is pointing to. This helped my cueing tremendously after a months practice or so getting used to it. I went from the occasional 50 breaker to a regular 50 breaker in snooker.

I think what you say here is one of the major problems for beginners &/or lower level players that result in them hitting cuts too thick along with some inadvertent inside english at times which makes the mis even worse if there is such a thing.

For some reason, some, perhaps many, can not seem to make the jump to what amounts to parallel cueing, parallel to the fractional overlaps of cue ball contact point to object ball contact point.

They 'know' & 'understand' the concept but they keep sending the cue ball too fully into object ball.

On several occasions, while playing golf I have hit the lone 9" wide palm tree or the overhanging 6" tree limb that I was trying to avoid just because I was looking at IT instead of where I wanted to send the golf ball.

If there are any beginners reading this thread or any struggling with undercutting shots, you should take note & focus AWAY from the contact point & align & stroke parallel along the line of contact points.

The ball has a tendency to go where we look until we develop a means to keep it from doing so & that means is to not look where we do not want the ball to go.

Best 2 All,
Rick