Measure Eleventy Times

[straightline]

Couple of my favorite ways to connect the dots.

Jimmy Reid/ Wei/Cuetable (Wei procedure omitted for now)

and still experimenting with the ellipse visualization:

and full cut visualization:

This one is slightly different in that the object ball point is duplicated on the cue ball and the equatorial ellipse supplies the actual contact point on the far side.
Ghost Ellipse version:

The duplicated contact point on the left,
Center Sphere in the middle
And far side point on the right.
Note the points are equidistant from the center and go 180 degrees through the center.
The other 600 pages, you gotta do on your own.

CUT ONCE.

 

[straightline]

One day, no questions, no answers, no arguments?

thx bbb.

 

[tableroll]

Wasted days and wasted nights...............

 

[straightline]

Pool isn't the waste. People like the challenge of guessing I suppose.

 

[straightline]

Jimmy Reid/ Wei/Cuetable (Wei procedure omitted for now)

Adding some explanation for anybody curious.
Cue ball is the lower ball. Object ball is above, aligned for a cut to the right.
The black lines are the ball directions.
The blue line is the line of centers.
The red line represents the actual cue stick as used to determine the contact alignment.

The tip of the stick is placed on the cloth directly beneath the OB contact point. Make note of the tangent at this intersection. The stick is then pivoted over the cue ball to the reciprocal tangent on top of the cue ball.

Notice the stick crosses through the middle of the line of centers proving the alignment is correct. To determine the shot line, roll the stick on the tip till it crosses over center cue ball. You can also just parallel shift it; same result.

The yellow line is provided to show an interesting artifact of this method. The centerball shot line intersects the base of the mythical ghost ball.

This works on any angle out to the extreme 80s and spooky well around the "straight in" zone. As with most pool diagrams your shooting sense will provide the 3D conversion. My take on this is <nobody ever HAS to miss>.

 

[straightline]

Thanks bbb. I'd put this in the Aim pit but I can't go there.

 

[Oikawa]

My favourite is to visualize the CB path, then ask my subconscious to aim for the OB to go into the pocket by standing wherever the CB-OB relationship feels right, and trust that. Kind of a small, quick snappy motion with the upper body/head, with the end result being the correct line. Or in other words, pick the result consciously, get the aim automatically. Least effort, and best results once you trust yourself enough. I personally find all contact point related methods, or anything where I have to fixate on a specific point, very draining to do, both for my eyes and my brain. And conscious aiming methods also aren't as accurate for me when it comes to tougher shots, even if they work well for the easy ones.

 

[straightline]

My favourite is to visualize the CB path, then ask my subconscious to aim for the OB to go into the pocket by standing wherever the CB-OB relationship feels right, and trust that. Kind of a small, quick snappy motion with the upper body/head, with the end result being the correct line. Or in other words, pick the result consciously, get the aim automatically. Least effort, and best results once you trust yourself enough. I personally find all contact point related methods, or anything where I have to fixate on a specific point, very draining to do, both for my eyes and my brain. And conscious aiming methods also aren't as accurate for me when it comes to tougher shots, even if they work well for the easy ones.

So it's as instinctual as possible? You're lucky. without CPG I'd be about 50% on everything I shoot.
I use the contact geometry to ID the ideal shot and the stick line. Once there I get down on that line vertically, keeping in mind the overlap. At that point it's all about the angle the cue ball goes into the object ball. Nothing but the line. Then I go cue ball last to insure I shoot the shot I aimed.

 

[Oikawa]

So it's as instinctual as possible? You're lucky. without CPG I'd be about 50% on everything I shoot.
I use the contact geometry to ID the ideal shot and the stick line. Once there I get down on that line vertically, keeping in mind the overlap. At that point it's all about the angle the cue ball goes into the object ball. Nothing but the line. Then I go cue ball last to insure I shoot the shot I aimed.

Yeah. It has been hard work to be able to trust my instincts in aiming.

The biggest factors among the journey for me have been to straighten out my stroke and make it as automatic as possible (same muscle motion no matter the cut angle), and to focus on visualizing the entire shot at once instead of fixating on singular parts at a time e.g. the cut angle.

When I visualize the entire shot (CB path), OB going into pocket just sort of happens as a byproduct of the other parts of the shot being correct. The subconscious takes all the parts of the shot, and effortlessly gives it's best estimation for the correct shot line in the form of a small body movement such that I then see the correct overlap. Conscious mind = selecting the desired outcome, and visualization with a sharp focus, subconscious = figures out the aimline and other nuances of the shot to produce that desired CB path result (exact spin amount, elevation, power etc.).

One big benefit of this whole-shot visualization is that you are no longer in a state of fearing the aim being incorrect. Your task and therefore focus is on visualizing the entire shot as clearly as possible, the aim line is just a small part of that big image. By hyperfocusing on only the aiming part with a conscious aiming method, you can easily sabotage your natural ability of recalling the correct aim based on experience of past shots, because the recall benefits greatly from the entire shot image being presented, instead of only the desired OB target.

A third factor that helped me is to make the aiming part as rhythmic as possible. Always try to aim in the same amount of time, with the same "dance", no matter how easy or hard the shot is. This makes it easier to let your subconscious execute the aiming as effortlesly as possible, since there is no doubt about how long it should take or how precisely it should happen; it is simply done the exact same way every time.

 

[straightline]

Yeah. It has been hard work to be able to trust my instincts in aiming.

The biggest factors among the journey for me have been to straighten out my stroke and make it as automatic as possible (same muscle motion no matter the cut angle), and to focus on visualizing the entire shot at once instead of fixating on singular parts at a time e.g. the cut angle.

When I visualize the entire shot (CB path), OB going into pocket just sort of happens as a byproduct of the other parts of the shot being correct. The subconscious takes all the parts of the shot, and effortlessly gives it's best estimation for the correct shot line in the form of a small body movement such that I then see the correct overlap. Conscious mind = selecting the desired outcome, and visualization with a sharp focus, subconscious = figures out the aimline and other nuances of the shot to produce that desired CB path result (exact spin amount, elevation, power etc.).

One big benefit of this whole-shot visualization is that you are no longer in a state of fearing the aim being incorrect. Your task and therefore focus is on visualizing the entire shot as clearly as possible, the aim line is just a small part of that big image. By hyperfocusing on only the aiming part with a conscious aiming method, you can easily sabotage your natural ability of recalling the correct aim based on experience of past shots, because the recall benefits greatly from the entire shot image being presented, instead of only the desired OB target.

A third factor that helped me is to make the aiming part as rhythmic as possible. Always try to aim in the same amount of time, with the same "dance", no matter how easy or hard the shot is. This makes it easier to let your subconscious execute the aiming as effortlesly as possible, since there is no doubt about how long it should take or how precisely it should happen; it is simply done the exact same way every time.

Ok now a hard question. What is the fail rate of this method?

 

[Oikawa]

Ok now a hard question. What is the fail rate of this method?

As good as you allow it to be, based on your amount of experience, both in the game as a whole and in trusting your subconscious. Subconscious aiming is not something that can be clearly defined, since everyone has different specifics when it comes to how they do it and what the routine consists of, but the shared factor is that they don't consciously pick an aiming point. I'd imagine most pros aim like this - just "knowing" the correct line and being able to trust that instinct, even if they have seemingly different routines or tempos.

Everyone has that ability to some extent, imagine a pocket hanger. If your only task was to pot it, you probably don't need any conscious effort. For those who aim consciously, there is some difficulty of a pot, as a split-off point, past which you no longer trust the instincts, and the experience of aiming those non-obvious shots consciously only strengthens this belief, that your subconscious isn't as reliable as the conscious method. It can be tricky to find success with subconscious aiming, but it is something I suggest everyone to try once in a while.

 

[boogieman]

As good as you allow it to be, based on your amount of experience, both in the game as a whole and in trusting your subconscious. Subconscious aiming is not something that can be clearly defined, since everyone has different specifics when it comes to how they do it and what the routine consists of, but the shared factor is that they don't consciously pick an aiming point. I'd imagine most pros aim like this - just "knowing" the correct line and being able to trust that instinct, even if they have seemingly different routines or tempos.

Everyone has that ability to some extent, imagine a pocket hanger. If your only task was to pot it, you probably don't need any conscious effort. For those who aim consciously, there is some difficulty of a pot, as a split-off point, past which you no longer trust the instincts, and the experience of aiming those non-obvious shots consciously only strengthens this belief, that your subconscious isn't as reliable as the conscious method. It can be tricky to find success with subconscious aiming, but it is something I suggest everyone to try once in a while.

I like it. The good part too is that you can very quickly figure out table/equipment condition. Dirty balls, fast or slow cloth etc. I might be dumb or something but when I see people figuring diamonds for rebound etc, I know what they are doing, but it is much more intuitive to just imagine the entire shot play out in my mind. It's almost like you're going for a ride with the CB while visualizing. You know where it goes naturally, and with stun, so it's fairly easy for me to just "feel" or intuit the path it needs to go and adjust accordingly. This is while standing up. Don't just calculate the shot, actually imagine it happening as if you watched the entirety of it before you actually do it.

I used to study pool books on my lunch breaks at work and instead of TV at night. I learned all the systems, got overly reliant on them, my head was a mess, then I had to just let them go out of my conscious thoughts. It's too much math/geometry in your working memory/focus when it's actually pretty simple to do what needs done when you understand how the balls roll and react. Knowing too much can be bad if you never let it go into the "I already learned it and don't have to consciously think about it" realm. Systems are great to know but eventually the rubber has to meet the road. If you're constantly staring at the map in the passenger seat you might just rear end somebody or drive off a cliff. Learn it, practice it, then "forget" it... maybe do a refresher every couple years.

 

[straightline]

Notice the diagrams at the head. They're still there unchanged uninfluenced. CG is just a precise way of identifying ball alignment. I play by feel too - once I'm aware of what I'm trying to shoot.