mental thoughts on aiming

S

sr 9ball

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've always been a very good player when I turned the switch on. About 3 years ago I play for two years straight. only mabybe a day off a week tops. I think everything became automatic, not thinking about any shot or leave, it just happened. Now only shooting a couple games a week and not really trying to hard when I try to turn the switch on and its not there. Im just trying to figue out what my thought process was while aiming.
1. standing in line of the shot.
2 decide english and exact shape of next shot
3 step into the shot.
4 while going down and when down site down shaft for shot.
? when the tip is at the point closes to the cb. thought process... while thinking about shape take in account and feel the throw, squit and everything and picture exacted path and shaped of cueball. same as step 2 but feeling it happen before u shoot.
? before I pull the trigger focus on the ob. I just look the ob in the hole. not siting on any exact point of the ob. u just know when it looks right from hitting a thousands of balls in.

Im just trying to figure out what I use to do.
Does this sound like anyone elses thought process. or what is yours in detail. I think all these aim systems got me all f*** up. I just need to get my thoughts in at the right time.

thanks for your time
 
I've been in a similar place. What I've found is that it wasn't a problem w/ aiming or anything like that. It was almost always my stroke.

When I'm playing and practicing consistently then my stroke is automatic. In turn, aim, position, decision making, etc are likewise automatic.

We know what we're supposed to do, and hopefully have a good grasp on what we can do.

When getting back into the game seriously I found that I was simply forcing the "intellect" side of what I was supposed to be doing. That's about as frustrating an experience as you can have.

My fix?? Fundamentals, mechanics, whatever you want to call it.

You obviously have a solid routine, and know what you're supposed to do.

Do whatever practice routine lets you fine tune your stroke, and I suspect that when the stroke is back to automatic that everything else will come back quickly as well.
 
Once you are down on the shot all you should be thinking/focued on is the spot on the OB you want to hit. What english and QB speed should already be fixed in your mind before you get down. Johnnyt
 
A while back there was a thread about aim while standing and it was recommended, STRONGLY recommended to do some "one stroke practice".

Get down on the shot, stroke once and shoot. No aiming while down and no changing the aim you got down with. Doing this for a while when you're practicing will really help your game. It simplfies everything. You aim up... shoot down. If you're down and it don't look right you get up and get set up again.

Doing this for a while gets rid of over-thinking the shots and increases a guys spontanaiety. You begin to shoot from your gut feeling.
 
sr 9ball said:
I've always been a very good player when I turned the switch on. About 3 years ago I play for two years straight. only mabybe a day off a week tops. I think everything became automatic, not thinking about any shot or leave, it just happened. Now only shooting a couple games a week and not really trying to hard when I try to turn the switch on and its not there. Im just trying to figue out what my thought process was while aiming.
1. standing in line of the shot.
2 decide english and exact shape of next shot
3 step into the shot.
4 while going down and when down site down shaft for shot.
? when the tip is at the point closes to the cb. thought process... while thinking about shape take in account and feel the throw, squit and everything and picture exacted path and shaped of cueball. same as step 2 but feeling it happen before u shoot.
? before I pull the trigger focus on the ob. I just look the ob in the hole. not siting on any exact point of the ob. u just know when it looks right from hitting a thousands of balls in.

Im just trying to figure out what I use to do.
Does this sound like anyone elses thought process. or what is yours in detail. I think all these aim systems got me all f*** up. I just need to get my thoughts in at the right time.

thanks for your time
Click to expand...


It's a little bit of the "Inner Game of Tennis" theme: you use non-judgmental observations of critical variables -- if your observations are accurate, then your body adjusts automatically to pocket the ball. If you do it long enough, you learn how to pocket most balls. It's the way many, many, many players aim and shoot. You get to a point where you can just put it in the pocket.

Then there are those that claim they have these extraordinary aiming systems. You can buy these. Or pay for lessons. But lets not go there :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
I pretty much do all the things you present and find that I play my best when I begin by emphasing the stroke. For me this is the penulum swing and I find that when I try too hard to get in rhythm my stroke is too long. Once I shorten it to where it should be and then concentrate on stroking through and stopping on (or just above) the table for every shot that I get "in stroke" pretty quickly.

Of course this requires real concentration but once the stroke is "back" where it should be my game picks up quickly and stroking (as it should be done for me) becomes automatic. Then I can emphasize aim and cue ball roll.

I think the aiming stuff comes back quickly. For some reason it is more difficult to get back in stroke. When the stroke is working everything else seems to fall into place. It may be that concentrating on the stroke (as it should be) brings back all those muscle memories. I don't know. I just know it works.
 
speaks Master Yoda . . .

At one with the stroke you once were , aging padwon. Practice are you lacking , escaping the discipline is . Through only the return of the practicing comes the deadstrokinocity which within you dwells ! Clear your mind must be of all distractions , with each shot must be your focus . not with the CTE lies the answers , Ghostball neither salvation can be found . Accuracy deep within muscle memory lies , brought forth with only fundamentals basic .

Either that , or your eyes are going . When was your last optometrist visit ?
 
Eyes are the secret..............

sr 9ball said:
I've always been a very good player when I turned the switch on. About 3 years ago I play for two years straight. only mabybe a day off a week tops. I think everything became automatic, not thinking about any shot or leave, it just happened. Now only shooting a couple games a week and not really trying to hard when I try to turn the switch on and its not there. Im just trying to figue out what my thought process was while aiming.
1. standing in line of the shot.
2 decide english and exact shape of next shot
3 step into the shot.
4 while going down and when down site down shaft for shot.
? when the tip is at the point closes to the cb. thought process... while thinking about shape take in account and feel the throw, squit and everything and picture exacted path and shaped of cueball. same as step 2 but feeling it happen before u shoot.
? before I pull the trigger focus on the ob. I just look the ob in the hole. not siting on any exact point of the ob. u just know when it looks right from hitting a thousands of balls in.

Im just trying to figure out what I use to do.
Does this sound like anyone elses thought process. or what is yours in detail. I think all these aim systems got me all f*** up. I just need to get my thoughts in at the right time.

thanks for your time
Click to expand...

Hi there,

This is the problem that all players have. The less you play the harder it is to get in gear. But the problem is actually very simple.

The more you play, the more you naturally get the eyes in the correct position. The better a player is at naturally getting their eyes in the correct position is the reason he can actually shoot better than most players.

There used to be a so calls senior tour. Alot of the older players , I think it was over 50 could play. Alot of these players lost the natural ability to coordinate their eyes with the body. Alot of this might be due to not being physically able to practice 7 or 8 hours a day like when they were younger. Thus naturally getting the eyes in the most correct position with repetition.

Example: If you and me were walking along the river fishing when we were 16 years old and thought that we could catch more fish on this little 4x4 rock about 5 feet out in the water we would have jumped right out there and started fishing. Not even giving it a second thought.

Assuming you are 35 or older, I'm 57 . If we saw the same rock out there and looked at it we would probably get hurt just thinking about jumping on it.

We have lost the natural ability to coordinate the eyes with the body. Of course there could be some other physical limitations also but the main deal is with the eyes not being able to coordinate the body with what they are seeing and completing the task.

After teaching so many players Perfect Aim and seeing the quick results with an almost instantaneous improvement with their aim I know this is the reason.

There are so many players over 40 that thought they couldn't play anymore and the main reason was they had just lost this natural ability to get those eyes in the right position. Now some of these players were not that great of players to begin with but learning how to get the eyes there did bring back the aiming ability that they once had. And many even got to a higher level yet by knowing this technique.

There is some truth to it when they say he is just a natural talent. But the players that don't have this so called natural talent can be taught to aim. Getting the eyes in the right position allows the brain to get the proper image so the arm can complete the task.

I don't care who you are you can be taught to aim a gun. Put the sight in the sight and pull the trigger. It is exactly the same with your pool shot. But the problem is that you need to learn where these natural sights are and how to find them. They are there.



If the eyes are not in the most Perfect position the info to the brain will not be the most correct image possible. The results might not be the best either.

If you quit for awhile and don't play for a month,year or maybe 2 or 3 years and come back the hardest part is getting the eyes back to that natural good position that you had when younger or playing alot. It might take months or years to get it back. Especially if your much older now but if you are taught how to get the eyes in the right position you can get back to where you were in a real quick hurry. Now you know how to correct the eyes to get them in the right position.

There is only one little spot on every shot to have the eyes to see the shot as perfect as possible. This can be taught as easily as shooting a gun but it is much more difficult because there are no sights on the cue or the balls. But if you know how to find this magical spot some really great results start happening.

Bottom line: I'll help you out. Just give me a call and I'll help you get these eyes right. All you need is to learn where it is and your on your way. It sounds like the knowledge is there we just need to get the eyes back again.

If you've actually tried to learn Perfect Aim from my video just give me a can and I will walk you through it so you really understand how it works.
I've had great success ding this for players.

Call me at 7155638712 anytime. Be glad to help.

Nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Have a great week geno...........
 
Thanks for letting me borrow the "Inner game of tennis" book. I promise to get this back to you soon. Maybe only 40 pages to go.
So far looks like you have got some very good feed back on this.
They have better insights on this than I probably could have.
 
JoeW said:
I pretty much do all the things you present and find that I play my best when I begin by emphasing the stroke. For me this is the penulum swing and I find that when I try too hard to get in rhythm my stroke is too long. Once I shorten it to where it should be and then concentrate on stroking through and stopping on (or just above) the table for every shot that I get "in stroke" pretty quickly.

Of course this requires real concentration but once the stroke is "back" where it should be my game picks up quickly and stroking (as it should be done for me) becomes automatic. Then I can emphasize aim and cue ball roll.

I think the aiming stuff comes back quickly. For some reason it is more difficult to get back in stroke. When the stroke is working everything else seems to fall into place. It may be that concentrating on the stroke (as it should be) brings back all those muscle memories. I don't know. I just know it works.
Click to expand...


I agree with you 100%. A proper set up and stroke are the whole enchilada. Aiming is just guacamole :-) As you say, it almost becomes automatic. I know that, for me, when I'm set up right I can see two things more clearly than when I'm not: first, I can see the relationship between the cue tip and cue ball in a way that allows me to deliver a very accurate stroke. The other thing is that I can see, or maybe a better word is anticipate, the entire shot. It's like you can just feel how the whole shot is going to unfold.

Lou Figueroa
 
Something that helps me stay in rhythm or find it is counting to myself 1 thousand and 1, 1 thousand and 2 and so on.

It really helps pace myself and slows me down. I realized that I started playing badly because I started hurrying. I never really tried to establish some kinda of rhythm.

So far it has seemed to help.

Sometimes its the simplest things that works wonders.
 
JimS said:
A while back there was a thread about aim while standing and it was recommended, STRONGLY recommended to do some "one stroke practice".

Get down on the shot, stroke once and shoot. No aiming while down and no changing the aim you got down with. Doing this for a while when you're practicing will really help your game. It simplfies everything. You aim up... shoot down. If you're down and it don't look right you get up and get set up again.

Doing this for a while gets rid of over-thinking the shots and increases a guys spontanaiety. You begin to shoot from your gut feeling.
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CDJcWV8t7o

I think this is what this guy is trying to say in this video.At first i was thinking this is just a bunch of bs until i tried it.I now think this is a good thing to do.Now i just got to get the balls to obey me.
 
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