Microadjustments - Conscious vs. Subconscious?

Oikawa

Well-known member
What is your methodology for doing microadjustments when down on the shot? Any discussions related to microadjustments are welcome, but am especially curious about the differences between conscious and subconscious approaches. Will post my own approach later when I have time.
 
What is your methodology for doing microadjustments when down on the shot? Any discussions related to microadjustments are welcome, but am especially curious about the differences between conscious and subconscious approaches. Will post my own approach later when I have time.
I like to just feather the cue a bit and see if it's being stroked dead straight. If it wavers at all I might try moving my back hand just a bit. If it doesn't straighten up with barely any adjustment, it's time to get up and re-set. No matter what I'm doing to the CB, if my warm up strokes but mainly the feathering isn't straight the shot will not go exactly as I pictured it. You have to demand perfection to get perfection. Sometimes good enough really is good enough, but you can't be upset if good enough fails and you didn't hit it exactly.
 
My current way of doing microadjustments is to be as conscious and strict as possible about them in terms of how I do them.

When I'm standing, I intuitively pick my best guess of the correct shot image (CB/OB overlap), commit to it and go down on the shot.

When I'm down on the shot, the key for me is to never move my shot image, or in other words, I don't allow myself to microadjust by moving my head/body sideways such that the shot image changes, I only adjust by moving the stick by moving my bridge hand and my backhand by small amounts. The way I do this adjustment is simply by focusing on the OB and the cue in my peripheral vision, and moving the bridge/backhand such that the overlap between the OB and the cuestick feels correct intuitively, while also pointing at the correct point on the CB. I do it by alternating between the hands, each time doing an even tinier adjustment; so first I will slightly move the backhand, then do an even smaller movement on the bridge hand to have the tip point at the correct point on the CB again, then do an even tinier adjustment on the backhand again, goign back n' forth like this, until both are 100% correct. Usually 2 times of both (backhand->bridgehand->backhand->bridgehand) is enough to lock in even very precise shots, I only go for a 3rd time or more if it still feels off e.g. I accidentally had an unstable bridge hand and moved it.

Once the cue is pointing exactly where it feels correct, I will start my shot routine and do my best that the cue goes perfectly straight towards wherever it points.

All of these backhand/fronthand adjustments are very small (barely noticable by someone watching), if i go down and see that I'd have to move by a lot I will simply get up. The idea is that you have a threshold for how much you allow yourself to adjust, since being originally off by an oddly large amount will typically mean something went wrong in your approach/setup, and you should restart, but being off by a few millimeters with your bridgehand is natural and shouldn't be something you have to stand back up for, since you can adjust it reliably to be millimeter perfect once down.

A very stable and relaxed stance (so you don't move sideways at all once you're down and can easily stay still) is necessary for this method to work well. I achieve this by having a wide stance in terms of my foot positions, and by having my bridge hand bend such that the elbow touches the table on the side. Both of these things increase balance and are easy to implement.
 
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