Mizerak + Mosconi: Dominant left eye directly over shotline

[Andrew Manning]

I looked and couldn't find anything specific about that. (It's "left eye dominant", btw.)

In his first instructional book, he says twice with identical wording: "your head is over the cue in the line of aim," including once in italics.

In his second instructional book, he says, "A good billiard stance puts the player into a balanced and comfortable position, and centers his head over the cue in the line of aim." He also says:

"With the feet in proper position, bend forward at the waist and bring your head in line over the cue in the completed stance. Your feet should be no more than six inches apart."

and:

"Whatever the shot situation, maintain the elements of the basic stance. The keys here are balance, freedom of stroke movement, and position of the head above the cue."

In the pictures in his second book, it appears that the cue is under his left eye when shooting right-handed, but the pictures are posed and therefore suspect. You also need to consider how much input Mosconi may or may not have had into the contents of either book.

Here is his instructional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJYfqdkunoc -- "same principle as firing a rifle" but he also implies that collision-induced throw doesn't exist. If you look at the overhead shot around 18:00 (ring-around-the-side drill) it sure looks like the cue is under his left eye.

Few modern players stand as high as Mosconi stood over the shot. The four-contact-point stance would have made him grit his teeth.

At 9:14 in that video he shoots a shot toward the camera where you can see that for one thing, his head is significantly tilted to his right, and for another thing, his left eye is over the cue. This doesn't necessarily mean he's "left eye dominant", it just means his left eye was over the cue.

Also of note is that although he says the feet should be "no more than six inches apart" in the book, in reality he has his feet set at least 2-3 times wider than that, as do pretty much all of us I suspect.

 

[longhorns2]

imo it's not necessary. i used to strain to get my left eye over the shot line, but it feels more natural to just get down on the shot somewhere in between. you can still get used to seeing the shot line this way.

 

[grindz]

I haven't seen Geno on here in a while. With all his health issues I hope he is
recovered and well. He spent a while here in Az a few years back, and was
competitive with all the young guns when he could easily spot them a few
decades. None of them had to like seeing his name on their draw!

I've always wondered about the upright stance (old school) vs. lower (gun sight
picture), that most players use now. More 3 dimensional, vs. more 2 dimensional,
and how that affects the dominant eye picture. I know for me (almost entirely left
eye) my sight picture changes as I rise up.

Just too many things to figure out anymore..... age changes all kinds of things!

td