Hard to say without video. Maybe upload a video of what you are doing and it might make it easier to help.
My CTE/Pro One Struggles - Please Help
- Thread starter nobcitypool
- Start date
Good idea Gerry. I'll try to work on something this weekend.
If you are feeling out of balance and contorted then you are certainly doing it wrong. When you are not in a good stance then your normally good stroke will also suffer. At least this is my own experience with this. I have found for me that I get set with my body into a position where I will settle into the shooting position after the pivot. The pivot is the the settling, a slight body shift and I am in position.
No one is shooting the messenger here. It's hard to diagnose a person's problem through written conversation. We are simply tossing out suggestions that have helped us. I will tell you I went through a couple months of being pissed off that I couldn't figure out CTE at all. The pivot was driving me nuts.
Maybe the best thing is to let it go until after you see Stan again. I betcha he knows way more now about how to communicate the steps than he did two years ago.
In any event when you are down on the ball your stance should feel every bit as solid and comfortable as when you set up on a known line using no system.
I guess I can't stress enough how much using a ghost ball to verify and reverse the steps has helped me. Here is my take on it:
Forgetting about all systems there is only a very narrow set of lines which work to lay the cue on and shoot the cue ball straight along that line to make the ball. That's the Ghost Ball shot line. GB Center (GBC) to CB Center (CBC). So no matter what your cue must be on that line and the v-notch in your bridge hand MUST be a point on that line or it's impossible to make the shot with a center ball hit on the cue ball.
So with that in mind I set up shots with the GB in place or GBC marked with chalk and work backwards until I am satisfied that I can see the visuals from a standing position. You can hopefully see from this video how I do this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nETWcUmJsgs
For myself this type of exercise really helps to reconcile where I need to be to start the process and verifies that the process does indeed result in the cue ending up on the shot line to GB center. So then when I do this without any lines marked on the table I can trust the line given and focus on a quality stroke. This has worked for me so far although it has all been in teh service of manual CTE with a half-ball pivot. And that half-ball pivot is really just a slight body shift (for me) that brings the cue tip to center ball from the outside edge.
That's about all I have for you.
Leafs, you are correct. I've been moving my head side to side. I'll try rotating instead, makes sense. Nice graphic, thank you.
Can you be more specific? Give me some examples of shots, if you don't mind.
Are you right eyed dominant? Almost sounds like you're pivoting short of center when coming in from the left -- center ball perception error -- and the squirt forces the over-cut.
This can also be cue "angle of attack" error coming into the CB. You might be angling your cue differently coming in from the left versus the right.
Have someone take a photo w/ their cell phone head-on in your pre-pivot position from each side.
Dave
Right eye dominant. Some excellent suggestions and ideas coming out which is what I was hoping to stimulate. Just not for me but for others who may be at a similar stage of learning CTE/Pro One.
I watched the CTE portion of the DVD an hour and a half ago then went downstairs to my table to try CTE. I'm a little confused. Find the visual. Step into the visual CTE line. I think I have that, bringing the cue in is what I didn't get 100%. Do I bring the cue in along the CTE line with the tip angled outside of that by a 1/2 pivot, then pivot in once I'm in the set position? Or do I bring the cue in on a line 1/2 tip outside the CTE line?
I get that. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how that answers my question about moving in for a mechanical pivot. Stan describes "sliding" the bridge hand in with the V of the bridge along the CTE line. Did I hear that wrong or is that correct? So that tells me that if the V of my bridge hand indeed is located along the CTE line, if I'm to manually pivot left or right (dependent upon cut direction), the cue tip must be angled outward slightly. Or perhaps I'm not understanding but how can the cue stick be resting on a center to edge line (V of the bridge) and then pivot to center from the outside unless the tip is angled to the outside. You can't pivot from center to center, that doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry, perhaps being an Engineer and dominant left brain sort of thinker, I take these things too literally.
Your not sliding in on the ctelCtel is for visual and body alignment purposes only. Forget about the V thing also. You will be sliding in to a half tip manual pivot position left or right of the vertical axis of the cue ball.
Pick up the two lines and make sure your in a comfortable set position. now all your focus moves to the cue ball, find the vertical axis and slide into the left or right side of the vertical axis and then pivot to ccb, like in the dvd.
I'll try that but to be clear, what you're describing is not "like in the dvd". Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
leafs, I do trust you as you seem to have a reasonably good handle on this and are able to articulate yourself quite well.
I went downstairs and attempted what you described for 10 to 15 minutes. Actually seemed to work quite well. I tried several thick cut, simple shots, went in. Went to the 19.5 - 21 proposition shot, after a miss or two, hit 3 or 4 in a row from one side, then two from the other. First problem area was a reverse cut to the left for some reason. Was consistently overcutting it about 1/3 of a diamond. Had a couple of phone calls come in, had to get back to business.
Thanks for your help.
I went downstairs and attempted what you described for 10 to 15 minutes. Actually seemed to work quite well. I tried several thick cut, simple shots, went in. Went to the 19.5 - 21 proposition shot, after a miss or two, hit 3 or 4 in a row from one side, then two from the other. First problem area was a reverse cut to the left for some reason. Was consistently overcutting it about 1/3 of a diamond. Had a couple of phone calls come in, had to get back to business.
Thanks for your help.