Player sees 1/2 tip of right as dead center ball?
- Thread starter CreeDo
- Start date
You are certainly correct, and it is also surprising how many people have the same problem. This problem is normally caused when someone aims with both eyes and their nose centered directly over the shaft, it is also a key fundamental when firing a rifle. Many people think that if they are right handed that they are also right eye dominate, and this is not always true. When I was in the military, I trained a large number of soldiers on basic rifle marksmanship, the first part of that training was determining which eye was dominate. In a pool room this is very easy to do, place a striped ball against a rail with the stripe facing the rail. Next step two table widths away and in direct line with the striped ball against the rail. Next make a small triangle with your hands close to your face, looking to wards the striped ball and centering it in the triangle. Then start with either eye, by closing one and seeing if the ball is still visible. Then close the other eye, and see if the ball is still visible, when the ball disappears when closing an eye that is your non-dominate eye.
By solving this problem and by placing your dominate eye over the cue when aiming you will have the proper sight picture. In the beginning it will be difficult to break an old habit, however, until it becomes natural you can check yourself by closing your non-dominate eye to see if you are hitting the cue ball where you want to.
Sorry, dunno if this is off topic or not...
If I aim correctly using only left eye by placing the cue under my left eye's aimed direction, do I need to fix it so I can use both eyes to aim? I've notice a lot top players using only one eye for aiming, Efren (Right), Earl (Right), Niels Feijen (Right), Wu Chia Ching (Right eye but left handed), Immonen (right). Earl, Feijen and Wu is easier to notice.
If I aim correctly using only left eye by placing the cue under my left eye's aimed direction, do I need to fix it so I can use both eyes to aim? I've notice a lot top players using only one eye for aiming, Efren (Right), Earl (Right), Niels Feijen (Right), Wu Chia Ching (Right eye but left handed), Immonen (right). Earl, Feijen and Wu is easier to notice.
We see this problem in Pool School in every class. A lot of good answers are in this thread, here's my take.
We have the student "ground their cue tip":
When you first get close to the cue ball, place your cue tip on the felt, right on the base of the cue ball. Now take a good look at what's happening. By placing your tip at the base of the cue ball you are by default at dead center of the cue ball. A day of this and your preception meets reality.....SPF=randyg
PS: The 3rd eye trainer does the same thing. Great invention by Joe.
It doesn't work the same for everybody's dominant eye.
As we see our stick from above, the picture we see is made up of two images, one from each eye (if you look carefully you can see the two images). Our brain coordinates the two images so that they look like one stick to us, but if one of our eyes is "dominant" then that image has a stronger influence on how the coordinated image turns out. How much stronger? That depends:
First, you may not have a dominant eye (a minority of people don't). In that case you probably get best results with your stick centered between your eyes.
But most people do have a dominant eye, which can be "strongly dominant", "weakly dominant" or somewhere in between. If your dominant eye is strongly dominant you probably will do well with the stick directly under it. But if your dominant eye is weakly dominant you might do best with the stick closer to the dominant eye but not directly under it. You have to experiment to see what's best.
pj
chgo
i didnt see anyone talk about stance....if her stance is off its going to throw her backhand to one side and when she has the cue under her chin pointing at the ball it may be a few degrees crooked and she cant tell because shes always done it like that. now crooked looks straight to her and shes may have to relearn what straight is.
check her address to the cueball. im guessing shes just walking over and bending then adjusting her aim a lil with the same base.
check her address to the cueball. im guessing shes just walking over and bending then adjusting her aim a lil with the same base.
I have a friend who won the Florida State Ladies Spirit Tour Championship a few years ago who had the same problem. She lined up with right on every shot! Somewhere she must have corrected but at address that is where the tip was.
I have had a problem where my tip would start off center to the right and then swipe across the ball. In a lesson with Hunter Lomabardo he helped adjust my stance so my head was more centered over the cue and he encouraged me to work with Joe Tucker's 3rd Eye Stroke trainer. The combination of the two has helped a lot. I am hitting the ball much more purely now.
I have a very similar problem. Not sure how much use any of this will be, but here are some details about my situation. I am near sighted in my left eye (-2.50), however my right eye does not require a prescription. I wear a contact in my left eye...nothing on the right of course.
My total unaided vision is roughly 20/25, so for many years I didn't wear any sort of contact. When playing without my contact in, I have severe problems due to the situation that you described in your original post. I noticed that if I got down on the ball I could rock my head back and forth and it changed the sight picture that I had and then I would notice that my tip was lined up right of center. I first realized this problem when I noticed that I always had problems shooting perfect stop shots. The cue ball would have unintended english on it. Using a striped ball would show the stripe wobbling when, atleast in my eyes, I had struck the cue ball with center draw.
Wearing my contact in my left eye changed all that. I now play with my cue directly under my chin instead of off to the right. Before I started wearing a contact in that eye, the only way I could get my cue straight in the sight picture I had without rocking my head was to have it aligned off the right side of my chin.
I'm sure that post was about as clear as mud, and some of these other people seem more knowledgeable about the problem and whatever fixes that are available.
My total unaided vision is roughly 20/25, so for many years I didn't wear any sort of contact. When playing without my contact in, I have severe problems due to the situation that you described in your original post. I noticed that if I got down on the ball I could rock my head back and forth and it changed the sight picture that I had and then I would notice that my tip was lined up right of center. I first realized this problem when I noticed that I always had problems shooting perfect stop shots. The cue ball would have unintended english on it. Using a striped ball would show the stripe wobbling when, atleast in my eyes, I had struck the cue ball with center draw.
Wearing my contact in my left eye changed all that. I now play with my cue directly under my chin instead of off to the right. Before I started wearing a contact in that eye, the only way I could get my cue straight in the sight picture I had without rocking my head was to have it aligned off the right side of my chin.
I'm sure that post was about as clear as mud, and some of these other people seem more knowledgeable about the problem and whatever fixes that are available.
Creedo take a look at this article I just published on my web site. It may be of use. It is too long to reproduce here.
http://sunburstselect.com/PBReview/HowToUseYourEyes.htm
http://sunburstselect.com/PBReview/HowToUseYourEyes.htm
Don't think I've seen your web site before, Joe. Very nice!!
Thanks all for the various replies. We're working on it more in a day or so. I think she will get good results realigning her head but it must be hard to change something so fundamental in your stance and force yourself to do it for a long time. She is considering purchasing JT's third eye stroke trainer.
I liked the tip about using the base of the ball as an easy reference for true center. Makes a lot of sense and I think if I can change how she approaches the shot before getting down, using that point as a reference, she can get set properly.
I'll report if any of the various suggestions seems to get good results.
I liked the tip about using the base of the ball as an easy reference for true center. Makes a lot of sense and I think if I can change how she approaches the shot before getting down, using that point as a reference, she can get set properly.
I'll report if any of the various suggestions seems to get good results.
I'd be interested in any other information relating to this topic as I have a similar issue.
I recently purchased Joe Tucker's 3rd Eye Stroke Trainer and found that I am applying right english to the cueball unintentionally as well.
I don't think that my tip is lined up right of center at address, but rather I am correcting my stroke to the right because I am not seeing the shot properly.
When I shoot, my eyes are focused on the point of the OB that I would like the CB to hit. However I feel that my stroke is not hitting center ball (where I am lined up) but is going off to the right. I think this might be caused because I am not sighting the shot correctly. I have been fooling around with my head placement the last couple days, and moving my head to the left seems to help a little (by the way, I am right eye dominant).
Any input or advice would be very welcome
I recently purchased Joe Tucker's 3rd Eye Stroke Trainer and found that I am applying right english to the cueball unintentionally as well.
I don't think that my tip is lined up right of center at address, but rather I am correcting my stroke to the right because I am not seeing the shot properly.
When I shoot, my eyes are focused on the point of the OB that I would like the CB to hit. However I feel that my stroke is not hitting center ball (where I am lined up) but is going off to the right. I think this might be caused because I am not sighting the shot correctly. I have been fooling around with my head placement the last couple days, and moving my head to the left seems to help a little (by the way, I am right eye dominant).
Any input or advice would be very welcome
This is actually very common. I have seen it with very accomplished players. She probably doesn't get her head directly over the aiming line so she is kind of looking at the line from a slight angle. Adjusting the setup and working with Joe Tuckers Third Eye Stroke Trainer will help a ton.
I'd be interested in any other information relating to this topic as I have a similar issue.
I recently purchased Joe Tucker's 3rd Eye Stroke Trainer and found that I am applying right english to the cueball unintentionally as well.
I don't think that my tip is lined up right of center at address, but rather I am correcting my stroke to the right because I am not seeing the shot properly.
When I shoot, my eyes are focused on the point of the OB that I would like the CB to hit. However I feel that my stroke is not hitting center ball (where I am lined up) but is going off to the right. I think this might be caused because I am not sighting the shot correctly. I have been fooling around with my head placement the last couple days, and moving my head to the left seems to help a little (by the way, I am right eye dominant).
Any input or advice would be very welcome
On anything other than a straight in shot, the contact point on the object ball is different from the aiming point. You should be focusing on the aiming point, not the contact point.
Steve
I guess that's something else I'll have to work on...I do have problems "seeing" cut shots where it's more than a half-ball hit. What you just mentioned may be part of the problem. I'm hesitant to try learning an aiming system....but maybe I should.
Anyway, focusing on straight-in shots is where I can see really well that I am applying right spin to the cueball (even when using the 3rd eye stroke trainer to make sure that I am lined up at center ball). If I am swinging my cue to the right instead of following through straight, what does that mean for my head position?
Maybe I just need to break down and get a lesson to have my whole setup evaluated by somebody who knows what they're doing. Any recommendations for people in/around Pittsburgh?
Donny
Banned
I have the exact same problem especially when I'm shooting straight in shots into the corner pocket to my left. Sometimes I have to aim a full tip to the left and about 1/2 tip low to hit the center of the cue ball. Otherwise I tend to load the cue ball up with unintended right spin on straight in stop shots.
I've been able partially overcome this problem by spending a lot of hours practicing on just fundamentals, mainly by shooting lots and lots of stop shots with the cue ball varying distances from the object ball. I shoot with the Aramith measles cue ball and if the measles are spinning, that means I have unintended side spin when I'm shooting stop shots. It lets me know if there's any spin on the cue ball.
Another thing that's helped me a lot is Joe Tucker's stroke trainer. You stick it on the end of your cue and you can easily tell if your cue tip is actually at the center of the cue ball when you contact the cue ball and when you're warming up. If you practice with it, it'll really help straighten out your stroke. http://www.joetucker.net/store/stroke_trainer.htm
I've been able partially overcome this problem by spending a lot of hours practicing on just fundamentals, mainly by shooting lots and lots of stop shots with the cue ball varying distances from the object ball. I shoot with the Aramith measles cue ball and if the measles are spinning, that means I have unintended side spin when I'm shooting stop shots. It lets me know if there's any spin on the cue ball.
Another thing that's helped me a lot is Joe Tucker's stroke trainer. You stick it on the end of your cue and you can easily tell if your cue tip is actually at the center of the cue ball when you contact the cue ball and when you're warming up. If you practice with it, it'll really help straighten out your stroke. http://www.joetucker.net/store/stroke_trainer.htm
Wow, you sound like my twin. I'm using the measles cueball to see the spin and also bought Joe Tucker's stroke trainer just last week.
I'm having a problem where, even using the stroke trainer, I still impart right english to the cue ball without hitting the stroke trainer.
I have noticed that if I move my tip to the left at address, I do not impart sidespin on the CB, but I think it is because my stroke is drifting to the right so that I wind up hitting center ball.
I really feel like my eyes are not aligned properly and that my cue is not straight on the aim line so that when I stroke through I am making an adjustment to send the ball on the correct line. Either that or my stroke really needs some more work
If I'm feeling motivated over the weekend I may try to set my camera up and film myself to see if I notice anything really strange...
Thanks...I will look into that. I would love to learn what he has to teach and be more familiar with the SPF lingo
I realize this is a couple months old but nobody gave you an answer. If your left eye is dominant, then you are correct to have your left eye over the cue. If your left eye is only a lil dominant then you may have the cue ligned up kind of between your nose and left eye.
The players you mention all have dominant eyes. JMHO