SirBanksALot said:
Colin
Please take a second and define what you refer to as "Prealignment" or "set-up" (golf) as it relates to right foot, left foot, angle of shoulders relative to "cue line" etc etc etc.
Thanks
Keith
Hi Keith,
When I talk about pre-alignment, I am refering mainly to the position of the V, which the cue passes through on the bridge hand, but another aspect is the line through which the cue will travel and where and with what speed it will hit the cue ball (CB).
If pre-aligned correctly, which is done by careful observation of the cue ball, object ball and pocket and with consideration to the speed and type of spin being applied, then proper execution (final cuing movement) can be done without further reference, or visual focus on the Object Ball (OB) being potted.
One's stance positioning is largely irrelevant to this procedure, other than something similar to how most good players take their stance should do the job.
One area of stance that often influences bad cuing, is a tendency for a right hander to drift leftward with the body, hence putting some unintended right english on the CB, and vice-versa with left handers I assume.
But so long as the bridge doesn't move, once properly aligned, and that the required contact point of the CB is contacted with the cue, then it is near impossible to miss most pots, assuming no severe sideways swipe of the cue is involved.
The key message in pre-alignment is that placement of the bridge hand into the correct position is far more crucial than accurate cuing in determing a successful pot.
I assume most players have had that feeling on occassion when aligning to a pot, when they just know that they have it aligned and will make the pot. This is what the pre-alignment method intends to make standard for every shot.
But while all players pre-align to some extent, most rely on making small adjustments during the stroke to correct the potting angle, using their focus on the OB as a guide during the final execution of the stroke.
To me, this seems like the equivalent of a golfer peeking at the hole on sloping putt and inviting himself to second guess the line which his earlier calculations indicated were necessary.
I'd say, why try to intuitively calculate in mid action, what can be done through steady observation and calculation in the relatively still pre-alignment phase.
Colin
