quiet eye technique, golf & pool :

Solartje said:
I would like to add some more thoughts.

I have been having better results when I dont blink during the preshot routine. At first i thought I was just sharking myself just like if someone would ask, are you breathing in or out when you shoot, but the more i think of it, the more it does have some kind of logic explenation.

Look at this dot


*


Now close your eyes for 2 seconds and look back at the dot.
How long did it take before you eyes could see the dot clear again? EAch time you blink, you eyes start a new calculation of what you are seeing. IF like me you blink alot, this means your eyes are continously reevaluating the situation. This can't be good?

I also think that when you are lowering yourself into position it is VERY important to continue looking at the whole picture. Dont just look at the cloth where your hand will go, look DURING the bending movement if the full pocket, cb, ob, body alignment looks right.

i find that if i dont blink from the moment i bend down, till the moment i finished my stroke, I'm removing the period of time where my eyes have to readapt to what it is seeing, and re-evaluate the whole 3d image.

I found out that im not blinking when i'm in stroke, and i blink alot when i'm nervous and miss alot during analyses of my videotapes of trainingsessions at home. This is the best explenation i could give to the whole theory.

While watching this weekends snooker finale between carter and swail, i also noticed several pro snookerplayers who while they are warming up there stroke, the very slightly move there head left to right. only an inch or so. I think they use the different 3d visions they have by moving there head, as information for the brain to process on wheter the whole shots looks on and to see if the 3d transformations of a 2d imagine isn't playing some kind of optical ilusion on them. I haven't tried it, but I will try this for some time and see what results im getting.


PS since i have adapted my vision, i have made the biggest progress i have ever made since i started playing pool. I'm not joking, or bluffing or whatever.
I have equalised my record of break and run's, made my first 10ball break and run's, and ive beaten the ghost for the first time in a race to 10.

I always thought i missed a ball because i didnt stroke well, or didnt hit the cb where i wanted, or because of my bridgehand that wasnt placed well or a bad body aligment, now i know i missed 50% of my shots because of PURE bad eye rhitme and alignment. I wish you could be me for a second, so you could experience the same improvements i am having... but you'll have to believe me on my word. Try it, what do you have to lose?

post about shafts, cues, aiming techniques etc have had many thousands of reactions and are the most read post on the forum. but they didnt make me play 1/10th better than eye patterns have made me.

Happy solly who went from B to A- player in 1 month since ive started experimenting with eye techniques.
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GO SOLLY!

You continue to provide extremely valuable information. Keep it coming.
Thanks,
JoeyA
 
hehe joey :) thanks for the compliments. ITs gettint harder to find more things. I'm getting close to the bottem of it.

the only thing i know, is that i'm getting results higher then i ever expected and close to as good as it gets.

I played yesterday the team competition. I did use everything i wrote in here for one match, and didnt do it in another match. it started at 8pm after full day of work (i had a very bad day at work), i was very tired, and my wife came with so i wans't 100% concentrated. PERFECT background to test the things i wrote in non ideal circumstances. results where clear.

First match: 9ball, race to 6. I made 100% of my pots.
First time ever, I didn't miss a single pot in a match.
I was leading 5-0 without my oponent getting a chance to shoot, and ready to clear for 6-0. I then scratched, and scratched 2 more times on the break , to only win 6-3 :( , but it was the best match i ever played, PERIOD.

Second match, 14-1 race to 50 vs the same player. I didnt use all the things that i posted to check if maybe i was just having a good day, and i played like ive been playing for 3 years, and lost 50-40 .

What more can i say.... I'm one VERY happy poolplayer, and now i really need to work on getting a better positionplay, and inside 3rail shots, but knowing you can trust your pot-game 100% to recover from a bad position shot is priceless.

I'm not sure if i posted this already, but i had been talking with our team-captain. Besides from potting better, i have reduced my warming up time. Before i needed 1+ hour to getin shape, this weekend i woke up at 3am to go for a piss, and descided to shoot some longh straight shots against the rail on my diamond, and i made 10/10. I think before, my body needed 1 hour to subconsiously adapt to the wrong pictures my eye gave my brain. now my brain is getting the correct information and sending the correct information.

Pool never looked as easy as it does now :p and especially 9-ball, where besides from a good break, the only thing you need to do is make 8 good shots, the game look stupidly easy. I only hope this is not a short confidence boost, but a true solution to a problem and a greath tool to improve in short time, with results in a long timelaps.
 
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sounds like SPF, and other things many people preach. i am one of those contact point CB lookers, but I still have problems focusing and not moving my eyes. now I have more motivation. hopefully this will fix my suckage when playing certain people, but playing great with others.

can't wait to try this out, alas I had my wisdom teeth removed and look funny and can't be seen in public yet.
 
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johnnyz86...It's not an SPF eye pattern, but that doesn't mean it can't work well, to make Roy a better player. It's absolutely true, that the next best thing, for improving your pool game, after an accurate & repeatable stroke, is to develop a consistent eye pattern, as part of your pre-shot routine. The most important part of the eye pattern, is that there is a focused gaze on the two points where information is needed (CB & OB). A focused gaze is defined as a minimum of 2-3 seconds for each point. The idea is to do this, just prior to delivering the cue, on the final stroke. For most skilled players, the pocket figures very little, in this process.

Roy...I have to disagree with one point of observation. As far as blinking...an eye blink is a human reflex action (which happens for many reasons, physiologically and mentally). People have no control over when, or how often they blink(even if you try to train yourself, you cannot stop blinking). There is no neurological research to support your theory that an eye blink interrupts, or restarts, any kind of thought process. conscious or unconscious. I am happy with your discovery and successful implementation into your practice and competition. However, I believe it is due to the long looks you are doing, as a part of your eye pattern, rather than trying "not to blink" when shooting.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Johnnyz86 said:
sounds like SPF, and other things many people preach. i am one of those contact point CB lookers, but I still have problems focusing and not moving my eyes. now I have more motivation.
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thanks for the reaction Roy :D

you can controle your blinking. If you want your eyes to be open for 5 seconds, everyone can do that right

I checked with myself, and i usually blink just when i move my eyes to another focuspoint. On each movement OB to CB or CB to OB, i blink. Not doing this is helping me but i can't give a scientific explenation why, except from the atempt above about your brain activity. Maybe its just a mental thing, and i feel more confident if I dont blink. One thing is sure, if you dont blink, your eyes get more information then if you blink. So it can't be a bad thing.

But scott is probably right, that the pre shot eye pattern and longer focuses are probably the biggest reason of the improved potting ability.
 
Quiet eye is the foundation for the Personal Eye Pattern segment we teach at pool school. It involved knowing when your eyes need to be focused where. Developing a consistent and effective eye pattern is critical to your pool game, as well as in many other sports.

Steve
 
alstl said:
Is quiet eye another term for focus or concentration?
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I do not think they are quite the same thing. To focus is to allow your eye to determine a particular point. You pick something out of a field and allow it to become more clearly defined relative to the other objects in the field.

The quiet eye comes after focus has been achieved. I think, but I am not sure, that quiet eye implies allowing yourself to continue focusing on the object (contact point, line of travel, etc). This continued focusing in a steady way allows your brain to collect more information and it also allows your brain to coordinate all of the muscles that will be used to make the shot.

I think of quiet eye as a form of mental processing that is basically not under conscious control. We initiate it with our consciousness. The implementation of the shot is not conscious. Something like shifting from walking to running. We consciously say something like, "run" and the brain takes over processing of what needs to be done to shift gears (so to speak).

I think that it takes more time to explain it than it does to perform it. I have found that using an eye pattern in which I finalize the aim / stroke with my eye on the OB and about three strokes before letting it go allows all of the biological machinery to "get it together." This is not the process advocated by some instructors, It is based on how I think the brain / mind works to get the job done.

Stroking while using the quiet eye resting on the OB allows the brain to make subtle corrections over the last few strokes that are needed to execute the shot as planned.
 
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Okay. This is the sort of stuff that I am into. Those finer points of the game. I most appreciate your bringing these thoughts, tools, tips and techniques to AZB.

I also find it most interesting that Gene of Perfect Aim has not commented on this thread. Not bad. Not good. Just 'interesting'.

Thanks for all good thoughts.
 
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