quiet eye

[jay helfert]

What’s missing is no one knows what a person is really seeing with their vision. Your eye is not your vision, what is being seen in your mind.

Does anyone really know what gaze means?

I’ve mentioned before I probably use my vision different than most cause I ride and raced motorcycles. This requires your eyes to be in a different state than watching TV.

Racing motorcycles requires you to look where you need to go, but also to see everything in front and beside you while not looking at anything. Something applies to car racing.

To see a hidden picture in stereograms, you must learn to see the whole and not just part which requires your focus to be on nothing.

The role of your peripheral vision is never mentioned. Vision consists of your central vision and peripheral vision. It is your peripheral vision that’s lets one see the hidden imagine in stereograms. To do so, requires you to focus your central vision past the imagine.

And this requires the eyes not to move, a steady gaze..........but not stare.

Google stereograms and see if you can learn to see the hidden imagines. Once you can, you will sense the difference in the state of your eyes from not being able to see the imagine to seeing the imagine.

I can relate. I raced cars (Corvettes) in the SCCA (sports car racing series) for two years and became a pretty good driver. I think my pool background helped me there. To do well in racing you had to be able to focus on exactly where you wanted your car to be on the track at all times. You actually had exact points you wanted to hit on every turn. Your eyes remained focused at all times! And yes, you were aware of cars that were around you, both in front, behind and next to you. You didn't have to "look" to see them. Your brain somehow correlated their relative position to you. I don't really know how to explain that, but I did know where the other cars were at all times.

One thing I found interesting is that after a day spent racing at speeds above 100 mph and up to 175 or 180 on the straightaways, when you got back in your car and got on the freeway, driving at 70 mph seemed very slow, like you were hardly moving. In a race car (or motorcycle) your brain actually slows things down. Skydivers also are aware of this.

Even in pool, being completely focused on the shot, with your eyes glued to where you want to hit the ball, will greatly help you block out all outside distractions. And when you are doing this well, you hardly notice it and you will feel quite relaxed and calm. That's when you can get "in the zone" so to speak. I used to call it being "in dead stroke."

Someone else mentioned this on here. Practicing meditation can greatly help your pool game. I used to sit in a comfortable position and focus my eyes on a spot in front of me and just look at that spot for a few minutes. I did my best to clear my mind completely while doing this, and try not to think about anything. If you can quiet your mind completely for one minute you are doing good! Try it sometime. It will help your pool game.

 

[duckie]

I raced and ride motorcycles and I’ve often wondered if I can use my vision differently than others.

Here in CA, I can lane split on a motorcycle..........riding between slow or stopped lanes of traffic. This requires total awareness of what’s happening around you.......even three lanes over from you.

The only way to do this is to learn how to use your peripheral vision. It takes time, but can be learned.

I was asked in a PM, what I look at last on a shot. My answer was space, nothing.

This is hard to explain when most people have always looked at something. I’ve been trying to figure out to explain how I “see” where the CB needs to be.

Your vision has a field of view. I’ve noticed on most shots that I can place my vision center on a area of the table that allows me to “see” the whole shot at once........the pocket, the OB, the CB and sometimes where the CB needs to be for the next shot.

My eyes are not moving from pocket to OB to CB and so on. They are not moving, but I place my center of vision on the table somewhere that allows me to see them all at once. When doing this, it allows me to “see” the alignment of the whole shot as I move into my shooting positions, keeping in mind what spin is gonna be put on the ball.

The one thing you can not see the pros doing is how they use the different components that make up ones vision.

 

[ShootingArts]

I can relate, gauges

Jay,

When I first started going around in circles I wondered how anyone possibly had time to look at gauges, it was like first starting driving on the street, I was a very busy boy! Only a few months later I could easily keep an eye on gauges and just to prove I could I drove a handful of laps without taking my eyes off of my gauges. Since it encouraged blocking which in turn created crashes, we weren't allowed mirrors in our cars. I still knew exactly where two dozen other cars were at on the track. Like you say, hard to explain.

I always fell into the zone racing and in the zone magic happens. In the zone shooting a pistol I described to a friend exactly what he was doing directly behind me down to the position of his hands! Back to cars, a car became part of me, motorcycles not so much. I think our friend underestimates what it takes to drive a car on the very edge but no matter there, kinda like trying to decide if a great apple or great orange is better!

Something else, feel determined my line around the track. I could start with my idea of what a line around a track should be, feel was what refined that line. A friend owned a dirt track and had worked like hell to make it perfect. He had one remaining mud hole just off the track in the infield of turn one. Me and two or three other drivers consistently hit the mud hole with our left front tires. One day Carroll asked me why the hell I had to do that. I told him the truth, that was where the car wanted to run. I had no problem if he wanted to put a huge tire or a dirt pile there but as long as it was physically possible I had no choice but to drop the left front into that spot when I was racing.

I think meditation would help a few things, not something I have much luck achieving, a really quiet mind just sitting still. I get there in action, not so much sitting still. It was funny, I had two different people in different towns quit me midset just a few weeks apart when I started playing entire runs as one action. When shots flowed together as one action they figured they might as well pay up without a drubbing besides!

Hu

I can relate. I raced cars (Corvettes) in the SCCA (sports car racing series) for two years and became a pretty good driver. I think my pool background helped me there. To do well in racing you had to be able to focus on exactly where you wanted your car to be on the track at all times. You actually had exact points you wanted to hit on every turn. Your eyes remained focused at all times! And yes, you were aware of cars that were around you, both in front, behind and next to you. You didn't have to "look" to see them. Your brain somehow correlated their relative position to you. I don't really know how to explain that, but I did know where the other cars were at all times.

One thing I found interesting is that after a day spent racing at speeds above 100 mph and up to 175 or 180 on the straightaways, when you got back in your car and got on the freeway, driving at 70 mph seemed very slow, like you were hardly moving. In a race car (or motorcycle) your brain actually slows things down. Skydivers also are aware of this.

Even in pool, being completely focused on the shot, with your eyes glued to where you want to hit the ball, will greatly help you block out all outside distractions. And when you are doing this well, you hardly notice it and you will feel quite relaxed and calm. That's when you can get "in the zone" so to speak. I used to call it being "in dead stroke."

Someone else mentioned this on here. Practicing meditation can greatly help your pool game. I used to sit in a comfortable position and focus my eyes on a spot in front of me and just look at that spot for a few minutes. I did my best to clear my mind completely while doing this, and try not to think about anything. If you can quiet your mind completely for one minute you are doing good! Try it sometime. It will help your pool game.

 

[gogg]

What’s missing is no one knows what a person is really seeing with their vision. Your eye is not your vision, what is being seen in your mind.

Does anyone really know what gaze means?

I’ve mentioned before I probably use my vision different than most cause I ride and raced motorcycles. This requires your eyes to be in a different state than watching TV.

Racing motorcycles requires you to look where you need to go, but also to see everything in front and beside you while not looking at anything. Something applies to car racing.

To see a hidden picture in stereograms, you must learn to see the whole and not just part which requires your focus to be on nothing.

The role of your peripheral vision is never mentioned. Vision consists of your central vision and peripheral vision. It is your peripheral vision that’s lets one see the hidden imagine in stereograms. To do so, requires you to focus your central vision past the imagine.

And this requires the eyes not to move, a steady gaze..........but not stare.

Google stereograms and see if you can learn to see the hidden imagines. Once you can, you will sense the difference in the state of your eyes from not being able to see the imagine to seeing the imagine.

This is also what is referred to as “Zanshin” in Japanese martial arts....
Training to keep peripheral awareness. Neat to hear of the specific uses other sports and activities have applied the same concepts to.

 

[336Robin]

Whatever you look at last cue ball/ contact point / fraction etc
You should look at for 3 seconds before you shoot

Absolutely, takes the eyes a short while to adjust, then you need another 3 during your pre strokes to make sure your delivery location is dialed in from behind the cue ball. Delivery is super important.

 

[Scott Lee]

duckie...Well that's baloney! The best instructors talk about (and teach the student how to find it) a person's vision center all the time. It isn't everything, but connect a good PEP with an accurate and repeatable setup and delivery process, and you've got a winning combination, that can be trained into the unconscious. Performance is guaranteed to improve!

Scott Lee
2019 PBIA Instructor of the Year
Director, SPF National Pool School Tour

You are over simplifying what it take to play pool at a high consistency level.

And all that is ever talked about is the eyes, and never vision, two different things. Eyes just let light in.....vision, what you see in your brain, is the result of the letting of light into the eyes.

So, quiet eyes doesn’t really explain how a persons vision is being used, just the eyes don’t move as much as others.

 

[ShootingArts]

duckie...Well that's baloney! The best instructors talk about (and teach the student how to find it) a person's vision center all the time. It isn't everything, but connect a good PEP with an accurate and repeatable setup and delivery process, and you've got a winning combination, that can be trained into the unconscious. Performance is guaranteed to improve!

Scott Lee
2019 PBIA Instructor of the Year
Director, SPF National Pool School Tour

"Baloney" is a bit strong. You might have been a little gentler and said it was smoked ham or roast beef.

Hu

 

[Brookeland Bill]

My high-school BB coach taught me to always look at the back of the rim while shooting free throws. He said it helps prevent your shots from going short.

And I must say, on the days/nights I incorporate good eye patterns (aka "quiet eye") into my shot routine, I always shoot better pool. I make the transition on the back end of a longer-than-normal final practice stroke (but not as long as Chris Melling's)

Maniac

I use it on the golf course. I want to use it in pool. Would you explain your technique at the pool table! Thanks.

 

[Quesports]

Pool School (Randy G, Scott Lee) and others have been proponents of quiet eyes for a very long time. Decades, I’s gather. It’s a pretty standard item for instructors. Not sure how long this study has been around.

Yes to what you have stated here Fred. I took lessons from Randy & Scott years ago and how to use your eyes more effectively was definitely taught by them. I made sure to pay close attention to this particular part of the lessons they taught because I had never heard of it before. Using your eyes correctly is very important!