The biggest issue that I had at first was being right handed, but left eye dominant. So I would stand behind the shot, and really struggle with trying to get my back foot and dominant eye on the ETO line.
Now I just make sure my back foot is on the line, and when I get down on the shot, I twist my body a little to the right, so my left eye is also on the line.
I really do think it's a great system. I mean, you can literally make any shot with any english from 0-75 degrees 100% of the time as long as you do it right. As far as making me a better player? Well, my shotmaking has improved by huge margin, but there's a lot more to being great than just making balls. It's a step in the right direction though.
I'm the same as you (right handed, left eye dominant), and Ekkes is too. For me, I ended up doing two things to help:
- I sight the ETO line by standing directly behind it, basically with my chest, belly button, however you want to look at it while sighting the line. This avoided me having to tilt my head and trying to maintain that tilt, and I can just use my normal binocular vision when picking up the line. Just like I did with Pro1 when standing a foot or two behind the shot.
- From this position, the only problem is that your right (back) foot is now to the right of the line, so trying to sidestep into the line can be troublesome. Somehow, I just happened to stand a certain way one day and it worked. While I'm standing behind the line and spending my 1 - 2 seconds to pick up the line, I have my right foot in front of my left and pointing almost right down the line, instead of next to each other as they normally would be. That way, when I pick up the line, as I step forward my back foot just rotates in place and my instep in still right on the line. In the event I'm a little more behind the shot, I can still slide directly down the line and then let my foot rotate the same way, from facing forward to perpendicular to the shot, as I step forward.
Definitely a great system, as you said it's not 100% about just aiming and pocketing balls, we all make mistakes, pick the wrong alignment, make a bad stroke, etc. But certainly much confidence is derived from the consistent preshot routine and treating every shot the same, and I find all of the adjustments to be a nice addition once you get past the initial complexity of remembering what to do when. It helped me to break it down by category based on what I picked up in the book, videos, and talking to Ekkes. I've also made some of my own personal discoveries, such as my stance, how I step in, and personal english lines, that are starting to make everything very automatic.
Scott
