Seeing the contact point on the object ball.

[straightline]

I've never used contact point aiming systems but keeping track of the contact point can be done by not taking your eyes off of it while walking back to the CB, getting down and shooting. Although I've done it that way I am able to recognize the contact point after looking away from it when I go back and get down on the shot. It seems to be some sort of mental/visual persistence that developed after months of shooting 8 hrs a day when I was first learning. I do stare at the contact point when standing on the cut line some times but don't pay any attention to any markings on the OB, and I often don't go to the cut line - I just walk over to the CB, get down on the shot and look at the OB, see the contact point and cut it in. It is kinda automatic. I've been able to teach it to a couple students, telling them they just need to learn to visualize it.

It's often useful to walk over to the object ball to check clearances. I do it with long thin ones where a few degrees error becomes the wrong shot. Players usually opt to miss these deliberately by over cutting them. Different priorities.
Anyway, arming yourself with the image of <the object ball orientation> and <the angle through the desired aperture>, is big in the process.

 

[bbb]

I just look and and say if i hit it there it will go over there,,,,`

 

[lfigueroa]

I guess I'm the only one who approaches the table, gets down into shooting position and makes minor bridge adjustments before shooting the shot -- it's all baked in in the approach to the shot.

No contact point or protractors, etc.

Lou Figueroa
see the shot
be the shot

 

[bbb]

I guess I'm the only one who approaches the table, gets down into shooting position and makes minor bridge adjustments before shooting the shot -- it's all baked in in the approach to the shot.

No contact point or protractors, etc.

Lou Figueroa
see the shot
be the shot

How do you know what to aim at?

 

[maha]

i do the same thing. i look at the spot to hit and just get down on the line and aim for that spot. if it doesn't look right fiddle around till i got it .

how else would someone do it.

 

[straightline]

I just look and and say if i hit it there it will go over there,,,,`

That was easily my first 4, 5 years. I was better though; I didn't have to say.

The problem was consistency. Hence all the lines; not the least of which is parallel lines out to infinity. The lines aren't subject to the influencers. If they do start to curve, you're in over your head.

 

[straightline]

How do you know what to aim at?

Holgraphic sense. Golfers prolly have it along with all encompassing egos. Shots will always sit the same in your awareness. They become a language and just are. Cosmic Transversal Existentialism without the book and silly instructions.

In my not so humble thinkage.

 

[jasonlaus]

I guess I'm the only one who approaches the table, gets down into shooting position and makes minor bridge adjustments before shooting the shot -- it's all baked in in the approach to the shot.

No contact point or protractors, etc.

Lou Figueroa
see the shot
be the shot

I never make an adjustment down on the shot, I'll stand back up, adjust, then down on the shot again

 

[Island Drive]

Hello, for those of you who use contact point aiming systems, where you first find the contact point on the object ball
by drawing a line from the pocket through the object ball, here is my question.
Let's say you have a long shot , and the object ball is a solid color. You step away from the object ball, after finding the contact point, and head
back to the cue ball which is say - 4 diamonds away. How do you keep track of that contact point on the object ball with your eyes? Thank you.

To play better & improve through practice and competition, you have to develop a Feel relationship of the cb ball striking the obj ball.
You must choose what cueing and cb speed you'll need before your down & done... you must be looking at the obj. ball being contacted by the cue ball last to mentally record this muscle/memory ''feel'' of speed and cut angle thru your mistakes.
It's a development of the feel of the shot thru repetition of walking up/getting down with cb speed & contact area already in place, then looking up to ck.... your relationship between the cb and obj ball.... then shoot the shot & learn from your undercutting or overcutting and misses.
Development of muscle memory from mistakes will make you a better player.
If you get upset when you miss, then the man in the mirror is Your problem.
bm

 

[lfigueroa]

How do you know what to aim at?

I aim at the OB.

Put another way I see the shot -- OB, CB, pocket or rail -- as an organic whole. To me it's no different than tossing a basket ball into the hoop.

Lou Figueroa

 

[lfigueroa]

I never make an adjustment down on the shot, I'll stand back up, adjust, then down on the shot again

I'm speaking of very tiny micro adjustments.

No need to stand up.

Lou Figueroa

 

[Chicagoplayer]

Hello, for those of you who use contact point aiming systems, where you first find the contact point on the object ball
by drawing a line from the pocket through the object ball, here is my question.
Let's say you have a long shot , and the object ball is a solid color. You step away from the object ball, after finding the contact point, and head
back to the cue ball which is say - 4 diamonds away. How do you keep track of that contact point on the object ball with your eyes? Thank you.

Pool author of 11 books, Phil Capelle has discussed this at length in Billiard Buzz here on AZB

Billiards Buzz - AZBILLIARDS.COM

The A to Z of Pool and Billiards Online

www.azbilliards.com

 

[Island Drive]

Contact point aiming gives shooter the area to hit, not the exact spot, unless its dead straight in.
Cut shots have cb speed, spin, squirt, cleanliness of the balls and the cloth effecting the shot outcome.
The contact point is not fixed on cut shots.

 

[straightline]

Contact point aiming gives shooter the area to hit, not the exact spot, unless its dead straight in.
Cut shots have cb speed, spin, squirt, cleanliness of the balls and the cloth effecting the shot outcome.
The contact point is not fixed on cut shots.

I don't aim the points. The dots are permanently connected in math space. They shows me the stick line and the stick angle relative to the cue ball. Once you have the stick angle you run it through center ball.

 

[Island Drive]

Straightline....
Then do you understand why you miss when you hit the Exact contact point on any cut shot?

 

[straightline]

Straightline....
Then do you understand why you miss when you hit the Exact contact point on any cut shot?

Probably. I don't quite get the question. I don't shoot the contact points. I take the angle and parallel to center ball then backhand any english I might need. My formative practice was done without CPG so I do have a strong sense of what's on. CPG just insures I'm centered in it. As proof to myself I shoot CBL.
Misses, forced or not, are due to human error. Distraction, carelessness, fatigue, etc...