I've been working a lot with the Bullseye Billiards drill for CB control. Found early on there were a few I struggled with. At first, I thought it had to be something wrong in the set up, I wasn't even close. But I thought it had to be me and kept working at it. Finally figured out it was stroke related (surprise huh?). It wasn't gross but I figured out on some shots where I'm shooting from the right side of the table where the table slightly gets in the way of my body, I was drawing the cue back out of alignment and ever so slightly applying a slight amount of inside English. Changed the CB path after the hit substantially.
This was an unintended benefit of this drill tool, that is, it tells you about your stroke. Being an amateur, it made me consider whether I'd be better off planning CB placement counting on a perfectly straight stroke, and being able to precisely hit the CB where I need to, or would it be more sensible to intentionally try to apply a slight amount of inside or outside English? The reality is, playing almost all bar box competitively, I don't often have to have perfectly precise CB placement. But when you're planning on the CB coming off in one direction and inadvertently apply English to where it goes completely in another direction, it can be disastrous.
To put this in perspective, I only play masters league now so I don't know my exact rating. I'd say I'm a lower 7 in 8 and a medium 8 in 9 ball. So I'm not a complete hack but suck compared to a real player. I practice stroke a fair amount but am realistic, I'm never going to have a pro stroke. So should I accept the limitations and try to account for stroke errors? And if so, what recommendations do you have for doing so?
This was an unintended benefit of this drill tool, that is, it tells you about your stroke. Being an amateur, it made me consider whether I'd be better off planning CB placement counting on a perfectly straight stroke, and being able to precisely hit the CB where I need to, or would it be more sensible to intentionally try to apply a slight amount of inside or outside English? The reality is, playing almost all bar box competitively, I don't often have to have perfectly precise CB placement. But when you're planning on the CB coming off in one direction and inadvertently apply English to where it goes completely in another direction, it can be disastrous.
To put this in perspective, I only play masters league now so I don't know my exact rating. I'd say I'm a lower 7 in 8 and a medium 8 in 9 ball. So I'm not a complete hack but suck compared to a real player. I practice stroke a fair amount but am realistic, I'm never going to have a pro stroke. So should I accept the limitations and try to account for stroke errors? And if so, what recommendations do you have for doing so?