SightRight: Stunned by how good this is

Shuddy said:
Yeah, watching Williams this year, I could see him do the little shuffle in his preshot. I’m guessing this is from establishing that true center using the sightright system. But wow, his potting was out of this world this season.

Re. the price: If you do the monthly sub, the first month is 40 pounds and includes the pocket SighRight along with access to the online training resources. Subsequent months are 10 pounds to maintain access to the online resources. You could cancel after a month and ‘consume’ the resources within that time. I think for the ease of use, the feedback it provides, and the resources that go with it, it’s pretty good value.

Personally, I just gave them 90 pounds for lifetime access, partially to show my appreciation for making available resources they had for a long time made accessible only through a registered SightRight coach.
Click to expand...

What's a one-sentence summary of how it works? You use the alignment device to develop a habit to properly line up with your vision center each shot?
 
Shuddy said:
Yeah, watching Williams this year, I could see him do the little shuffle in his preshot. I’m guessing this is from establishing that true center using the sightright system. But wow, his potting was out of this world this season.

Re. the price: If you do the monthly sub, the first month is 40 pounds and includes the pocket SighRight along with access to the online training resources. Subsequent months are 10 pounds to maintain access to the online resources. You could cancel after a month and ‘consume’ the resources within that time. I think for the ease of use, the feedback it provides, and the resources that go with it, it’s pretty good value.

Personally, I just gave them 90 pounds for lifetime access, partially to show my appreciation for making available resources they had for a long time made accessible only through a registered SightRight coach.
Click to expand...

What's a one-sentence summary of how it works? You use the alignment device to develop a habit to properly line up with your vision center each shot?
 
The optimal lining-up being such a proven key ingredient also greatly reinforces the desirability of purposefully camcording your practice drills and ghost-play sessions. The feedback & dependable -- sometimes stunning -- enlightenment via the objective observer's (the camera) feedback is immeasurably rewarding. This electronic "coach" reliably shows you what you need to see, as a useful. cooperative adjunct to the time-tested mechanical devices being discussed.

Arnaldo
 
300-ball runner and renowned coach Alex Lely is also a proponent of this. I think he’s a certified SightRight instructor in fact.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bbb
garczar said:
Here's Beeler using the cloth edge to do basically the same thing:
Click to expand...
He’s talking about the same problem, and it’s a problem a lot of people have talked about for a long time. The trick is easily incorporating the solution into your game. Using the baulk line, rail, cloth edge have been diagnostic hacks for decades. Those methods are just not great for replicating your process on an actual shot.

The problem isn’t a revelation. But in terms of something that allows you to develop realistic muscle memory for your vision center, this little tool and the accompanying resources offer a vastly superior solution than rails or baulk lines.
 
Someone I know uses this tool. Adjustable height. Mobile. Recyclable.

Alignment tool.PNG
 
middleofnowhere said:
I don't know if this thing works but I'll tell you something from a zillion years of being in the pool room and a lot of those years sitting behind a counter watching amateurs and beginners play.

Players not being lined up on the shot is so prevalent, you can sit there and predict when they're going to miss. I've even seen it with experience players that for one reason or another they approached the shot and you can turn to the person next to you and say this guy's going to miss this shot.

You can just see the guy is not lined up on the shot from your vantage point and sure enough the guy misses. Sometimes I think the player doesn't see what he thinks he sees.

I remember a funny thing one time we are at a tournament and Steve mizerak was playing. He was shooting at a corner pocket right in our direction, and my wife says out of the corner of her mouth he's not even going to come close to this shot.

She says he doesn't even look like he's aiming at the pocket. Sure enough he hit the ball about 2 in into the rail from the corner pocket. And this was the great Steve mizerak.

A lot of lining up on a shot has to do with how you actually move around the table and approach the shot so that you end up in the right position every time.

I used to see this with Danny D all the time. He has kind of a stumbly type of walk like Groucho Marx and he would sometimes approach a shot come down on the shot and literally twist his body to get lined up.

I used to wonder how he was such a good player as he was sometimes the way he played.
Click to expand...
Sometimes great players align the hands on a different line than the stroke will travel. Yes, I said that.
 
Shuddy said:
Hey all!

I’ve been interested in the SightRight method for a while, particularly after hearing Mark Williams, Hendry, and co talk about it. I picked up the Pocket SightRight with access to the learning resources on their site. 5 minutes with this device makes me feel like I’ve been practicing long pots for 30 minutes. It’s not an aiming system or a gimmick. It won’t teach you how to cue, pot a ball, or play position. It simply helps you find your own personal center of vision. But man, is that a powerful thing.

Click to expand...
I'm always interested in pool gadgets. But can you tell me how this was an improvement over, say, using a couple of chalk cubes to narrow my approach to the cue ball?
 
kling&allen said:
Can you explain more on how you use this to train alignment?
Click to expand...
He would set it up CB Paper OB for a straight shot.

Initially, he would set up the paper with another sheet covering up the lower half. Then once he was down on the shot, his wife would pull away the covering paper and he would see if the line on the paper was straight, and if his cue was along the line.

But as he got used to it, he'd not cover the lower half. He could focus only on the two balls. He would line up for his shot and get down, and once he was down, he would look at the paper and see if the line was solid or had a break in it. Then he'd get back up. Align and get down again. And again. Until he was comfortable that getting the line while standing back looking at the balls, and the line after getting down was the same.

I always just used the line along the cushion or the baulk line.
 
BilliardsAbout said:
I'm always interested in pool gadgets. But can you tell me how this was an improvement over, say, using a couple of chalk cubes to narrow my approach to the cue ball?
Click to expand...
The tool is intended to help you find your vision centre by positioning yourself in such a way that you can see a straight, unbroken line. In snooker they teach that you should stand behind the shot with your head on the line of the shot. This tool is intended to help you understand exactly where your head (and body) should be positioned prior to the shot approach.

Once your are position properly, you are supposed to just drop straight down. Players who struggle with their vision centre are often trying to find the line while they are dropping into their stance.

The two cubes or chalk will show your the line and where your cue goes, but not where your head should be.
 
gerryf said:
He would set it up CB Paper OB for a straight shot.

Initially, he would set up the paper with another sheet covering up the lower half. Then once he was down on the shot, his wife would pull away the covering paper and he would see if the line on the paper was straight, and if his cue was along the line.

But as he got used to it, he'd not cover the lower half. He could focus only on the two balls. He would line up for his shot and get down, and once he was down, he would look at the paper and see if the line was solid or had a break in it. Then he'd get back up. Align and get down again. And again. Until he was comfortable that getting the line while standing back looking at the balls, and the line after getting down was the same.

I always just used the line along the cushion or the baulk line.
Click to expand...
Also should add, that he got into this when he realized that his process for 'getting down' when his bridge hand went to the rail was different (and crooked) when compared to getting down when his bridge hand went onto the bed of the table.
 
Last edited:
I had a habit for the longest time of always hitting the right of center even though it looked like I was hitting center ball.

Turns out I was stepping inwards too much with my front foot as I would get into my stance. This caused my body to over-rotate and the tip ending up right of center.

I was able to fix the issue by stepping out and forward. Into more of a square stance.
 
Steve Feeney invented SightRight for darts (only after the concept and the product spread to snooker also). The original SightRight might give better understanding of how this is supposed to work
.

I've known a guy who used sort of a Yellow Pages volume to create a similar device (the main idea is a) to break the line, keeping it in different levels b) be able to cover the lower part so that the line continues at the upper level as if it is a single unbroken line). The example with a sheet of paper shown above is easier to create and to carry :) Even though it is not as 'genuine' as a DIY from a thick volume.
 
gerryf said:
Someone I know uses this tool. Adjustable height. Mobile. Recyclable.

View attachment 645637
Click to expand...
That’s so obvious, I feel idiotic for not having thought of it myself 😂

However, I really do think the resources make up the majority of the value. For example, below is a screenshot of one of the course pages. The initial SightRight program has 15 sessions. Each session has multiple videos ranging from 3 to 15 minutes.
C428FAB1-3CCE-47AC-9CC1-0E43FD606420.jpeg
 
The brain can adapt to misalignment, for example:


I used the paper with the line, and got into my stance, and the paper indicated that my head needed to move to the right. I'm right handed, and I've done one of those vision center tests, and my vision center is about at my left eye. So, I took the paper off the table, got down on my shot, then moved my head further to the right. That doesn't look straight to me. I assume my brain has adapted to my head being too far to the left.

Ordinarily, it seems that I must line up my shot with the cue just to the left of my nose. What advantage is there to retrain my brain to recognize that lining up with the cue under my left eye is straight?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top