just go easy on your claims about the system is all ok :thumbup:
I've been meaning to add to the CTE treads on AZ for as long as Stan has had his DVD out but never felt it was apropriate because one week, or two weeks or even two months was to early to tell. Now more than a year later a can say the following:
I have been playing for 9 years and would probaly be an APA 7 or a BCA 10 but still found my game to be inconsistent, I would fail some 9-ball run-outs on medium dificulty pots or even very easy pots. If I play a PRO player in 9-Ball in a tournament, the race would be 11-7. I could possibly win only when playing well and pro having a bad roll here or there with this handicap.
I bought the PRO One DVD last year. I stayed with the mechanical CTE for the full year on and off. At first it was really amaizing to pot all these balls with CTE in practice, I just fell apart in game play and always fell back to previous aiming method(s).
It is true that the system works incredibly well and it teaches you repeatable mechanics that deliver consistently. But the results are only as good as the player's coordination. The more you keep at it the better you get with it. With regards to mechnical CTE in th end I would mostly use it when under presure (winning ball is a long straight in shot or blind reverse cuts) my percentage with those dificult "hot times" shot definately improved maybe doubled. Again it was not perfect, because I was not doing it perfectly or consistently.
When the question arises about how much your game has improved using CTE (how many tournaments have you won???). That's to some degree a very naive question. CTE helps you allign perfectly and gives you a visual reference so that if you can stroke relatively straight you will make the ball in the centre of the pocket. It does nothing for your speed control or cue ball control, angles, quality of your break spead/control, your perfect mechanics under presure and all the other strategy/knowledge varibles that help you be a top level player.
Two days ago I felt redy to move to PRO One (I have a 9 foot Dimond PRO in my house) and only after one year of experimenting with mechanical CTE was I really ready to receive the PRO One information. From reding the many CTE treads possibly too many players expect this to be fully absorbed in two days and if they are not US OPEN championship material the following week then Stan's DVD must be BS. In my opinion, not the case. PRO ONE is much more fluid, much more suited to transition from practice to competition. It's early but promissing. My previous high runs had been 5 racks of 15 balls in a row (2 times only ever). I got to the 5 racks run a few time in the last 2 days so... it makes me feel very positive about the transistion to PRO ONE. I'll practice for a few more weeks/months and then take it in competition see how I fare versus past experience. One of the markers for me will be something like: Even when I won matches in the past, they awere always grinds, or a bit lucky or I would have a 6 game lead when geting to the hill to finally close the match hill-hill. So any improvment in confidence, consistency, placing better etc... I will be able to atribute to PRO One.
If you don't beleive in it, it's because you don't know it, or you're so good you don't need it.
