Straight In Shots

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i was working on some stright in draw shots last night, and i was following some of Mark Wilson's advice he gave me during the lesson i took 18 months ago.

i was using the Rempe training ball, making sure i was hitting the cue ball right where i wanted. at first i missed some shots, but upon examination of the cue ball i noticed i was hitting it right where i wanted. therefore, the Mr. Spock in me says that you must not be lining the shot up properly. so, based upon when and how i had missed, i adjusted my aim/alignment just slightly, and started to make the majority of these shots.

here is my question for you posters:
i noticed that it looked like i wasnt quite aligned straight, that where i was aiming and aligned was off to the left side just ever, ever so slightly. teeny tiny slightly. but yet i was making the shot, and drawing the Rempe ball straight back.

any of you posters ever experience this? your eyes/mind tell you that you are not aligned, but yet thats when you make the shot. or perhaps you are aligned, and your eyes are deceiving you?

thoughts?
DCP

p.s. once again, no insults, jokes, etc, serious replies only, thank you.
 
Is your head straight when shooting, or is it titled to either side? Look in a mirror and find out.
 
I find when a aim a straight in shot, i have to aim at a slight angle because of my eye dominance. It sounds like the same thing. If you close one eye it will probably look straight, if you close the other eye it will probably seem slightly off.
 
I have noticed something similar. A few weeks ago, I started spending the first 15-30 minutes of my practice time shooting long table length shots (setup is like Bert’s mighty X / the straight in exercise in Joe Tucker’s book. I shoot stop, draw, and follow shots. My goal with these is to really focus on stroke and hitting the object ball exactly where I want. For example, with a bit of follow, the cue ball should follow the object ball right into the pocket. For follow, I keep at the drill until I manage to follow 10 balls into the pocket (note, not 10 in a row). I make the object ball about 90% of the time. My rate for following the cue ball in ranges greatly. Some days I can do it 40-50% of the time, some days I am lucky to do it 10% of the time.

I really don’t have any good advice to offer on this, obviously I don’t have it mastered either. The only thing I can add is to track your results and see if there is much of a variance over different days. I started keeping a record of these shots when I got Joe Tuckers Guaranteed Improvement book. For his exercise, you shoot 25 of these straight in shots and count the number of successes. Looking over the last week, I have a high of 24/25 and a low of 17/25, average of 22.

Do you notice any difference with the speed of you stroke? For me, my stroke breaks down pretty badly with any shots harder than about lag speed. I inadvertently put a touch of English on the ball and will miss shots. To work on this, I am hitting the straight in practice shots a bit hard than is comfortable.
 
Alignment is NUMERO UNO. If you point a rifle (or your stroke) in the wrong direction, you will not hit the target. You can learn accurate alignment, by using a Video Camera, a coach & feedback from your shot results.

Repeating good alignment is difficult. You will have to learn to see that "new picture" in your mind. Good Luck.
 
this WEI diagram illustrates what i am talking about, sure hope the cue ball shows up.

its pretty much a straight in shot on the '3' Ball, and notice the green line/arrow. it represents the cue, which if you look very close is pointed slightly to the left. this is what it looks like to me when i stand over the shot, yet i was making the shots and drawing straight back last night.

DCP

CueTable Help

 
You will have to learn to see that "new picture" in your mind.

If you can sight the shot line (ability to see the object ball, cue ball & pocket are in line) & your cue doesn't look to be online, but you still make the shot, Your mental picture may be causing you grief or you may be crossing the shot line with a crooked stroke.

A Video Camera is your best bet.

Good Luck.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
this WEI diagram illustrates what i am talking about, sure hope the cue ball shows up.

its pretty much a straight in shot on the '3' Ball, and notice the green line/arrow. it represents the cue, which if you look very close is pointed slightly to the left. this is what it looks like to me when i stand over the shot, yet i was making the shots and drawing straight back last night.

DCP

CueTable Help

Click to expand...

DCP (or is it OCD?),

Like most of your posts, you already know the answer. In this situ, just like your others, you need to check your fundamentals and PRACTICE it over and over (not 8 or 10 times). In case you haven't figured it out, there is a big difference between knowing a shot on paper/talking about it and actually being able to execute it consistently. If you wanna improve, there are no shortcuts.

Well, maybe one shortcut...





CueTable Help




Eric
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
i noticed that it looked like i wasnt quite aligned straight, that where i was aiming and aligned was off to the left side just ever, ever so slightly. teeny tiny slightly. but yet i was making the shot, and drawing the Rempe ball straight back.

any of you posters ever experience this? your eyes/mind tell you that you are not aligned, but yet thats when you make the shot. or perhaps you are aligned, and your eyes are deceiving you?
Click to expand...

Possible explanations:

1. Your eyes are not deceiving you. You are misinterpreting what they show you. The shot is aligned, but you are wrongly concluding that it isn't. Change your mind; what looks "off to the left side just ever, ever so slightly" is dead-on.

2. Your alignment is off, and so is your stroke in exactly the opposite direction.

Either way, I would simply convince myself that what I'm seeing when the shot works is the correct alignment.
 
Yep, I have this problem too. With me it's a case of hitting just off-center on the cueball, which tosses the object ball enough to miss. I always mis-hit on the right side of the cueball. I work on hitting dead center with a drill that is basicly a lag shot : CB on the foot spot, shoot dead center straight up table, if the cueball does not come straight back to the footspot after hitting the middle diamond on the opposite short rail, then I've missed the center of the cueball. I need to do this regularly to control my unintended siding problem.

Another trick I use for dead straight shots is to imagine my follow-through such that the tip travels directly toward the middle of the target pocket. In fact I often end up looking at the middle of the pocket instead of the middle of the object ball on these dead straight shots, but I may be a bit unusual in this regard.

Dave
 
straight in shots, what i do is aim left edge of cueball to left edge objectball vice versa for right edge's.
 
TheConArtist said:
straight in shots, what i do is aim left edge of cueball to left edge object ball vice versa for right edge's.
Click to expand...

Do you aim twice (left edge and right edge) or just choose one edge per shot? If the latter, which edge under what circumstances?

Also, it seems to me that perspective would make the OB appear smaller than the CB. Therefor, the OB's left edge would appear to be to the right of the CB's edge, and you would line them up on an angle rather than straight ahead.

Seems simpler to aim through the center of both balls on a straight-in shot. But my mental whiteboard isn't working real well at this moment.
 
Dhakala said:
Do you aim twice (left edge and right edge) or just choose one edge per shot? If the latter, which edge under what circumstances?

Also, it seems to me that perspective would make the OB appear smaller than the CB. Therefor, the OB's left edge would appear to be to the right of the CB's edge, and you would line them up on an angle rather than straight ahead.

Seems simpler to aim through the center of both balls on a straight-in shot. But my mental whiteboard isn't working real well at this moment.
Click to expand...

I aim both edges when the shot is straight in. I should of stated it works for me, it sorta gives me a double aiming reference points, i could aim the center of cueball to center objectball then aim the edges, giving me a third reference.

Another trick i tend to do, is i aim the center of the edge and center of the cueball that little spot to the edges of the object ball, in the picture is the spot i am talking about. I aim these spots at the edges as sometimes i can see and focus on these spots more easier and better then the edges of the cueball

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/TheConArtist_2006/threefourths.jpg
 
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for long straight in shots i try not to aim too much. my first alignment is right most of the time, if i try to compensate for something i usually miss. an interesting thing is that i can make long straight ins with a very high frequency with my eyes closed during the shot.
 
Dr. Cue'sProtege,
Take some advice. I agree with some of the above about the dominant eye thing. I have bad eyes and know how it feels. You have to get your head positioned one way or the other to where it does look straight. Conclusion: you have an eye out of wack
Answer: make it look straight one way or the other
A thought: I could be wrong.
 
Masayoshi said:
for long straight in shots i try not to aim too much. my first alignment is right most of the time, if i try to compensate for something i usually miss. an interesting thing is that i can make long straight ins with a very high frequency with my eyes closed during the shot.
Click to expand...

That is so true, just like when i make a mistake and miss is because i change my mind on the shot. Then i always say to myself i should of stuck with my first choice :D. I like to take time aiming though, as i find when i take my time to make shure i am aimed up i pocket the ball. The whole aiming edges to the edges on the objectball really is helpful for me, especially on the break shot, i see some people just put as much power into there break and not hit the rack square. But if they aimed the edges and made shure they hit that baby square with that power, there can produce alot more break and run outs.
 
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