Stroking Straight / Dominant Eye

In teaching for the past 30 years, it has become more evident that the cue tip moving off line is far more likely to be involved with grip pressure, than where your eyes are positioned over the cue. Your cue should be positioned where you perceive a straight line, whether it is under your 'dominant eye' or not. With a pendulum swing (with no elbow drop), your elbow is a hinge that moves in a dead straight line. The only problems that can create a nonlinear delivery of the cuetip are grip pressure (too much), or over flexing the bicep.
Keep it simple folks.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Hi Scott I was wondering if practicing shooting with the opposite hand would help in the perception and strengthen the less dominate eye. This is something I do and believe it has improved my overall game. Your thoughts ?
 
tell me about it! for 15 years I assumed I was right eye dominant and tried to get the cue under my right eye. Was shown about a year ago that I WAS LEFT!!! Talk about a world altering message! I tried to fix it and couldn't figure it out, once I gave up, stopped trying to consciously control my aim and trusted to leave that to the auto pilot and just feel the shot I was great.


I just watched your straight pool video, and it looked as though you closed one eye when setting up the shot, but I can't tell for sure. Is that what you are doing?
 
This thread has been simmering for a while, and the obvious question has not yet been asked. So, acknowledging that I may soon regret it, I will do so:

If you have been having eye dominance problems that would presumably alter your perception of straight lines and selection of offset distances, how could CTE possibly be working with this erroneous visual input?
 
This thread has been simmering for a while, and the obvious question has not yet been asked. So, acknowledging that I may soon regret it, I will do so:

If you have been having eye dominance problems that would presumably alter your perception of straight lines and selection of offset distances, how could CTE possibly be working with this erroneous visual input?

Well, the best way to answer your question is to remove CTE with "aiming" because eye dominance issues have nothing to do with CTE as a system. Meaning, the same issue applies to sighting the base of a ghost ball. If you have a really strong dominant eye and sight the ghost ball with that eye but use the other eye while over the CB-- there's a disconnect. Conversely, when I sight the CTEL while cutting to the right, I've always made sure the the right CB edge to OB center ran slightly upper-left to lower-right in my field of vision as opposed to straight up/down.

My strong side is to my left--- and my weak is to my right. So, after missing shots in the exact same way to the right over a period of years, I've learned to setup differently for right cuts (because I was aligning with my vision center - see above).

I was taking the majority of the input from my right eye when aligning my body and then after stepping into the shot I was sighting with my left eye. Within recent months, I've been using my left eye for aligning my body (keeping the CB edge to OB center - straight up/down) as well and I've found that my right cuts have improved greatly.

Offset distances are never affected - that wouldn't change regardless if you have dominance issues or not. For me, it's always 1/2 ball. The only things that are affected is one's perception of where the center of the CB is and how to align properly.
 
That's 100% correct...............

I'm right handed and send my cue to the right when I finish my stroke which puts unneeded right spin on the CB. I visited Stan Shuffett and he pointed out that I favor my left eye even though I'm right eye dominant. In practice I try to aim with my dominant eye, but I miss because I setup naturally with my left eye to aim shots. I have an actual mental battle and even find myself closing one eye so the other eye can aim. I feel like a schizophrenic trying to aim my shot! My stroke straightens out as I move to the other eye to aim.

Maybe Freddie's right and I should just let my eyes do what they want. It's a pisser when you're running out and dog an easy shot because the other eye wants a piece of the action. I never used to tell opponents about my problem, but I think I might start letting it be known. That way I can get more weight. ;)

The minute you have your head shifted a little bit the wrong way your non-dominant eye is trying to work as the dominant one a little bit. When this happens it appears the shot still looks right but it isn't.

That's what Perfect Aim is all about. Learning how to keep the dominant eye dominant and not letting the other eye work as dominant at all. Once you can master this every shot will look good. You will never get down and not see the shot. it will always look good. Just like lining up the sights on a rifle.

it's just the way it is..........
 
I just watched your straight pool video, and it looked as though you closed one eye when setting up the shot, but I can't tell for sure. Is that what you are doing?

not on most of my shots that I'm aware of, when I can barely tell if the ball will pass by another I'll close my left eye, which wouldn't make sense if I was left eye dominate would it?
 
Your right.

I have a friend that has one eye and he shoots lights out.

Andy Scott another good shooter, closes one eye on all shots.

All other things considered, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king?:smile:

the one eyed wonders in this pool world have a huge advantage over us mere mortals. They don't have both eyes fighting over which one is going to aim the shot.
 
not on most of my shots that I'm aware of, when I can barely tell if the ball will pass by another I'll close my left eye, which wouldn't make sense if I was left eye dominate would it?

That all depends. Whichever eye you close forces the other to be dominant.
 
The minute you have your head shifted a little bit the wrong way your non-dominant eye is trying to work as the dominant one a little bit. When this happens it appears the shot still looks right but it isn't.

That's what Perfect Aim is all about. Learning how to keep the dominant eye dominant and not letting the other eye work as dominant at all. Once you can master this every shot will look good. You will never get down and not see the shot. it will always look good. Just like lining up the sights on a rifle.

it's just the way it is..........

I have always lined up under my left eye. It's not my dominant eye, but that's how I aim. In your video you never really said where the cutoff is for your dominant eye when you are cutting a ball using your other eye. For me that would be to the left. Or do I only worry about the thinner cuts?

With CTE, 90/90 and other pivot systems :eek: you use both eyes to aim. Sometimes at the same time for perspective. It solves my problems when I have to aim with one eye or the other. No guessing.
 
There is no guessing with Perfect aim.....

I have always lined up under my left eye. It's not my dominant eye, but that's how I aim. In your video you never really said where the cutoff is for your dominant eye when you are cutting a ball using your other eye. For me that would be to the left. Or do I only worry about the thinner cuts?

With CTE, 90/90 and other pivot systems :eek: you use both eyes to aim. Sometimes at the same time for perspective. It solves my problems when I have to aim with one eye or the other. No guessing.

If you don't understand the video and it sounds like you don't please call me and I will help you. There is no guessing with Perfect aim at all. To the right or the left.

715-563-8712 anytime geno.............

If you line up under your left eye with the cue you are left eye dominant. There are many players that pass all the standard tests that say they are right eyed dominant but when they get down on the cue they find out they are left eyed or vise-versa. This is why I use the bigger balls in my lessons. I have yet to not find a players true dominant eye.

After I find it I show them how to position the other eye to make it dominant so they can see the difference. It won't look as good but you can see the shot making your non-dominant eye dominant.
This way the player can make his own choice about which way looks better.

Do give me a call so I can help you.
 
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Eye strength

Geno,

My biggest problem is that my left eye is stronger than my right eye and after playing for a while it tries to take over my aiming. I understood your video and was impressed with the amount of good info you put in it. It helped me to understand what was happening to my aiming and why I would dog easy shots.

I didn't word my question very well and perhaps the answer would be better said in a phone call. I was just wondering if eye dominance can change over the years as one eye becomes stronger than the other or is this not possible? Could a player have a dominant eye that is not strongly a dominant eye and because of factors such as age have the body use the other stronger eye become the aiming eye? I know some players center the cue between their eyes which is probably the case for the weaker dominant eye.

I use my dominant eye now, but I really have to concentrate on keeping the other eye out of the process. I've tried to switch eyes for aiming just to see what would happen and with a little concentration I can get it to work. It's mentally exhausting and not worth the effort over the long haul.

When I use my dominant eye my stroke is very straight. With the other eye I twist and steer most shots. It's my brain's way of telling me something is wrong. I realized this about a month ago while driving shots into the rail. I lined up and discovered that I wasn't using my dominant eye on some shots. Resetting the shot I hit dead center pocket with no steering or popping up. I guess I'll have to pay a little closer attention to something I've always taken for granted.

Best,
Mike
 
Not really......

Tony Robles noticed that I put a little right english on the cueball going up and down the table. I am very right eyed dominant and I think I hold the cue in the middle of my eyes.

Tony said that a lot of Puerto Ricans had this problem, at least the ones he knew, and that he didn't know why.

So, Tony said that what I had to do was practice going up and down the table and at first, make a conscious adjustment to move the cue slightly to the left. So when I notice myself during this in practice, I stop and do the up and down the table thing. This indeed straightens out my stroke.

A drill I use to tell if you are lined up properly is to set an object ball in the exact middle of the table and the cueball in the jaws of a corner pocket. A straight shooter can shoot the object ball into the opposite corner and follow it in with the cueball. If I do this drill for 15 minutes then I get better at it.

Lining your eyes up properly is one of the toughest things to do IMHO.

You just need to know how. Once you know how to do it is fairly simple.
 
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