The Eyes Have It
- Thread starter dquarasr
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Another way is to use a striped ball as the cue ball with the stripe vertical and exactly in line with the shot. The stripe wobbles visibly if you hit even slightly off center. Use it while shooting corner-to-corner stop, follow and draw shots (CB near corner pocket, OB on center spot).
pj
chgo
dquarasr
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Yessir, have done this hundreds of times. I’m confident that when I am relaxed my stroke is pretty straight imparting very little or no unintended side spin. This is something I’ve worked on now that I’m retired.
You guys with training balls:
These balls give you some feedback on how they were hit but if you need the ball, how are you are you supposed to set it in the first place? They need an alignment jig. Yes pool is that finicky.
These balls give you some feedback on how they were hit but if you need the ball, how are you are you supposed to set it in the first place? They need an alignment jig. Yes pool is that finicky.
The jig for using a striped ball is to lay your stick on the shot line with the butt raised enough to put the striped ball under it - you can see the stripe on both sides of the stick and it's easy to get it in line. Vertical is up to you...
pj
chgo
The guy sez what he is doing is working and you think getting in his head about center ball is going to help?
Reminds me of an old hustler trick.
Compliment the guy whose game is on a roll then ask him about his breathing when aiming and shooting.
Does he breath in on the backswing or hold his breath?
Does he breath out on his stroke?
Which do you do?
Horizontal too. Maybe it should be an eye training cube no ifs ands or buts.
Whenever that happens just look up with a straight face and say "I musta had a bad angle"
The Rempe Ball is easy to use accurately. Have you used one? It is really nice when checking your break shot also.
When they first came, out a room owner on a nearby table (his room) had drawn a group of his players to suss this ball out and the first thing that got his attention was the <draw line>. I showed him that you can actually lay the stick on the cloth and produce draw. He was unimpressed and countered with "but can you hit that line?" Needless to say, that satisfied my curiosity and I never got interested in it.
Like I said it will give you some feedback. The ball was mentioned here in the context of eye alignment and as such it requires a positioning jig - maybe even as complex as those optometrist rigs.
dquarasr
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Positioning jig? Seriously? How hard can it be to set up the ball with the circle facing you, aim the cue tip at a spot, hit the shot, and see where the chalk mark actually is?
I know right? But pool alignment is much more critical than just poking at a target. First, that target has to be integral to a shot which tends to compound the issue by a large factor. May seem trifling but those unseen, unresolved alignment errors are why we miss in the first place.
dquarasr
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Sorry, but I'm going to have to continue to disagree. In my scenario, I set up a) the spot-to-spot drill, or b) a spot-to-OB-on-the-spot drill, or c) a perfectly dead straight OB shot into a pocket. There's little skill involved in setting up any of these drills and it's quite easy to ensure it's DNO (Dead Nuts On).
Then I align the Rempe ball (either side with the impact circles), choose an impact point, and shoot the shot. Then I look at the CB chalk mark to see if I hit the intended impact point (in particular, I have trouble with draw: I invariably hit a few mm above where I aim, which affects my ability to draw strongly; I had a problem I have mostly corrected missing the vertical axis to the right, resulting in right spin on CB). I can determine alignment and stroke issues by the shot results: a) the CB rolls over the opposite spot, hits the cushion, and returns back to my cue tip, or doesn't; b) the CB strikes the OB, the OB bounces off the rail and either hits the CB again, or misses to one side or the other (even if it hits it, I can gauge the alignment and stroke by how "square" the OB impacts the CB); c) whether I pocket the OB in the center of the pocket, and whether the CB stops dead or rolls a wee bit to either side, with or without any spin.
I still don't see the need for a protracted and fussy way to line these shots up. I certainly don't see a need for a complicated jig.
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You know...there's a process involved in getting better. We improve in stages. You may not have the mechanical consistency to be able to fix certain tweaking-type issues at this time. Why not just let it go for now? When I work with players, I have to continue to allow them to make certain mechanical errors while we tackle bigger issues. You should try to do that with yourself too. Prioritize.
I think that more importantly, you should work on your ability to draw the cue ball since you say you have issues with that. A typical reason for players to hit the cb higher than they planned is a fear of damaging the cloth or miscueing under the ball so they subconsciously change the angle of attack of their cue during the stroke. Learn how to scrape the cloth with your tip in your follow-through and be comfortable with it.
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Like I said, it will give you some feedback. Like watching the ball - feedback. AFTER the fact. The idea of calibration is to have a consistent setup from which consistent technique can be built. This will enable you to "perfect" your shooting by showing you exactly what is wrong and what to adjust.
Shooting a shot is a system of the shot AND how a player sits in that equation. It's still funny to me that marked balls are marketed as eye training with no means of "correctly" locating the shooter.
Not to antagonize you or aggravate the issue but shooting problems/inconsistency are by and large the fault of the shooter. An alignment jig needn't be complicated. It does need to address stick/head/eye and body alignment. You can can rig something with some lumber and hand tools.
Yes. One reason our subconscious does that for us is that our stroke accuracy/consistency isn't good enough to try to hit the miscue limit without miscuing too often. Here's a pic I've posted before that illustrates what I mean - the groups of blue dots are where we hit the CB because of our inconsistent strokes; the red dots are where we aim to hit it.
The smaller "shot group" on the right is for a player with a more consistent stroke; the one on the left is for a player with a less consistent stroke. The player with the more consistent stroke can aim closer to the miscue limit without miscuing too often - the not-as-consistent player may try to aim close to the miscue limit, but his/her subconscious knows that's too risky, so it "steers" the stroke to a safer target.
pj
chgo
dquarasr
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Understood. But I think the biggest reason for my consistently hitting the CB higher than intended (and it's ALWAYS higher than I am aiming at) is because I drop my elbow. Drop the back of the cue, and the tip, on the other side of the bridge, necessarily swings up a bit.
But when I try to stroke directly THROUGH the impact point, I tend to get more draw. When I try a draw shot without dropping my elbow, I notice that even though the contact point is not necessarily really low, I tend to miscue. Using my "safe", smooth, relaxed stroke, I can draw the CB three or four diamonds on a shot where the OB is 3.5 diamonds away (9ft table). It comes back, but I never get that "delayed" spin, where the CB is seemingly sitting still for a fraction of a second before it accelerates backward like a Top Fuel dragster leaving on a green light. I on'y get a smooth backward motion.
I am only starting to get that reaction on follow shots.
It's a process. HAMB and experiment!
SVB would miscue with that tip. Chalk coverage is terrible.
Um maybe you should set the ball with a jig.
My take on the delayed draw is it's actually an airball even if imperceptibly so. All the super draw shots from the back rail have a big hop and then whatever residual decay is in there.