The way I see it, it's about efficiency. The more I know about the physics of what's happening, the faster I can learn and improve, and the quicker I can adapt to novel situations.
Obviously I still need to practice... I'm not a robot and there's a difference between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it correctly. It seems far better to me to let knowledge guide my practice than just try random things hoping to stumble upon the right answers.
I'm reminded of a conversation with an APA SL3 player on my team a couple of years ago who thought English was essential to making cut shots, but knew nothing about deflection, throw etc. She tended to aim things just wrong enough that those effects usually balanced out often enough to let her pocket some balls. Of course it also meant she got poor results any time she hit a ball softer or harder than her default speed, used a different cue, played on a bar table with a heavy cue ball or anything else.
Obviously I still need to practice... I'm not a robot and there's a difference between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it correctly. It seems far better to me to let knowledge guide my practice than just try random things hoping to stumble upon the right answers.
I'm reminded of a conversation with an APA SL3 player on my team a couple of years ago who thought English was essential to making cut shots, but knew nothing about deflection, throw etc. She tended to aim things just wrong enough that those effects usually balanced out often enough to let her pocket some balls. Of course it also meant she got poor results any time she hit a ball softer or harder than her default speed, used a different cue, played on a bar table with a heavy cue ball or anything else.