this statement made me stop and think

[markjames]

reading advice from a well known pro,
i won’t mention the name,
they quoted “one of the best instructors,”
i don’t know who that was-

One of the best instructors in the country once told me, "If you've been playing more than 5 years, your aim is as good as anyone on the planet. Efren's not going to out aim you, he's going to out shoot you."

interesting?
too simple?
what do you think?
i’m still thinking about it

 

[Bob Jewett]

I think that if someone has been playing seriously for five years, like gotten up to 600 speed or higher, their aim is probably mostly set. It's possible that they still have problems with a few shots with particular speeds and spins. I think Efren could aim a lot of those rarer shots better than his opponents.

 

[Sheldon]

"Aim" is mostly done with the subconscious since there's not a lot of physical references that you can use to be accurate enough to pull off tricky shots.
It's like shooting a bow without sights on it, you have reference points (tip of the arrow), but none of it lines up perfectly with the eye(s) so there's a certain amount of guesswork involved in every shot. The best shooters talk about "becoming the arrow" which just means they can picture it in flight and have shot so many times they know where it's going to be. Same thing with pool, think about the times you've simply "seen" a very tough shot, dropped down and executed it perfectly without any conscious thought. That's the power of repetition and your subconscious and muscle memory. No amount of aim or any system will ever be that accurate.
Some people are just better at this than others. I believe 5 years is not enough to aim as well as someone that's been playing for 30.
I've seen people that have played for just a year or two "aim" better than people playing for 10 times longer, too.

 

[Oikawa]

Your aim, over time, grows to be as strong as your technique's repeatibility allows it to be. Noise hurts learning. Amount and quality of practice, talent, eyesight, aiming method and many more things play a role too, but the preciseness & repeatibility of your technique is the biggest factor over the long time as for how well your subconscious aiming skills develop.

 

[boogieman]

I believe that spacial awareness has a large part in aiming. What your eyes see isn't everything, though that's huge. Some shots are rife with optical illusions/distortions. Knowing how to deal with that and trust what you're seeing is crucial, and sometimes this takes an awful lot of table time. Some shots require techniques to minimize such illusions, especially when they look weird. You know those shots that look odd so you adjust at the table (bad habit) then end up missing by the amount you adjusted? Those.

At some point the visual data morphs into spacial awareness. Add in touch or feel and shots becomes the ones you can't miss. The ones you cant miss are more frequent when your fundamentals allow you to come down on line with the shot. Basically when you transition into the shot it's already a given. You can look at OB last, CB last, the pocket, a fly on the wall, a ghost table, or even close your eyes and the shot goes. If one thing is off though you may miss, especially if you're still refining your fundamentals.

It takes time to learn how to aim different shots. There can be a lot of visual trickery involved and I think we all see shots differently and somewhat use different methods to make them.

I'm probably not explaining this as well as it could be explained but it's tough to put into words. At some point your subconscious has enough data and training to make the shot. Sometimes you have to be very mechanical until you learn certain shots. Once you learn them though I feel that you should just let the shots happen rather than try to dominate it through calculations and such. At some point I think it's conducive to let the subconscious do the work and not second guess it. When shooting you will do best with a clear head and not in calculation mode.

 

[BilliardsAbout]

reading advice from a well known pro,
i won’t mention the name,
they quoted “one of the best instructors,”
i don’t know who that was-

One of the best instructors in the country once told me, "If you've been playing more than 5 years, your aim is as good as anyone on the planet. Efren's not going to out aim you, he's going to out shoot you."

interesting?
too simple?
what do you think?
i’m still thinking about it

It is a vast oversimplification to say that aiming in pool is easy. In reality, many experienced players still struggle with proper aiming and execution:

1) I've encountered players who have been playing for 25 years or longer and still have trouble aiming correctly, for example, cheating the pocket for most shots and avoiding pocket center.

2) There are also players who don't have a clear understanding of where "center pocket" is. For instance, they aim at the back of the pocket drop instead of midway between the pocket points.

3) Some players consistently cut shots incorrectly and then try to compensate with excessive spin or speed, etc.

4) Others may unknowingly aim off and adjust their stroke subconsciously to compensate for the inaccurate aim.

5) There are those who aim the cut angles correctly but struggle to confirm the correct aim for the cue tip on the cue ball.

That's the first five items I can think of right now.

 

[Zerksies]

I've definately been playing for more then 5 years.

Over the weekend I had a thought as to where am i looking at the OB when i aim. Am i looking high or low on the OB as my contact point. If you are looking higher or lower on the ball the aiming point shifts slightly and can lead to a missed shot.

I've been playing long enough that in my head it knows where to aim, But on tougher shots looking at the center aiming point on the OB helped for me.

 

[JoeyInCali]

reading advice from a well known pro,
i won’t mention the name,
they quoted “one of the best instructors,”
i don’t know who that was-

One of the best instructors in the country once told me, "If you've been playing more than 5 years, your aim is as good as anyone on the planet. Efren's not going to out aim you, he's going to out shoot you."

interesting?
too simple?
what do you think?
i’m still thinking about it

Not true.
Efren will out aim you.
Efren has a better visual of what happens upon collision than you.
He will know how to compensate for throw and deflection much more than you can.