Video Update (9 Ball)

Only watched a couple of racks but there is one noticeable bad habit that may be impacting your game.

When you get down on the shot, you lift your head slightly to sight the OB then lower it to the CB and then raise it back to the OB before lowering it again.

This happens at least two times on every shot and sometimes three. The longer the shot, the more noticeable the head movement.

You obviously use a sighting approach where your eyes go back and forth between the CB and OB several times to establish alignment. This is not unusual but most players learn to simply move their eyes as opposed to raising their head. All this unnecessary movement may be negatively impacting your final pre-shot alignment.

You may wish to explore the "quiet eye" concept or stick with your current approach but remove the excessive head movements.

Not sure if it will help but I do know.....it can't hurt.
 
Not sure, but I noticed something in your alignment. Your PSR is typical for a guy who's right eye dominant. You keep your entire body to the left of the shot while you're standing up and aiming. As you get down, you turn your body and head where you end up with your left eye over the shot line.

If you're truly left eye dominant, you should be standing to the right of the shot line. You're looking across the shot instead of down the shot line. It becomes really easy to miss simple shots like this and scratch your head.

A permanent fix is to get on the correct side of the shot line, like I said above, when you know your dominant eye. If you're left eye dominant, turning down into the shot is going to place your left eye where it should be over the cue stick.

If you're right eye dominant, instead of turning down and twisting into the shot, lower your trunk/hips while keeping your eye/aim on the object ball. You can finish your approach by moving/leaning into your final shooting position. The key is to pay close attention to your right eye never leaving the shot line.

Dominant eye doesn't mean using one of your eyes exclusively. Rather, I'm saying the eye that is in control to whatever degree you use it... which may or may not be in combination with your other eye. Everybody's different.

Just some observations.

Best,
Mike
 
Monica Webb is the only player I know of who was truly successful playing with a bent arm and hand turned under her cue. Having played against her many times, I've always felt that it limited her somewhat on some big and finesse shots. If I can recall, correctly, I don't think that Monica did that grab and release thing that you do with your hand every stroke. She played mostly by moving her arm. I think that's one of the things that kept her so consistent.

As for the reason of the bent arm, Mike was on the money in his reply. Once the body is positioned past the shot line, the arm must bend under the torso in order to be on the line of the shot.

If a player bends his or her arm under their body long enough, it will create a habit, regardless of where the feet are positioned. Habits can be broken with a certain amount of pain and suffering over a substantial period of time. The player must weigh the value of breaking such a habit to determine if it's worth the work.
 
Was this in response to the first or second video, or both?

I definitely was trying to move into the shot as Mike suggested for a right eyed dominant player, and it did feel different in a very positive way.

Both, actually. If I recall correctly, I believe you made an adjustment similar to this before.

I think you wrote something to the effect that you weren't happy with the results and you intentionally allowed yourself to go back to a bent arm.

Your hand is still turned under your cue and it will lead your arm to bend again, eventually. The change has to be complete or not at all. In this case there is no compromise.

I think you can make the change. You just have to be able to stick it out through the missed shots and discomfort over a fairly long period of time. Don't be fooled into thinking it will be an easy fix. It isn't.
 
It's a tough call because all the parts need to work together. I think you can start by focusing on your back hand. Position your knuckles along-side the butt and make sure they are in the same position after you've followed through. As long as you're turning your hand under, it will draw your arm under as well.

As for the rest, your areas of concern are your arm, feet and head position that all need to work together. If, in fact, you are left eye dominant and you see the shot better with the cue under your right eye, you would be the first player I have ever encountered with that particular issue without an eye pathology. I'm still skeptical that what you think you see is reality, so I really can't advise you on what comes next.

I wouldn't want to incorrectly advise you on setting up as a right-eyed player if you aren't. One thing is for certain, regardless of whether you are right or left-eye dominant, and that is that you don't want your right foot to be positioned to the right of the shot line. You can use that as a starting point as well.
 
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Im not an instructor,,,,

But I will say it takes balls to post a vid of yourself here on az. Hats off to you and I wish you the best with your pool playing.
 
Well I did some more experimenting. Now it seems as though I can play better with the cue under my dominant left eye, so color me confused about that.

As far as feet position goes, I found this video

Her point of what people do wrong as far as moving the back (in my case, right) foot further from the shot line is what I've been doing. Her suggestion is to move the front foot slightly further from the shot line. I just tried it on my kitchen table using the grout in the tile as a makeshift shot line. It did provide more clearance and seemed comfortable enough.

I plan on giving it a try on actual pool table before league tomorrow.

Sounds good but keep in mind that you can't really just move the left foot alone once you are down. ( You can, but you won't be in balance.) The adjustment is with both feet, but the left foot is the one that you will move the most. The right foot adjustment is just a tweak ---- Maybe from the heel of your foot on the line to the instep of your foot on the line.
 
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