I've thought about this some more.
Some points are so obviously true they don't NEED more thought, such as:
1) CTE is NOT an aiming system
2) CTE does NOT give the "exact" point to aim.
3) People who believe CTE TELLS them where to aim are indeed deluded.
It's laughable to see proponents continue to WHOLLY FAIL to even give a HINT of how CTE works, or COULD work, without directly referencing the pocket as the final part of it's method or calculation. CTE proponents definitely have a cognitive failing (which they, of course, can't perceive within themselves).
I could see that nicely with Spidey's "block the pocket" video. Funny to see fully half the table blocked off, yet when seeing him set up the shots seeing HOW EASY it would be to make them--and that, after you've gained enough experience at playing, you can feel from the immediate contexts (distance from the rail and side pockets) how the OB has to be hit to put it in the corner--without actually needing to look directly at the pocket anymore. I haven't played in THIRTY FIVE YEARS and I think I could probably make the 10/15 shots that Spidey makes! (No, not making any videos
)
But that has helped me understand better
HOW CTE PROBABLY DOES WORK FOR SOME PEOPLE!
CTE users learn by "feel" just like the rest of us. Then they ASSOCIATE that feel with a certain degree of pivot, yada, yada, yada.
By doing that they create a sort of cognitive ROADMAP for themselves of how to make the shot. Dr. Dave and others have said that what helps them is a consistent PSR, etc. I don't think it is. It's their internal "roadmap" for remembering/"aiming" the shots.
Any feel player will know what I mean: some days you can just be "off." (and you can notice that especially if you don't feel so great, have a cold, etc.). You just can't "see the shots" as well as you did a few days ago. Sometimes you just "come up dry" on exactly how to make the shot. But CTE users don't continue to feel and re-feel each shot. Once they "learn it," they associate it with a DEFINED RECIPE of how much to pivot (or whatever).
The better defined, discerned, delineated a mental process is, the better one can recall/implement it--because it involves more areas of the brain; there are more
internal pathways by which your brain remembers the same thing.
CTE is like a little dance for each shot. They learn the shot, then they associate a dance with what they've learned, and then whenever they need to repeat the shot they repeat the dance--and the shot gets made. Believe it or not, I could actually find a way to defend that sort of process, from a cognitive perspective.
It's still not something I would recommend: all that "pivot stuff" is contrary to the concept/habit of stroking straight.
And it's NOT GOOD to believe untrue things in order to accomplish a task--progress requires being RIGHT, not wrong.
But I could imagine something similar to CTE. Some "dance" that moved your aiming line in tiny increments from a more easily defined aimpoint--like 1/4, 1/2, 3/4--which, if remembered and acted upon properly, could help you settle in on a shot you had already learned by "feel" (a process which, with 5-10 repetitions takes all of 5 minutes to learn in the first place).
Instead of CTE players "
subconsciously" adjusting for feel, they are in fact
VERY CONSCIOUSLY adjusting for already learned feel--by performing their recipe/dance they have associated with the shot. I can actually find plausible a scenario (a clear and honest one, not a delusional one like CTE) where a similar practice could be used to one's benefit.
