Why do they do?

B

bizzy

Registered
I mean the pro's. After pocketing a ball they don't go to the next ball, go down and shoot. They stand behind the cue ball and look at the OB or something. What do they do there? Do they aim? Do they find out an particular aiming point?

Someone told me some great players like Efren Reyes divide the cue ball into parts. So does it mean he is searching for a specific aiming point when he stares at the object ball chalking his cue?
 
Well, you have to know what shot to shoot before you get down to shoot it.

I.E. Do you pot the ball? Play safe? Where do you want the cueball to end up? What other factors may be at play? Breaking clusters? Etc.
 
bizzy said:
I mean the pro's. After pocketing a ball they don't go to the next ball, go down and shoot. They stand behind the cue ball and look at the OB or something. What do they do there? Do they aim? Do they find out an particular aiming point?

Someone told me some great players like Efren Reyes divide the cue ball into parts. So does it mean he is searching for a specific aiming point when he stares at the object ball chalking his cue?
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The only one that can answer is the player who does that.Different people stand there for different reasons.I guess Some people may be thinking of their newly born child,some people think of their grand mother who gave some money to play in the neighbor hood pool room when they were growing up and the list goes on.
I heard one pro saying that he sees his wife`s face on the one ball while breaking the rack in 9 ball game and he wanted to smack her hard on her face and hence bursts the rack with great forec.:cool:
 
They're performing a routine. Just getting down and shooting balls is not a routine.

A pool routine begins from the moment you get up from the previous shot stance and ends the moment you get up for the next one. It's not just the actual stroke of the ball.

Consider a baseball hitter. Part of his routine starts with starts with stepping back from the last pitch. Fixing his helmet, even if it doesn't need fixing. Taking 3 practice swings even if he doesnt need them. Adjusting his crotch even if it doesnt need adjusting. And so on...

Same with a basketball player shooting a Free Throw. He bounces the ball a couple times because its part of his routine. He's not checking the air pressure on the ball before he shoots.

The more robotic you become, the less you think about all the auxiliary stuff, like the amount of pressure on this shot, or what you did wrong on the last shot.
 
I think its kinda like golf, they stand there and visualize the shot and see it in their mind before they execute it. I guess its just mental preparation.

Southpaw
 
bizzy said:
I mean the pro's. After pocketing a ball they don't go to the next ball, go down and shoot. They stand behind the cue ball and look at the OB or something. What do they do there? Do they aim? Do they find out an particular aiming point?

Someone told me some great players like Efren Reyes divide the cue ball into parts. So does it mean he is searching for a specific aiming point when he stares at the object ball chalking his cue?
Click to expand...


I'm guessing none of you guys have ever seen Lou Butera play pool.

in answer - it depends
some people are just methodical about everything they do,
others are hyper, most fall near the midpoint.

how familiar you are with the shot or layout of the table will often effect the
time you take to shoot

Dale
 
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pdcue said:
I'm guessing none of you guys have ever seen Lou Butera play pool.
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I think Lou just processes the information, from the table, a lot faster than other players.
The same is true of Luc Salvas.
These men don't try to play fast on purpose, it is just their natural rhythm and they have no choice, but to play fast.
 
Southpaw said:
I think its kinda like golf, they stand there and visualize the shot and see it in their mind before they execute it. I guess its just mental preparation.

Southpaw
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I have to agree completely. A great player once told me "If you can't visualize the shot happening perfectly, what are the chances you will be able to execute it perfectly?" I also know of many players who look at the table from different angles to form a more complete mental picture of the line the ball needs to travel.
 
pdcue said:
I'm guessing none of you guys have ever seen Lou Butera play pool.

in answer - it depends
some people are just methodical about everything they do,
others are hyper, most fall near the midpoint.

how familiar you are with the shot or layout of the table will often effect the
time you take to shoot

Dale
Click to expand...


Even Lou Butera uses a preshot-routine. In New York, our speedy player is Danny Barouty. I saw him run over 100 balls in under 20 minutes. He is doing the exact same thing every player of his caliber does. He's simply doing it more efficiently.

Some top players will re-examine the layout of the table after each shot, check angles, etc. while others will have the lay-out memorized and be able to make angle-judgements without making a trip around the table. It doesn't mean they lack a pre-shot routine. It simply means they've got a more efficient one.

(btw, when I say "efficient", this is a time reference more than anything else)
 
I would suspect that they are not just "shooting balls in", but trying to run *all* the balls in and win!

They are "thinking ahead" - planning all of their shots down to the last ball.

So they are probably trying to figure out how they can shoot one shot so the cue ball travels to a spot on the table after that shot so they can shoot in the next ball *and* be able to shoot that shot so the cue ball travels to a position to shoot in the shot after that, etc.

Also there are "problem balls", maybe clusters which need to be broken out. How can you shoot in a ball and also send the cue ball in that direction after the shot to break out that cluster?

Do it yourself: Throw three balls on the table. Shoot in the first ball so the cue ball goes to a position so you can easily shoot in the next ball *and* the cue ball will go to a position after that shot so you can easily shoot in the third ball. Takes a bit of thinking ahead before your first shot...
 
good answer

The simple truth is that the pro's miss about as often as anyone. The difference is where a beginner misses making a ball, the pro misses his cue ball position slightly which will effect how he had planned to hit the second, third, or later ball. He may be just standing there verifying all is still right in his world or he may have "missed" and be remapping everything left on the table.

Hu

Billy_Bob said:
I would suspect that they are not just "shooting balls in", but trying to run *all* the balls in and win!

They are "thinking ahead" - planning all of their shots down to the last ball.

So they are probably trying to figure out how they can shoot one shot so the cue ball travels to a spot on the table after that shot so they can shoot in the next ball *and* be able to shoot that shot so the cue ball travels to a position to shoot in the shot after that, etc.

Also there are "problem balls", maybe clusters which need to be broken out. How can you shoot in a ball and also send the cue ball in that direction after the shot to break out that cluster?

Do it yourself: Throw three balls on the table. Shoot in the first ball so the cue ball goes to a position so you can easily shoot in the next ball *and* the cue ball will go to a position after that shot so you can easily shoot in the third ball. Takes a bit of thinking ahead before your first shot...
Click to expand...
 
Southpaw said:
I think its kinda like golf, they stand there and visualize the shot and see it in their mind before they execute it. I guess its just mental preparation.

Southpaw
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Is there a particular way to learn this visualization technique or maybe a book on golf that describes how to learn this technique?
 
bizzy said:
Is there a particular way to learn this visualization technique or maybe a book on golf that describes how to learn this technique?
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Practice having an exact purpose for pocketing the object ball and playing position on each and every shot, and visualize the execution of every shot before you get down to shoot. The more proficient and adept you become at executing the shots and playing shape, the more your routine will start to look like the pros' routine.
 
PoolBum said:
Practice having an exact purpose for pocketing the object ball and playing position on each and every shot, and visualize the execution of every shot before you get down to shoot. The more proficient and adept you become at executing the shots and playing shape, the more your routine will start to look like the pros' routine.
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It's not that I can't pocket balls. I just want to run more racks :)
Maybe there's a golf book that describes this technique how to visualize the shot. I've already heard that golf pro's can "see" the shot hapen before they hit the ball so clear like they would watch a film on tv. Sounds very interesting.
 
One of the things that the pros are doing when they stand up behind the cue ball before getting down on the shot is aligning their feet and their bodies with the aiming point. As alluded to by a previous poster, the aiming process does not begin when you get down and do your warmup strokes. They begin in the process of surveying the table and the shot. You will notice, perhaps, that many of the pros and top players go over and look at the line from the object ball to the pocket. This helps to mentally fix the aiming point. Then, when they go in line with the shot, they visualize the shot and they get their feet in position so that when they fall into their stance, they will already be in line with the desired aiming point. Corey Duel and Efren Reyes epitomize this version of the pre-shot routine, and C.J. Wiley has an excellent section on it in one of his tapes.
 
bizzy said:
I mean the pro's. After pocketing a ball they don't go to the next ball, go down and shoot. They stand behind the cue ball and look at the OB or something. What do they do there? Do they aim? Do they find out an particular aiming point?

Someone told me some great players like Efren Reyes divide the cue ball into parts. So does it mean he is searching for a specific aiming point when he stares at the object ball chalking his cue?
Click to expand...
They're looking at the tangent line first, IMO.
 
JoeyInCali said:
They're looking at the tangent line first, IMO.
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That's over-rated. The fact is, the tagent-line is simply not terribly applicable for most shots.


A professional player takes a moment to look at the object ball in relation to the cue-ball (which is why he's standing behind the cue-ball) so he can allow his visual-memory to kick-in. The tagent-line is a conscious-calculation which may not always be consistent with what his gut is telling him. 99% of the time, a professional player just knows what's going to happen and will go with that instinct over any calculation.

There's simply too much going on with draw, follow, and side-spin to start looking at tagents. They want that auto-pilot feeling. They're going to keep their thoughts simple and rely on their "stuff".
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
That's over-rated. The fact is, the tagent-line is simply not terribly applicable for most shots.


A professional player takes a moment to look at the object ball in relation to the cue-ball (which is why he's standing behind the cue-ball) so he can allow his visual-memory to kick-in. The tagent-line is a conscious-calculation which may not always be consistent with what his gut is telling him. 99% of the time, a professional player just knows what's going to happen and will go with that instinct over any calculation.

There's simply too much going on with draw, follow, and side-spin to start looking at tagents. They want that auto-pilot feeling. They're going to keep their thoughts simple and rely on their "stuff".
Click to expand...

This is correct. A good player knows the direction the cueball will take after contact without having to check the tangent line.
 
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