Mr. Lee
I can't disagree with you. I learned back in 1971 when I was 11 that when I took the cue straight back, brought it straight forward, and hit the ball right smack in the vertical axis, the ball would have no English on it. If the cut was 30 degrees or less and I did this the ball would go in every time. I spent about five thousand hours in my basement missing balls that were 30 degrees or less. Every time I missed I would say to myself, "Damn! I must have unintentionally put English on that ball!" So after about five thousand hours of this I was putting unintentionally English on the ball a whole lot less frequently than I had five thousand hours earlier, but I was still doing it much to much. After reading these forums, I've learned that if I had hired one of you fine professional unintentionally English exterminators, this might have helped immensely, but I really don' think any of your students has ever walked out a session with you and never again put unintentional English on the ball again. So after five thousand hours of this I came up with an idea. I said to myself, "Instead of letting the English control me, why don't I control the English?" So in 1996 I started putting a touch of English on every shot. When C.J. Wiley started talking about this I was shocked. I thought I invented it. I started trying to read pool books, but I could never get through any after reading the basics. I'm sure they are immensely beneficial to some, but my subconscious is in total charge when I play pool, telling me exactly what I have to work on, and my subconscious being just that, I don't know why. I just obey it. So after learning to shoot with a touch of english I would play well with it, but frequently go into slumps, at which time I would go back to the center ball hit. When I'd go into a slump with that I'd go back to the touch of English. I did this for four thousand hours or so. I guess you could call me a pool eccentric. I recently bought a $200 dollar maple shaft McDermott cue. All my cues previously were J.C Penny models. I don't know why. So I started playing with the McDermott and all I did was miscue for a week. I know nothing about tips. I bought the standard one. Some guy over at the equipment forum told me it was a fine tip and I should sandpaper it. Highly effective! Several years ago I spent 2 hours at Chris' billiards in Chicago just to see what it was like to play on a 9 foot table as opposed to my 8 footer. Some of the shots were longer. Those 2 hours were the only time I'be spent in a pool room in my life. I play only in my basement. You see - I'll estimate i've spent 10,000 hours of my life playing pool, but for the first 9000+ hours I was an awful pool player. As I said, my subconscious is boss here. It told me you can build yourself a cottage or even a nice medium sized house and go to the pool room, or you can stay here in the basement and we'll build ourselves a fine mansion of a stroke, but first were going to have to build a frame, then there's the plumbing and the electrical work, etc. and this isn't going to look good for a while. I didn't want to go to a pool room and not look good so I stayed in my basement and obeyed my subconcious. I've never played family members for this reason, nor do I allow them to watch me play. They know I'm a pool eccentric and they accept it. Sorry,but I pracice the exact way pool instructors tell you not to practice. I'm not interested in pool games. I'm only interested in pocketing balls. I throw fifteen balls out there and bang them in. You might say, there's more to pool than pocketing balls. I might get to that as soon as I perfect this stroke. Anyway: back to my stroke. As I said, I've had 2 different strokes since 1996: center ball hit and touch of English. Eleven months ago I hit a shot and almost jumped out of my skin. It was long with about a 20 degree cut. Maybe you could call it a tester. I hit it and as it was going smack into the center of the pocket it felt like I sent a violin note throughout the world. It felt like my center ball stroke and my touch of English stroke met for the first time, shook hands, and said to each other, "Were going to work together from now on," and worked together for the first time on that shot. So they've been working together for the past 11 months. How are they working together? They seem incompatible. I have no idea how to explain it. All I can tell you is I can't wait to get to the pool table every day. Something fascinating is going on. The way I see it, my pool stroke is not perfect. The imperfections manifest themselves through short circuits. I've seen nine ball games where I'm certain that the reason one guy won is because he made all his long shots that had a 30 degree angle or less, and the loser missed a few of those testers. When I was 11 years old I was unable to hit a major league fastball, but when I was 11 years old I was able to perfectly pocket a long pool shot with a 30 angle or less: the type of shot needed to win professional pool games. It's just that when I was 11 I had imperfections in my stroke which caused my stroke to short circuit on 19 out of 20 of such shots. Today I still have imperfections which cause my stroke to short circuit. This is what I'm trying to eliminate. I'm trying to develop a fail safe stroke that NEVER misses, no matter how long the shot, if the angle is 30 degrees or less. I think this is attainable. Now obviously, if I attain this, I'll still miss such shots because of reasons such as stress, fatigue, inattention, etc., but it won't be because of my stroke which will be fail safe. Now obviously, If I could make a center ball hit and never put unintentional English on the ball I'd already be doing this. But there's no one in the world, as far as I know, who can do this. If this is attainable, it can only be attained by a mastery of squirt and swerve. A mastery of squirt and swerve can only be attained by being excellent, but not perfect, at pocketing balls by making a center ball hit and not producing unintentional English, combined with being excellent, but not perfect, at pocketing balls with a touch of english. Then, as I said, these 2 strokes have to shake hands and work together. I'm working on this every day. So: back to my original post which you responded to Mr. Lee. I find aiming at balls at 30 degrees or less effortless. I know this because, for instance, if I try and make a center ball hit I always know immediately after the ball leaves the tip if I put unintentional English on the ball. If I did not put unintentional English on the ball I simply always make them - at least on my 8 foot table. When the shot angle is more than 30 degrees and I, for instance, make a center ball hit and immediately know after the ball leaves the tip that I did not put unintentional English on the ball, I sometimes miss; therefore it's easy to surmise that aiming for me is effortless at up to 30 degrees and becomes an effort only after 30 degrees. I'm wondering if this is the case for most players. I'm also wondering if what I'm trying to attain: that being a fail safe stroke with no imperfections and hence no short circuits that demonstrates itself on shots of long shots of 30 degrees or less, is already possessed by pro's. I see them miss such shots all the time. I just can't tell if it's because their stroke is not fail-safe and has flaws which leads to short circuits, or it's because of factors such As stress, fatigue, carelessness, etc.
.........You caught me on a good night. I'm usually kinda bashful.
