hit-point versus ghost ball, what do you focus on?

[bentCue]

this might have been asked before:
I am wondering what you guys do to decide for your line of aim - do you visualize the hitpoint or do you visualise the ghost ball?
or do you just 'know' the angle and know how to play it?

[DeanH]

both
very close shot, ghost ball
very far fine cut, ghost ball
all in between - Back of Ball

but main thing is to focus on this (BOB or Ghost) at time of strike, so the eye/hand coordination is determined to the point you want the cue ball to go to

[vmax]

Contact point on the object ball (BOB) is the same as ghost ball isn't it? or do some of you actually see a ghostly outline of the cue ball

[Danger Steve]

I just use the Force! Never got my head around the ghost ball.

[mikee]

I just use the Force! Never got my head around the ghost ball.

I suppose if your gonna use the ghost ball , this is the time of year to try it

[Starsky]

this might have been asked before:
I am wondering what you guys do to decide for your line of aim - do you visualize the hitpoint or do you visualise the ghost ball?
or do you just 'know' the angle and know how to play it?

The more you play the more you will naturally adjust to the correct angle . Every time you miss a ball in practice make sure you replicate the shot and keep taking it until you find the correct angle and pot the ball . Over time your sub conscious will take over and find the correct angle without too much thought .

All this ‘ghost ball ‘ stuff and the like is just more things to mess your head up with. I’m afraid there are no easy ways to learn this game that can beat practice , practice and more practice.

[bentCue]

yes, that's true!

I went to practice last night, focused on visualising the hit point and imagining where the cue ball needed to go - and it went really bad...
then I let go of it and just focused on my 'feel' for the right angle - and it immediately got much better.

so, yes, i guess you are right - it is all about practice practice practice. no rules or gimmicks

[mikee]

Same with golf ,never met anyone that got better from having lessons ,unless beginner lessons when you’ve never hit a ball before .People that want to improve after they have bern playing for some time never get better ,lessons are a rip of and waste of time .All the decent players I know in single figures play 3 times a week ,if you can’t do they you’re screwed ,so just bash balls at the ranch of a Matt for exercise .Snookers the same ,all these add on gimmicks are just crap .Hendry is a good example with this sh1te right sight right rubbish ,he’s a 7 times world champion fer fecks sake ,why does he need that ?

[bentCue]

i met lots of people who got better because they hired a coach for a few lessons
(alternatively there's tons of good coaching material on youtube)

they can't replace practice, but they can guide the practice in the right direction

[vmax]

Snookers the same ,all these add on gimmicks are just crap .Hendry is a good example with this sh1te right sight right rubbish ,he’s a 7 times world champion fer fecks sake ,why does he need that ?

As you get older there is a subconscious tendency to drift into a more comfortable stance to ease the old bones, that will put you off the line of aim and yet you won't know it as it all feels the same but you start to miss far more regularly.
It happened to Mark Williams and sightrite put him back on line.

As for Hendry, I'm a firm believer in keeping things the same as when you learned, if you played great with the bent cue you learned with and it breaks then you need another bent cue to replace it.
Most people who have a bent cue and know it hold the cue so that it bends either upwards or downwards and not to one side, but what if the bend was from the shoulder of the cue to the end of the butt, mace flat facing up, and Hendry held the cue mace flat up. That means his grip hand could have been off the line of aim by 1/4 of an inch whereas the shaft was bang on, with a straight cue that same grip hand position would be wrong and he would be playing across the line by 1/4 inch, not much you might think but it magnifies over distance and Hendry's game was based on long distance potting to get in not safety.

It might not be the case but it's food for thought, not just for Hendry but for others as well.

[mikee]

I think far too many people change their cue too often these days ,if you played good before with it maybe it’s something else .keep yer eye on Ronnie next time he plays I’ve heard he had a titanium ferule fitted to a new cue ,which he said he wouldn’t ever use

[mikee]

i met lots of people who got better because they hired a coach for a few lessons
(alternatively there's tons of good coaching material on youtube)

they can't replace practice, but they can guide the practice in the right direction

That’s the thing unless you go out and put the work in no amount of lessons will help ,same with everything ,I could teach someone a certain scale on the guitar and they might play it ok ,but if they come back next week with out practicing it they will be no better ,faster or cleaner than the week before .

[itsnoteasy]

I think far too many people change their cue too often these days ,if you played good before with it maybe it’s something else .keep yer eye on Ronnie next time he plays I’ve heard he had a titanium ferule fitted to a new cue ,which he said he wouldn’t ever use

Seems to be more and more players are swapping to a titanium ferrule , would be interesting to know how many in the top 32 or 64 have one.

[mikee]

Seems to be more and more players are swapping to a titanium ferrule , would be interesting to know how many in the top 32 or 64 have one.

Quite a few have swapped back to brass as well , most of it is in yer head I think . Be interesting to find out how many people have a titanium ferule fitted to an old cue or have one built with a new cue , more of the changes will come with the new cue as a whole and not that tiny bit of metal at the end .

[Danger Steve]

I think far too many people change their cue too often these days ,if you played good before with it maybe it’s something else .keep yer eye on Ronnie next time he plays I’ve heard he had a titanium ferule fitted to a new cue ,which he said he wouldn’t ever use

He’ll be on the Taom chalk next!