Nic Barrows

[hotpot]

Nic another member has just pm .d me and asked if i would like to meet them and have coaching together with you , would that be a problem mucka .

[khizzy]

nic is a top bloke i would recommend him to most.

[kllchem]

Terry, come over to Vancouver Island, no need for eastern Canadian winter coats here. I would love to be put through your "grinder".

[Terry Davidson]

kllchem:

Now there's no need as one of my students, Dennett (he's on here) lives in Victoria and is now a certified Master Coach. I don't have a phone number handy for Dennett but you could PM him on here if you happen to be close to Victoria. He plays at the Union Club I believe it is.

Of course, if you got a group of guys together and covered my expenses I would love to come out to the West Coast and do a few days coaching but then I would be poaching in Dennett's territory.

Terry

[Strickimicki]

4 days to go,

I hope Nic won't start to cry when he sees my efforts! LOL

[Strickimicki]

4 days to go,

I hope Nic won't start to cry when he sees my efforts! LOL

[checkSide]

Remember Micky, it's all in the mind........

[Strickimicki]

Right, I was there and Nic never stated to cry.

I had him scratching his head a bit though.

He had a look at my stance, (He thinks it ain't all bad!)
He had a look at my approach, (He had me approaching the table in two steps instead of three which I was doing until then)
He checked my getting down behind the shot, (which I was, 95% of the time maybe more) (I'm sure Nic will comment on this if that is not true).
My cueing arm cues fairly straight, (I don't know if it's really good, but it ain't all that bad)

So the easy things done and checked, he lined me up on a few straight balls and watched me miss them (Not LOL). I then explained to him what I was seeing and why I think I'm missing them. This maybe hard to understand, but bare with me, it's gets interesting!
So here's me behind the shot, online with the shot, cueing fairly straight and missing the balls. I told him that I'm missing them because for me, when I'm on line for the shot, that it seems to me as if I'm aiming around 8" to the left of the pocket. We did this for a few shots, and I think I managed to miss 5 from 5. After we had our first discussion about this, we agreed that I should ignore what I thought I was aiming at and just cue through the ball as if I wasn't aiming.( Only concentrating on straight cueing nothing else) I think I then potted 5 from 5).

So we spent a whole day on this, and didn't make much head way as I couldn't at any point say where the object ball would eventually go. I nearly always thought the ball would go to the left of the pocket even though everything was in place.

Anyway, Nic finally got to the bottom of it with me.

I about 3 years ago started reading about the theory of the dominant or favored eye. And tried very hard to bring this into my game. I am right eye dominant or my brain prefers to aim with my right eye if left the choice of only one. I forced my cue under my right eye and worked on this for quite sometime, with mixed results as you will soon hear about. Sometimes pin point accuracy sometimes not being able to pot the easiest of balls (one can argue no ball is easy, I know, I know). But I am a tryer to say the least and I stuck with this theory as I thought it makes the best of sense. Because of this my cueing arm was compensating for what my eyes were telling my brain, through cueing slightly to the left. This in turn, is sending the cueball to the right, which then sends the object ball to the left.

Nic went home after our first day of coaching and spent sometime browsing through some of his own books, as well as maybe other places. We tested my eyes the next day to start of with just to make sure that everything was OK with my eyesight. Simple but effective tests. Nic wanted to suggest that I go to an "ophthalmologist" to get my eyes tested not just in eyesight strength but also the depth and binocular vision that was being transported to my brain. This I had already done in March of this year. No fault was found!

Through my explaining and going more into the problem, Nic was finally able to mime my problem for himself. So simply by pushing his cue so far under his right eye, that he finally had the same problem I was having. Now knowing what causes this strange not being able to aim thing of mine, we started to place my cue more and more to the left of my eye until I was not just cueing straight but also aiming straight. This is still not perfected, as Nic did warn me that I would have to go away and practice finding my new middle as I have forgotten where it is. With me we found, that the area where I am seeing and aiming the best is a very small area. A millimeter area slightly to the right of middle. A small movement to the left or the right means uncertainty in my aiming this small movement is maybe 2-3 mill, so really next to nothing. This will now take a few weeks of training/practicing just to come half way back to where I maybe should be. I cue still slightly to the left but as I start to feel more confident we hope that should work it's self out and become absolutely straight again. I must admitt, that I did not get that sure pin point knowing where the ball was going all weekend, I was hoping that Nic could find that for me and chisel into my brain, so as I wouldn't loose it again. Maybe that was to much to ask! I know what I have to work on, and I will. As you may have guessed, when I get into something, I follow it through!

The end point of this is,

If you are right handed you don't just use your right hand, if you are left footed you don't hop around all day on you left foot. So please don't believe this "Dominant or preferred eye theory" Unless you are having serious problems with aiming and need to try something different or a "good" coach tells you that you really should do this, leave it well alone. I have now got lots of practicing to do, and have suffered lots of heart ache because of this. Please don't make the same mistake!

Or simply ask Nic of his views on the matter!

P.S. I know this is still hard to understand, as I have difficulty in explaining my problem. If anybody would like to know more about my experiences with this, please feel free to ask!

Bri.

[Terry Davidson]

stricki:

I'm glad Nic was able to duplicate your very difficult problem and at least work out a series of exercises to get you back on track.

I know Nic prefers the centre-chin approach with no dominant eye as it gets the player lined up correctly and any change in the line of the cue on the chin forces a change in the set-up from the basic, or in other words using one change to correct another change and now you have 2 things different.

I myself aim with my left eye after eye surgery changed it but try and keep the cue on my centre-chin and just turn my head a bit to the right. I suspect however this is not for aiming purposes but just because my neck at my age is not flexible enough to turn my head that far to the left once I'm set up and it would introduce discomfort and strain in my lower neck.

If you give the brain a chance and have normal vision then the brain will sort out the correct line of aim of the cue, but so many people do believe they should have the cue running right under their preferred eye. This all came from the original Joe Davis bood whefre he lined up under his left eye but people all forget that he was blind (or almost so) in his right eye and was forced to do this.

Terry

[lk8]

this exact problem that you're describing, ie. the dominant eye theory I've been trying to work out for the last year or so, therefore I've been experimenting quite a bit in my spare time, without doubt my game have gone way down hill due to this, until recently my experiments have all been inconclusive, but this week I think I've finally found the answer... but I'd love to hear Nic's thoughts on this, as I'm sure his thoughts would be very enlightening for me to prove beyond resonable doubt that my answers were what I'm looking for!

[checkSide]

I also have this problem, and I have tried a million things attempting to correct it. I have blamed my eyes, my cueing, my stance, my grip, my alignment, etc.

What I discovered is if I line up a dead straight pot, and line up my cue perfectly; when I am down on the shot there is NO HEAD POSITION where the cue and pot line up perfectly in my vision. i.e. If the pot looks correct, the cue looks like it is coming across the line from left to right; conversely if the cue looks like it is coming through straight, the pot looks like I am aiming left of the line.

This was hard to accept, but I have accepted I play my best snooker by just rolling with it.
Therefore what I do is line up the pot perfectly in my vision, then just place my cue where I know the straight line is. Not where my eyes are telling me. I accept the image of pot and cue look odd when I am down on the shot, but I just carry on and trust myself.

This has led to good improvements, and I have been making some bigish (60+) breaks recently.

I have also noticed things are starting to look less and less odd the more I practice.

This may be very unorthodox, but I thought I would share my experiences in case it helps someone.

Cheers

[Strickimicki]

This sounds as if my problem, is not my problem! everyone has it! LOL

@Checkside. But having said that, when playing matches and you see the objectball going 20cm to the left or the right of the pocket. Can you just let go and cue the ball? I have big difficulties with this. I block or cue across the ball trying to subconsciously correct what my eyes are telling me is wrong!

I really hope to be on the right line again, but I have so much to do training wise until it's really in! Scary times!

Still hoping!

Bri.

[checkSide]

@Checkside. But having said that, when playing matches and you see the objectball going 20cm to the left or the right of the pocket. Can you just let go and cue the ball?

Hey Bri.

For me it is literally the difference between a pot and a knuckle.
Similar to if you were playing with side and aimed slightly thick or thin. Not a 20cm miss as you describe.

Therefore it is not that hard to trust yourself to play the shot.

[Terry Davidson]

checkside & stricki:

You have both fallen into the 'fine tuning' trap, like so many other players.

The correct method if you believe in the 'preferred or dominant' eye theory is to turn the head very slightly to bring the cue just a little bit more under whichever eye you sight with.

Then you have to play that way for awhile, staying down on the shot after delivery so your brain will get the feedback it needs. But, YOU HAVE TO STICK WITH IT FOR AWHILE.

The brain is a wonderful instrument and it will sort out the aiming and you WILL get used to it as checkside is discovering now.

Keep everything as simple as you can (KISS principle) so you are not relying on having perfect coordination every time you strike the cueball as no one has ever done that and no one ever will. The best players keep it as simple as possible so there's less that can go wrong

Terry

[checkSide]

checkside & stricki:

You have both fallen into the 'fine tuning' trap, like so many other players.

Yes this "fine tuning trap" has been killing my game for the past year or so. I am hoping I have shaken off the shackles finely!

It's just so frustrating when you know your eyes are seeing the potting angle correctly, but you cannot align or deliver the cue to this angle consistently.