Aiming

[poolqjunkie]

The CTE system has had many heated debates on American forums. I have a hard time accepting movement after you are down on the shot. I have never understood the Americans fixation with aiming systems. They consider snooker players to be the best potters, yet they seem to want to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.

Mike

Yes, it is quite puzzling.

I think they might be looking for a short cut to aiming, hence all the systems.

[Manu147]

Hi Terry, on the subject of aiming , do you believe that most top players actually have their cue under one of their eyes, (ronnie, john, murphy, selby, hendryetc) because this creates a symetrical view of the shot from both eyes, or is this a position where their bodies are most comfortable to play the shot, my query is because i am a right eye dominant person, but when i drop my head straght down from behind the shot, my left eye seems to marginally end up over the shot., and because of this when i am down on the shot my perception from behind my bridge hand is that my cue is running from right to left slightly yet i cue the white straight to a good percentage(LONG BLUES). I know this is a difficult question to answer, but how can a player know for sure that he is standing DIRECTLY behind the shot on his pre-shot routine and therefore is dropping his head straight down accordingly, in other words should my right eye not instinctively want to fall over my cue as it is the dominant one, and because it is my left eye that i cue marginally under is this because something is wrong ie: stance not square enough? interested in any of the readers thoughts on this complex issue!

[Terry Davidson]

From what I can observe most top players do not have their cues exactly in the centre of their chin but I think this is more a matter of their individual set-up and perhaps their shoulder width and upper body physique.

My opinion is, it just doesn't matter as long as the cue is somewhere on the chin since your brain will work it out auutomatically anyway as long as it gets the proper feedback by yuou staying down and still at the end of the delivery and observing what happens to the object ball.

In my experience, I've had eye surgery which has changed my aiming eye from my right, which was my strongest eye for years, to my left now however I notice my cue is still in the same position on my chin although I've turned my head a little to the right to bring my left eye a little more over the cue but not directly over it.

I also notice a lot of the pros do have their heads turned slightly, although not all of them and I believe you can keep the set-up the same or very similar but just turn the head slightly right or left to bring the cue under the preferred eye or aiming eye (usually the one with the best vision).

I have noticed though that if I close my left eye and view the aiming or line of the cue with just my right eye the cue seems to be to the left of the shot, however when I close my right eye and look with the left the cue is bang on the line of aim

Terry

[peterpackage]

If there is one thing i have learnt from reading some of the American pool forums is Americans love their systems, they call it this, they call it there

I'm sure part of it is commercialism, so instructors can sell their system to their pupils

[alabadi]

Cuesports is all about repetition. Try potting a half ball black off the spot and you brain and muscle memory will tell you how recognise the shot anywhere on the table.

Well i must be stupid or i am missing something because i just cannot get use to the angles.
i have been playing for a year now and i have practiced potting the black half ball off it spot time after time,but still i don't recognise the same angle any where else on the table when i am playing.

how long does it take before your brain starts to memorise the same angles.
is there any method or will it just happen, i hope soon because at this moment in time i am getting frustrated with the improvement i am making
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Originally posted at Http://www.thesnookergym.com/forums

[hotpot]

The problem may lie in your cueing . If you dont cue straight you wont hit the ball where you intend to consistently .

[poolqjunkie]

I never thought people would actually go buy a DVD that talks about how to aim (not how to cue straight or stance but just an aiming system to help you aim) but now there is one for sale in the US.

[Welshsteve]

The "ghost ball" method is something I have used before, but as everyone else in this thread seems to do, I do it from a "feeling" and memory. It's just something you know. I generally go back to the ghost ball method when I am struggling. Sometimes I come to the table and it's just all there, I see everything and know I'm not gonna miss too much, then other times I struggle, so I slow my game down a bit and use the ghost ball method to get "back in the groove" so to speak.

[tornado taylor]

This sounds crazy and far too complicated to me, i've never heard of anything like this. Personally I dont think of anything like hitting a particular spot on an object ball I just play on instinct. Like eating ya dinner you dont miss ya mouth you automatically know where it is lol.

[Acrowot]

Have never tried dinner in Dicot tornado taylor! How are you fixed, then will see how it works there. ............. lol
:snooker:

[tornado taylor]

Have never tried dinner in Dicot tornado taylor! How are you fixed, then will see how it works there. ............. lol
:snooker:

Lmao yeah come along mate.

[cuebru]

aiming

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned the line from the centre of pocket through the centre of object ball and where that line comes out of the object ball is the spot you aim at. Its as simple as that. Ghost ball shooters, that is the point you place the ghost ball and in line with the cueball. Don't fiddle around aimming a little bit this way or that, just look at that spot. Now you can be one of those players that don't know what they're doing, just aiming at a spot. If you don't pick the exact spot then you're just looking at the object ball in general and in general that's where it will go, in the general direction.

[nevets]

to be honest when i play i aim where feels right on the shot, more often than not its right, if i look at a shot too long and try and dissect it, i end up either over or under cutting it, where as if i went for te same shot just going down from first lookand where i feel is right, it works out usually with a pot

That's it for me. I see the shot (I do get down correctly Terry!) and I know either "that's in" or "this isn't right". I've got up and looked and surprise surprise the "that's in" shots are the ones where I'm feeling good and relaxed and have naturally been in a nice position, loose grip, through the ball.
For me it's about being relaxed and confident.

[Terry Davidson]

cuebru:

Just one minor correction on your post.

Your aiming line for the object ball is not CENTRE-POCKET all the time and to be more precise it is the SPOT ON THE POCKET OPENING YOU WANT THE OBJECT BALL TO HIT. (This spot is the centre of the area which gives you the most margin for error)

As an example, a black off its spot cannot be aimed centre-pocket as you will catch the near jaw and miss.

I only say this as there will be some beginners on here who will try and aim centre-pocket all the time and then wonder why they are missing the ball. I've seen it happen over and over again. It also explains why very good players will miss a 1/4-ball cut-back black since when they get down on the shot will feel they are hitting the black too thick since the pocket is out of their vision and they are relying on memory for the aiming line so they make adjustments, cut the black thinner, and catch the near jaw.

Of course, this also means they have made an aiming adjustment while down on the table.

Terry

[cuebru]

Thankyou Terry, you're absolutely right, admittedly I was lacking in detail. That black you are talking about has been a conundrum for me. I hav consistantly missed it short, sometimes a dozen or more times in a row during practice and knowing I should be going in off the far jaw.