Hitting object ball slightly to the right of aim

[komakino]

Hi,

All advice welcome on this annoying problem of mine please.

I estimate during about 40% of my long pot attempts, I hit the object ball a couple of mm to the right of where I think I'm pointing. I'm not really talking angled shots...rather straight-ins in proactice to reduce the variables. I've worked on stance, grip, dominant eye etc for a while now and so far haven't found a lasting working combination. I can have very brief periods of success after changing something but the next day the problem is back again.

STANCE:

I'm currently using the Boxer style stance. I try to get the angle of body rotation consistent by pointing the angle of the cue along the line of aim whilst stood up. I get the distance from the cue ball to be consistent by hovering the tip of the cue over the cue ball whilst stood up.

GRIP:

I've experimented with thumb and first finger, thumb and first two fingers and thumb and middle two fingers. The latter seems to keep the cue more horizontal when I purposely drop my elbow on follow through but none of the three appear to give me any greater control over keeping the cue on line.

DOMINANT EYE:

I'm a firm believer in this in theory, but in practice I can't seem to derive any benefit for myself with this?? I'm right eyed and when I try to put the cue to the right of my chin

a) I seem to be bent too low as the chin is now higher up my face if you know what I mean
b) I don't notice any significant improvement potting wise.

CUE BALL:

Apart from ensuring that I'm hitting what I think to be the centre I don't know what to change here.

FOLLOW THROUGH:

I'm following through until my grip hand meets my chest as advised.

Any thing obvious that I'm missing folks?

Komakino

[jarcher]

Is your bridge arm straight or slightly bent?

I've noticed myself, that I always had a straight bridge arm, and I couldn't pot a long ball to save my life... also my follow through wasn't that great. Then after a bit of coaching, and adding a slight bend to my arm, everything started flowing... better follow through... straighter cueing and more consistency.

If your arm is slightly bent... try bending it just a fraction more

[komakino]

From memory I'm pretty sure it's slightly bent. I'll take more notice of it the next time I play.

On a related note, what do you think of PJ Nolan's advice about the bridge hand V channel being exactly on the line of aim? That's the other thing I'm intending to look at next time too.

[jarcher]

I think it's a good one... I've certainly noticed a difference by it as it keeps the natural line of the cue straight.

[jrc750]

..... what do you think of PJ Nolan's advice about the bridge hand V channel being exactly on the line of aim? ....

Well where else would you put it ??? If it wasn't on line of aim what chance of you got of potting balls consistently ???

[nrage]

Hi,

All advice welcome on this annoying problem of mine please.

I estimate during about 40% of my long pot attempts, I hit the object ball a couple of mm to the right of where I think I'm pointing. I'm not really talking angled shots...rather straight-ins in proactice to reduce the variables. I've worked on stance, grip, dominant eye etc for a while now and so far haven't found a lasting working combination. I can have very brief periods of success after changing something but the next day the problem is back again.

I was having a similar problem, I only missed to the left and by up to 10 cm each time. I figured out what was going wrong by videoing myself and playing it back in slow motion. That lead me to adjust my grip (on advice from Terry Davidson) and just last night I managed 6/10 long blues from the baulk line, a personal best for me. The ones I missed didn't miss by much, and it was not all to one side as it had been before.

If you can get a video camera, or even just a good phone camera mounted over the block pocket and play some long blues, then grab avidemux and kinovea to modify and play back in slow motion it's well worth the effort. Try and find a table/club where there is good light, the one at my social club has windows down one wall and I filmed myself during the day one weekend.

In my video I could clearly see my grip hand move away, then back to my body/chest. This caused me to place left hand side on the cue ball, squirting it right, causing the missed pot on the left. I suspect you're either doing the opposite, by a much smaller amount, or possibly your line of aim is wrong. Both of these should be clearly seen on a slow motion video, kinovea allows you to place lines on the video at playback time as reference points.

STANCE:

I'm currently using the Boxer style stance. I try to get the angle of body rotation consistent by pointing the angle of the cue along the line of aim whilst stood up. I get the distance from the cue ball to be consistent by hovering the tip of the cue over the cue ball whilst stood up.

A consistent stance is a good thing. I practiced mine by repeatedly walking into a shot (right foot, left foot, no shuffling, straight down), until I could judge the distance I needed to stand behind the shot (this is where I aim from) and walk straight in. I adjust this distance if I adjust my bridge length (shorter when in the balls, shorter or longer when cueing off a rail etc). So, I am giving myself a consistent aiming distance, and a consistent pre-shot routine and stance.

GRIP:

I've experimented with thumb and first finger, thumb and first two fingers and thumb and middle two fingers. The latter seems to keep the cue more horizontal when I purposely drop my elbow on follow through but none of the three appear to give me any greater control over keeping the cue on line.

Terry's advice to me was to hold the cue slightly more in the fingers, so where I had been placing the cue up into my grip, I now rest it on the 2nd joint of my 1st finger (counting from the tip as joint 1) and then close the grip around the cue. This then requires a bend in the wrist, and a kink in the wrist/back of hand, so the back of the hand is not in line with the back of the forearm, but kinks out a small amount. This grip is the only change I made, and allows me to cue straight.

DOMINANT EYE:

I'm a firm believer in this in theory, but in practice I can't seem to derive any benefit for myself with this?? I'm right eyed and when I try to put the cue to the right of my chin

a) I seem to be bent too low as the chin is now higher up my face if you know what I mean
b) I don't notice any significant improvement potting wise.

I am not a believer in this theory. I used to think I was left eye dominant, until I tried a slightly different 'test' and found the opposite result. In one test I was focusing on a short range thing (my thumb) and in the other I was focusing on a long range thing (object through a hole made by my hands). So what I thought was that my brain was using one eye for short range and the other for long range.. however, with a bit of concentration I could consciously change the result from both these tests, plus things looked different and results were worse if I actually closed the 'non-dominant' eye.. which finally lead me to my eventual conclusion which is that I use both eyes, by varying amounts, on each shot. Now, I could move my head position for each shot, but I have decided it's more important to give my brain a consistent reference point and let it decide what eyes to use, by how much, and I found my results improve. So I place my cue in the center of my chin on every shot.

CUE BALL:

Apart from ensuring that I'm hitting what I think to be the centre I don't know what to change here.

I thought I was hitting center, I would have sworn I was .. until I saw my video in slow motion. I had even tried focusing on the white during delivery to make sure, and I really thought I was hitting center .. but I wasn't. Only in slow motion could I see that.

FOLLOW THROUGH:

I'm following through until my grip hand meets my chest as advised.

Any thing obvious that I'm missing folks?

No, but I think you would benefit from a video, or coach.. someone/thing external to yourself that can see what is actually happening on the shots where you miss.

[jarcher]

I used to have my bridge hand twisted to the right, whereby I was cueing over my middle finger, but in turn, this led to the line of aim of the V was actually aiming to the right... I could still pot balls easy enough... but straightening the aim of the V has helped with keeping the cue going straight on the follow through.

[nrage]

I used to have my bridge hand twisted to the right, whereby I was cueing over my middle finger, but in turn, this led to the line of aim of the V was actually aiming to the right... I could still pot balls easy enough... but straightening the aim of the V has helped with keeping the cue going straight on the follow through.

Ahh.. so now you twist more to the left, and the cue goes between the 1st finger (where it lies on the table) and the thumb? .. I'm not sure I could get my hand down on the table like that, it seems to hurt my 1st finger..

[jarcher]

Ahh.. so now you twist more to the left, and the cue goes between the 1st finger (where it lies on the table) and the thumb? .. I'm not sure I could get my hand down on the table like that, it seems to hurt my 1st finger..

Yes, and it's not uncomfortable... simply close your thumb against your 1st finger to create a V, then look at the line created between your finger and thumb... if I was hitting the white up and down the spots... this line would have been pointed to the black corner pocket, which can cause the cue to go off the line of aim... by twisting my hand slightly... it now aims towards the black spot.

[komakino]

Well where else would you put it ??? If it wasn't on line of aim what chance of you got of potting balls consistently ???

I'm referring to line created between the thumb and the first finger being exactly on the line of the shot. Of course, the contact point of the cue and bridge V is on line of the shot...I'm not that useless!

[komakino]

I was having a similar problem, I only missed to the left and by up to 10 cm each time. I figured out what was going wrong by videoing myself and playing it back in slow motion. That lead me to adjust my grip (on advice from Terry Davidson) and just last night I managed 6/10 long blues from the baulk line, a personal best for me. The ones I missed didn't miss by much, and it was not all to one side as it had been before....

I assume you meant 10mm there...



On tuesday I turned up at the club before our match and got a little practice on my own for 15 mins or so. I always play the blue of it's spot into a black pocket with the cue ball on the baulk line for this...attempting to follow the white into the same pocket.

Results:

Blues: 6/10, 1 rattle and 3 shots about 3 inches off the pocket to the left??? (i.e. catching the blue slightly on the right)
Whites: 3 out of the 6 blue pots I follwed the white in as well.

That's not bad but what about the 4 missed pots? I was careful to try and play every shot the same but obviously at this point I can't.

[nrage]

I assume you meant 10mm there...

Sadly .. no .. I was really missing by up to 10 cm. Mostly it was less but one miss was really by 10cm.

[nrage]

Blues: 6/10, 1 rattle and 3 shots about 3 inches off the pocket to the left??? (i.e. catching the blue slightly on the right)
Whites: 3 out of the 6 blue pots I follwed the white in as well.

That's not bad but what about the 4 missed pots? I was careful to try and play every shot the same but obviously at this point I can't.

Sounds like you don't have a cueing/aiming problem, just a consistency problem. The video might help you figure out what exactly goes wrong on those 4 pots, hopefully it's the same thing each time. Then, it's just practice practice practice to become more consistent. There is no easy answer, because you're not doing anything 'wrong' .. just not being precise enough all the time.

[komakino]

Sadly .. no .. I was really missing by up to 10 cm. Mostly it was less but one miss was really by 10cm.

Ah..cross purposes here I think. You mean the onject ball missing the pocket by 10cm? I mean missing the aiming point on the object ball's surfaace by a couple of mm.

Incidentally, did anyone here know that on a 12ft table, for a blue off it's own spot and for angles up to about half ball and slightly over, each mm off centre that you aim on the object ball sends the ball approx 1.3 inches the other way by the time it reaches top cushion distance? (trivia I've worked out when playing around). Shows you how accurate the pros are!

[komakino]

Sounds like you don't have a cueing/aiming problem, just a consistency problem. The video might help you figure out what exactly goes wrong on those 4 pots, hopefully it's the same thing each time. Then, it's just practice practice practice to become more consistent. There is no easy answer, because you're not doing anything 'wrong' .. just not being precise enough all the time.

Definitely. It is a good thing though that I always miss my aiming point to the right. At least it's not all over the place i.e. a consistent fault.

I can't decide whether it's an arcing cue motion i.e. arcing to the right just before impact with the cue ball or doing what you used to...squirting the ball to the right due to unintentional left hand side.