Micro-adjusting - your thoughts ...

[DandyA]

micro-adjusting ... do you do it? if so, what are you adjusting? should you do it? is it that bad? are you trying to stop doing it?

pro's all do it (except possibly Tony Drago) and you can clearly see that they do ... once they address the cue ball they all take a few seconds before they deliver the cue, they all do when the frame is live ...

ok, once the frame is over and they can't make a century, they often do just get down and hit the ball on their standing line of aim (and often make the pot) ...

so is micro-adjusting right or wrong, should we do it or not?

[CoachGavin]

In my opinion they are not micro adjusting but if you are talking about the pause then they are getting their eyes onto the object ball.

[tedisbill]

Micro-adjusting - your thoughts ...

Micro adjusting? I don't really know what you're getting at.

[nrage]

Micro adjusting? I don't really know what you're getting at.

The theory goes that once you find the line of aim (standing up behind the shot) you get down and don't adjust your aim, bridge, stance, etc.., at all, from this position. If you need to adjust something you stand up and start again. The Q is, do you/don't you and what do you think about the theory?

It's called "micro" adjusting because you only adjust a tiny weeny little bit.

[pottr]

You shouldn't do it. Simple as that really even though everyone is guilty of it.

The second you find your aim, comfort or concentration has wavered from the shot, you should stand up and begin your pre-shot routine once more.

[Terry Davidson]

pottr is correct and so is nrage. To explain the term to those who don't understand it. You can see the pros doing this especially with a cut-back shot to a blind pocket and they will miss the pot when they do in most cases.

Micro-adjusting (I'm not sure if it was me that invented the term but I believe I used it first on here) is when a player selects his line of aim while standing behind the shot (correctly) and gets down straight into his address position (also correct) and then for any number of reasons he will feel he is not on the correct line of aim and you can detect just a very small movement in his hips either right or left which will move the line of aim of the cue a very tiny bit.

In most cases this will cause the pot to be missed, especially if it's a long pot or one to a closed pocket or as I said a cut-back shot to a closed pocket where accuracy down to around 1/8" is necessary.

I'm not sure of the reason for doing this and I've found that I do it from time to time and when I realize it I will stand back up (if I'm not too lazy). Some good players believe it's the spatial image we get when we are down on the cue and there may be some merit to this and players should check their sighting with the SightRight device if they can. Another cause might be because the player doesn't drop his head straight down into the address position, keeping the nose on the line of aim all the time and he therefore needs to make an adjustment when in the address position.

Bottom line...DO NOT MAKE MICRO-ADJUSTMENTS WHEN DOWN ON THE SHOT...end of story

Terry

[Siz]

Once younhave realised what you are doing, it is not too difficult to stop yourself from making conscious micro-adjustments, and instead get back up and reset.

But how do you stop yourself making unconscious micro-adjustments? This can be either while you are doing your practice strokes or when actually delivering the cue? This is the problem of 'steering' or 'not trusting your stroke', and does not seem to be an easy thing to crack.

Getting the aiming and alignment correct early in the set-up is crucial; and a consistent chest contact point can also be helpful. But is there anything else which you can do?

[Terry Davidson]

Siz:

You have to ask the basic question in order to get your answer. The basic question (and answer) is...Why does a player micro-adjust his aim in the first place? The obvious answer is he is not convinced he is on the correct line of aim when he gets down into the address position and sights along the cue (in other words there is some kind of difference between when he is standing up and AIMING and down on the table and SIGHTING.

If that is the correct answer then the solution must be to align both AIMING and SIGHTING so the player will see the same spatial target and there would be no need to adjust, either consciously or unconsciously. For those players who believe in the preferred eye solution to sighting then use of the SightRight device is warranted or if no device is available then they can try the solution of getting into the address position and adjusting their head by turning it (if they don't want to mess up their basic set-up) or else moving the cue to the right and left on their chin until they 'see' what they believe is correct however this second method comes at the cost of changing the basic set-up and there might have to be other adjustments to be made.

Terry

[Siz]

Terry,

Thanks for this. I think that you are absolutely spot-on that the root cause of the problem is the change in visual perception as you get down to the shot. I came to the same conclusion some time ago, but I have not managed to nail down the solution. There are 3 possibilities that I have been looking at:

The first two approaches try to get the eyes in perfect position:
1A) to somehow get down to the shot in such a way that the perception shift is minimised (eg Nick Barrows and others prescription of dropping straight down);
1B) as soon as you have got down and before allowing any movement of the cue, adjust your eye position so that the shot looks right (by shifting your chin sideways, tilting your head or turning it).

The third approach accepts the fact that you may sometimes fail to get your eyes in perfect position. Instead, it focuses on not letting the imperfection foul up your shot:
2) after getting down, try to ignore the visual information that you are getting in that position. Just trust your alignment.

I feel that the solutions lies in one or more of these areas. But I am not quite sure what it is. What do others think?

Regards

Siz

[throtts]

I find the shots where you make the most micro adjustments are the shots when the cue ball is close to the object ball. Sometimes your line just looks wrong when you get down, so I just get back up and re compose. It's so easy to not get back up because you can get lazy in practice, bad habit to promote..

[Siz]

I find the shots where you make the most micro adjustments are the shots when the cue ball is close to the object ball. Sometimes your line just looks wrong when you get down, so I just get back up and re compose. It's so easy to not get back up because you can get lazy in practice, bad habit to promote..

I agree. These sorts of shot can look very wong! As you say, you just need to get up and re compose. For this kind of shot, I find it helps to take extra care visualising the line from the contact point on the cb to the contact point on the ob as I get down. But after that it really is a case of ignoring what your eyes seem to be telling you once you are down on the shot.

[FerruleFox]

If you're making micro adjustments, you're not committed to the shot.


Stand up.

Find your line.

Get down and be committed to the shot you visualized in your head.

[FerruleFox]

Micro adjustments invite all kinds of negative feedback into your game. If the pot doesn't go in, you will know you're not sighting properly. Even worse, if the pot does go in, you'll want to move around on every shot. It's all bad news for your game.

[davipp]

Your first line of aim is your best one, micro adjusting especially on long pots, because your brain tells you it is not right is the hardest thing I find nowadays not to do.
Usually always when I micro adjust I miss and almost by what I adjusted by.

[renniwevarb]

I realise that individuals have a different feel for different kinds of shots.

For me the visual normally looks wrong for 1) blind cuts to black pockets, 2) cuts to middle pockets, 3) when cueball and object ball are very close together. It almost always looks too thick, despite being on the correct line of aim. Anyone feels the same?

So I tell myself to trust my preshot routine in getting down correctly on the line of aim, and pushing the cue straight through.

And yes, I'm still guilty of missing due to micro-adjusting. Need to instill the discipline to learn from mistakes in approaching the shot than to make this adjustment a bad habit that brings your game back a couple of notches.