Sighting The Ball

[nrage]

At what point in the action nurse?

At these points;
1. as you walk in/down onto the shot
2. at the moment when the cue is at the full back position before delivery
3. at the moment the cue tip strikes the ball

[j6uk]

By saying 'the cue stays on the line of aim' means that you will cue straight? And looking at the lob will help you cue straight?
But hasn't the line of aim gone as soon as you've dropped down onto the shot?

Not that I know the technical/medical terminology but something like eye/hand coordination. My old driving instructor said look where you want to go and your hands will automatically unconsciously do what is necassary to the steering to get to there. Same I believe with the cue being delivered straight if you focus on where you want the cue ball to go.

[j6uk]

Please do refer to my first post #18
Its nothing new what I do

I'd of thought you'd know exactly what I'm saying, know what I mean? I would of thought, being a maximan that, you'd have my game down! Just like, I know your game

j6uk:

Answer to your post #23:

Your eyes and the cue will be looking at the same point ONLY with a dead-in pot. Anything else would have the eyes still looking at BOB but the cue line of aim offset. If you have a very thin cut shot your eyes would look at the edge of the object ball but the cue would be pointed nearly a 1/2 ball width outside the object ball.

Answer to your post #24:

As nrage has asked...'where do you look as you cue?' or in other words where are your eyes looking when you are sighting along the cue? Your eyes should be looking at BOB but your cue's line of aim will be off-set from BOB by anything up to half a ball's width.

You have a fine cut into the top pocket to your left. Your eyes will be looking at the edge of the object ball but your cue will be aimed virtually 1/2 ball width to the outside of the object ball to the right as you are attempting to have the edge of the cueball contact the very edge of the object ball. If you attempted to focus your eyes along the line of aim of the cue you would be looking either at a molecule of air or else a point on the cushion.

Is that a little more clear for you? Perhaps you are the rare type of player who is able to focus on the line of aim of the cue rather than the object ball but I'd be willing to bet that you do the same as the rest of us and focus the eyes on the object ball.

Terry

[j6uk]

Yes well that would be ob before back pause

At these points;
1. as you walk in/down onto the shot
2. at the moment when the cue is at the full back position before delivery
3. at the moment the cue tip strikes the ball

[nrage]

By saying 'the cue stays on the line of aim' means that you will cue straight?

Yes, by definition. If the cue stays on the line of aim, and the line of aim is straight, then you have cued straight.

And looking at the lob will help you cue straight?

That's the theory. Do you have an alternate theory to share?

But hasn't the line of aim gone as soon as you've dropped down onto the shot?

No. Why would it? It's still there, you're still pointing the cue down it.

The theory is that as long as you keep your eyes on the BOB/contact point that you want to hit then your brain will do the necessary gymnastics to put the white into the position to hit it.

In a similar way you can parallel park a car - not by looking at the empty space some distance off the curb where you will physically end up, but by aiming the edge of the car at the edge of the road and estimating the offset from your viewing position.

[nrage]

Yes well that would be ob before back pause

What part of the ob?

[j6uk]

The line of aim can not be changed when you drop unless you get back up so, tloa is your feet imho

[j6uk]

What part of the ob?

What ever part set my loa/feet to

[richy cook]

i can relate to that.
remember my first few driving lessons just concentrating on looking at the bonnet and the car would waver from side to side.
when i started just looking at the road ahead it was so easy.

[j6uk]

The aiming is done standing and mirroring the back swing is cueing straight..but what do I know

Yes, by definition. If the cue stays on the line of aim, and the line of aim is straight, then you have cued straight.



That's the theory. Do you have an alternate theory to share?



No. Why would it? It's still there, you're still pointing the cue down it.

The theory is that as long as you keep your eyes on the BOB/contact point that you want to hit then your brain will do the necessary gymnastics to put the white into the position to hit it.

In a similar way you can parallel park a car - not by looking at the empty space some distance off the curb where you will physically end up, but by aiming the edge of the car at the edge of the road and estimating the offset from your viewing position.

[Terry Davidson]

j6uk:

In answer to your post #18...It was Steve Davis who said 'you don't pot the balls with your feet' and I'll have to agree with Steve as you pot the balls with your grip hand and nothing else. Having good alignment I will agree is important but it isn't the most important thing as there have some pretty good players who didn't have what's considered the 'ideal' alignment.

My other posts related to your questions regarding keeping the cue on the line of aim or you not understanding the line of aim of the cue is always off-set from BOB except for straight in shots. If you don't want answers to your questions then don't ask the bloody questions in the first place or at least explain why you disagree with the answers I'm giving as you seem to be incapable of doing that and also put up some 'feel good' replies that don't help other players at all as they contain no information at all

Terry

[j6uk]

Please do tall me were you got the quote, Steve said you pot balls with your grip and nothing else?

j6uk:

In answer to your post #18...It was Steve Davis who said 'you don't pot the balls with your feet' and I'll have to agree with Steve as you pot the balls with your grip hand and nothing else. Having good alignment I will agree is important but it isn't the most important thing as there have some pretty good players who didn't have what's considered the 'ideal' alignment.

Terry

[j6uk]

Well as you know the loa has disappeared once you hit the table because you are then over tloa. Now its time to play the shot ahead of you, be it 1/2, 1/4 or thinner.
Why so techy with me?

Still ain't had my post #21 that started this answered yet but, I understand why

j6uk:
My other posts related to your questions regarding keeping the cue on the line of aim or you not understanding the line of aim of the cue is always off-set from BOB except for straight in shots. If you don't want answers to your questions then don't ask the bloody questions in the first place or at least explain why you disagree with the answers I'm giving as you seem to be incapable of doing that and also put up some 'feel good' replies that don't help other players at all as they contain no information at all

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

j6uk:

Steve said 'you don't pot balls with your feet' and I put that in quotation marks so you would know. I said you pot with the grip (and forearm of course).

I'll take a look at #21 and see what you asked.

By the way, what does 'loa' mean? Line of aim? (Do you mean the cue's line of aim? What does 'tloa' mean? I've never seen or heard tloa (the line of aim?) before.

The reason I get techy with you is you don't provide any reasons or answers for people to learn from and yet you disagree with a lot of the post of those who are trying to help like myself and nrage. The post above, #43, is a prime example of a whole lot of nothing, or as I said before, you give 'a whole lot of feathers and not much chicken'.

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

j6uk:

In post #21 you asked...'I'm not with you. Why would looking at the contact point on the ob keep your cue on line? Who said so?'

Keeping the eyes on the contact point (or the centre of the ghost cueball-same thing) is what every coach (including myself) says and this includes the top coaches in the world. It's simple hand-eye coordination combined with the brain unconsciously determining the correct off-set and therefore the correct line of aim of the cue. I believe it's commonly called hand-eye coordination.

Do you have another method? If so, you were already asked that by nrage and never did respond to that question posed to you. The only other option I can think of is you look at the cueball at the time of strike however using this method takes away the object ball reference point you originally used for aiming.

So I'll ask again...if you don't agree with keeping the eyes on the object ball at the time of strike then what method do you use to run all those centuries you talked about previously?

Also I really disagree with your statement...'Well as you know the loa (presume Line Of Aim?) has disappeared once you hit the table because you are then over tloa' (? I have no idea what 'tloa' means but the line of aim does not disappear when the bridge hand hits the table. If you drop your head straight down you will still be on the line of aim and you can still see BOB or ghost cueball or arc or whatever you use to sight along the cue when in the address position. It's not rocket science and every player does it and I'll bet you look at the object ball on most shots too.

Terry