sighting the line of aim

[stebbo]

Please can anybody give me any tips on how they sight the line of aim?
I know your aimingstarts standing behind the cueball I just dont know what I'm looking for.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

[SouthPaw]

Please can anybody give me any tips on how they sight the line of aim?
I know your aimingstarts standing behind the cueball I just dont know what I'm looking for.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Basically i stand well behind and pick out an imaginary plant ball on the object ball, you should stand in the middle of your line to hit that plant so to speak, then walk into the shot whilst still looking at your imaginary ball, address the cue ball whilst placing straight leg foot on your line, in theory your nose, chin, foot and cue should now be on that line, then do your routine and hopefully the pot sinks...

[Byrom]

I am going to try answering this using my technique for doing it - probably wrong but here goes.

The object ball only goes in a straight line after contact with the white so basically imagine a line from the object ball to the part of the pocket you want it to go - imagine this line going straight through the object ball to the part of the pocket you want to send it (I find this hard so I imagine tram lines instead) Imagining these lines running through the object ball to the part of the pocket I am aiming at helps me pick out the area on the object ball the white needs to contact to pot the ball.

Then the hard part is sending the white to the correct contact point using whatever side spin top or bottom or plain ball 'preferably' I need to gain position on the next shot - in general by doing this it helps guide me to the contact point which will be the furthest point away from the part of the pocket you are aiming at every time somewhere on the middle of the front face of the object ball.
So imagining these tram lines running from the pocket through the object ball helps me pick out a area on the front face of the object ball to hit.

Now it does get more complicated to explain here because.

Sometimes mainly on cut shots 'quarter ball' etc., you cant find this contact point as good as you are not aiming your cue at the object ball so on these shots it helps me if I visualise a plant e.g. I imagine the white ball sat in a direct line with the object ball and the pocket - This is referred to as the ghost ball technique by many coaches and I heard many coaches who will tell you to aim for the centre of this imaginary white ball plant to make the pot. I find this advice is slightly flawed as I find the ball can throw off thick on contact on this type of shot and so I have found that on this type of shot I aim fractionally thinner or use some helping side.

Lol now I am confusing myself so I am going to stop - better asking a proper coach like that Terry fella or Chris Small.

Thing is try and set up some routines to repeat the angles to help make them ingrained and keep repeating them and set yourself some targets to monitor your own improvement. I kind of do it naturally now you see and its harder to describe it than actually do it but I found in the early days of playing that all the potting angles repeat themselves all over the table and you get more used to playing them instinctively the more you play.

[Byrom]

Here found this for you too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLjSlHr38dc

[nrage]

This is referred to as the ghost ball technique by many coaches and I heard many coaches who will tell you to aim for the centre of this imaginary white ball plant to make the pot. I find this advice is slightly flawed as I find the ball can throw off thick on contact on this type of shot and so I have found that on this type of shot I aim fractionally thinner or use some helping side.

To account for object ball throw you can, as you say, adjust the line of aim by playing it thinner (or using throw to achieve the same thing). But, you could instead have adjusted the target of the pot. Instead of aiming for the center of the pocket, aim more for the nearer jaw - for example, then you just play the new line of aim for that pot instead.

[nrage]

Here found this for you too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLjSlHr38dc

That video is .. ok, he confuses his terms a bit and it's not clear whether he is suggesting you point the tip of the cue at the impact point, or (correctly) to the right of it (in this example). I think this stems from the fact that most people don't (need to) understand the geometry consciously, the brain figures out the cue/line of aim offset from the contact point (BOB) automagically.

For my part I aim by finding the BOB spot either by recognising it from the angle I see behind the white, or by going round and looking from the object ball to the pocket. Then I let my brain determine the offset my cue needs to use to make the white hit that spot. I try to let my unconscious mind do this, in the same way I let my unconscious mind catch a ball. I still consciously move my body around and onto the line of aim suggested by my unconscious mind, but I do not consciously attempt to measure the offset of the cue or anything like that.

Understanding the geometry and what is actually going on wont help you pot, because trying to do those measurements consciously is overthinking it, IMO.

But it's interesting nonetheless so here goes..

The spot on the object ball directly opposite the target (ignoring throw effects for simplicity) is the impact point the white needs to hit to pot the ball. This spot is commonly called the (B)ack (O)f (B)all spot.

On any angled pot...

The BOB spot is not on the line of aim. The line of aim is the line the white travels down to hit that spot. The line of aim is the line you want to put your cue on. Because balls are spherical, the point on the white which actually impacts the object ball is not the center, but is on one side (relative to the direction of travel).

Because the balls are the same size, the spot on the white which strikes the object ball is actually an exact mirror of the spot on the object ball which is hit. So, if the spot on the object balls looks (from behind the white) to be 1/2 way between the center and left edge of the object ball, the spot on the white which needs to hit it will be 1/2 way between the center and the right edge of the white.

If you line those 2 points up, so they are touching, and look at this arrangement from the point where the white started out you will see the white covers 1/2 the object ball. That is why this is called a 1/2 ball shot. You will also notice that if you draw the line of aim from where the white started, to where it is now and continue on through you will see the line touches the edge of the object ball. This is a useful fact, if you can recognise a shot as being 1/2 ball you can point your cue at the edge of the object ball and pot it.

[humperdingle]

That video is .. ok, he confuses

I'm sure he's a very good player, but he says in about 1,000 words what he probably could have in just a few.

[Byrom]

Yeah well if anyone has a better example they can feel free to post it. It was all I could find sorry

excuse me for trying to help - wont happen again.

[nrage]

Yeah well if anyone has a better example they can feel free to post it. It was all I could find sorry

excuse me for trying to help - wont happen again.

No-one was complaining about you/what you did. I also tried to find a better video, and failed. I don't think there is one which covers all the details - but then, people might not want that.

[humperdingle]

Yeah well if anyone has a better example they can feel free to post it. It was all I could find sorry

excuse me for trying to help - wont happen again.

Don't be a big girl

The 'critisism', if that, was to the video, not your post.

[Byrom]

ha ha. no its too late I have gone in off on the black and spat my dummy out now sniff. I'm sticking to telling bad jokes on the forum - leave this coaching stuff to the experts.

[mythman69]

ha ha. no its too late I have gone in off on the black and spat my dummy out now sniff. I'm sticking to telling bad jokes on the forum - leave this coaching stuff to the experts.

Nah, you can always chuck in your 5 cents worth . . . other may sometimes add a bit more value but it is still good to get different views on snooker stuff. As long as you don't mind a bit of criticism occasionally then it is all good.

[SouthPaw]

Haha this thread certainly livened up =p... Jack Karnehm explains well the concept of sighting and line of aim in understanding modern
snooker. His scenes on the dvd used to be on Youtube and it would have been perfect for this thread. When i have time i may upload the dvd in sections...

[humperdingle]

Haha this thread certainly livened up =p... Jack Karnehm explains well the concept of sighting and line of aim in understanding modern
snooker. His scenes on the dvd used to be on Youtube and it would have been perfect for this thread. When i have time i may upload the dvd in sections...

I was just watching that again last night - I don't think I fully understood the 1st time watching it, because I was newly into the game again and there was a lot to take in.

Looking back at the sections again, I was thinking "Aah right", as little snippets clicked.

[cantpotforshíte]

Haha this thread certainly livened up =p... Jack Karnehm explains well the concept of sighting and line of aim in understanding modern
snooker. His scenes on the dvd used to be on Youtube and it would have been perfect for this thread. When i have time i may upload the dvd in sections...

Here t'is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP4RvZJMPd8