How do you walk in on line of aim?

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

To answer your question...the only way I can think of to assure a player (note the terminology here) that he has his cue at the right spot between his eyes is to use the SightRight device. You can make a simple one of these things your self by drawing a straight line on a piece of paper and then folding it so the part nearest your eyes is above the part farther away. The bent up area should be no more than about 1.5" or so.

Then you get down into the address position and cue at the straight line on the raised portion and have a friend lift away another piece of paper which would have been covering the other lower part of the line. In the instant the second paper is taken away what do you see of the further away and lower line?

You then adjust your head by either turning or tilting until you see one solid line for both sections of the line.

However, no matter where you have the cue in relation to the eyes if you keep it consistently in one spot your brain will adjust to that quite easily. This is not a matter for any great concern. What is much more important is the alignment of the set-up at the address position and also keeping the eye on the object ball at the time of strike.

The other point is if you keep your head down and still until AFTER the completion of the delivery your brain receives the feedback it needs to get everything right

Terry

[j6uk]

sorry, i'm not terry! if you ain't guessed by now..
anyway listen, you only need to pivot the head fractionally, and you can still cue center chin when you have a dominant eye.

[mythman69]

sorry, i'm not terry! if you ain't guessed by now..
anyway listen, you only need to pivot the head fractionally, and you can still cue center chin when you have a dominant eye.

I was thinking about this today. Do you pivot your head when you are standing lining up the shot, before the walk-in or only as you get down on the shot? I am glad to hear this as I have always put the cue in the centre of my chin and was worried that it would be really hard to stop doing this.

Thanks Terry, opps, I mean j6uk.

[vmax4steve]

Here's how it works courtesy of Steve Davis. He's wrong about John Higgins though, closer to his left than his right so not bang in the middle.

[j6uk]

i say pivot, but this would work in tandem with the shoulders. you see many players will drop straight down according to their sighting. so for me im a lefty so my left shoulder and bridge hand will lead me into the shot.. you only need look at ron to see this in action.
snooker players do it too when they walk into a room, it sounds funny right?! but really, they may walk through like they're dropping onto the table, with the bridge hand shoulder as the lead.
bit like a boxer covering his chin

[j6uk]

when i say lefty i mean left eye dom! not that that's the main point. main point being that your not walking in with square shoulders at 9:15, its more like dropping down onto the table with the shoulders at 10:20

[Sidd]

We have already worked out Sidd that the reason you miss baby pots is because you take your eye off the object ball, either when lining up the pot or on the delivery of the cue, or both. No pot can be taken for granted no matter how easy it seems.

As for the dominant eye theory, well we have been through that minefield before and the conclusion seemed to be that yes indeed one eye is predominantly used to to put the cue on the line of aim, but not absolutely exclusively as many players have their cue close to one eye but not exactly right under it.
This is usually done by tilting or turning the head or standing in such a way that the head is not facing right down the line of aim but is turned away from it to enable the cue to be nearer one eye than the other. In my own case when playing a straight blue off its spot into the middle pocket on the green side of the table I (being a right hander left eye sighter) actually stand square on to the yellow pocket which gives me a boxer stance with my right foot slightly outside the line of aim. This is completely natural for me and I had no idea I did it until I looked into it.

I played great yesterday BTW while listening to my MP3 player and remembering to look at the object ball on the stroke. The secret of good snooker is putting the cue on the line of aim and keeping it there, and it's done simply by looking where you should be looking at the right time. Failing to do so means not having the cue on the line of aim in the first place, and the cue coming off the line of aim on the stroke, along with head and body movement to boot.

Or maybe the secret is listening to Dark Star's 'Twenty Twenty Sound' album when practising

Thanks.. and great... good that you found the mp3 player and THAT song carry on !

[Sidd]

when i say lefty i mean left eye dom! not that that's the main point. main point being that your not walking in with square shoulders at 9:15, its more like dropping down onto the table with the shoulders at 10:20

J6UK I am a lefty and have a left master eye... how do you suggest i go about it ?

I previously switched to square on stance to favour my left eye a bit but being a taller player that made me scoop in to the shot and i had to get back to boxer's in order to lay flat on the table... (was revealed by my video and suggested by Terry and Steve) ... and I achieved that with boxers and also a straightish bridge arm...

how do you suggest I should go about it??? perhaps tilting, and NOT turning, my head slightly towards the right and tucking it in to my right shoulder??? trying to have the ear lobe pressing against the shoulder ... something like that... ???

[Sidd]

Sidd:

To answer your question...the only way I can think of to assure a player (note the terminology here) that he has his cue at the right spot between his eyes is to use the SightRight device. You can make a simple one of these things your self by drawing a straight line on a piece of paper and then folding it so the part nearest your eyes is above the part farther away. The bent up area should be no more than about 1.5" or so.

Then you get down into the address position and cue at the straight line on the raised portion and have a friend lift away another piece of paper which would have been covering the other lower part of the line. In the instant the second paper is taken away what do you see of the further away and lower line?

You then adjust your head by either turning or tilting until you see one solid line for both sections of the line.

However, no matter where you have the cue in relation to the eyes if you keep it consistently in one spot your brain will adjust to that quite easily. This is not a matter for any great concern. What is much more important is the alignment of the set-up at the address position and also keeping the eye on the object ball at the time of strike.

The other point is if you keep your head down and still until AFTER the completion of the delivery your brain receives the feedback it needs to get everything right

Terry

Thanks Terry. Yes I agree that the biggest monster might be keeping eyes fixed on BOB at the time of strike... and also alignment of the set up .. I still have a good 4-6 inches gap in my grip hand and my left hip and that might also be something to correct... LEts see ... will go tonight and try to get in shape... !!!

[vmax4steve]

J6UK I am a lefty and have a left master eye... how do you suggest i go about it ?

I previously switched to square on stance to favour my left eye a bit but being a taller player that made me scoop in to the shot and i had to get back to boxer's in order to lay flat on the table... (was revealed by my video and suggested by Terry and Steve) ... and I achieved that with boxers and also a straightish bridge arm...

how do you suggest I should go about it??? perhaps tilting, and NOT turning, my head slightly towards the right and tucking it in to my right shoulder??? trying to have the ear lobe pressing against the shoulder ... something like that... ???

Make yourself a DIY sightright device and check out your alignment and make any adjustments neccessary to get your sighting in line with your cue alignment on the line of aim. It's simple enough and just needs a sheet of A4 paper with a straight line draw down the centre and a couple of folds put in it to give it a central step. Put something like a slim book under the first fold to keep it above the second fold and away you go.

Whoops ! as also suggested by Terry, didn't see that 'til after my post.

[j6uk]

J6UK I am a lefty and have a left master eye... how do you suggest i go about it ?

I previously switched to square on stance to favour my left eye a bit but being a taller player that made me scoop in to the shot and i had to get back to boxer's in order to lay flat on the table... (was revealed by my video and suggested by Terry and Steve) ... and I achieved that with boxers and also a straightish bridge arm...

how do you suggest I should go about it??? perhaps tilting, and NOT turning, my head slightly towards the right and tucking it in to my right shoulder??? trying to have the ear lobe pressing against the shoulder ... something like that... ???

okay sid,
so your obviously practicing right? yeah?? your back on tsf and looking to improve after what's gone before? no more slapping the balls around, no police raids, family sorted, and your settled with time to practice right?
lets crack on because i don't really enjoy writing and you've been playing for over 10year, so if you wanna get involved with me please give me my 15reds and we'll take it from there. are you alright with that fella?

[itsnoteasy]

Here's how it works courtesy of Steve Davis. He's wrong about John Higgins though, closer to his left than his right so not bang in the middle.

This sight rite thing do you really have to cover up the bottom bit?, wouldn't it work as well by getting down keeping the line as one and getting that ingrained as your approach . I know the idea behind the reveal, but if you want to practice it yourself you can't do that bit, but you can walk in keeping that line as one and get down keeping it as one and therefore be in the right place anyway.

[vmax4steve]

This sight rite thing do you really have to cover up the bottom bit?, wouldn't it work as well by getting down keeping the line as one and getting that ingrained as your approach . I know the idea behind the reveal, but if you want to practice it yourself you can't do that bit, but you can walk in keeping that line as one and get down keeping it as one and therefore be in the right place anyway.

Yes of course you can and that would be fine for a complete beginner, but for a seasoned player to know if he has been doing it wrong the bottom layer needs to be covered to show the difference.

[armstm]

One thing that's helped me with potting is to first with every shot find the imaginary line and then make sure your right hand is on this. Sounds simple but can help with your alignment and I try to not worry too much with stance. Once down freeze for a couple seconds to stop adjustments.

[cyberheater]

One thing that's helped me with potting is to first with every shot find the imaginary line and then make sure your right hand is on this. Sounds simple but can help with your alignment and I try to not worry too much with stance. Once down freeze for a couple seconds to stop adjustments.

Can you go into more detail exactly what you mean?