Aiming Issues

[Byrom]

Ramon is giving good advice - rather than practice those long blues I would much rather practice the simple stuff - often over looked -and keeping close control is actually harder than we all give it credit for -

If I work on this close control - I like doing simple routines working on the line trying not to move the ball around too much if possible -
practice routines around the pink and black spot is very good practice - the money zone around black n pink is where all the damage is done after all.

[vmax4steve]

Ramon is giving good advice - rather than practice those long blues I would much rather practice the simple stuff - often over looked -and keeping close control is actually harder than we all give it credit for -

This is Alabadi's achilles heel as he has mentioned before. It's no good practising straight shots when you have proven to yourself that you already have a straight enough action, when your real problem is recognising and potting angled cut shots around the black and pink spots.

Practising billiards top of the table game is also great practise for potting off the black spot and controlling the cue ball.
Put a red on the black spot and the yellow directly beneath it on the top cushion and play pot the red, cannon the yellow while setting up the red over the corner on alternating shots. The red can be potted twice in a row off it's spot and then a cannon must be played.
There's a few billiards videos on youtube that show how this is done, but don't expect it to be as easy as the top players make it look.

This may sound strange but playing the red off the black spot to miss it and leaving it over the corner while playing a cannon on the yellow does give more insight as to where the potting contact point on the ball on the black spot resides, and it will go into your memory bank. You can also learn how little traces of side can effect the pots and cannons and position of your cue ball off the top and side cushions as well as across the cloth when the cushions aren't used.

[sydneygeorge]

LB, after reading your first post I have applied what you were proposing and I have now managed to put an end to a very frustrating problem I had in addressing the ball & stance.
You have just helped me to move up a level !!
So many thanks for sharing your views.
Also please don't pay any attention to the people who try to denigrate your ideas, I am sure the vast majority of TSF members appreciate your time and your willingness to share your knowledge.

[j6uk]

LB, after reading your first post I have applied what you were proposing and I have now managed to put an end to a very frustrating problem I had in addressing the ball & stance.

what was your problem and how did you solve it george?

[vmax4steve]

Also please don't pay any attention to the people who try to denigrate your ideas, I am sure the vast majority of TSF members appreciate your time and your willingness to share your knowledge.

I wasn't denigrating his ideas, merely urging him to simplify one of them. To imagine a ghost ball as the cue ball in a future point in time is the same as looking at the contact point on the object ball. Apart from the out of the box description I agreed with him entirely, and said so.
The game is hard enough without having to imagine things.

[sydneygeorge]

what was your problem and how did you solve it george?

The problem was missing pots that we're not really that challenging, the frustration was that despite running the ball down the spots consistently I couldn't figure out what was happening, I tried different grip variations, speed, bridge length, elbow up,in, out, big toe on line of aim, instep on line of aim etc, still no consistent reliable result. Best ever in a game is 55 so far and that was 2 years ago.
By following LB's advice of walking square into the intended cue balls path using the ghost ball, I have found my potting has become reliable. Pots that I was missing in games play yesterday I was not missing today.
In taking the black of its spot ( around 1/4 ballish ) by picturing the ghost ball and walking in square to the projected path of the CB I find that I am actually aiming at a position that is different to what I did previously and in my case the results so far have been brilliant.
I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me feel to have a technique that is delivering a consistent result and how excited I am about breaking that 55.

[thelongbomber]

The problem was missing pots that we're not really that challenging, the frustration was that despite running the ball down the spots consistently I couldn't figure out what was happening, I tried different grip variations, speed, bridge length, elbow up,in, out, big toe on line of aim, instep on line of aim etc, still no consistent reliable result. Best ever in a game is 55 so far and that was 2 years ago.
By following LB's advice of walking square into the intended cue balls path using the ghost ball, I have found my potting has become reliable. Pots that I was missing in games play yesterday I was not missing today.
In taking the black of its spot ( around 1/4 ballish ) by picturing the ghost ball and walking in square to the projected path of the CB I find that I am actually aiming at a position that is different to what I did previously and in my case the results so far have been brilliant.
I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me feel to have a technique that is delivering a consistent result and how excited I am about breaking that 55.

Absolutely wonderful to hear. I'm quite sure that a significant portion of shots are missed simply by not standing in the right place to start. You can see this much more pronounced on people starting to learn. They walk around the table without addressing the angle properly. Seeing a ghost ball and understanding the contact point and then projecting an accurate line between CB and the contact point (ghost ball) is an excellent improvement and will create more consistency and hopefully higher breaks. Isn't it astounding how just this one change makes you see the angles differently now?

Something you can try, but it's much more difficult to master and highly controversial it seems: I have taken this concept a step further in my game by also focusing a lot more energy and "eye-time" on just the cue ball. As I feather, I actually see the cue ball travelling visually from its present location, down the imaginary line, and making contact on the object ball. This helps me "see it". In order to "feel it", I listen to my back hand and use hand/eye coordination. This tells me if the cue ball is going to go where I imagine it will. On final strike, I time my eye movement so that my eyes flick up to the contact point (ghost ball same thing) in concert with my cue coming through for final delivery.

If you ever reach a "zen state" where everything goes in and you are "in the zone", you may find that almost all of your mental energy is being focused on the cue ball once you understand the intricacies of this method. A common saying is the "the pockets seem to get bigger" when you are playing well. Whats actually happening is that you are no longer really aiming the object ball to go into the pocket because you already feel that its in. Every once in a while, you can catch Ronnie almost exclusively looking at the cue ball. This insight inspired me to discover the method I describe. Even when I'm not in the zone, I have also found that in the short game, I can get away with barely looking at the object ball at all as I have already done the bulk of my aiming from the standing position as you discovered. Taking this risk allows me to have very precise cue ball control because I'm able to be much more mindful of how I strike the cue ball (since I spend so much time feathering and staring at it). I can pot a lot of balls this way in the short game without sacrificing the pot (the pockets are designed to have some margin of error anyway).

There is much more to what I describe, but I'm happy to hear at least one aspect is working for you

[thelongbomber]

I wasn't denigrating his ideas, merely urging him to simplify one of them. To imagine a ghost ball as the cue ball in a future point in time is the same as looking at the contact point on the object ball. Apart from the out of the box description I agreed with him entirely, and said so.
The game is hard enough without having to imagine things.

Yes, I agree and thanks for clarifying vmax. I actually believe we have the same ideas in mind, I just see it a little bit differently. Perhaps visualization is something I use more than the average player. One of my reasons for trying to bring more awareness to the ghost ball is that it makes players realize that the contact point isn't a small point but a spherical surface. I think beginners can actually aim their cue into the contact point without realizing that would actually be the wrong angle completely (not compensating for cue ball width). I discovered a few years ago, when I was told by one of my m8s that I needed to truly appreciate center ball striking. He said I was using things like helping side, and throwing balls in when I thought for sure, I wasn't. Once I paid attention to the cue ball width as part of my aiming, then I realized how off a lot of my visualized angles were.

[itsnoteasy]

Absolutely wonderful to hear. I'm quite sure that a significant portion of shots are missed simply by not standing in the right place to start. You can see this much more pronounced on people starting to learn. They walk around the table without addressing the angle properly. Seeing a ghost ball and understanding the contact point and then projecting an accurate line between CB and the contact point (ghost ball) is an excellent improvement and will create more consistency and hopefully higher breaks. Isn't it astounding how just this one change makes you see the angles differently now?

Something you can try, but it's much more difficult to master and highly controversial it seems: I have taken this concept a step further in my game by also focusing a lot more energy and "eye-time" on just the cue ball. As I feather, I actually see the cue ball travelling visually from its present location, down the imaginary line, and making contact on the object ball. This helps me "see it". In order to "feel it", I listen to my back hand and use hand/eye coordination. This tells me if the cue ball is going to go where I imagine it will. On final strike, I time my eye movement so that my eyes flick up to the contact point (ghost ball same thing) in concert with my cue coming through for final delivery.

If you ever reach a "zen state" where everything goes in and you are "in the zone", you may find that almost all of your mental energy is being focused on the cue ball once you understand the intricacies of this method. A common saying is the "the pockets seem to get bigger" when you are playing well. Whats actually happening is that you are no longer really aiming the object ball to go into the pocket because you already feel that its in. Every once in a while, you can catch Ronnie almost exclusively looking at the cue ball. This insight inspired me to discover the method I describe. Even when I'm not in the zone, I have also found that in the short game, I can get away with barely looking at the object ball at all as I have already done the bulk of my aiming from the standing position as you discovered. Taking this risk allows me to have very precise cue ball control because I'm able to be much more mindful of how I strike the cue ball (since I spend so much time feathering and staring at it). I can pot a lot of balls this way in the short game without sacrificing the pot (the pockets are designed to have some margin of error anyway).

There is much more to what I describe, but I'm happy to hear at least one aspect is working for you

Totally agree with this LB.

[sealer]

interesting

[tedisbill]

I dread to think how devastating this forum is to some people. They were just sorting their game out and getting the basics right, then they come on here and read some of this!

[Borselino]

I dread to think how devastating this forum is to some people. They were just sorting their game out and getting the basics right, then they come on here and read some of this!

Look mate your a good player there nowt u gonna learn off here I was you improved by now your looking for answers of people who are looking for answers themselves. Belief is the key have you ever seen wwe BOLIEVE lol

[Byrom]

I dread to think how devastating this forum is to some people. They were just sorting their game out and getting the basics right, then they come on here and read some of this!

You not feeling it?

zen state it man get with the program - look at the cue ball - imagine the ghost ball and most importantly

[thelongbomber]

I dread to think how devastating this forum is to some people. They were just sorting their game out and getting the basics right, then they come on here and read some of this!

Change is good. Change is necessary. All great changes are preceded by chaos.

[alabadi]

The problem was missing pots that we're not really that challenging, the frustration was that despite running the ball down the spots consistently I couldn't figure out what was happening, I tried different grip variations, speed, bridge length, elbow up,in, out, big toe on line of aim, instep on line of aim etc, still no consistent reliable result. Best ever in a game is 55 so far and that was 2 years ago.
By following LB's advice of walking square into the intended cue balls path using the ghost ball, I have found my potting has become reliable. Pots that I was missing in games play yesterday I was not missing today.
In taking the black of its spot ( around 1/4 ballish ) by picturing the ghost ball and walking in square to the projected path of the CB I find that I am actually aiming at a position that is different to what I did previously and in my case the results so far have been brilliant.
I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me feel to have a technique that is delivering a consistent result and how excited I am about breaking that 55.

i think you and me are similar in many ways, i have proven that i can hit center ball and cue straight as my up and down the spots proves, however my consistency when i'm among the balls is shocking. and its not like i miss the difficult shots a lot of times its the easier ones.

i don't think its a case of technique either, what i think is like you i haven't found a consistent way to line up the shot or put in other ways getting myself on the line of aim.

i have read LongBomber comments about ghost ball in a future position, however i can't do that consistently, i find it hard to imagine something that is not there. so i look at BOB contact point. i think i have a problem either selecting the correct contact point or i haven't yet found a way to get myself lined up correctly to send the cueball to that point consistently.