Sighting vs aiming

[rimmer10]

stick up a vid to let us know where your at

Will do, gonna take the ipad with me when I go again next wednesday

[itsnoteasy]

yeh, i agree with tel because he's got some moves! i can suggest alan trigg to you on youtube and if you like what you hear thenwe can move on from there

Great vids these.

[j6uk]

well take the vid of you doing long blues, thats always very revealing as to what your doing

. Do I need to change my eye alignment for this exercise? Since I am not sighting purely with my left eye, more between my nose and my left eye, I cant really see the cue exactly over the baulk line. Only when I hold still and move my left eye over the cue can I determine if I'm over the line or not, if that makes any sense.

[rimmer10]

well take the vid of you doing long blues, thats always very revealing as to what your doing

Ok mate, thanks

[golferson123]

Terry do you mind if i drop one in here, i know you advise to not drop the elbow and i think its fair advice fore some but if you want to get some on it and need to get through the ball there is a real danger of hitting with the shoulder and this causes the elbow to fly out. I've always tried to give
Myself a bit of room so i can drop my elbow when i need to get through it some. Big danger i know sometimes you can hear the cue clatter the cush

[j6uk]

yes if your coming through to the chest your elbow can so called drop, but its nothing to worry about

[Terry Davidson]

Terry do you mind if i drop one in here, i know you advise to not drop the elbow and i think its fair advice fore some but if you want to get some on it and need to get through the ball there is a real danger of hitting with the shoulder and this causes the elbow to fly out. I've always tried to give
Myself a bit of room so i can drop my elbow when i need to get through it some. Big danger i know sometimes you can hear the cue clatter the cush

The problem with a player who only has a past high break of 24 is that dropping the elbow will lead to inconsistency. To explain...the brain will unconsciously rehearse what you're going to do on the delivery and if you start dropping the elbow on delivery it usually leads to having it 'creep up' and starts happening either at the time of strike or sometimes before that. It also leads to using the more powerful shoulder muscle in an attempt to get more power into the shot. After watching videos of myself I discovered I was actually delivering the cue using my shoulder muscle by dropping the elbow early in my delivery, especially under match pressure. (Of course I had lots of other problems too!)

If I have an experienced player who drops his elbow and the drop happens after the strike then there is no problem and no need to try and change that. A great example is Ronnie although I've noticed lately he's not dropping his elbow as much like he used to a few years ago

I have to say though since watching and analyzing Judd Trump's technique where he hardly ever drops the elbow but yet for sure gets a lot of power into the cueball and when he's on he is as accurate as anyone when using high power. It just 'looks right' to me and even with myself I find if I practice keeping the elbow up and not dropping it I've found my accuracy, especially with long pots with power, has increased dramatically which as you know sort of goes against the saying 'it's tough to teach an old dog new tricks'. In my case the 'old' certainly applies but as Joe Davis remarked in his book 'I still learn something new every day'.

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

. Do I need to change my eye alignment for this exercise? Since I am not sighting purely with my left eye, more between my nose and my left eye, I cant really see the cue exactly over the baulk line. Only when I hold still and move my left eye over the cue can I determine if I'm over the line or not, if that makes any sense.

If it looks better aligned to you with your left eye nearer the cue then by all means do it as you will feel more confident when sighting. I would recommend you turn your head though and keep the centre of the head on the line rather than changing your set-up by moving the cue over to the left side of your chin as this may lead to more alignment problems.

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

yes if your coming through to the chest your elbow can so called drop, but its nothing to worry about

I agree with this as long as the elbow drops after the strike then it's not a problem at all and we can see many good players doing this. If they believe it allows them to punch the cueball better using power especially then it's right for them.

If the elbow drops just before the back of the grip hand hits the chest then it's just not worth worrying about as it won't affect the shot.

Terry

[j6uk]

so, just hit from the elbow, its the key

[rimmer10]

If it looks better aligned to you with your left eye nearer the cue then by all means do it as you will feel more confident when sighting. I would recommend you turn your head though and keep the centre of the head on the line rather than changing your set-up by moving the cue over to the left side of your chin as this may lead to more alignment problems.

Terry

Thanks Terry
I'm gonna put a vid up of me trying to pot a few long blues as j6 suggested so you can actually see what's happening. I'm looking forward to all of your comments and suggestions.

[j6uk]

the so called puch shot is very handy and an important shot to have in the cabinet. as for dropping the elbow, again its nothing to worry about when you know its really all about how you time the shot.
if your learning the craft and not being a fake player like some on here then you'll know that timeing is the key

I agree with this as long as the elbow drops after the strike then it's not a problem at all and we can see many good players doing this. If they believe it allows them to punch the cueball better using power especially then it's right for them.

If the elbow drops just before the back of the grip hand hits the chest then it's just not worth worrying about as it won't affect the shot.

Terry

[rimmer10]

so, just hit from the elbow, its the key

This might sound like a stupid question j6, but is there any way of knowing exactly when you have dropped the elbow, I mean how do you know if you have dropped the elbow to early?

[j6uk]

who cares! listen, if your putting the time in into improving then you'll get to understand where and when you time the shot, but if your just in it for the fun and banter then wgaf! just enjoy it and take the good with the bad

This might sound like a stupid question j6, but is there any way of knowing exactly when you have dropped the elbow, I mean how do you know if you have dropped the elbow to early?

[golferson123]

The internet is an amazing place for information... But it makes us very lazy go out and find a club where there are good players, watch and learn, befriend them pick some balls out buy some drinks, we all mean well on here but seeing it in the flesh is far better. And as j6 says learn to enjoy it and have fun first because trust me as you get better it gets harder