How to Aim Pool Shots, Billiard Training, Intellectual Tutorial

hello my name is Bob welcome to a short stop on pool recently I published a YouTube video called top 10 reasons your aiming system sucks so it's only fair that I make a complimentary video about how you should aim this video contains a blend of experience from my 40 Years of playing pool along with knowledge learned over the years from countless players Pros instructors books and videos that said I actually cannot teach you how to aim huh what I can do is teach you how to teach yourself to aim oh this video is not shortstop Bob's aiming system rather it is a description of how and when aiming fits into the entire shop making process different people learn in different ways and at different points in their pool career my Approach is probably more intellectual than most but I'm sure that every player can get something out of this video first I'll talk about the pool shot and why we miss then the process of shot making and how aiming fits into that process next is the discussion of the half ball hit and why that's important then I'll talk about how to find the aiming point and finally is my advice about how to practice aiming take a look at this shot by Pro Player Jason Shaw awkward lay of the ball oh what a shot that was when someone authoritatively Pockets a very difficult shot people say what the announcer in this clip said oh what a shot that was so is it the difficulty of pocketing a ball that makes a great pool shot how about this shot by Pro Player Cory duel what's he going to do here Jim it's a very difficult shot whoa what was that that was a very difficult ball to pocket as well but I think the commotion on this shot was over the qball action pool players can be very loose with their definitions of pool related terms and I'm not going to change that but for the purposes of this video I think it's important to point out that the result of every pool shot has two components where did the object ball go and where did the Q ball go aiming is not about the results of a pool shot aiming is about finding the aim point that will pocket the object ball and aligning your body and Q stick to that point well that's obvious you might say and I know but it's really important to separate aiming from shot making players naturally want to blame missed shots on faulty aiming when in reality the number one reason for any missed shot is a stroke delivery defect even if your Q stick is aligned with the aiming point you still have to stroke the Q stick smoothly and straight at that aiming Point other causes for Miss shots are related to stance and that might include head and eye alignment body and feet position missed shots can also will be caused by failing to compensate for side spin cling throw deflection shot speed mental issues can contribute to miss shots such as loss of focus lack of concentration perception issues and of course finally perhaps you weren't aimed at the correct point this video deals specifically with how to find the aiming point but remember that aiming is just one part of an entire shot making process and until you're able to confidently and consistently stroke the Q stick straight you cannot blame your aim for a missed shot before I start describing that process let's just review a few pool shot definitions the ball you're attempting to pocket is called the object ball a line through the center of the object ball that is pointing at the pocket you want the object ball to go in is called the shotline an imaginary ball that is on the shotline and touching the object ball is called a ghost ball if any other ball such as a q ball hits the object ball at the ghost ball position the object ball will go in the pocket and so we call the point where the ghost ball and the object ball are touching the contact point because that's the point that the Q ball needs to contact the object ball to make it go in the pocket from whatever angle the Q ball approaches the object ball as long as the center of the CU ball is lined up with the center of the ghost ball the object ball will go in the pocket this line is the aim line along which your Q stick is pointed where the aim line touches the object ball is called the aim point though for thin cuts the aim point is in space to the side of the object ball finally align through the center of the ghost ball that is 90° to The Shot line and pointing in a direction away from the QQ ball approach angle is called the tangent line the Q ball always travels along the tangent line after leaving the object ball without exception although the Q ball can be deflected away from the tangent line path often very quickly after leaving the object ball when you strike the Q ball other than in the direct Center because the aim and contact points are in different places except for straight in shots most pool players find aiming a tricky task to learn one reason that I think many players have trouble is because of a miscategorization of aim lines take a look at this shot most pool players would look at those two QQ ball positions and consider them to be the same shot but let's put the ghost ball in the image and then draw an aim line from each Q ball to the ghost ball you can see that the aim line is different even though the object ball hasn't moved and so the cut angle for each of those C Ball locations is different it doesn't matter if you feel that you're unable to visualize the ghost ball position just remember that the cut angle for every shot is measured measured through the ghost ball not through the object ball we'll look at that more closely in the half ball hit section of this video human beings have invented lots of games that are played with balls most games require you to touch the ball with your hand or your foot but with some games you use a tool every single one of these games requires a complex movement of multiple body parts or muscle groups except except for one the game of pool actually has more in common with two activities that don't use a ball archery and target shooting all three of these disciplines require the practitioner to remain perfectly still and then execute one single simple body movement well that's very interesting you might say but what does that have to do with aiming aiming isn't just knowing where to hit the ball it's about aligning your body and Q with the shot remaining perfectly still and delivering the queue perfectly straight at the aiming Point while fundamentals are not the topic of this video a discussion of aiming has to mention straight Q delivery and Alignment watch me shoot this thin three ball cut shot first I align my que but it's not pointed anywhere near the aiming point after I get down on the shot my accustick is pointed to the other side of the aiming point watch my Q-tip when I stroke the shot good shot the ball went in the pocket right watching slow motion as my Q-tip swings to the left when I shoot the shot the Q ball does arrive at the ghost ball position but the unintended outside English is probably what threw the object ball to the outside of the pocket now pay attention to the alignment and stroke delivery for this three ball cut shot only when the ball is pocketed cleanly and your stroke delivery is straight can you even judge whether or not you were aimed correctly this is why if any aiming system requires you to move your AC stick around either before or after you get down on the shot you should two more quick points before I present the half ball hit take a look at Jason Shaw getting ready to shoot this nineball the aim Point Q ball grip hand head and foot are all in alignment that is they are all in the same vertical plane this is because aiming happens while you are standing up before you get down on the shot for too many years I thought that aiming is what you did when you were down on the Q Ball but your warm-up Strokes are only for checking the Q-tip position speed of shot verifying your aim and rehearsing a straight stroke delivery now let's take a look at the half ball hit let's return to our shot definition diagram and let's take a look at the angles this drawing actually represents a cut angle of exactly 30° and when you have a cut angle of 30° the aim Line running through the center of the Q ball is pointed directly at the edge of the object ball we call this shot a half ball hit because from the point of view of the shooter half of the Q ball covers half of the object ball I've always found this to be a very interesting property of the trigonometry having to do with circles but actually it is the foundation shot when learning how to aim cut shots in pool let's go to the pool table no one needs to learn how to shoot a straight end shot they just need to learn how to stroke their Q stick straight that's because the straightend shot is a cut angle of 0 Dees here's the 30° cut angle for comparison the majority of shots that you play in your entire pool pool career will be between 0 and 30° to most players these are considered the easiest shots in pool probably because your Q stick is always pointed at a portion of the object ball and because the pocket that you're aiming at is usually within your peripheral vision shots that are twice as thin that is between 30 and 60° represent the limit of cut shots that most people would feel comfortable attempting during a competition that really matters Beyond 30° your Q-tip is going to be pointed into empty space next to the object ball and the pocket is likely to be outside of your peripheral vision you might think that the Inside Edge of the Q ball would line up with the outside edge of the object ball for a 60° cut shot but that's not how the trigonometry Works in fact that's true for a 75° cut angle and so here you see represented the three types of shots that are going to make up 99% of every shot that you shoot in your entire pool career typical cut shots from 0 to 30° where your Q-tip is pointed at a portion of the object ball thin cut shots from 30 to 60° where your Q-tip is pointed beyond the object ball and extra thin cut shots which are up to 15° farther than that it's possible to cut balls even thinner than that but those types of specialty and trick shots are beyond the scope of this video cutting Balls to the right should look the same as cutting Balls to the left assuming that your vision center is properly aligned Vision Center again is beyond the scope of this video we'll mention shooting to the left and the right during the how to practice portion of this video before I talk about how to find the aim Point let's look at some common shots on the pool table and the issues of precision and accuracy here's a typical cut shot showing 60° in the range of cut angles 30° to the right and 30° to the left you'll often hear me claim that aiming is easy and that's because most of your shots are going to be a half ball hit or less so when you're aiming any of these shots your Q stick is always pointed at some portion of the object ball here's a cut shot that many players find very difficult to aim until that is you realize that most of the angles you're going to attempt are between 0 and 30 ° even the 45° cut angle which is fairly thin is just 15° more than 30 and when you able to visualize it in that way it becomes easier to see the aim point which is just a little bit past the edge of the object ball I've heard many players claim that a Spot Shot is exactly a half ball hit when the Q ball is placed one Diamond away from the side rail along the headring but according to my pool table diagram which which is drawn to scale that just may not be the case rail shots when the object ball is close to but not frozen to the rail are also a challenge for many players Until you realize that many of the angles we attempt these shots at happen to be more than 30° and your Q-tip needs to be pointed past the edge of the object ball how far past the object ball do you need to aim well that's a subjective perception that you're going to have to learn during practice but this diet diagram gives you an approximation based on the width of a typical Q shaft finally let's take a look at our simple 30° half ball hit cut shot again notice that when the Q ball and object ball are located farther from the pocket accuracy becomes more critical these lines indicate how inaccurate your hit can be on the one ball and still pocket the ball compare those lines to those for the 15 ball many players caution themselves to aim carefully when the object ball is a long distance from the pocket but I suggest a different tactic when you begin practicing your shorter cut shots train yourself to focus and aim the ball at the exact center of the pocket when that becomes a habit then when you begin shooting longer and longer shots it doesn't take additional effort to shoot the longer shot because that type of accuracy is already a habit for you now consider these Q balls lined up in a row each of these shots needs to strike the one ball with the same accuracy in order to pocket the one however the farther the Q ball is located from the object ball the more precise your Q-tip position on the Q ball needs to be as well as the straightness of your stroke in order to hit the aiming point on the one ball when practicing your aiming it's important to not lump all long shots together when the Q ball is a long distance from the object ball the shot requires more Precision that's your Q-tip position on the Q Ball but when the object ball is a long distance from the pocket you need to be careful with your accuracy how accurate are you aiming at the object ball aim Point there's one final lesson to be learned from this diagram all four of the object balls shown are a 30° cut shot and that's because the Q ball is parallel to the long rail in relationship to the ghost ball this 30° parallel line extends from every corner pocket to the vicinity of the first diamond on the opposite long rail practicing your half ball hit cut shots along this 30° parallel line is going to help you to recognize your half ball hits when they appear at other angles Elsewhere on the table and when the line from the ghost ball through the Q ball is not parallel to the rail you can use this line to estimate whether it's greater than or less than 30° okay aiming is easy when you divide your shots into those that are less than a half ball hit and greater than a half ball hit but how do you find those aiming points in the old days if you asked an Oldtimer in the pool hall how do you learn how to aim they might answer hit a million balls kid and then walk away well what does a million balls even look like I mean there's 15 balls in a rack 10 racks would be 150 balls 100 racks is is500 balls 1,000 racks would be 15,000 balls 10,000 racks is 150,000 balls and seven of those puts you over a million for the record if you are somehow able to shoot 100 racks per day it would take you almost 2 years to shoot a million balls no matter how you look at it that's a lot of balls this is referred to as the brute force method of learning and there's got to be a better way our Oldtimer might have told you to play for your money Kid ah the Do or Die strategy well I have no doubt there are many pros and champions of days past who learned by these methods what they really amount to is a random and results oriented learning method basically what they are saying is if you make the ball you did it right and this just isn't true there's actually four possibilities you can aim wrong and miss the ball you could aim correctly and miss the ball you could aim wrong and make the ball or you could aim correctly and make the ball whether you miss the ball or make it the result does not tell you whether or not you aimed correctly only when your aim and your fundamentals the process are done correctly and you make the ball are you beginning to learn in a way that can be repeated during competition in my opinion process oriented training rather than results-based training is is the quickest way to achieve meaningful and consistent results let's get started step number one learn to stroke straight learning to stroke straight involves many aspects of your fundamentals which is beyond the scope of this video and they can actually take months and years to perfect but it's something that the beginning player starts to learn immediately there's several ways to test just how straight you're stroking the ball shoot a ball from the spot and make it come back to your tip look at how the shaft of your queue moves in relationship to the line on the table or the spot on the rail this way you can learn what a straight stroke feels like shoot the ball hard to make it come straight back this one is not easy double kiss the Q ball straight back off another ball without a straight stroke delivery El matter number two stick and follow here's where you start to learn how to see the site picture stick the C ball on a long straight end as you set up to the shot pay attention to the relationship of the shaft of your que Q-tip position Q ball object ball and the pocket this image is a little bit skewed because the GoPro camera is not perfectly aligned with my vision center but if your vision center is aligned to the shot all of these elements should be in a perfectly straight line a much more difficult version is following the Q ball into the pocket but remember the goal of this step is to begin to see the site picture and that your Q stick is aligned with the aiming Point step three find the 30° half ball hit shot and a line to the shot use some non-permanent tape to Mark the 30° parallel line from the corner pocket to just left of the first diamond put an object ball on the tape and freeze a ghost ball directly in line with the pocket and the object ball place the Q ball in line with the ghost ball in parallel to the rail if you wish you can use a shaft to make sure they're in line remove the ghost ball now align your shaft through the center of the Q ball and the edge of the object ball and shoot you could use a protractor to more precisely locate the 30° parallel line on your table but this method isn't meant to be geometrically perfect and when you're playing a game in a tournament or a league you don't get to lean over the table with your protractor to figure out what angle the shot is the point of this exercise is to begin to be able to recognize what a half ball hit looks like remember most of the shots that you shoot are going to be between zero and 30° well there's the 30° right in front of you beginning to practice in this structured non-random way removes the mystery from learning how to aim and you'll begin to see what I've been saying all along aiming is easy step number four place the Q ball for the half ball cut shot incrementally farther away as you practice this shot you need to pay attention to your Precision that is how precisely you locate your Q-tip on the Q ball the object ball and the pocket get proportionately smaller as the Q ball moves farther away the accuracy required to pocket each ball is the same because the ball is the same distance from the pocket in each shot however your Q-tip placement needs to be more precise to ensure you hit the aiming Point practicing the identical shot from progressively farther Q ball positions helps you to see each shot as the same 30° half ball hit step number five move the object ball farther from the pocket along the 30° parallel line this time the accuracy of your your aim point is [Music] critical as you start becoming comfortable with what a half ball hit looks like remember step six practice your cut shots to the other direction as well rehearsing the half ball hit along the 30° parallel line removes the randomness from the initial learning process the player is then free to concentrate on acquiring the site picture while learning to aim with precision and accuracy I hope you can see the benefit of a structured and incremental Training Method that is process oriented now let's apply what we've learned to aiming cut shots located anywhere on the table the variety of shots on a pool table can seem infinite and I hope I've shown that practicing them in a random fashion can only lead lead to limited and slow progress once you feel you've started to become comfortable with the half ball hit you can begin to experiment with other cut angles for example if your Q is pointed halfway between the center of the object ball and the object Ball's Edge that's a 15° cut shot if your Q stick is pointed that same distance past the object Ball's Edge that's a 45° cut shot but how does that help me you might say after all you can't measure the angle during a game because you began learning the site picture for a0 cut shot and a 30° cut shot you will be able to identify whether a cut is less than or greater than 30° then along with a few tricks I'm about to show you you can align to the shot with confidence have you ever struggled with finding the aiming point on a shot like this one well during practice here's a technique to help you just freeze a ghost ball to the object ball in line with the pocket then align the shaft of your queue over the center of the Q ball and the ghost ball take careful note of where the center of your shaft lies in relationship to the edge of the object ball Point your queue at that point through the center of the Q ball and shoot many players say they can't visualize the ghost ball here's a method you can use even during a match point your Q stick at the pocket through the object ball put your Q-tip on the table at the center of where the ghost ball would be then pivot your Q around the tip until your shaft is aligned through the center of the Q ball make note of where your qtip is pointed in relationship to the edge of the object ball get down on the shot align to that point and Trust the shot many players struggle with over or undercutting object balls that are near a rail an easy way to measure these Ang angles is built right into the table remember the 30° parallel line when an object ball is near the rail just align your queue with the 30° parallel line and then shift it over to the ghost ball position now it becomes easy to see in this example that the cutshot is a little bit more than 30° so you know that your Q-tip needs to be pointed past the edge of the object ball how much past 30° well there's a 45° angle built into the pool table as well just align your Q stick with the corner pocket and the opposite side pocket then to slide it over to the ghost Paul position and you have a very close estimate of exactly where your Q-tip needs to be pointed if the Q ball was located instead let's say here for example if you remember this diagram from earlier in the video you now have a good estimate of just how far past the edge of the object ball your Q stick needs to be pointed I want to stress that these tips and the ghost ball as I'm presenting them are not an Aiming system they are an aid to help you see and visualize the ghost ball and the aiming Point as you practice aiming but I can't see the ghost ball and I'm not good at visualizing I hear a lot of players say to which I reply ball and I'm going to prove it watch me roll this 10 ball up and down the table can you do this of course you can and that's because human beings are good at proprioception referred to by some as our sixth sense proprioception is the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body it's how we gauge our location in and interact with objects within our immediate environment newborn babies lack any spatial awareness but it doesn't take long for toddlers to begin to understand how to interact with their environment and as their brains develop children learn to interact with objects in complex and skilled ways it was then that your brain constructed billions of neural Pathways and synapses that Mak spatial contextual awareness possible shooting straight and the ability to see the aiming Point are both learned skills so when a player tells you that you have to be able to see or feel the shot now you know that it's when you practice properly you're not just learning how to shoot straight or how to see the aiming Point you're training to make the activation of those neurons and synapses an easy repeatable habit for practice do you do what I used to do just throw the balls out on the table and start shooting [Music] oops missed that 10 ball let's set it up and shoot it [Music] again ah I missed it again set it up once [Music] more there we go got it that time and then continue shooting more random shots I ask you have you really learned how to pocket that ball if you're having trouble aiming a particular cut angle why not set up that shot and shoot it until you can make it 10 times in a row how about shooting just that shot for 15 or 20 minutes while playing position to different parts of the table or spend 10 minutes pocketing that ball from a variety of QQ ball positions or spend a few minutes shooting the same shot at different speeds from very soft to very hard it's well known that hitting a ball softly makes the pocket larger such as this 10 ball that brushes the rail but still Falls but given the object ball distance and proximity to the rail makes this pocket a very small Target it doesn't have to fall cut shots that are struck softly and with a lot of force are both driven slightly forward of the shot line which is why you need to practice at hard speeds like this as well one last tip before I conclude that old timer that I mentioned earlier might have given you another piece of advice aim for the black every single pool table has a built-in Target the black color in the back of the pocket as you practice adding aim for the black to your routine solidifies the pocket as part of your site picture and makes it natural and easy to see during competition okay let's review the main points first we learn that aiming is one small Inseparable part of a larger process you can only teach yourself how to aim by putting in the work if you find yourself drawn to an Aiming system as a cure for missing stop ask yourself are you shooting straight professional players are constantly training to perfect their alignment and stroke delivery because they know that without a straight stroke Nothing Else Matters next we looked at the parts of a shot making process that are directly related to aiming alignment aim while standing up practice strokes are not for aiming just for very verifying your aim and remain still during your shot execution next we learned how to measure the cut angle how to recognize a 30° half ball hit the difference between Q ball long shots and object ball long shots and the pool table's 30° parallel line next I presented process oriented training as an alternative to results Based training and finally I talked about incremental non-random practice presented some aiming tips and the concept of pro Prio ception and explained how everyone can learn to see the site picture so what does all this mean watch how hard Jason Shaw Works to pocket this routine nineball it takes work it takes countless hours of work when you practice and it takes work every single time you shoot a shot quality work develops your skills so that you learn to trust your aim and your stroke delivery if there is a secret to Great pool I think you're looking at it right now remember to be happy with any progress that you make Perfection is not possible that's why we play the game I'm sure there are things that help you aim that I didn't mention if you have any tips you want to share please do so leave a comment in the comment section thank you for watching and I hope you found that informative and helpful if you did please hit the like button and consider subscribing check out my book a short stop on straight pool you can find it at shortstop onp pool.com and stay tuned for next week's rack of the week

Channel: Shortstop On Pool

Views: 1,240,021

Keywords: pool, billiard, straight pool, rack of the week, instruction, lesson, tutorial, how-to, 14.1, running racks, break ball, clusters, key ball, end pattern, pattern play, stay positive, keep fighting, Break Shots, Back-Cut Break Shot, Options, Cue Ball, Efren Reyes, Stroke Delivery, Practice, Straight Stroke, aim, aiming system, Training, Drill, stroke, drills, L drill, Brunswick, Gold Crown, Installation, Time Lapse, Deflection, Precision, Aiming, How to, How to Aim

Id: aePovgl-XKw

Length: 32min 41sec (1961 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 25 2021