.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

I just got back from a great seminar in Somerdale, NJ at Fat Albert’s. Great pool room and some outstanding students. What fun!

We work on something at every pool school that I think will help you pocket more balls. Everyone works on stroke, and patterns and speed control and a bunch of other details that make pool so much fun and frustrating at the same time.

What we don’t look at though is how we see things! You could have the perfect swing, but if you don’t get down on the shot with your head in the right position, you will think you are aiming correctly but will miss the shot. Most of the time we never think to question our head position and eye sight.

There are two myths about head position that I want to dispel. First is putting your dominant eye over the cue stick and the next one is putting your chin over the cue stick. The amazing part about the human body is that we all see straight as straight in a slightly different position than the next person. I once checked out 5 high school boys for their vision center, and they were all in different positions!

The big deal about your vision center is that if you are not using your vision center to aim the shot, you will be off line and miss the shot! The bad part about this is that you really aren’t sure why you missed. Your stroke might feel right, you kept your head down and grip loose but you just can’t figure out why you missed. My guess is that your vision center was not on the line of the shot and you didn’t see the shot right.

Let’s find your vision center so that you can start to pocket more balls.

First set up the table like this, making sure that everything is perfectly straight and the cue stick is exactly in the middle of the ball. Use a laser or some dental floss and tape tom get perfectly straight lines. Now you have a perfectly straight reference line.

What you want to do now is put your left hand on the cue ball marked A and your right hand on the cue ball marked B. Moving your head along the bottom short rail left an right, find the place that the straight line you have made on the table looks straight.

Once you have this straight line looking straight, then move your head forward to the triangle and bring your head straight down to the table. Where the cue stick touches your chin is where you see straight!! This is your personal center of vision and is where you should have your chin over the stick when you aim.

I would do this once a day for a week or so and find my average center of vision. Once you know your center of vision, you are better able to see shots.

So now when you sight a shot before getting down, make sure you are using your center of vision. And when you are shooting any shot, make sure your center of vision is over your cue stick in the same way that you see straight. This will guarantee that you are seeing the shot correctly.

You might have to adjust your stance a little to get your head in the right place, but I think you will find that your pocketing percentage will increase when you are using your visual center to see the shot.

SKILL DRILL:

This week let’s look at left and right cut shots so that we have to move around the table and struggle a little to get our vision center over the line of every shot.

What we want to do in this drill is pocket all six balls in rotation. Keeping angles and the cue ball in the center of the table is the key here. Also, keeping our center of vision over the stick to make sure we pocket the ball is also key. Here is the lay out.

You can randomly put the balls up, but make sure that you have to go back and forth. This is a challenging drill, but will help you learn how to move the cue ball around the table, and keep your center of vision over every shot from different table positions.

Good luck and see you on the road.