Instructi n The Year of Pro Secrets How Pros Aim by Matt Sherman
Aim systems for pool are a controversial subject. Some aim systems give false hope as pros tend to aim by experience, and many teachers I respect say, “Forget using an aim system!” But an aim system helps avoid what I call a “false point” hit, where aiming at the contact point directly will provide a missed cut shot. Ignoring collision-induced throw, shooting cue ball center at the contact point, where the object ball sinks following impact, hits a false point. So beginners instead use ghost ball center, the cue ball projected to the pocket line (Diagram A).
Visualize impact. The cue ball is halved to each side of the contact point for a handy ghost edge reference. Focus your concentration on the cue ball “nose” that strikes the object ball, not the edge that passes the object ball. Pros look through the ghost ball at the object ball’s real edge, not through the ghost ball center into empty space. It’s ghost ball aim that feels like aiming, even stroking, directly at the contact point. You believe cue stick and cue nose are on the contact point line even if they are not. You pocket more balls than you’ve dreamed possible, and tend to hit shots fuller than with the ghost ball, when you grossly overcut balls. Pro aim works for full hits to about half-ball hits. Beyond that, when the nose doesn’t look “on,” lock eyes on the contact point anyway, but send a cue ball edge at the contact point. Here’s another juicy secret I call pivot aim, used by several famous pros, and taught by me, Hal Houle, and others to an elite few before this InsidePOOL issue. I want to credit Hal rightly, so don’t confuse Houle’s pivot aim with his controversial fractions and degrees aim system. Ignore the contact point and aim at the object ball’s edge using one tip of english, aligned with both hands one tip off center ball. Leave your bridge hand in place and pivot the cue stick to center ball with your stroking arm only. Now you are aimed to cut the object ball to the pocket (for most shots). Seriously, you are.
Aim at an imaginary ball is difficult. Parallel aim, used by greats including Ralph Greenleaf, Willie Mosconi, and Nick Varner, uses real balls and adds imaginary lines. Visualize parallel lines to both contact points. Add lines connecting the points and parallel through the cue ball center (Diagram B). Visualize lines that cross the ball equators and don’t sight down on the cloth. Joe Tucker’s excellent “Aiming by the Numbers” training aid teaches Parallel aim without lines, but whether parallel or ghost ball, you aim to pass the object ball as you graze its edge. It’s easy to aim a baseball into a catcher’s glove, but it’s harder to aim to graze the glove’s edge in passing. Imagine impact before it happens. At that moment, exactly one-half of the cue ball will be to either side of the contact point—a handy visualization reference. Focus your aim while using the far side of the cue ball, the “nose” that strikes the object ball, rather than an edge that touches only empty space. Pros look through the ghost ball at the object ball’s real edge, not through the ghost ball center into empty space.
20 InsidePOOL Magazine ◊ March 2010
Some trial and error is required based on your bridge length. I’ll let you experiment with left or right ball edge and left or right english and in cutting balls extra thin. Here’s a hint—absolute half-ball hits use regular pro aim. Swiveling the cue in the stance is not a smart idea, of course, so the pros kept this secret—before now—by an “edge and swivel” using eyesight alone before assuming the final, correct stance. Pivot aim will refresh your visual appraisal of the relationships between cue ball, object ball, and pocket. Try it—you might like it—but remember, aim system or sheer instinct, a pro locks onto the contact point and not empty ghost space with their vision. This month I’ve revealed the chief pro aim secrets. Don’t miss next issue’s stroke secrets. Credit me and InsidePOOL for bravery! Matt “Quick Draw” Sherman has appeared dozens of times in major print media and popular TV channels promoting billiards and entertainment. He has taught hundreds of students and has directed pool leagues, pool tournaments, pool fundraisers, and pool adult ed courses. Sherman directs the University of Florida’s leagues, which have produced six national champions, and is the Guide to Pool & Billiards at About.com, one of the world’s most popular websites. He is the author of Picture Yourself Shooting Pool, available at Amazon.com as a book/DVD combo and also as an electronic book.