Finding a Reference Point for Aiming: Center to Center, Center to Edge, Edge to Edge

One of the most important aspects of the preshot routine is to envision a line from the cue ball to the object ball that the cue ball will travel along to reach the object ball to intersect the desired contact points on the object ball and cue ball. In order to obtain a stance and lower into the shot, the player must retain awareness of the proper shot line after proper foot placement and shaping the body around the shot line, but at the same time needs reference points on the tables so that the subconscious self, the part of us that actually executes the shot in the same manner that a baseball player or tennis executes hitting the ball, understands how to complete the stroke. The bulk of the aiming takes place by the placement of the feet in alignment with the eyes. It is quite simple to see the shot line when standing back behind it with the center of vision in line, but almost impossibly hard to retain when coming down on the shot. But it is not necessary to retain the fine details of that line if you have already set yourself up and placed your body in alignment. What is needed when down on the shot is a detailed understanding of the relationship of the cue ball and object ball to each other. For example, when doing a more than half ball cut the center of the cue ball is not aimed at any part of the object ball. Therefore, the player has nothing precise to use as a reference point. But there are reference point on the balls, and they can be used for orientation, which is much different than the original aiming. The subconscious brain, while standing back on the shot has already determined the contact point. now, when down on the balls, it needs a solid reference between the two balls and this can be achieved with a simple triad of reference points, center to center, center to edge, and edge to edge,. When setting up this reference frame, it is important to understand that this is NOT AIMING! You have already done all your aiming while standing back and placing the vision center and feet in proper orientation. Now it is necessary while down on the shot for the subconscious brain (the muscle memory elements of our body) to have exact reference points to that it can adjust as needed to bring the contact point on the back of the cue ball to the contact [point on the front of the object ball. Thus after proper aiming while standing back on the shot, the player can accomplish an 8th ball hit while in fact using an edge to edge reference point. In this video, Robin Hamlet and Dale White, under the tutelage of PBIA/ACS pool instructor Jim Brauker, are encouraged to use an extreme example of how this works by using a center to edge reference point to achieve a cut that involves an overlap of only 1/16th of the cue ball and object ball.