Blinking and Breathing?

[jonnylovessn8ker]

do you blink when you are looking at the object ball throughout the entire process? or when you are feathering? moments before striking the ball?

do you breathe when you are down on a shot? ditto.

[DeanH]

I do blink, but only when in positions of stillness; none during any movement: moving to the cue ball, going down to position, etc.
I do breathe when down on the shot, gentle so not to introduce too much chest movement, then on draw back I tend to do the old-photographers breath-hold, take a normal breath in, and half breath out and hold for the back pause and delivery. Nothing forced or painful.

[Terry Davidson]

blink normally and don't breathe from the time your bridge hand hits the table until the end of the delivery. It's only around 10-15 seconds or so and I think most people can hold their breath that long. Even small breaths will cause the cue to go off-line a little

Terry

[jonnylovessn8ker]

blink normally and don't breathe from the time your bridge hand hits the table until the end of the delivery. It's only around 10-15 seconds or so and I think most people can hold their breath that long. Even small breaths will cause the cue to go off-line a little

Terry

thanks terry.
you're right about breathing, i've learnt the hard way that breathing while down, especially during the pause, causes cue off the line.

regarding blinking, i've been watching pros play on youtube and it seems that they all don't blink at all.
so recently i've been trying to focus on the object ball hard without blinking, and found it to put strain on the eyes (probably because my job entails facing the computer all day too). but when i blink, i become very scared of looking at the wrong part of the object ball.

sometimes, while down, i quickly glance down to check if i'm hitting the cue ball right, when i quickly look back up to the object ball, i always have a fear that i'm looking at the wrong part as well. how should i overcome this?

[Terry Davidson]

To tell you the truth I've never checked on the pros to see if they blink and that's because it's just not important enough to worry about. I think they will blink as everyone does at a certain rhythm.

My advice would be to just blink normally and don't worry about it since by the time your bridge hand hits the table you should be on your correct line of aim and as long as you don't move (or breathe) you will remain on that line of aim correctly. This can be proven by trying some 'closed eye' shots where you will find you will still pot the ball as long as you stay still

Terry

[davisskeggsm]

Blinking and Breathing?

I refrain from breathing and blinking

Matt