cue and sighting

[Slh]

I always played with my cue under my right eye ( i'm right eyed) but I noticed it is difficult to me to correctly put the cue under my eye. Very often I had the cue a little to the right or the left compared to my eye. I decided to put the cue centrally under my chin but sometime I'm still wondering if my cue is perfectly at the center or slightly moved offcenter. How can I be sure to have the cue perfectly placed?

[nrage]

I always played with my cue under my right eye ( i'm right eyed) but I noticed it is difficult to me to correctly put the cue under my eye. Very often I had the cue a little to the right or the left compared to my eye. I decided to put the cue centrally under my chin but sometime I'm still wondering if my cue is perfectly at the center or slightly moved offcenter. How can I be sure to have the cue perfectly placed?

In short "practice". There is no silver bullet or instant fix for this, it is something you learn to do consistently by practicing it and practicing it until it would "feel" wrong any other way. Step #1 is to get it in the place you want it, and then practice while paying close attention to it. As your attention is partially divided from the pot, or position, and instead focusing on this aspect of your game you should expect them to suffer a bit - so practice this while doing something simple, like blues to the middle or similar. But, once you have the chin position fixed and unconscious, then you will be able to again focus on potting or position and should then see an overall improvement in consistency etc.

[Terry Davidson]

As nrage has said, get more play and practice. It doesn't really matter where the cue is AS LONG AS IT REMAINS IN THE SAME PLACE ALL THE TIME (for consistency). Usually centre-chin is best and it is a matter of your set-up, which will become cemented in with more play. If you feel you sight the shot better with the cue more under the right eye then turn your head slightly to the left but keep the cue somewhere around centre-chin

Terry

[Slh]

As nrage has said, get more play and practice. It doesn't really matter where the cue is AS LONG AS IT REMAINS IN THE SAME PLACE ALL THE TIME (for consistency). Usually centre-chin is best and it is a matter of your set-up, which will become cemented in with more play. If you feel you sight the shot better with the cue more under the right eye then turn your head slightly to the left but keep the cue somewhere around centre-chin

Terry

as I said in the opening post I recently changed my sighting and now i have the cue in the middle of the chin. I think I'm aiming better now. Should I put the cue in the middle only if I'm even sighted? Because i have a strong right eye dominance.

[Terry Davidson]

Having the cue running under the preferred eye started with Joe Davis who had the cue directly under his left eye, however Joe could hardly see out of his right eye but in those days preferred not to wear glasses as his brother Fred did. A lot of players got very frustrated trying to align themselves just like Joe, who was the best player and the example everyone tried to follow.

If your vision is fairly balanced out of both eyes then centre-chin is the way to go although you can turn the head one way or the other to line up the cue more underneath (but not directly beneath) your preferred eye.

There's a simple test to find out what you should be doing and what suits your perception when aiming. Set yourself up in baulk with no balls and get down into your address position and aim your cue directly at the edge of the leather (or some other fixed spot like a piece of chalk on the top cushion) and then alternately close one eye and then the other eye. With one of your eyes the cue will loolk like it's aimed directly at the edge of the leather or the chalk and with the other it will seem to be to the side and the correct line of aim will be difficult to determine.

Now, with the one eye which looked better open and the other closed try turning your head slowly to the left and right while trying to keep the cue on centre-chin. Find the spot where you feel most comfortable and also believe you have the best perception of the line of aim. That will be your 'sweet spot' and is how you should align yourself for every shot.

The danger of moving the cue to the side of the chin is you have to change your set-up to get everything exactly back in line. If you look at a number of the pros you will find out most of them have the cue either centre-chin or perhaps slightly off centre and it really doesn't matter as long as it's not underneath the ear to the side of the chin. It's the bopdy alignment which is the most important factor.

No matter where you decide to have the cue in relation to your chin be sure to keep it the same all the time and for every shot so you can 'program' your brain to that perception. Remember, comfort and consistency are the main targets.

Terry