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Frightening

Postby Cannonball

I did a sighting test and found that I was R eye dominant. I was told by a coach that using either eye if one is dominant in one eye (98% of the population are dominant in one eye) would be fine; my natural eye to use is the left, being R handed (given cue placement and the turn of the head to the right like all R handers). Previously, I used cue on centre chin, trying to use 'both eyes' but when I potted good balls I looked down the cue with my R eye closed, and the cue appeared straight, but when my left eye was closed, the cue appeared to slope to the left. That's how I also knew that I was using my left eye naturally. I was missing pots I really shouldn't using centre chin and I suspected that sighting was the issue. When I missed by a big margin, I found that the cue did not appear straight to my left eye (with R eye closed).

Playing centre chin is ok, as long as I put the cue in the right place and turn my head to the right but this is prone to variance and error. The natural step forward was to give the left eye all of the shot, and move the cue over to the left, which is just on the edge of the chin in my case. I've been doing this for a week now. When it works, I can sink the most amazing long ball shots, straight, very fine, down the rails, etc. When it goes wrong, it goes wrong big time and I can miss the pocket by a foot in the extreme.

I was warned by someone that changing sight might take 6mths to crack. Would it really take that long, and is it really worth it; has anyone tried it? It's quite a popular way of sighting the shot, and sighting down the cue these days, with a lot of the top players employing the method. Let me know your thoughts please coaches and players!

Re: Frightening

Postby Sickpotter

Yes it can take a few months, it's quite hard to force yourself out of a habit.

Having a dominant eye and recognizing immediately is best, easier to get it right to start than fix it ;-)

Another problem is that the degree of how dominant an eye can change. Things like being tired, hungover, ill, high, etc. can all change the degree to which an eye is dominant. Make sure you're determining which eye is dominant and to what extent when you're in your best shape.

If your dominant eye isn't extremely dominant you'll tend to only have sighting issues on long pots. Because the vast majority of your play is done in the balls with shortish pots it's going to be hard to prevent yourself from reverting to center chin for 95% of your shots. That makes this kind of change much harder than changing something that's a constant issue/problem for 100% of shots....you're trying to address a 5% flaw that can have a negative affect on your whole game.

Because you're making a concious effort to change your sighting it will impact your confidence and overall play. All your focus will go towards the change and we all know snooker requires focus in multiple areas until we've done enough practice to automate the actions. Sometimes people can't deal with the downturn in their game while they try to make this change and give up. Expect a downturn before things get better, don't let it get you down.

Is it worth it? Absolutely, correct sighting from all distances is very important. If you have to modify your sighting from shot to shot it will have a negative impact on your consistency and can skew your basics like alignment and cue action.

Good luck with the change.