Comments (4)

By Adi, February 26, 2010

My article on Aiming without Aiming has been one of the most read articles on this site. It received a lot of mixed reactions. The people who liked the article were those who found the concept interesting and tried it, or veterans who already used this principle without realizing it.

A lot of people however missed the point the article was trying to make.

Aiming without aiming isn’t the magical solution to pool mastery. A person who has never played pool before won’t start playing like a professional by trying to trust his subconscious mind after reading the article. Any player will need to learn to shoot using a basic technique like the ghost ball system and build a sufficiently large “shot memory” that his subconscious mind can use (by practicing and playing hundreds of shots). After that, learning to let go of conscious control and trusting the subconscious mind also takes a fair amount of time (working on inner game and learning to let go of outcome).

Take the example of driving with subconscious competence – A driver who has been driving for several years may be able to reach his destination on automatic pilot without paying attention to the steering wheel or where he needs to turn. He might even be able to multitask – eating or talking on the phone while driving. However a beginner trying to do the same thing will end up driving into the first large object nearby. A beginner needs some driving lessons and a fair amount of driving experience before he or she can start “driving without driving”.

So the fact is, when I am “Aiming without Aiming”, its not that I don’t aim; I just no longer have to consciously think about the steps involved in aiming because I have drilled the steps into my head over a period of time.

During practice today, I started paying attention to these steps. I did everything in slow motion and stopped at significant points so I could note what I really do when I aim my shots.

Here is what I do broken down as best as I could describe it. (While this system works great for close shots, I use a slightly more complex aiming system for long distance cut shots.)

Ghost Ball Aiming System

2. Extend the line past the object ball and imagine where the cue-ball needs to hit the object ball (using the ghost ball system). Draw a line from the cue ball center to the ghost ball center.

3. Align both my feet and the cue along the line of the ball and then go down on the shot. Ideally, if I am lined up correctly I don’t even have to adjust my aim any further. I should be able to make the shot most of the time.

4. Look at both the pocket and the shot image (the cue ball and object ball). After years of shot memory built in, I usually get a gut feel that tells me whether or not I am going to make the shot. If my aim/alignment is off, I will get a feeling that I am going to miss, in which case I usually stand up and realign myself until I feel confident that the shot will go in. Once I am lined up correctly, I usually get a “YES” signal that tells me the shot will go in. This is an intuition/gut thing that takes time to develop after making a lot of shots.

5. Shoot the ball using a good stroke with a smooth follow through. Watch the ball roll into the pocket and the cue ball stop for the next shot. In case the shot is slightly off, make a mental note and calibrate future shots accordingly. If your stroke isn’t perfectly straight yet you might find it useful to practice the bottle drill.

The idea is, over time these five steps become so automatic that you don’t even have to think about them and can focus on the other aspects of the game.

Hopefully this explanation will make it easier for people to understand what I meant in the first article on aiming without aiming.

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P.S. I recently discovered a better aiming system that works well even for making long distance cut shots effortlessly.
If you are having trouble with the ghost ball system or are uncomfortable of long cut shots, then give the parallel line aiming system a try.
P.P.S. If people are interested, I can share a series of drills that I use to teach complete beginners how to aim and shoot subconsciously. I taught a friend some basics just a few days ago and she made some amazing cut shots during a game about fifteen minutes after going through the drills. Its no substitute for years of practice, but these basics should give any beginner a jump start and have them playing very confidently in less than 30 minutes.

Please leave a comment below if you would find that useful.

Comments (2)

By Adi, January 22, 2010

Over the last year, I have followed different workouts including cross-fit, 8 Minute Fitness Workouts, long distance running, the push-up challenge and the pull-up challenge. During this time I discovered the importance of finding a workout that I can enjoy for it to be sustainable.

I put together some of these routines into a reasonably exhausting 7 day workout that seems to work well for me.

It isn’t a perfect workout, but it is a full body routine that has given me fast and visible results in the past two months. I know this routine can definitely improve over time. I’d love to hear feedback and suggestions from people with more experience.

My Workout Plan

Monday
1. Week 6 of 100 Push-up challenge: 45, 55, 35,30, max (at least 55) push-ups
2. Week 6 of 20 Pull-up challenge: 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 12 pull-ups
3. One hour of Tennis lessons

Tuesday
1. 20 Minutes on Elliptical
2. 2K on Rowing Machine
3. 8 Minute Abs workout (from 8 Minute Fitness)
4. 8 Minute Buns workout ((from 8 Minute Fitness)
5. Leg workout on machine

Wednesday
1. Week 6 of 100 Push-up Challenge: 22, 22, 30, 30, 24, 24, 18, 18, max (at least 58) push-ups
2. Week 6 of 20 Pull-up challenge: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 pull-ups
3. One hour of Tennis lessons

Thursday
1. 20 Minutes on Elliptical or 3K on treadmill
2. 2K on Rowing Machine
3. 8 Minute Abs workout
4. 8 Minute Buns workout
5. Leg workout on machine

Friday
1. Week 6 of 100 Push-up Challenge: 26, 26, 33, 33, 26, 26, 22, 22, max (at least 60) push-ups
2. Week 6 of 20 Pull-up challenge: 15, 13, 12, 10, max pull-ups
3. One hour of Tennis lessons

Saturday
1. 20 Minutes on Elliptical or 3K on treadmill
2. 2K on Rowing Machine
3. 8 Minute Abs workout
4. 8 Minute Buns workout
5. Leg workout on machine

Sunday – Setting new limits
1. Max Push-ups
2. Max Pull-ups
3. 3K on treadmill – newer/faster speed
4. 2K on Rowing Machine
5. Random new exercise that I read about and want to try

I am still trying to figure out the perfect diet to go with this workout. I am strongly influenced by Tim Ferris’s crazy diet, but find it hard to maintain since I don’t cook myself. Would love suggestions from anyone who has a convenient solution.

And as usual, the standard disclaimer for people who find this routine intimidating. I didn’t start with this workout. A few months ago, I was struggling to do my first pull-up.

Comments (0)

By Adi, December 29, 2009

After the hundred push-up challenge and then going from 0 to 5 pull-ups, my next goal is the Twenty pull-ups challenge.

Why pull-ups? They develop the arms, shoulders and back and help create that V shaped body that everyone likes. I prefer workouts that use body weight and exercise multiple muscle groups instead of isolating single areas using weights. Like push-ups, pull-ups are also easy to do with minimum equipment. After my initial success with cross-fit and pull-ups, I knew I had to incorporate pull-ups into my routine.

The twenty pull-ups site follows a similar layout to the hundred push-ups site. It has a customizable, progressive plan that takes you from 1-2 pull-ups to being able to do 20 continuous pull-ups within 6 weeks. For those of you who can barely do one pull-up, the site even includes two additional training weeks that have you trying half pull-ups.

Most people won’t have as much of a challenge getting through the first five pull-ups as I did, but if you do, reading about my initial pull-up journey may help. Personally I found it more useful to do assisted pull-ups with weights when starting out with my first few pull-ups. I could barely do even one pull-up when I started out.

I am on week 3 of the pull-up challenge right now, and did 26 pull-ups in five sets yesterday. My workout on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays has now become doing 150+ push-ups for the push-up challenge, about 20+ pull-ups for the pull-up challenge and then finally running on the treadmill for a couple of miles. I still can’t believe I am able do all of this. 6 months ago, I could barely do 1 pull-up, and even the prospect of starting the hundred push-up challenge was scary.

Its amazing how easily stuff seems to happen once you decide to just get started by taking small incremental steps to achieve big goals.

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UPDATE: I enjoyed the final week of both the push-ups and pull-ups challenge so much that I incorporated them into my daily workout routine. It is a reasonably hard-core workout that is focussed towards getting fast results while being sustainable and is an ideal way to get toned and in shape without needing too much gym equipment.

UPDATE 2: I successfully completed the twenty pull-up challenge by doing 21 continuous pull-ups today. I will continue to keep Week 6 of the pull-up challenge in my weekly workout