The Most Important Shot in Pool - Part 2 | Aim, Alignment, Stroke

Welcome to another installment of Scott's Pool School!

This is part 2 of a 4 part series on what I consider to be the most important shot in pool - the straight in shot. This one is all about the 3 components of a shot, including aim, alignment, and stroke.

Content:
- Introduction
- Aim - including what many amateurs do incorrectly without knowing
- Alignment - tip and tricks for this crucial step
- Stroke - Things to watch out for, how to self diagnose issues
- Lead in to next video

Most Important Shot in Pool complete series:

Hope you enjoy the video, this series will be very informative for players of all levels. I work on these concepts with all of my students, and I guarantee if you understand what needs to happen (and what can go wrong) to make straight in shots consistently, then your shot making percentage on ALL shots will increase as well.

Thanks!
Scott

[williamsheppard]

This just completely changed my game I played well already but now that I'm doing this I'm really not missing much but I still have to let the lower level player make more mistakes and then make sure I get out when I'm supposed to

[johncalbeck]

Just starting to play at age 73, and I was struggling. This Most Important Shot series is a Godsend; the best and most thorough I've seen online. The shoulder tension (archer) tip was a huge help to me, but the whole series was just so beneficial. Thank you.

[tonyrobles]

Scott, as a professional player who's been playing for 45 years and teaching for 35 of those years, I can honestly say that this is one of the best instructional videos I've ever seen and you deserve all the credit in the world for it.

I've always been big on teaching/explaining the game in Layman's Terms to the point where a child can understand it and you have that in spades!

Thank you for your contribution to the game we all love.

Congratulations on a job well done and keep up the fantastic work Sir!
👍 😊 🎱

[jasonnieuwenhuis]

Hey man, this series helped me immensely a year ago. I’ve watched every other pool video possible since, I figured I’d circle back around. You explain alignment better than anyone else. I was bringing my head in from beside the cue before. Couldn’t understand my inconsistency. Good as good now again!
Thanks!👍

[MrBobZack]

Very nicely done, Scot. I’m an old former BCA recognized instructor who appreciates your outstanding teaching abilities and demonstrations. My playing has degraded with age and you’ve helped me immensely with my stroke and for me it all boils down to stroke NOT poke. You deserve recognition for your tutorials and methods you deliver on this forum. Congrats for all your such highly professional teaching and coaching...thank you so much.

[punanie]

Hey scott. I just wanted to pop in and say thank you!!! I honestly cannot thank you enough. I have been shooting for a few years now 5/6 give or take and i think of myself as an above average player (at least for my local competition ‘city and state level’). That being said ive always had a problem with consistency. Some days ive shot great, some days not so much, and some days id start out shooting very well and then somewhere along the way i would “lose my vision” is what i would call it, as sometimes i would have to stand up off of a shot 2-3 times because once i was down on a shot i just could not visualize my lines or visualize the shot any more, and early on i had someone far better than myself tell me if i wasn’t comfortable with a shot to stand up and take a step back instead of just going against my gut feeling and blasting away at a shot that i did not feel comfortable with and just that alone i felt like was a huuuge victory for me as i think alot of people have a hard time not just shooting the ball once they had addressed and were down on a ball even if they were not confident that they were going to make the ball. What i mean is for some reason i think alot of people have a hard time taking the time to take that step back to line everything up again if they have lost their aiming line and are no longer confident that they will make the shot and instead of stepping back they just take the shot and almost always end up missing. That being said again having the discipline to step back and line up my shot again helped me to make i imagine a ton of shots i likely would have otherwise missed (however no way of knowing for sure and there is no way to measure or count the shots i didnt take), but even still there are plenty of times where once i lost my aiming line i was toast and could rarely ever find it again not only for that shot but going forward as well with future shots. And again i cannot thank you enough as i have tried to solve this problem over and over and watched sooo many hours of tutorials and instructional videos trying to correct whatever it was but for some reason could never find the root of the problem and for some reason had never found a solution. Im not sure if in all of the videos ive watched that noone has ever mentioned to line up snd come straight in or if it was just never said in a way that made sense to me or what it was as it seems fairly straightforward (no pun intended) so it seems unlikely that this is a fundamental that i have not heard of or been taught before. But after recently watching your video “how to play pool masterclass #2 on shotmaking” where you went over this in depth it all clicked with me and it literally was like a missing piece to an unfinished puzzle and just in a moments time tied EVERYTHING together. Now thats not to say i am a finished puzzle or have it all figured out now but it was definitely and ahh-hah moment and i immediately paused the video and went to the table and started implementing it in my game and i cannot tell you just how much of a difference it has made. So much so to the point where ive had other people notice and point out the improvement in my game literally almost overnight. I actually had one of my friends come over and we shot around for a while and eventually he wanted to do a little race to 15 in 9 ball and about halfway through i was up apx 8 games to 2 and he looks at me and was just like “is this the best you have ever shot?” I kinda laughed it off and he goes “no seriously, and not just as an excuse cause your kicking my a**, is this the best you have ever shot?” Now honestly i dont think it was but i knew i was shooting very well and truth be told now that it has been a week or so and looking back it probably was at the very least definitely the best ive ever shot at 9 ball as in the past 9 ball has not been a game ive been particularly fond of and not that im no good at it ive just always kind of preferred 8 ball on a bar box as i like the mental challenge of it and how to pick apart a rack while dealing with all of the clutter and congestion and the tightness the bar box creates. Anyways im sorry i kinda got carried away and made this post far longer that it likely should have or could have been, but if you have stuck with me and read it all the way through again words cannot explain how grateful i am for your videos. You have a way of teaching and explaining things that just makes sense and works with my brain. There are soo many great players out there that unfortunately do not make for the best teachers because they have vast knowledge of the game they just unfortunately have not developed a way in which to explain or help get that knowledge out to there in a way that large groups of people can understand, and that sir is something that in my opinion at least you have mastered. You have the tools to play the game as well as the knowledge to help others understand how to utilize those tools in a very unique manner and that in itself is a great skill and a gift to all of us that watch your videos with the goal of learning something. Im moving slowly as after gaining from your aiming video as much as i have i like to watch a video and then take the time to practice what i learned while rewatching the same video over and over again to engrain that knowledge and cement it in stone so i do not just forget what i learned by next week. So a huuge shout out to you for taking the time and putting forth the effort to teach people like myself these tools and tricks that are utterly invaluable and have likely taken you a lifetime to curate and acquire and gift it to us free of charge. That being said if you have a pay pal or patreon or somewhere a pupil like myself could donate to express my gratitude you should put a link in the description of your videos and or reply to my comment as i would be honored to be able to donate as im sure countless others would as well

[kelsmanning]

Scott.. Thanks so much for taking the time to do these videos.. This one has been very helpful.. I would like to point out the part that addressed my issue the most... 1st) The head placement was a biggy.. BUT the biggest aid from your video was the using the bottom of the cue ball apex to locate center ball!! This was something I had never heard of and proved to be a major part of my issue.. So, please keep up the great vids and never leave out the little details like that one!

[hahnasty]

LOVE this setup... beautiful pool table with nice art around - can't beat that!

[rhaazy]

Excellent no-nonsense content! Can't wait for more!

[jasonnieuwenhuis]

Really helpful again. I can’t wait to get back on a table. Your set up looks amazing!❤️

[williamsheppard]

Been doing this for awhile now it's the most important thing i have ever done

[Deep_Divers]

Great video. Wish I had seen something with this level of detail when I first started shooting. Follow this advice and you will save yourself countless hours trying to figure out why you can't shoot straight. I like how you show different ways of doing it and not just your way as sometimes what works for one person doesn't work for another. In the end though that initial alignment as you stated is the most crucial. Keep the great advice coming.

[jamesdavis]

I am right eye dominant but ABSOLUTELY must have my left eye over the cue, or at least have the inside of my left eye over the cue. It is amazing how much of a difference that can make.

A good example of a player that is right eye dominant but has to put his left eye over the cue is Ralf Souquet. In fact, watching a video of a tournament he was playing in changed my game more than anything else. I listened to the commentators talk about how Souquet was right eye dominant but had to put his left eye over the cue to shoot the most effectively.

I then started watching a lot of players and there are a fair amount of players that have this same issue. So I slightly changed the way I looked at the aiming point and then got down with my left eye on that line (and the rest of my body as you have described in this video) and suddenly I was consistently making shots that had caused me huge problems in the past.

This is an excellent video covering alignment and why it is so important. It is the same thing in golf, batting, throwing a ball, and many other sports. Golf is probably the best example of how you can know exactly where you want the ball to land but if you line up improperly it will not matter how great your actual swing is - you will be off. Same goes for pool and your stroke.

[rnjeezus]

Youre the man Scott, keep up the great content. We all need something to watch and learn during these times of boredom lol. Cant wait for the next one!

[MikeyD]

Phenomenal presentation Scott! A huge thanks for sharing! I immediately saw improvement in my shotmaking.

[Malfeasance]

Good stuff, Scott. Appreciate the time and thoughtfulness that goes into making these. Some interesting art on the walls there.

[cakins]

For anyone trying/using the lean over method: make sure you are leaning over far enough to center the shot line in your dominant eye/vision center. If you're cross-dominant, this means you'll probably need to lean over a bit more than you think. I saw a big improvement in my game when I started using the lean over method, but still had some consistency issues. Leaning over a little further got my dominant eye in the exact right place and resulted in much greater consistency.

[TD-Eagle]

Thanks for your videos. In depth and definitely from a teacher. It reminds me to really key in on my fundamentals... like the boring fundamentals, but are essential to getting my game from intermediate to advanced

[Zowkander]

I had problems sometimes hiting center ball, when I can practice I'll work on it. Thanks a los for the videos, can't wait for next part. Greeting from Ibiza, Spain

[mickortaleza]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and you have an awesome set-up! Is that a 9 footer?