It’s not just beginners, truly. A great many strong players aim incorrectly at the pool table, their pool head twisted round, shots missing rather than sinking--when their head is placed in the same exact spot each time (incorrectly) before any stroke is taken.
It is more important for you to see the shot angle clearly than that you stand the same precise way to the table each time.
I’m not talking about adjusting one’s body for awkward shots taken across a table rail or other obstacle. I’m thinking of how pool pros and the best teachers of the sport themselves adjust their head position depending on the angle they need to take on the next object ball.
You do need to have your cue stick aligned to drive the cue ball accurately toward the object ball. It might surprise, you, however, to learn that you are not to be like a robot who puts their shooting hand on the line between cue ball and object ball to make your shots while the body remains in the same position for every stroke. Rather, your head must move to different positions to make shots successfully.
The assumption players make in error? The classic stance as described here at About.com has one fixed head position. You should follow my directives for stance by practicing to settle into the pro stance when practicing with one ball, into a pocket or at a target straight ahead.
For example, when pocketing the cue ball into the corner pocket for practice, if you are a right handed player, your head will rest atop your neck in the middle of your trunk, where it sits to the left of the cue stick, cue ball and the pocket itself. The left-handed pool shooter’s head would be to the right of the line formed by ball, stick and pocket center.
This last is so important, I invite you to review the classic billiards stance positioning before reading on.
My head, however, and yours, must float on shots to different positions, with each differing position so important that the approximate placement of the head comes before I bend into the stance!
Let’s look at the steps taken to set your "personal pool head" correctly before the stroke is played, next.
