Back in April, I wrote about Perfect Aim, and it was less than flattering. The DVD on its own, I still don’t think holds enough information/training to get the most out of the system. This is why Gene Albrecht includes a free lesson with every DVD purchase. Not being in the area, I never thought I’d get that free lesson.
Then last night, as I was getting ready to leave the pool hall after league, who walks in, but none other than Gene himself! I heard he might be in town over on the AZB Forums, but didn’t figure our schedules would cross. Fortune was with me, it seems, last night (aside from winning my league match 9-2, including an excellent break and run).
I nearly just packed up and left, but instead decided to take this opportunity to at least meet the guy. I walked over, introduced myself, explained that I bought the DVD a few months ago. He asked if I had any questions and I confessed that I should probably watch it again, as I remember having several questions, but couldn’t remember them at that time. He then said “Get your cue out.” and set up a few shots at the table.
He immediately noted that my dominant eye was not what every eye-test I had done indicated. I explained how I move my eyes or cue to match the shot and that it has been working relatively well in comparison to the time before I knew about this type of alignment, but still no perfect. He said, this is why the in-person lesson is so important, or at the bare minimum, the phone lesson. He set up some more shots cutting to my difficult side and had me get down on the shot his way, then asked me how I felt about it. I said it feels and looks wrong. He said “shoot it”… and it went so clean it looked like SVB shot it! We set it up again, and again it looked wrong, but again it went perfectly, without touching the rail.
After he was able to tailor his information specifically for a shot that I diagrammed and how I need to adjust, everything else made sense.
We set up some more shots that I’ve been having trouble with, specifically balls frozen on the 3rd diamond and cutting them down the rail passed the side pocket. After the adjustments, the balls were hugging the rail and flying into the pocket. Cutting both left and right side! I was very, very happy – and as an instructor, you could tell he was happy to see me get all giddy after nailing 3 in a row! I will have to do my own experiments when it comes to using english as we didn’t have time to get into that; but that’s not really something that’s involved with this method, so I accept that challenge.
He was distracted by some rail birds, and I set up some more really thin cuts, at distance. The traditional spot-shot, then I moved it back to the diamond behind the spot and sliced it in both left and right! At this point, I was supposed to be asleep an hour ago, so I said my goodbye and took my leave.
I’m really anxious to get back to the table tonight and see if I can retain this new way of sighting. For shots cutting to the left, I don’t have to do much at all, but for cutting to the right, I do have to “re-learn” the sight-picture as I’ve been compensating for so long that I’ve grown accustomed to that picture. But, now I have some positive reinforcement behind that site-picture, so I can recognize what it looks like. I also have a double-check method if I’m really unsure of the angle.
So, while my initial review of the DVD by itself still pretty much stands, I need to amend my overall opinion of Gene and the method he’s bringing to the pool world. He was extremely friendly and giving mini-teaser lessons to all the railbirds who were hoping to glean some free tips. What he gave them was about what you’d find online. It’s enough to get you interested in what he has to say, but not enough for you do much of anything with it without his personal assistance.
He travels so much, that it’s only a matter of time before he comes through your area and if/when he does, MAKE SURE you get 30-60 mins with him! It really makes the difference between his DVD being highly useful as a pool training tool or a coaster.