When you focus on your target your hand should be pointing at the target after the dice roll off your fingers. Look at your target and after the toss, see if your hand is pointing at the target. Hold the position at the end and see where your hand is pointing.

Now if you see when you hold your Heisman position at the end that your hand is slightly higher or lower than your target that is OK if it is consistent one way or the other, not one way some times and the opposite other times. For me, I find my hand is pointing directly at my target when I finish. So I look at my target and focus extremely hard on what I want to hit on the table. Then I make sure my hand is pointing at where I was aiming at the end of my toss.

The trick is for you to see where your hand is aiming at the end of the toss to get you to hold the Heisman position.

Hi Tommy,

The "trick" or practice tip I suggest is while you are "practicing with a purpose," concentrate on just one thing at a time.

If your goal in practice is to work on your finish, focus on that aspect of your toss and don’t worry too much about landing spot, dice outcomes, etc.

Recall that NFF suggested that you should hold your "Heisman" finish until the dice touch down.

Conversely, If your goal in practice is to work on hitting your intended landing spot, focus only on the targeting drill and not your finish.

Trust your efforts at improving your skills. It will all come together. Changing up your practice goals will also keep the sessions fresh and interesting.

😎 😎 😎

But doesn’t the "Heisman" finish end up with the fingers splayed open?
Does the reference to this finish refer only to the arm posture and not to the
hand and fingers?

7×7,

In this instance the "Heisman" reference is being used simply to illustrate the swing mechanic of reaching out toward the target or back wall with an extended arm.

At finish, the shooting hand should remain in the proper "C" grip shape.

You are correct, the Heisman trophy shows the player with his hand open and fingers splayed.

Good catch!

😎 😎 😎

The "Heisman" position is a metaphor for extending your arm at the end of the "pendulum" swing (another metaphor for the arm motion during the swing). You want your arm to go up naturally towards your target, keeping your fingers in the same position (do not open your fingers) so that you follow through with your arm towards your target. Centrifugal force will cause the dice to slide off your thumb first and then roll off your fingers as your arm is coming up towards the target. If you open your fingers the dice will not roll off your fingers and will most likely wobble in the air because they will not be rotating properly.

You want to get the feel of the dice "rolling" off your fingers because that is necessary for a proper toss.

Thanks. It is just like the classes, you get the same advice from each instructor. Mr Finesse addressed the practice of working on 1 thing at a time during your sessions at home in another post, same advice as Timmer and Skinny in this post.
So simple yet so hard. Well at least I don’t have to go to the store and buy any more equipment to practice with, ( marshmellows, square tubing, toothpicks, mirrors, small levels, I already have all these things 😆 )

That is a very good observation TommyC.

For those that are listening carefully, they will notice that every instructor says the same thing in his own words, perhaps with a slightly different example or metaphor when describing any aspect of controlled shooting or advantage play. The reason for this is pretty simple. Each and every one of us has been through the entire process from primer through advanced to where we are today. But most importantly, each of us knows how to do it properly because we have progressed to that stage and are able to execute the toss properly.

We are not academics with only educational knowledge of the subject. Every member of the GTC instructional staff executes the technique with proficiency in live play. We know what it feels like to do it right and unfortunately how it feels when we are not doing it properly. We try to bring that knowledge and experience to you, the students, both in class and on this board.

Some great thoughts in this post! I love what is going on on our site!

Dominator