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would like to see the diagramShane and Alex shot a stroke shot at the Open for an hour 100 a shot and neither ever got close... Earl and Buddy would have robbed them... I'll post the diagram
Shane and Alex shot a stroke shot at the Open for an hour 100 a shot and neither ever got close... Earl and Buddy would have robbed them... I'll post the diagram and being a dinosaur that shot would have been the only even chance I had on the table with them.. Grew up on the old cloth and can still get whitey up out of the mud for special appearances......
would like to see the diagram
I would like to see some examples of this "poking" you are talking about...
Have you seen Niels, Mika or Thorsten play?
I don't see any of them using a poke stroke.
Look at the previous generation of players. They truly used a poke stroke. Mosconi, Fatts etc are as far from what constitutes a perfect stroke as you can be.
I have to agree about Earls stroke, it's a thing of beauty!
When I think of "poke stroke," Allen Hopkins comes to mind, and it works for him, quite effectively. The best finals I ever saw was between Allen and Ginky at Snookers in Rhode Island. Wow!
Check out Allen Hopkins' poke stroke ---> HERE.
Maybe the british players with a snooker background don't have such a fluid full stroke, and that's what the op suggests, but even they, when needed can let it out and get through the ball.
It depends on what you mean by fluidity. If you're using snooker fundamentals, and cueing the ball properly, you won't be "poking" at anything. Look at the length of Melling's back swing as an example.
Daz uses a short, compact stroke. Maybe that's what the kind of thing the OP is referring to? I'm not sure.
It is not really anything new. Danny D., Lassiter, Hopkins, Jimmy Reid and a lot of others had very minimal strokes. It is the stroke I prefer, the less is better theory.Having watched the World Cup of Pool and other recent pool events, I have come to the realization that this is indeed the era of the poke-stroke. Sure there are dinosaurs like Earl and anomalies like Shane, but apart from them almost everyone pokes at the ball. I believe this is due to the fact that the cloth used nowadays is very fast (this happened 20-30 years ago) and the rails are getting faster (more recent development) along with the pockets getting ever tighter. The huge, long and smooth strokes of the Mizeraks and the Halls are now extinct, as they are no longer needed, and indeed would be a disadvantage. There is simply no point in stroking the ball anymore and even players who have big strokes are now poking the ball more and more, shortening their stroke and seemingly limiting their follow through.
I for one feel that the rails nowadays are too fast. I know that this sounds hopelessly conservative coming from someone relatively young (at least not an old fart). Recently a guy complained that the tables at our poolhall (Gold Crown with new Simonis and cushions) were too slow! don't know wether to laugh or cry about this, but this what it has come to.After watching modern pool clips, watch some old clips and it looks like the rails are completely dead and they are playing on shag carpet, even when the conditions were brand new. I What do you guys think, is there such a thing as cushions that are too fast? What about the cloth?
Yeah, i was thinking Appleton (who came up with English eight ball) but I really watched Jason Shaw closely at turning stone (former snooker player) and it was a more compact, precise stroke. And I wouldn't call it a punch stroke (or poke stroke as op has). It just isn't that Filipino stroke.
Mark Wilson has an entire chapter dedicated to power stroke training in his book. He tells of visiting the Philippines to train with Efren, and because of the humidity and conditions, he had to really let his stroke out to move the cue. So this is where he developed a power stroke training regiment into his curriculum as an instructor. It's a great chapter that makes you stretch your legs in terms of stroke delivery as part of your preliminary training.