I don't know why but my instinct is cringing at the advice i see in that snooker coach video and the talk of pushing etc etc.
In the snooker world, a lot of emphasis goes into level cueing and I don't agree with that either. In f'king perfect conditions for world title matches, "kicks" or what we call "cling" occurs A LOT, so, im not exactly sure if it is due to these supposed ideal mechanics or i theorize it might have to do with a common fractional type aiming many of them do, and I don't care for that either because it's very possible it delivers too much of a thick and thin bias that has to be rolled or stunned to compensate, but that's my thoughts and I'm not exactly sure, but they experience an awful lot of cling for a reason.
I do not and I repeat, DO NOT like this mindset of pushing because it opens the door to steering balls in the hole.
Follow through is another misnomer I can't stand.
Follow through is a bi-product of mechanical set up and muscle contraction. We are human, therefore, our delivery is congruent with a particular effect of delivery but "ideal" is only because of the human element.
In other words, if I built a machine that stroked a stick, I don't see why I couldn't design it to have zero backswing and only one inch of stroke let's say, maybe physics requires 2" or something, but my point is, the cb doesn't care or know how it's being struck and I don't see why a 2" delivery couldn't achieve anything less than what we humans have to do with obviously more than a 2" stroke because bottom line, we aren't a machine that could hit a cb 30 mph with a zero back swing/2" forward stroke.
Therefore, bruce lee and his 1" punch is full of shyte and a few months of jui jitsu training...... I would boa constrict that little man into a pretzel and he's more than welcome to use that one inch punch all day as I choke him into dream land.
Willie hoppie stressed using a closed bridge and sqweezing the shaft just enough to feel some resistance. I suggest trying that instead of "pushing" and post your results if anyone cares for my claims.
Another very important thing is willie mosconi said you should strive to hit the cb easier and easier. What he means by this is THIS and this is just about the most important concept in pool I can think of IMO:
FACT: just like in golf, when a cb is truly struck down the vertical center of the shot line, speed control itself becomes finite.
A well struck shot down the line takes much less delivery velocity than a off center vertical hit. This is why alignment and stroke is important or else, anything less, and this is simply unarguable, is a funky mojo put on the cb. It's a twist shot, a knuckle ball.....a funky hit.
Enjoy.
Thanks and good luck.
Level cueing is important, because the more you elevate your cue, the more the cueball jumps, especially when you shoot hard, and the more risk there is of you swerving the ball out of the hole. There is no mystery to this, they're well known matters of physics. The cueball jump in relation to speed control is often overlooked and is a frequent cause of missed position and lack of consistency. With the lighter balls and heavier slate (relatively) used in snooker, the cueball will jump more than in pool to start with. Jumping balls on a snooker table is a complete joke, and is extremely easy, even with a full cue and elkmaster tip (of course it's illegal, but fun to try in practise). On a carom table it's almost impossibly difficult in comparison. Ball weight matters.
Snooker pros get a lot of kicks, because they play on ultra fine (double shorn) cloth with a heated, extremely thick slate underneath, tighter pockets than you will ever see outside of Chinese 8 ball, and steel cushions! You simply have to roll a lot of shots in order to run the numbers these guys are on that equipment.
Your points about machines are completely moot, as they do not apply to anything we do as human beings, which is why the pushing advice is being given in the first place. I was taught a specialty stroke by a carom player, to get huge power with little follow through. Basically it's a stroke where you use only your wrist. This is the correct way to shoot the shots where you can't follow through, because the muscle interference in the stroke is minimal and your entire stance is motionless throughout. Still, it's not an easy shot to control by any means, and I'd never try to shoot all my shots that way.
So many people have ZERO clue as to how a perfect stroke actually works and why they are being told to accellerate the cue through the ball. The most difficult thing to do is to make a perfect transition from back to forward stroke, without disturbing your cue alignment. Tons of players are thrusting their cues back and forth at 100 miles an hour and never learn how to stroke the ball correctly with good speed control.
When you slowly accellerate the cue, you do not get the "jerk" that brings your cue off line. You also get a very powerful tool to control your speed. If your accelleration is close to constant, you can easily control your speed by varying the length of your backswing. If you vary how you accellerate your cue, speed control becomes much more difficult.
Following through is important for many reasons. Mostly, it's easier to aim at a target that way, and speed control is also improved. If you intentionally DON'T follow through you will have problems because the muscles that stop your cue will have to start contracting before the cue reaches the ball, with very bad consequences for your accuracy in direction as well as speed. Following through helps you stay down, helps you pocket ballls and helps you play position. It's hard to imagine one piece of advice in pool that could be more useful.
Your points about Bruce Lee are laughable. You couldn't get anywhere close to him without getting punched out, and he was a mixed martial artist before anyone else was. Good luck fighting him, you'd need it. His one inch punch was just a show thing, and the usefulness is questionable, that is true, but the man had legendary punching power as well as jiu-jitsu skills.
Your point about speed control being "finite" I did not understand. Any shot can be hit with an infinite number of speeds, between the hardest it could possibly be hit, and the slowest. The maximum travel of the cueball is hard to calculate even with center ball, and depends on angle, cloth and cushion speed, slate thickness and lots of other things. Not only that but quite frequently a sidespin stroke will be easier to control at higher speeds because after a couple of rails the spin reverses and kills the ball. Not to mention that you can intentionall kill any shot with sidespin to begin with. You get the maximum amount of force into the cueball at exact center ball striking, yet that stroke is quite rarely used, because it is a very unnatural, hard to control stroke with very low versatility. It's a good drill stroke and that's just about it except in the rare cases where you get a stun-run through that is perfectly lined up to use center. Even my stun-run throughs are hit with mostly below center or even slightly above. Exact center is very rare.
You hear of people using center to shoot their long follow shots for some of the same reasons you give. I've tried it, and I don't really see the value, unless we are talking about stun-run through. If I'm rolling the ball naturally anyway, I'd much rather hit it with a normal, follow stroke, to get maximum consistency compared to the shorter shots, other than some theoretical advantage of getting the most power into the ball with the less amount of effort. If we are talking about dragging the ball, we use much below center to get the maximum amount of "brake". So on really long "slow" shots I either stun-run or drag. Never "center roll". If the equipment is good and I feel confident I roll with above center.