Shane Van Boening ~ 115 Ball Run ~ 2012 Fury 14.1 Challenge @ SBE

Vids from Fury Challenge

Steve and Charlie:

Thanks for the vid and of course all the work you put into promoting our game.

I'll download today and convert for my ipad and for the ride to work tomorrow. Keep up the good work. :thumbup:

this is a surprisingly good video.

not only is the video quality better than the conditions might've led me to expect, but Shane's play was better than it appeared from where i was sitting across the booth at SBE.

it also served as a reminder of what had seemed oddly-familiar about his stroke: he shoots just like Cisero Murphy! which makes me wonder -- since he's too young to have seen Cisero play -- if someone in his pool-playing family did and adopted that style.

from across the booth i couldn't see his patterns, and thought he was just 9-balling his way through the racks. but this video, while not exactly Crane-like, shows him doing a lot more thinking than some modern pros who Do play more 14.1.

thanks, Steve!

stevekur1 said:

Well Guys here it is the first of the videos that were recorded at this years Fury 14.1 Challenge..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZp07gaclI8


This Kid Shane shoots pretty damn straight for someone who doesnt play 14.1


Enjoy,
-Steve

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Thanks so much for uploading! :thumbup:

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

wigglybridge said:

... he shoots just like Cisero Murphy! ...

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Please say a bit more about what you mean here. Do you mean mechanics or something else? (Cisero had a slip stroke and a significant pause between the back swing and the forward swing.)

Edit: I do think Shane and Cisero have a similar overall tempo to their swings.

Shane was family taught-

Billy Incardonia - played with the same grip. second finger (only finger cradling the cue and thumb on top or straight down. A super light grip allows for followthrough- and he can slip stroke pretty easy. All the great players (paused Buddy Hall paused for 4 seconds-on the backstroke- looks like spf stuff. I have read all most everybilliards book my friends bussiness has soldin over 50 yrs. Baseball had Jackie Robinson- Pool had Cisro Murphy. He used his god given talents - and developed a streets program with the Park and Rec boards- giving back to the people always. Cisero won the straight Pool event 1 st attepmt. He was banned from like 1953 - till 1965 .When he fought to compet in world tournments as a black man. Great stuff

HollyWood said:

Billy Incardonia - played with the same grip. second finger (only finger cradling the cue and thumb on top or straight down. A super light grip allows for followthrough- and he can slip stroke pretty easy. All the great players (paused Buddy Hall paused for 4 seconds-on the backstroke- looks like spf stuff. I have read all most everybilliards book my friends bussiness has soldin over 50 yrs. Baseball had Jackie Robinson- Pool had Cisro Murphy. He used his god given talents - and developed a streets program with the Park and Rec boards- giving back to the people always. Cisero won the straight Pool event 1 st attepmt. He was banned from like 1953 - till 1965 .When he fought to compet in world tournments as a black man. Great stuff

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Good observations to which I'd like to add a little something:

Buddy Hall is a player I refer students to watching among other because of the pause between back swing and actual stroke, but 4 seconds is an exaggeration - not even former World Snooker Champion and renowned coach Terry Griffiths pauses that long at the end of his back swing. There would be no use doing it any longer than one's muscles need to relax - in other words, to hold the cue up dangling in the air longer than necessary spoils the very improvement that comes from pausing. Apart from this detail, yes, it's an element of what makes Buddy's stroke so fluid and consistent.

As to the lightness of grip, again, what Buddy does is better than to try and grip the cue particularly loosely. The point is not to do much or anything with one's grip hand fingers during the forward ("throwing"!) motion - ironically, trying to grip the cue with e.g. no more than two fingers only tends to make players clasp during the stroke out of necessity (= or else the cue would bounce/flip backwards on a variety of shots). Buddy can fire the ball any speed he likes doing virtually nothing with his grip hand, which in turn guarantees he's not throwing the stick off a perfectly straight throwing line.

In addition, Buddy is one of the few players who'll shoot a goodly proportion of his shots (e.g. medium speed stun shots) without anticipation of dropping his elbow (= dropping one's elbow after impact, à la Nick Varner, is never a problem). Shane in contrast often moves elbow (and shoulder!) up on his back swing, and drops it (them) simultaneously on impact. While this subjectively prolongs the stroke (looks and feels fun), it takes effort/a great deal of coordination to hit the intended spot on the cue ball (the tendency with most players I video-tape who do this is to hit it fractionally higher, which is why they get e.g. less draw than intended etc., but it can also cause them to miscue).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

stevekur1 said:

This Kid Shane shoots pretty damn straight for someone who doesnt play 14.1

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If he keeps practicing, he may become a good player some day. :scratchhead:

Thanks for posting it Steve. You can tell Shane doesn't play a lot of straight pool but he shoots so well, it doesn't matter too much.

"Please say a bit more about what you mean here. Do you mean mechanics or something else? (Cisero had a slip stroke and a significant pause between the back swing and the forward swing.)"

i think one of the things separating a good stroke from a not-so-good stroke is the smoothness of acceleration. now, acceleration in a pure physical sense can be measured starting from the backstroke, which is one reason that the pause can be such a strong foundation for a good stroke, because it prolongs the "zero-point" of acceleration.

beyond any minor similarities/differences in spf mechanics, the striking thing to me about both Shane and Cisero, the thing that puts them in almost a different grouping entirely from other players, is just how slow the beginning acceleration of their forward strokes is. it's quite like a slow-motion video of a lizard's tongue; they both have the smoothest forward acceleration of any player i've watched, by a very, Very large margin.

i haven't seen Cisero play since January 23, 1966. but the new Capelle DVD has some beautiful and highly-detailed footage showing what a fluid player he was. i need to find out what match that's from and order it if possible, because i haven't found any other useful footage of him on the intertubes; the only match i've seen is grainy and shot from poor angles.

and i should go back and study Buddy's stroke, which as David from Switzerland points out, is also one of the most astonishing out there -- but i don't see it as often because he never plays 14.1, and i rarely watch rotation -- to see if that's what is the basis for me liking his stroke so much as well.

wigglybridge said:

... beyond any minor similarities/differences in spf mechanics, the striking thing to me about both Shane and Cisero, the thing that puts them in almost a different grouping entirely from other players, is just how slow the beginning acceleration of their forward strokes are. it's quite like a slow-motion video of a lizard's tongue; they both have the smoothest forward acceleration of any player i've watched, by a very, Very large margin. ...

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I know what you mean now. In fact, before I read your 2:00 post, I went back and edited my post from last night to say that I think they have a similar overall tempo to their swings.

Good observation.

Shane shoots as straight as any man alive right now. As the winner of the last two Derby City one pocket events, he has also shown that he has a deft touch. In short, he has the skills, the finesse, the stamina and the consistency that are the building blocks of a 14.1 champion. All he lacks is the knowledge and the experience.

If he ever took up serious 14.1, there's no reason to think he wouldn't quickly be on a par with the likes of Hohmann, Schmidt, Ortmann, Feijen, VanDenBerg, See and Immonen in the discipline.

... and if Shane were tutored by one of the many living 14.1 gurus, such as Nick Varner or DanDiLiberto, the level he might reach defies the imagination.

Bob Jewett said:

I thought that Shane got through racks pretty well. He did have to use great shotmaking from time to time such as the 3 or 4 tough combos. For reference, here are the times on the video of his break shots:

Break/Score/Time
1 0 0:55
2 14 6:08
3 28 15:25
4 42 21:13
5 56 28:06 -- two tough shots at the start of the rack Who would shoot the combo here?
6 70 34:26
7 84 41:35 -- another tough shot after the break, several "wild" shots in this rack
8 98 52:35 -- Tough break along end rail
9 112 59:18

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Thanks Bob, made me watch again a bit more closely. Just random thoughts really, but allow me to address these in order:

1. Interesting choice…
2. Shane playing with yet another cracked ferrule?
3. Very clean cloth and balls, hitting the middle ball at this speed without getting stuck…
4. Perfect!!
5. The combo appears perfectly lined up, opens up the position, and puts an object ball in optimal break position for a right-hander. I might not have shot it as a matter of principle, but if I'd never missed a combo in my life, I'd see Shane's as the superior choice in this particular situation.
6. No need to hit this break shot with inside English except for the comfort of a thinner hit – needless to say, the result speaks for itself. But who cares if the man can make that combo from the head rail look as if it were nothing…?
7. Shane's shot selection at 47:00 could easily have ended his run. I do not believe he meant to miss the nine altogether, and he did because IMHO he shot the ten too hard and allowed the cue ball to slide forward before the stun-draw took. Of course, the only safety valve, had he shot this fractionally softer and smoother, might have been the twelve. But as it turned out, he's lucky to have any ball left in the rack area to attack the cluster. The shot at 48:20 again shows the cloth must have been sliding more than he expected. He should really have gone twelve-two there. The trick shot that follows looks like the only available, so no complaints there…
8. Hits the middle ball but nice speed!
9. Reminds me of why I don't like low break shots. Inside follow again, this time nice speed, this turns out about as well as it's ever going to…

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti