Good Read - Bustamante's Break

kidrock said:
I am not sure if this has been posted before but I just wanted to share a BD article I just read about Busta's break :) Click on the link...

Enjoy!

http://www.poolbe.com/downloads/bustabreak.pdf
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Cool article, never seen that before, thanks. I have noticed that most of the Filipino shooters raise the cue butt up before stroking through, (I'm thinking of Alex Pagulayan), whereas the North American technique seems to be keep the cue as level as possible.

I think I would scoop the cueball off the table if I were to do that, but I'm going to try it tonight when I get to the poolhall.:D Like most people, my break is the chink in my armor, could always stand to improve.:)
 
Nico said:
Cool article, never seen that before, thanks. I have noticed that most of the Filipino shooters raise the cue butt up before stroking through, (I'm thinking of Alex Pagulayan), whereas the North American technique seems to be keep the cue as level as possible..:)
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I thought this, too. Until I actually watched our hardest breakers. Johnny Archer raises on his final stroke. Sarah Rousey raises a whole lot, as does George Breedlove.

It's what I call the forced elbow drop, or reverse elbow drop. In order to gain power easier, the elbow is raised so that the elbow can be dropped to get power with "less effort." The raising of course adds effort, but this might make things easier for some.

Fred
 
One more thing...

One more thing that I noticed is Bustamante's loose grip on the cue when breaking. I always thought he does that (and most Filipinos) only when cueing but not when breaking.

I always break with a tight grip on the cue, so I'll try a loose grip when breaking this week and see if it does wonders :D
 
kidrock said:
One more thing that I noticed is Bustamante's loose grip on the cue when breaking. I always thought he does that (and most Filipinos) only when cueing but not when breaking.

I always break with a tight grip on the cue, so I'll try a loose grip when breaking this week and see if it does wonders :D
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You missed point #8. It says to grip the cue very tightly when stroking through the ball. Point #3 says to grip the cue loosely, but only during the setup phase.
 
jsp said:
You missed point #8. It says to grip the cue very tightly when stroking through the ball. Point #3 says to grip the cue loosely, but only during the setup phase.
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Yeah you're right, I was looking at the pictures and must've thought he's still holding it loosely at #8. Thanks for pointing it out
 
The link doesn't work for me; it says it's unavailable. Did anyone download the .pdf onto their hard drive, and could perhaps post it here as an attachment since it doesn't seem to be available from its original source?

-Andrew
 
They really ought to have a "Don't try this at home" disclaimer! :)

I really don't think that kind of break is for everyone. The amount of skill required, aim, body control, etc. is intense, and only a few are going to be willing enough to work hard enough to make it work for them.

Thank you very much for this information. The billiard club he was at is only about fifteen minutes from my work.
 
Andrew Manning said:
The link doesn't work for me; it says it's unavailable. Did anyone download the .PD onto their hard drive, and could perhaps post it here as an attachment since it doesn't seem to be available from its original source?

-Andrew
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Just worked for me. It's about a 3MB download, so be patient if you have a slow connection.
 
Andrew Manning said:
The link doesn't work for me; it says it's unavailable. Did anyone download the .pdf onto their hard drive, and could perhaps post it here as an attachment since it doesn't seem to be available from its original source?

-Andrew
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I am not sure what the problem is that you can't download it but the link works, at least for me and the others. I downloaded the .pdf file but since it's around 3MB, I can't attach it to the thread.

Send me a PM with your email and I will send it to you directly :)
 
I'm not sure which one it is, but one of the videos from this russian website shows Stalev's 8-ball break. I've never seen someone rare back so far and still maintain control of the rock. He actually raises the butt of his stick over his head and then delivers so far that his leg comes up on the table! Anyway, there's a bunch of cool vids to watch here too. Enjoy.

http://www.propool.info/_misc/pool-video.php
 
One thing that interests me is that Busta says that he looks at the one ball last. If I remember, in most articles that I have read, good players usually look at the cue ball last. Has anyone researched whether most pros look at the cue ball or 1 ball last? I'm sure it's a "personal preference" thing.

Mike
 
Gregg said:
They really ought to have a "Don't try this at home" disclaimer! :)

I really don't think that kind of break is for everyone. The amount of skill required, aim, body control, etc. is intense, and only a few are going to be willing enough to work hard enough to make it work for them.

Thank you very much for this information. The billiard club he was at is only about fifteen minutes from my work.
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I agree or at least make sure there's nobody on the table downstroke of this shot. I can see a lot cueballs flying with this method. The article even mentioned Busta had problems keeping the cb on the table at first.

There is no question that he has one of the hardest breaks in the world, I just don't believe it's necessary to hit them that hard. I have found the most effective 9ball break for me is about a 6 out of 10 strength shot. If it doesn't seem to work for me on any particular day I can step it up a notch or change positions, having 2 variables that I'm easily able to change leaves me more options than hitting the rack as hard as I can and just changing cb position to get a better break.

Also slowing your break stroke down is harder for me than stepping it up a notch.
 
Thanks for the reprint, this was from a few years ago and I missed picking up a copy at the time. However I think we're all missing something very important thing here - Did you see the state of his ferrule? Yuck!
 
Mike Templeton said:
One thing that interests me is that Busta says that he looks at the one ball last. If I remember, in most articles that I have read, good players usually look at the cue ball last. Has anyone researched whether most pros look at the cue ball or 1 ball last? I'm sure it's a "personal preference" thing.

Mike
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Object ball last. I don't think breaking is any different.

The only shot ever that I could see looking at the cue ball last is a jump shot, and that still is not ideal.

Kelly
 
Mike Templeton said:
One thing that interests me is that Busta says that he looks at the one ball last. If I remember, in most articles that I have read, good players usually look at the cue ball last. Has anyone researched whether most pros look at the cue ball or 1 ball last? I'm sure it's a "personal preference" thing.

Mike
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Good players look at the cue ball last on the break shot, the jump shot, and the masse'.

Souquet looks at the cue ball last on everything.
 
Matt_24 said:
Good players look at the cue ball last on the break shot, the jump shot, and the masse'.

Souquet looks at the cue ball last on everything.
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I didn't consider the masse', but that definitely is cue ball last with the jump I mentioned. I have not heard many good players looked at the cue ball last on the break shot until now.
Kelly
 
jsp said:
You missed point #8. It says to grip the cue very tightly when stroking through the ball. Point #3 says to grip the cue loosely, but only during the setup phase.
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I think there is an important subtlety here. Yes, it says to grip tightly with the thumb, but he is only holding the cue with three fingers, and that is the reason I think why he says grip tightly with the thumb. Most people that do this will naturally tighten up the rest of their grip arm, I think, but I think it is very important to have the rest of the arm quite loose and relaxed. Tight muscles in the grip arm will definitely inhibit the power of the break, so the key is to grip tightly but only very specifically with the three fingers, and otherwise to remain loose and relaxed with the rest of your arm. It takes practice, but when I was practicing my break a lot I was amazed at how much speed and power I could generate using this technique.
 
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supergreenman said:
There is no question that he has one of the hardest breaks in the world, I just don't believe it's necessary to hit them that hard. I have found the most effective 9ball break for me is about a 6 out of 10 strength shot. If it doesn't seem to work for me on any particular day I can step it up a notch or change positions, having 2 variables that I'm easily able to change leaves me more options than hitting the rack as hard as I can and just changing cb position to get a better break.

Also slowing your break stroke down is harder for me than stepping it up a notch.
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I agree with you about not needing to use extreme power for a successful break. I mean look at Corey Dueul's soft break, he usually makes several balls and maintains great control over the CB.
 
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