Van Boening's Break

ArizonaPete

ArizonaPete

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've been watching the TAR stream of the Van Boening/Pagalyan match and I'm really impressed with Shane's powerful break. He seems to break so effortlessly but delivers an amazing break each time. He doesn't seem to use his body much - no jumping in the air, etc. Just a couple of practice strokes then a long pause and he releases the trigger while rising up. How does he deliver so much power in his break? Is it simply speed?
 
Pete,

Of course it's speed.

We often here comments about whether power or speed is important on the break. In reality, power is speed. The cueball has a fixed amount of mass. If you want it to have more energy, or power, it has to be moving faster.

Now, about Shane's break. I think Shane increases the length of his lever (back arm), by rising up and pivoting it from his shoulder more than his elbow. With a longer lever, it's easier to get the speed up. It's also harder to maintain control. But Shane is Shane, and he can lengthen that lever, hit them hard (fast), and still hit the middle of the cueball and control where it goes.

That's why he has one of the best breaks in the world.

Just my opinions of course.

Merry Christmas!

Royce Bunnell
www.obcues.com
 
Three things ive noticed. He holds the cue further up compared to when he is shooting, he pivots his shoulder and elbow and last he moves his body foward so his arm and body are at the same place at contact.
 
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QUALITY OF CONTACT!!! Like golf, hitting the ball on the sweetspot of the club gets you the best results. Shane hits the headball nearly perfect every time. I have a friend that breaks WAY harder than I do, but has ZERO control over the cueball and he hits the headball in a different spot everytime....his results are as inconsistent as his contact. The correlation is obvious. :cool:

think Shane hitting that BREAKRAK thing a gazillion times has anything to do with his consistency?? :p
 
In my opinion nobody hits the head ball any more square than Shane does, that is the key. Alex is a close 2nd. These two show exactly how silly all the body flailing around is.
 
Bingo!

trustyrusty said:
QUALITY OF CONTACT!!! Like golf, hitting the ball on the sweetspot of the club gets you the best results. Shane hits the headball nearly perfect every time. I have a friend that breaks WAY harder than I do, but has ZERO control over the cueball and he hits the headball in a different spot everytime....his results are as inconsistent as his contact. The correlation is obvious. :cool:

think Shane hitting that BREAKRAK thing a gazillion times has anything to do with his consistency?? :p
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Absolutely! I'm really glad Shane has brought such a big break to the game without throwing his whole body at the cue ball. Hopefully this will inspire young, developing players to adopt his style (No knock against the pros who have developed great breaks the other way, though).

One thing I've noticed about many pros is that they actually move way LESS before and during the break stroke than it appears. A lot of the movement occurs after contact to dissipate speed/power of the cue going forward.

Back to "Quality of Contact": This is BIG. Golf was used as an example, but it applies in many sports. You can hit more powerful shots in tennis or longer hits in baseball if you hit the ball CLEANLY, rather than faster or harder. Power/speed are important as well, but a clean hit that transfers all the inertia from the cue to the cue ball and then to the rack is the most important factor.

For those who have the break speed app on their smartphone, watch the break speed and compare to how loud the impact is or how "hard" the break seemed compared to others. I see breaks hit at 19 MPH that look monsterous and some hit 24 MPH that seem like a weak break. The difference is a cleanly hit cue ball and a really full hit on the one.

Timing is the other big factor, particularly with Shane. His tip is accelerating all the way through the cue ball, and he's contacting it at the point in his stroke where the cue is moving fastest. Timing is hard to teach; some people just have it innately. My 12-year old son has been studying Shane's break and trying to copy it for 18 months or so (he was still 11 when this video was taken): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbHyydXc7l0
 
TheConArtist said:
Three things ive noticed. He holds the cue further up compared to when he is shooting, he pivots his shoulder and elbow and last he moves his body foward so his arm and body are at the same place at contact.
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This is an astute observation. :wink:

Best,
Mike
 
Joeyb1979 said:
How does he make the ball hop and come back? Is it the draw he's putting on?
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Actually, squatting the cue ball requires just a tad of forward spin or roll, rather than draw. Because the mass of the stack is greater than that of the cue ball, the CB will want to bounce backward off the stack. So when the CB bounces back towards mid-table that bit of forward roll converts to draw and is what throws out the anchor to make the CB squat rather than continue rolling back up table.

The key though, is a good square hit on the head ball; not a glancing blow.
 
DogsPlayingPool said:
Actually, squatting the cue ball requires just a tad of forward spin or roll, rather than draw. Because the mass of the stack is greater than that of the cue ball, the CB will want to bounce backward off the stack. So when the CB bounces back towards mid-table that bit of forward roll converts to draw and is what throws out the anchor to make the CB squat rather than continue rolling back up table.

The key though, is a good square hit on the head ball; not a glancing blow.
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Good call there. When I break I use a lot of follow through as well. I seem to get good results (not nearly as good as SVB though!) when I follow through all the way to the joint of my break cue. I get pretty good pop and squat action on the CB but I only break about 19.5mph on average.
 
Great thread, esp the videos showing different angles on SVB's break. Anyone know the weight of his break cue?
 
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