ChrisBanks
Banned
How has the strategy of the game changed over the past several decades? With tighter pockets and faster cloth, does a player need a different set of skills than he did 40 or 50 years ago?
How do you think the game on the table has changed over time?
- Thread starter ChrisBanks
- Start date
Yes a reply from you ChrisB on what you think would help!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=angi1vwUkQc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=angi1vwUkQc
LnL Junior.
You certainly don't need as big a stroke as you needed way back when. A table length draw or a power stun shot off a very shallow angle were much more difficult back in the day.
You do need to have a straighter stroke than back in the day because of the tighter pockets.
In one pocket, the game has become more offense oriented. Eddie Taylor said that Rags Fitzpatrick was the best one pocket player he'd ever seen but Rags played it ridiculously close to the vest, more or less perfecting the defensive style of thge game. Ronnie Allen took the game to the next level, going for quite a bit more than the generation that preceding him and most of the current generation have followed Ronnie's lead. Efren has brought the science of the game to an even higher level.
Straight pool has also become more offense oriented, with players rejecting defense to the point that more than a few have higher balls per inning than Mosconi.
Finally, the switch from the one shot shootout version of rotational pool to the texas express version has placed a greater emphasis on both billiard knowledge and safety play. Also, rotation games require more refined angle management on both offense and defense than most games of the past. Finally, rotation games today equire you to master the jump shot, which was barely in use forty years ago.
So yes, I feel you need a greater skill set today to play the top games at the highest level. You need to have a straighter stroke, you need to play more refined position, you need to play better defense, you need to know how to play a jump shot and you need more billiard knowledge. The only sense in which the game has become easier is that it's easier to move the cue ball around on the fast cloth with high quality object balls in use.
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I will send Efren and SVB back in time and you pick a couple guys from the past and we can get it on :thumbup:
It's true.
It's also the same in pretty much every sport. The information available for today's players make it so much easier to learn how to play the game at a high level.
50 years from, people will be saying how their players could dominate SVB, and they'll probably be right.
That's more than 10 replys. I think it's time for Chris's opinion.
Maybe there should be no more until we hear from Chris.:wink:
i was unsure how to classify Efren, old or new? But i called him first so i get him lol :thumbup:
But the thing is...the level is higher now though. There are a lot more great players now around the world, just less great american players.
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