Which players have you tried to "emulate"?

justnum

justnum

Billiards Improvement Research Projects Associate
Silver Member
Since pool is a sport with athletes, which pool players have you tried to copy their "style"

Has anyone tried to flare their leg during a break? Or do Mosconi antics?

This whole crisis has me digging at memories. The one that surfaced for me was playing pool and thinking about those horrible pool movie scenes. From Pool Hall Junkies I found one of the actors has a great podcast.
The podcast is run by a former Pool Hall Junkie and smallville actor and justice league voice character.

I tried using the language from PHJ on some new people at the pool room once. They just looked at me like I was alien. Controlling my excitement about pool in the pool room is way my reasonable now. The main forum is more appropriate for sharing fun memories while playing pool and meeting new people.

I have never tried the quiet as a church line, or the daddy warbucks line. There are other lines that I tried and have enjoyed often. But due to hustling reasons cannot disclose that information.
 
If I were to emulate a player, it would be Fedor Gorst. I like his methodical style at the table. It may not be considered entertaining to watch someone who plays textbook pool, but as a pool player I appreciate the discipline he has at the table. He is pretty much unflappable, too. He doesn't get rattled by big match pressure or being behind in the match.
 
Kdogster said:
If I were to emulate a player, it would be Fedor Gorst. I like his methodical style at the table. It may not be considered entertaining to watch someone who plays textbook pool, but as a pool player I appreciate the discipline he has at the table. He is pretty much unflappable, too. He doesn't get rattled by big match pressure or being behind in the match.
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thats a nice way to say boring is interesting. Its nice to know some people think going by the book is exciting.

I've always been a fan of the more social players, people that talk first. Not people that only talk, to talk back. Think Earl Strickland
 
I've never been a fan of Earl. He is a great shooter for sure, but I respect people who are great people first. I watched an interview just the other day with Earl and Steve Davis. Earl constantly tried to make Steve agree with him for his own comfort. If you need someone to agree with you, then you really don't believe yourself. I truly believe Earl isn't trying to be a douche, but he is at times. The first time I got to see a pro play was Rodolfo Luat. That changed my stroke forever. The Filipinos all have similar strokes. Efren, Busty (who I have a winning record 2-1 lol), Alex. My great friend, John, called it the gear effect. If you watch their elbows, they move in a circle, not a straight line. Today I have a combination of many strokes in my arsenal. Some good and some bad. I'm always tweaking my game
 
Emulating can be a dead end...do you want to look like a player, or BE a player?
..watching a great player and figuring out WHY he does something and then doing it your own way is good.
Learn, but don’t copy
 
pt109 said:
Emulating can be a dead end...do you want to look like a player, or BE a player?
..watching a great player and figuring out WHY he does something and then doing it your own way is good.
Learn, but don’t copy
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Emulating is not a dead end. Read the Inner Game of Tennis. Kids, children, the youth emulate, copy, and repeat what we adults do. That is a fundamental and successful human action. Overthinking and analyzing creates chaos in the brain. Getting out of the way of the brain has the most positive results and that is best done by emulating. You must "feel" what it is like to perform your best. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in pool it to never be down at the table with two different thoughts. If you are over a shot and thinking about safety or a bank at the same time, you will miss it. Right or wrong, you must be 100% committed to the task you are trying to perform.
 
In this century, Efren Reyes and Alex Pagulayan are the players I have most tried to emulate. Going back a generation, it was Nick Varner and the far too overlooked superstar Rodolfo Luat.
 
At times I try to emulate Rodney Morris. I like his rapid style of shooting. Sometimes I use Efren's "windmill" stroke to loosen up.
 
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when the pros break cue sticks during a match, i wanted to copy that.
there are more than a few matches where I thought acting out my anger would help me in my match.

looking back on it, i feel more laughter than embarrassment. I still think its nice to see when a hustler uses that routine on me.
 
justnum said:
when the pros break cue sticks during a match, i wanted to copy that.
there are more than a few matches where I thought acting out my anger would help me in my match.

looking back on it, i feel more laughter than embarrassment. I still think its nice to see when a hustler uses that routine on me.
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The only real interaction 'hustler' and you would have would be the result of you visiting an adult website.

Please don't think you can make anyone here believe you are going to lose a hundred bucks in one day at pool.
 
Black-Balled said:
The only real interaction 'hustler' and you would have would be the result of you visiting an adult website.

Please don't think you can make anyone here believe you are going to lose a hundred bucks in one day at pool.
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I don't think.
I make budgets and write them down and stick to them. Sometimes people cause me grief when they want to change the budget.

Just trying to emulate the relax and controlled emotion during a match has been the most challenging part.
 
I like SVB's short follow through because he doesn't drop his elbow. He keeps the stroke dead straight.

That doesn't mean I can emulate...just wish I could.
 
jason said:
Emulating is not a dead end. Read the Inner Game of Tennis. Kids, children, the youth emulate, copy, and repeat what we adults do. That is a fundamental and successful human action. Overthinking and analyzing creates chaos in the brain. Getting out of the way of the brain has the most positive results and that is best done by emulating. You must "feel" what it is like to perform your best. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in pool it to never be down at the table with two different thoughts. If you are over a shot and thinking about safety or a bank at the same time, you will miss it. Right or wrong, you must be 100% committed to the task you are trying to perform.
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Emulating one player would mean you copy their good and their bad. Learning what any given player has to offer on the good side then making that your own through practice (emulating) seems like a better approach. This may be what pt109 was suggesting but of course I do not want to put words in his mouth.

Dave
 
DaveK said:
Emulating one player would mean you copy their good and their bad. Learning what any given player has to offer on the good side then making that your own through practice (emulating) seems like a better approach. This may be what pt109 was suggesting but of course I do not want to put words in his mouth.

Dave
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Jeebis! Then what do you want to put in there?
 
i try to emulate anyone that makes a ball and play good position....:)
 
DaveK said:
Emulating one player would mean you copy their good and their bad. Learning what any given player has to offer on the good side then making that your own through practice (emulating) seems like a better approach. This may be what pt109 was suggesting but of course I do not want to put words in his mouth.

Dave
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You very well could be correct and I might have not interpreted his meaning or intent exactly correct. I do agree with you that we should pick and choose the best characteristics of others. Thank you for your post.
 
I tried emulating slow play and hassling during the rack.

It didn't feel natural. Now I just say hi and pay more attention to what is happening. I like watching the production of the World Class events.
 
I always figured that first you had to run with the big dogs before you could worry about beating them. That meant not only seeing what they were doing but understanding why they were doing it. Some I asked why they were doing something, they could explain it to me. Some were emulating someone who might be emulating someone else. The catch with all of this emulating is it gets diluted at every level if it is done without understanding.

I'm emulating Joe Bob who is emulating Harry who is emulating Joey who is emulating Willie. Trouble is that things have been changed slightly at each level and I am only emulating Willie in the slightest! Willie wouldn't even recognize what I was doing!

After two or three years of near nightly pool and having a table at home I was successful in the small pond I was in. I could make most reasonably possible shots, make easy banks most of the time, play shape where I could have a decent chance of making the next ball.

Then I was sitting around the house on a Sunday afternoon and an event had gotten rained out or something. They were filling in with pool. One of the players was Willie Mosconi long before he had his stroke. Might have even been a good day for him when he was in good health. Regardless, he made the cue ball do everything but sit up and beg! His idea of shape was to a gnat's ass, you could have drawn a dime sized circle on the table and he would have been on it most of the time, shaded it when he wasn't! The other thing he did was not move the cue ball an inch he didn't have to.

Willie was playing pool in a dimension I hadn't even known was out there! Minimum movement of the cue ball and all balls wasn't too hard to put into my game. A shot with a 95% chance of success that moved the cueball eighteen inches and left a little steeper angle on the next ball, a shot with 90% chance of success was better than moving the cue ball sixteen feet through traffic with 80% chance of success to get shape with 95% of success. From a practical standpoint I wasn't missing the next shot regardless so why take the riskier route for shape? This was just a matter of analyzing my next shot a little better and was put in place in weeks.

The other part of his game, spot shape, took me five or six thousand hours to get close to. I never equaled Willie but I surpassed well over 90% of the players I shot with after that and it made me many a thousand of dollars. A lot of it was because in those days before jump cues I was the greatest liar on the table! If the ball would have rolled a half inch less far the opponent would have won. If it would have rolled a half inch further on another shot they would have won. What the other player rarely realized was that those "almost" shots were when I was rolling the cue ball less than two feet. At that range I had it on a string! Willie could do as well at much longer distances, I couldn't. That was why when I had longer shots, I didn't take the same risks on shape.

Which brings me to my closing on patterns. Plan patterns where if you are going to have to use a lot of spin the shot is easy. Difficult shots with a lot of spin to get to the next ball get your opponent back to the table. Almost every shot has two parts, making the ball and getting shape. Getting shape is often harder. Focus on shape and pocketing the ball requires far less focus!

It would be quite a stretch to say I emulated Willie Mosconi. Just a pale shadow of him was usually enough though.

Hu
 
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