Willies stroke mechanics....... maybe he should've used SPF.... could've help his runs.
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Are these fundamentals solid?
- Thread starter Coos Cues
- Start date
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
Yeah, we can find and invent things to criticize about the man's game or the equipment but he pumped out centuries about as reliably as anyone from any era ever. You don't do that unless you are a total badass.
He also got down on the stick it seems.
I believe that competitive greatness, especially those champions who dominated their sport for years at a time, would transcend any era and result in that person wining consistently at any time in history. Pool, especially, is not a physical size reliant game, unlike what football and basketball and some other sports have become today.
Where physical size in a sport really does matter, and has increased so dramatically over time, guys like Marciano and Buoniconti would just be too small to dominate today; however, Mosconi would not be facing physical limitations in pool, I think that his 14.1 skills would allow him to run 1,000 balls if they paid him to do it today under recently held circumstances.
Where physical size in a sport really does matter, and has increased so dramatically over time, guys like Marciano and Buoniconti would just be too small to dominate today; however, Mosconi would not be facing physical limitations in pool, I think that his 14.1 skills would allow him to run 1,000 balls if they paid him to do it today under recently held circumstances.
There was a lot to adapt to every hall you went to in Willie's day. Today, you go into a nice hall with AC or heater keeping the temperature and humidity right and step up to a well manicured Diamond table.
When I think about it, only the Filipinos and no doubt a few others in similar countries move from hall to hall faced with all kinds of conditions when learning, maybe worse than those Willie faced much of the time coming up. I think one secret of the Filipino success is the speed at which they adapt to conditions. Considering that, I think Willie would adjust to today's conditions like a duck taking to water!
The play that amazed me, Willie had the cue ball on a string. If you had a dime sized piece of paper you could have laid it on the table where he was shooting shape for and if the cue ball didn't stop there it would be withing a few inches. Most of the time the cue ball would have shaded that paper, some part of the cue ball being over it!
Worth remembering that Willie held over fifteen world championships. He also wasn't shy about gambling until contracts with corporate sponsors forbade it. Fats could get under Willie's skin like perhaps nobody else in the world could. They were supposed to be filming one of the made for TV things when Willie lost it, something implied or stated about not having the courage to gamble best I recall. Willie threw a fat wallet on the table and said "the hell with the show and the taping, let's go right now!"
That isn't word for word but it was the gist of what Willie said. I think it was Charlie Ursitti who calmed Willie down. Speaking of Charlie, he tells a story in this phone interview starting at about the six minute mark of breaking the balls for Willie and leaving him very tough. Willie shot something out of the stack from in the jaws of a pocket, crossbanked it, and he was off! Willie stopped once for coffee, once for a sandwich, and this is the run that might be called unfinished or deliberately finished. Willie fired the break ball in without attempting to break anything out after saying he was tired. The run was 589 on a standard nine foot Brunswick in 1979. Willie was 66 at the time and that is reaching pretty solidly into the modern era.
Charlie Ursitti was a friend of Willie's, he was also one of the most respected men in pool. I don't think he would tell a silly lie that if found to be a lie could harm his reputation or Willie's legacy.
Charlie is obviously a believer when it comes to Willie Mosconi. There is a funny story in this too but I don't want to spoil it for those wanting to watch the interview. Thirty minutes long total phone interview with Ursitti. Thirty-one and change if you are picky! Almost all about Willie including how Charlie thinks he would fair against today's players, or those of a few years back now.
Hu
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
Fats was a great entertainer but he was only about half as good as he said he was. That's still very good but Willie could smoke him.
That was a great interview
thanks for the link
thats a "wow" emoticon (meant as an up wow)
the wow was for 14 racks in a row!!!!!!
i changed it to
Based on what i've heard/read Mosconi was far from helpless playing 9b. He thought it was a gimmick gambling game but if challenged he'd tee it up and could flat play it. If Mosconi was around today he'd figure out tight tables/slick ass cloth and be a monster. Champions figure it out.
While Fats might have had the most underrated game in pool, by other pool players, he wasn't half bad. Add that his mouth was probably worth three balls or more and he really did get the cash most of the time! Purely table skills, if you could tape his mouth shut Fats wasn't in the same class as the top half-dozen players or so. That is still pretty special! Of course Fats was the greatest self promoter in the game. Ask the man on the street who the greatest pool player in the world was and for decades the answer would be Fats!
I think they met three times in the made for TV thing. One time Fats gave Willie a run for his money, might have beaten him overall, I don't remember. Surprisingly Willie gave Fats his due, saying in all the years they had known each other, that was the best he had ever seen him play. Definitely an odd couple but Fats knew from the beginning and Willie learned it was a show. They became pretty good friends traveling together, or so I heard. They were making money together and Willie always understood business!
Willie made a good income from the Brunswick deal but he also drove from place to place and often put on two exhibitions a day. It was a brutal pace he kept up for years. I don't think Willie enjoyed the pool table for at least a large stretch of that. It was his job, and one he did well. Part of Willie's magic was that you could watch him run seventy-five or a hundred balls and never pocket a ball a typical banger couldn't pocket.
The magic was the subtle position play, something the average nonplayer or banger didn't recognize. I think Willie probably moved a cue ball less feet to run a hundred balls than anyone I have ever seen. He could run a hundred balls and not shoot a half-dozen shots over his seemingly preferred thirty inches or less sometimes, cue ball to object ball. At a guess I would say his average shooting distance even having to clean up the occasional ball up table would have been under twenty inches. Extreme spin and jazzing the cue ball around the table? You would wait a long time to see that! I got a chuckle out of my dad one time, a man that had never hit a golf ball in his life. He was watching golf on TV, "I could have been good at that." Possibly, but it was more watching the ease that top pro's showed playing the game that gave that impression. That was the impression Willie gave about pool. A person could buy a table and in a few weeks be running rack after rack. Pool looked very easy when Willie did it!
Hu
I think they met three times in the made for TV thing. One time Fats gave Willie a run for his money, might have beaten him overall, I don't remember. Surprisingly Willie gave Fats his due, saying in all the years they had known each other, that was the best he had ever seen him play. Definitely an odd couple but Fats knew from the beginning and Willie learned it was a show. They became pretty good friends traveling together, or so I heard. They were making money together and Willie always understood business!
Willie made a good income from the Brunswick deal but he also drove from place to place and often put on two exhibitions a day. It was a brutal pace he kept up for years. I don't think Willie enjoyed the pool table for at least a large stretch of that. It was his job, and one he did well. Part of Willie's magic was that you could watch him run seventy-five or a hundred balls and never pocket a ball a typical banger couldn't pocket.
The magic was the subtle position play, something the average nonplayer or banger didn't recognize. I think Willie probably moved a cue ball less feet to run a hundred balls than anyone I have ever seen. He could run a hundred balls and not shoot a half-dozen shots over his seemingly preferred thirty inches or less sometimes, cue ball to object ball. At a guess I would say his average shooting distance even having to clean up the occasional ball up table would have been under twenty inches. Extreme spin and jazzing the cue ball around the table? You would wait a long time to see that! I got a chuckle out of my dad one time, a man that had never hit a golf ball in his life. He was watching golf on TV, "I could have been good at that." Possibly, but it was more watching the ease that top pro's showed playing the game that gave that impression. That was the impression Willie gave about pool. A person could buy a table and in a few weeks be running rack after rack. Pool looked very easy when Willie did it!
Hu
The weakness of just being able to leave an emoticon. I liked rep where we could add a brief note. Now I know a person has to guess a little if I think they are wrong to say something or what they are talking about is wrong or sad. Wow just means wow, I try not to put anything positive or negative to it. We will never see rep again without a software change but I sure wish a brief note was possible or a wider selection of icons to make clear we are talking about the situation the post is about or the poster writing it. Two icon slots, one for the poster, one for the post content would be nice! "I give your post an A but the situation sucks" would be nice to convey sometimes.
Hu
I checked (for a friend) and I think Mike H removed the minus from it. There's that stigma though like some kind of slur - which I would much rather see in print.
What Willie did work for him, his records shoe he was a Pool Legend.
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thing that always meant yow or yikes to me. Xenforo made it a dirty thing...
This is an underrated statement. I've seen a lot of players really contort themselves trying to get their chin on the cue to the point that it impedes their ability to see and stroke properly. The most unfortunate version of this is when they lift their cue to their chin thinking they are getting down on the cue. This causes them to strike down on every shot and is supremely counterproductive. It's much better to find a consistently comfortable and repeatable stance that allows you to freely see the line and stroke the cue.
xX-Wizard-Xx
Well-known member
yup if you are always uncomfortable .... you are going to get tired quicker .... being comfortable allows you to play the long game ..... pool is multifocal
you have to look at your opponent. How comfortable are they? does it look like they can play a long duration?
i have seen guys try to conform themselves to what so and so says is the correct way to be .... the correct way to be is what is most comfortable for you as a player and gives you the visualization you need... not what works for someone else. everyone wants to ask what is the best tip... what is the best shaft ... blah blah blah ... it is the combination of things that work for you ... pool is a journey ... dont ruin your journey by asking what works for someone else .... find what works for you
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