AJ Manas
- Thread starter j2pac
- Start date
Cleveland_Rocks
Member
AJ Manas is a great player. Will he work to get to the next level?
If you can beat Jayson Shaw 9-4, you're already next level.
My only concern is that he'll get tired of winning.
Rusty in Montana
Well-known member
A bright star if he continues to play like he has the sky's the limit for him !
Manas beat Shaw two in a row.If you can beat Jayson Shaw 9-4, you're already next level.
My only concern is that he'll get tired of winning.
You gotta wait until they're in their mid 20's to know. Of course young kids are going to be unfazed. They're still in the phase of thinking they should beat everyone every time. There is no concept of oh I shouldn't win here, I'm going to put more pressure on myself. It's youthful naivete.Wow. I finally got a chance to watch this kid play. That young fella is scary good. Watched him play a little against Shaw. He looked unfazed. I'm impressed.
We see this all the time, some transition through with some but not a lot of difficulty, like Filler and some have to take several years to get through it, like Wu. Some never overcome it or decide their interests lie elsewhere like Chucky Holyoke, who at one point was supposed to be an up and comer. There were others, but I can't remember names off the top of my head.
I raved about his game early on, but he has been inconsistent, playing great at times and being careless at others. I don't rate him with the best players quite yet.
Quite possibly, he plays with the same frivolity that other youths with the naivete do but a lot of established filipinos do also.I think this particular Filipino might be different.
Like Jay said, he's had some inconsistencies that could be indicative of losing that youthful naivete, but that could also just be due to his style of play and not enough seasoning yet.
But don't get me wrong, I ain't offering him the 7 any time soon.
I think this kid will/can be as good as he wants to be. Should he choose to get the mental side of it completely dialed in, he's Darth Vader, or maybe Yoda. He reminds me of a Tiger Woods type talent, just waiting for Butch Harmon to come along and polish the edges. Maybe a lousy analogy, but...
Manas is a hard one to handicap. His runout skills and pattern recognition are super-elite and give him a chance to runover pretty much anybody, but his tactical game is under-developed and he makes some poor choices from time to time. In offense-oriented matches, he's far more dangerous than he is when he has to grind.
I'm not yet willing to call him a complete player, but if his development and decision making can catch up to his world class skills, he'll likely be a top ten player in the world at some point.
He is, in rough terms, the male Chezka Centeno, who often manages to overcome some of her tactical limitations with mind-blowing offensive execution, but covering up for tactical limitations is a lot harder in men's pool than women's pool, and if he hopes to reach the highest level, he'll have to add some of the missing pieces.
He may never play defense like a Reyes, Pagulayan, Orcullo, or Biado. That said, were he to reach Lee Van Corteza's level in beating players to the shot, his prospects will be very bright.
One thing is for sure, though. He is entertaining to watch.
I'm not yet willing to call him a complete player, but if his development and decision making can catch up to his world class skills, he'll likely be a top ten player in the world at some point.
He is, in rough terms, the male Chezka Centeno, who often manages to overcome some of her tactical limitations with mind-blowing offensive execution, but covering up for tactical limitations is a lot harder in men's pool than women's pool, and if he hopes to reach the highest level, he'll have to add some of the missing pieces.
He may never play defense like a Reyes, Pagulayan, Orcullo, or Biado. That said, were he to reach Lee Van Corteza's level in beating players to the shot, his prospects will be very bright.
One thing is for sure, though. He is entertaining to watch.