After reading various post about how well Shaw was playing at the US Open, I'm curious - what is he doing differently? A few players over the years reach invincibility. Mika, Shane, and now Shaw seems to be a force. Their game doesn't look any different but the records show otherwise.
From what I see, certain players do something better than everyone for a period of time. They all play extremely well all around, but something stands out.
SVB has probably the best cue ball control I’ve ever seen. Yes, guys like Efren could do crazy things with the cue, but SVB rarely gets out of line and needs to do anything crazy. He gets close to perfect shape, not close.....perfect on a vast majority of his shots. Enough so that he stands out.
Shaw is probably the straightest shooting out there currently when it comes to pocketing. Of course everyone at that level is good at pocketing, but his stands out when you watch him. I took a several year hiatus from playing or watching pool. When I started again, I looked for SVB since he was on the rise when I tuned out. I found videos of him and stumbled onto him playing Shaw. I immediately looked for more videos of Shaw because he absolutely stood out.
Those things are what separates them I think. When you can look at players live or on video until a few obviously stand out for whatever reason. They stand out for that particular reason/s and that strength is what let’s them beat fields of tough world class players for as long as they can keep it up.