It seems to me that the play of the top flight players of today is better than say 25 years ago. Is this true or is just the jumping and kicking more impressive? Does anyone have a way of comparing TPA averages in major tournaments 25 years ago to those of today? Just curious!
Accu-Stats used the same rating system 25-30 years ago that they use today. Back then anything over .900 was a really good score for a match. Now that is common among the top players and now they are playing Ten Ball, and that game was pretty much non existent as a tournament game until maybe the last 10-12 years.
You are correct when you say there have been improvements in the top players ability to jump and kick balls. Today's players are far better at these two skills. We used to just kick to hit the ball and try to get lucky. Jumping was avoided whenever possible, with a kick shot preferred. Now good players are jumping to make all kinds of shots.
Knowledge and safety wise, the older players knew how to move pretty well, perhaps because they were all so well versed in Straight Pool. I think only a few of them (Sigel, Buddy, Earl and Varner) missed as infrequently as today's best players. Sigel was in a class by himself when it came to playing error free pool. He might make 3-4 errors (missed position, missed ball, scratch etc.) per 100 shots and the next best were in the 5-7 range.