short bridge and big stroke
Buddy Hall, others I have seen, sometimes drew the cue so far back with a short bridge that they got tip chalk on their hands, the tip went so far back into the bridge it didn't seem possible that the cue could be delivered perfectly. Of course with Buddy it was!
Two people made me revise my ideas of what was possible on a pool table. A never again seen game Willie played on TV against a tall, compared to Willie, player. I think Lassiter or Crane, possibly Grady. Anyway, this was a young Willie before his health issues. He was playing spot shape and playing across the approach area when it was most convenient. He had a shot where the leave was down a lane less than two balls wide between two other balls. He came off the rail and back into little more than a ball's width alley like it was a hanger!
I spent the next two or three years working on spot shape.
It was a few decades later when I first saw Efren. Again my understanding of what was possible on a cue table had to be revised! My game was so radically different that I didn't even try to copy the magician's style.
Pool is different today. Not really better or worse, just different. The big stroke is rarely needed and a finesse game can carry a person far.
Hu
Buddy Hall, others I have seen, sometimes drew the cue so far back with a short bridge that they got tip chalk on their hands, the tip went so far back into the bridge it didn't seem possible that the cue could be delivered perfectly. Of course with Buddy it was!
Two people made me revise my ideas of what was possible on a pool table. A never again seen game Willie played on TV against a tall, compared to Willie, player. I think Lassiter or Crane, possibly Grady. Anyway, this was a young Willie before his health issues. He was playing spot shape and playing across the approach area when it was most convenient. He had a shot where the leave was down a lane less than two balls wide between two other balls. He came off the rail and back into little more than a ball's width alley like it was a hanger!
I spent the next two or three years working on spot shape.
It was a few decades later when I first saw Efren. Again my understanding of what was possible on a cue table had to be revised! My game was so radically different that I didn't even try to copy the magician's style.
Pool is different today. Not really better or worse, just different. The big stroke is rarely needed and a finesse game can carry a person far.
Hu