After seeing him deal with Shaw's rack shenanigans at the China Open and still coming out on top, my vote has to go to Ko Pin Yi.
Yeah I agree. And I think there's a cultural norm in Asia to control the outward expression of emotion, which is a big part of the mental game. If you start showing your frustration, I think it can act like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and drive your gameplay down.
Shane's strength is his strong drive to win, not controlling the outward expression of his emotions. He's actually pretty poor at that. If something goes wrong, he shrugs, talks to himself, furrows his brow, etc. He's not Earl, that's for sure, but he's not like one of the Asians or Europeans either. He's a pretty typical American pool player in that respect.
But it makes me wonder about the importance of those two aspects of the mental game, controlling emotions and will to win. Lots of great athletes have been pretty emotional, and have a pretty damn strong will to win. I'm thinking about the thing with Serena Williams recently. Or Borg vs. McEnroe. On the other hand, tennis is a very active game. Pool is more about composure. It's hard to believe that emotions help pool players.
