Not going to butt heads with probably the number one instructor on az. I will try and make a feeble attempt to answer your questions. But I do feel that same feeling I got the only time I ever spoke with an FBI agent. He already knew the answers to his questions. You teach the open bridge because you have to start somewhere and it's relatively easy for most. You teach the closed bridge later in someones career as another important bridge they should try and learn so they can progress even further. More bullets in your gun. As for the strengths of each, I won't attempt to go there. So you tell us. Merry Christmas to all the instructors and thanks for all the info.
And Merry Christmas to you also.
Great come back.
Foremost all of our new students are explained and demonstrated both bridges along with three other types.
IMO the Open Hand bridges allows unrestricted sighting much like a rifle barrel. For an Instructor the Open Hand bridge may reveal some stroking errors that could happen. Makes the healing process that much quicker.
A Closed Hand bridge may hide some stroking errors. We would like to see our students use both bridges in these different situations. When shooting "Follow", and Open Hand bridge is about all you need, very good sighting on both cue ball and target. When we pick up our speed or go to "Draw" the cue ball a Closed Hand bridge might assist in keeping any error to a minimum.
Naturally with a good stroke any bridge should work effectively.
Personally I use an Open Hand about 60-70% of my shots. I like to follow the cue ball as I feel it is more predictable. For stop shots and draw I go right to a variable Closed Hand Bridge. I actually have three different Closed Hand bridges for different situations.
SPF=randyg