130 ball run by Niels Feijen

Thanks for the video, I love watching Niels play. He is a rack running machine. Very efficient and methodical. You can tell that he is very familiar with straight pool, he does not hesitate and his patterns are well thought out....yet, a very aggressive player.

Thanks,

Doug
 
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Salamander said:
Thanks for the video, I love watching Niels play. He is a rack running machine. Very efficient and methodical. You can tell that he is very familiar with straight pool, he does not hesitate and his patterns are well thought out....yet, a very aggressive player.

Thanks,

Doug
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Did you see the other Niels runs posted in this section??

I like his stroke. And I like how you can tell he really thinks out exactly where he wants the cue ball to be in order to get the right angle to make the next shot and perhaps dislodge or move a ball or two when necessary.
 
dmgwalsh said:
Did you see the other Niels runs posted in this section??

I like his stroke. And I like how you can tell he really thinks out exactly where he wants the cue ball to be in order to get the right angle to make the next shot and perhaps dislodge or move a ball or two when necessary.
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I did....the one where he runs over 200 balls? He has a nice rythm to his game as well. You're right about his wanting the get the right angle. Many very good straight pool players are too "vague" about getting "correct" on the break shot. I like how he picks out a spot with his cue tip....better chance of hitting it if you have the target in mind.

Regards,

Doug
 
I don't think there is another pool game that compares to straight pool. I could watch someone run rack after rack after rack. It blows away any other game. Too bad I can't run those racks like that.
 
dmgwalsh said:
Another run made by Niels Feijen at the 2008 Derby City Classic Straight Pool Challenge
No audio but some nice play.
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DMG,
Thanks for the link. I can't really see what you are so excited about; I watched the first 6 racks, and he made maybe one even slightly hard shot. All I saw was a bunch of easy shots. Hell, I make 7 or 8 tougher shots than that every single rack (though it may take me several innings to clear that rack).
 
Williebetmore said:
DMG,
Thanks for the link. I can't really see what you are so excited about; I watched the first 6 racks, and he made maybe one even slightly hard shot. All I saw was a bunch of easy shots. Hell, I make 7 or 8 tougher shots than that every single rack (though it may take me several innings to clear that rack).
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If you think this guy shoots nothing but ducks, wait until I upload Ms. Lee later today.:D
 
dmgwalsh said:
If you think this guy shoots nothing but ducks, wait until I upload Ms. Lee later today.:D
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Just curious. Where are getting all of these? Did you shoot the videos?
 
bluepepper said:
Just curious. Where are getting all of these? Did you shoot the videos?
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See first post for credits.

Bob Jewett with help from Elvicash as far as I know.

As for me, I've always depended on the generosity of others.;)
 
Salamander said:
Thanks for the video, I love watching Niels play. He is a rack running machine. ...
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His high run in this competition was 147 which sadly did not get onto tape since he was on the back table. That was the table that was used for most of the 1-pocket challenge and was usually pretty dirty and seemed to play tighter. That was also where Fabio Petroni ran a 140.
 
dmgwalsh said:
See first post for credits.

Bob Jewett with help from Elvicash as far as I know.
Click to expand...

Oh sorry Dennis. I don't know how I missed that. Thanks Bob and Elvicash.

By the way, it's an interesting thing that Feijen does when he knows the cueball is going to go up table on the break shot. He over draws it to hit the head rail and come back down table. I'm thinking that it would be rare to scratch in one of the top two pockets because of the directness from the area of the rack to that top cushion. No kisses are likely either, because of the speed at which the cueball is coming away from the rack. And it ensures that the cueball won't get stuck to the stack.
 
bluepepper said:
Oh sorry Dennis. I don't know how I missed that. Thanks Bob and Elvicash.

By the way, it's an interesting thing that Feijen does when he knows the cueball is going to go up table on the break shot. He over draws it to hit the head rail and come back down table. I'm thinking that it would be rare to scratch in one of the top two pockets because of the directness from the area of the rack to that top cushion. No kisses are likely either, because of the speed at which the cueball is coming away from the rack. And it ensures that the cueball won't get stuck to the stack.
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I understand that a lot of the Europeans do it like that. Where Rempe and Sigel in their instructionals want you to just draw it to the center of the table, Thorsten, Niels, and possibly Schmidt draw it to the back rail and half way back again.

I was watching a clip of Thorsten from the same event and one of his runs ended with him scratching in the corner pocket near the head rail on exactly the kind of shot you mention so the risk is there.
 
dmgwalsh said:
I understand that a lot of the Europeans do it like that. Where Rempe and Sigel in their instructionals want you to just draw it to the center of the table, Thorsten, Niels, and possibly Schmidt draw it to the back rail and half way back again.

I was watching a clip of Thorsten from the same event and one of his runs ended with him scratching in the corner pocket near the head rail on exactly the kind of shot you mention so the risk is there.
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I'd be curious to know just how risky that shot is, such as how many times in how many tries it scratches. If it's becoming routine I suppose they've concluded it is worth doing.
 
bluepepper said:
Oh sorry Dennis. I don't know how I missed that. Thanks Bob and Elvicash.

By the way, it's an interesting thing that Feijen does when he knows the cueball is going to go up table on the break shot. He over draws it to hit the head rail and come back down table. I'm thinking that it would be rare to scratch in one of the top two pockets because of the directness from the area of the rack to that top cushion. No kisses are likely either, because of the speed at which the cueball is coming away from the rack. And it ensures that the cueball won't get stuck to the stack.
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BP,
While Niels has several successful results with this particular method; I can assure you that it is not a method approved by most "old-schoolers" (though I had heard - still unconfirmed - that Gene Nagy had sometimes preferred this method on certain shots).

You will notice that Niels once almost scratches in the side, once comes all the way back into the pack (luckily having a shot), and once leaves himself down in the kitchen with a tough shot. Take any of those layouts, place whitey in the center of the table, and you will like it more than where Niels finds himself.

Having said all of that, if you can shoot like Niels, it probably doesn't make that much difference - you can shoot your way out of anything. If you shoot like me, then you want to play the percentages, and figure out a speed and angle of break shot that allows you to control the final position of whitey.

I once asked Danny D. when it would be appropriate to draw all the way to the head rail and back on a break shot, he replied, "WHEN YOU QUIT LIKING MONEY." He doesn't pull any punches.
 
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bluepepper said:
Great points Willie. Thanks.
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BP,
Just a note to explain that I was not being critical of Niels. I do believe most of the pro's that participate here are aggravated when bangers like myself try to criticize their play. My comments were more directed to the amateur players.

It is very likely that he has studied the situation, and made a conscious decision to play accordingly; with his shotmaking ability, it obviously works for him. One thing that my mentors have emphasized is that the "proper" play in straight pool (ie. minimize every risk, every shot) may only benefit you a few times per hundred situations; but they view things in the long run. If you are making your living at pool, then improving your chances even a few percentage points will yield some benefits over 60 years of playing the game.

They also stress that playing the "proper" way is of tremendous benefit for the amateur player - it is the way that you can beat someone who may be a slightly better shotmaker than you.

Mike Sigel told a story of playing with Irving Crane. Mike was just a teenager, and asked if he should just try to make the open balls; or try to break apart the pack and take care of the trouble balls and rail balls before the open balls. Irving instructed him that he should try to play properly, like the champions, even in the early stages of his development, or he would never learn to play at that level.
 
I think it's apparent that you weren't being critical.
Another thing worth mentioning is Joe Tucker's impressive control of the cueball in his 100 plus run video. He controls the cueball beautifully on every break shot. He's got it down pat. The last shot where he missed was simply unfortunate. He shows that enough attention paid to where the cueball will strike the rack can be very useful.
 
bluepepper said:
Another thing worth mentioning is Joe Tucker's impressive control of the cueball in his 100 plus run video. He controls the cueball beautifully on every break shot. He's got it down pat.
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BP,
That is EXACTLY what I was trying to get at. I thought that JT's video was one of the best sequences of break shots I've ever seen, it seemed that he was adjusting his speed and angle to get the best position for whitey (sometimes sacrificing a bit of power to accomplish it).
 
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