A List of the Greatest Pool Players of All-Time

hello said:
Breedlove's break was clocked at 26 mph so not at Django or Howard's speed but effective and impressive nonetheless..
I wish they would have measured Ellin's speed, who I believe passed on before radar guns came into play, because his technique looked quite powerful but judging on how the balls moved after he broke them, they rarely had the action Earl or Bustamante would get at their hardest efforts.

To me, determining speed if you don't have a radar gun, is about how far balls travel up table after the break (unless you pocket a few of them)

These one musta been 30+ mph

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George got clocked after he hurt his shoulder and he had to take something off his break shot. He told me he had to be careful or he would dislocate it again.
 
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sjm said:
I don't know, but Jay Helfert is my source on this one. He has mentioned and posted that David was trained in the martial arts.
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That is correct. David learned how to put his whole torso into the break and used his legs for leverage. He was probably the first guy who "threw" himself into the break and didn't just use arm strength. He taught Jean Balukas how to break when it had been a weak part of her 9-Ball game before. After that, Jean never lost a tournament, sixteen in a row!
 
jay helfert said:
That is correct. David learned how to put his whole torso into the break and used his legs for leverage. He was probably the first guy who "threw" himself into the break and didn't just use arm strength. He taught Jean Balukas how to break when it had been a weak part of her 9-Ball game before. After that, Jean never lost a tournament, sixteen in a row!
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I think his main breaking weapon was the immense followthrough of the cue, interestingly enough Ellin had very little but still a hard break.
 
jay helfert said:
Speaking of the best breaks, you must include Earl. He was the only player of his era that I saw practice the break prior to each match, so he had a good idea how to break on that particular table. Consequently he would almost always make a ball or balls on his break and if he could see the one it was game over. Having a good and effective break was the secret to him running all those sixes and sevens on his opponents.
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You know when I knew I'd never be a world champion..?When I heard Earl was practicing the break for 3 hours a day...if I did that for only 1 day, they'd take me down yellow brick road... 😁
 
hello said:
You know when I knew I'd never be a world champion..?When I heard Earl was practicing the break for 3 hours a day...if I did that for only 1 day, they'd take me down yellow brick road... 😁
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Modern day all the top players work on their break. A lot! Dennis used to spend hours on my Diamond just breaking the balls, first 9-Ball and then Ten Ball. Once in a while he would run out the rack, but mostly rack and break, rack and break, over and over again.
 
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hello said:
You know when I knew I'd never be a world champion..?When I heard Earl was practicing the break for 3 hours a day...if I did that for only 1 day, they'd take me down yellow brick road... 😁
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For me, it was in what I believe was 1999, when Mika Immonen offered "against a world class opponent, if I miss more than two balls in a race to eleven, I expect to lose." I was both awed and impressed that the standard was so high at the top!
 
Yes ur right but I'm not learning anything from knowing who the top 20 are i already knew that .You learn from watching better players and practice in my opinion.
 
jay helfert said:
Modern day all the top players work on their break. A lot! Dennis used to spend hours on my Diamond just breaking the balls, first 9-Ball and then Ten Ball. Once in a while he would run out the rack, but mostly rack and break, rack and break, over and over again.
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I practice my break but not for hours...I think once you found your form, how to stand, how much follow through, delivery of the cue, timing etc. it becomes easier to excecute..what I don't understand is how a guy like Earl, who most likely put thousands of hours into honing his break, is not anywhere near breaking as well as he once did...it can't be just age...
 
hello said:
I practice my break but not for hours...I think once you found your form, how to stand, how much follow through, delivery of the cue, timing etc. it becomes easier to excecute..what I don't understand is how a guy like Earl, who most likely put thousands of hours into honing his break, is not anywhere near breaking as well as he once did...it can't be just age...
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He does not put in the time on each table prior to a match like he used too. Lack of motivation gets us all at some point in time. Earl's been doing this for fifty years now! He was burned out long ago.
 
sjm said:
For me, it was in what I believe was 1999, when Mika Immonen offered "against a world class opponent, if I miss more than two balls in a race to eleven, I expect to lose." I was both awed and impressed that the standard was so high at the top!
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Many decades ago Lassiter was quoted as saying, "I would watch a man play. If he missed more than one ball in an hour I knew I could beat him."
 
jay helfert said:
He does not put in the time on each table prior to a match like he used too. Lack of motivation gets us all at some point in time. Earl's been doing this for fifty years now! He was burned out long ago.
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In his early to mid fifties, he could still put up great performances, winning the Steinway classic and Ginky memorial the same year and even recently he beat Shaw in an exhibition.I'm not sure if it's lack of motivation...I mean, the guy breathes pool..could be though..but I would hope he'd make one more run at a title, however there fields are so tough now...
 
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