All Japan Championship 2005, 42mph break!

X Breaker

X Breaker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I know it is a bit late and I do apologize for the delay in posting the pictures I took during the All Japan Championship.

Two Americans played in this tournament, Max Eberle and Bobby Hunter.
Other than American players, a lot of American cue makers also showed up. I saw Russ Espiritu, Dan Dishsaw, and Mike Lambros. I heard that Jerry McWorter was there but I did not see him. Keith Walton was also there.

Pei Wei Chang, who just came second in the Super Cup after beating Reyes and Marlon came 5th this time. He beat Bustamante and lost in the single knock out stage going into the semis. His opponent ran 5 racks in a row on him while he was up 5 to 4 in a race to 9. I have a video of Chang's break in my photo gallery. Mr. Chang has a very short stroke and make everything looks real simple. He beat Thorsten Hohmann in the World Game finals this year. I expect to see him doing really well in next year's World Pool Championship. Mr. Chang plays with a Layani cue and breaks with a X Breaker. He has been playing for 11 years.

The most impressive thing I have found is the break contest at the end of the tournament. A lot of players such as Bustamante, Souquet...were in attendance and the winner of the break contest went to 16 years old Wu Yu Lin from Chinese Taipei. His break speed was clocked at 42 mph!

I talked to him afterwards. Wu is one of those players who hardly practises. His break is very unique in that his cue ball never really jumps up high in the air when the cue ball hits the pack. The radar gun was pointed at the contact point between the cue ball and the 1 ball, and it was located higher than the table.

I have a video of his break and almost 100 pictures posted on my site. Please go to www.xtremebilliard.com and then click "picture" and then click "All Japan Championship." I hope you would enjoy the pictures.

Richard
 
I've heard some impressive things about Wu Yu Lin, I guess I can throw a 42 mph break into this list!
 
Believe it or not, Wu said he was not breaking at full power. His fellow players from Taiwan all told me Wu could break much harder than what he did in the break contest!
 
This is the kid I warned you all about over a year ago.

Celtic said:
Yu-Lun crushed Ottermann. 11-3. Yu-Lun breaks like a sledgehammer and shoots awesome. He missed 1 ball in the entire match and broke and ran a ton of racks. This kid shoots lights out, future pro for sure.


My predictions for the finals.

All China. With Chia-Ching supposedly putting 5 packs out on people with ease and losing a total of 5 games in ALL of his matches so far combined I dont think Morra has a hope. Yu-Lun also is my strong favorite to beat Ouschan. Both of these players play a smart and emotion free game of pool but Yu-Lun has a WAY better break and shoots a stronger game. Yu-Lun can put out alot of racks from what I saw.

Finals, Wu vs Wu, I like Wu in this match. Seriously, I did not see Chia-Ching shoot, and he is supposedly a phenom and future world champ already playing pro level pool at nearly a Yang/Reyes level. I guess that makes him the favorite but Yu-Lun has the game that he could beat ANYONE in a race to 11 from what I saw, he breaks and runs the balls that good. Should be a great finals, I am almost sure the two Chinese players will get through, at 15 years old they have a mentality at the table of business, no emotion, something you dont see in players that age in America and see only at the top pro ranks from players like Archer, Souquet, ect... American kids are gonna need to figure it out to keep up to this new breed of 15 year old seasoned pros.
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Celtic said:
And as for Yu-Lun Wu, Yu-Lun has a WAY better break then Chia-Chang (or Bustamante for that matter)
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Don't say I did not warn you...
 
Both Wu have a great break and they both have good control of their cue ball.

From my observation, with Wu CC's break(reigning World Champion), his cue ball would jump up as it hits the pack and then it would land in the middle of the table. He usually keeps his back leg straight but when he goes for full power break, he bends both knees!

Wu YL's break is different. His cue ball stays very close to the surface of the table all the way, and he does not move too much of his body. He is the only player whom I have seen being able to break like that.

Other Taiwanese players told me Wu has so much power because he knows how to put all his power into the pack with very little energy lost.

Wu Yu Lu was down 7 to 1 in a race to 9 when he played against Luat. He came back and beat Luat 9 to 8.

Wu told me they have never clocked his break in Taiwan but he was sure if they did, he could achieve a break close to 50 mph.
 
Wu Yu Lun breaks different then most players. Most power breakers put a huge weight shift from their back to front leg as they come through the cueball. Notice it when Bustamente breaks and his right leg kicks up into the air almost kicking himself in the back of the head. Yu Lun instead gets all of his power in a hip twist thing he does, he basically shifts his hips and shoulders counter clockwise as he comes through the ball, starting with his body facing to the right, and then turning 90 degrees counter clockwise (he is right handed and broke from the left side of the table when I saw him) in a snap kind of motion. Most of his weight ends up on his right leg, which is almost opposite of most right handed breakers who kick off that right hand leg and have no weight on it at the point of contact. Wu Yu-Lun gets most of his power in the break in a way that most boxers get their power out of a hook, a snapping hip twist motion.
 
From what I've read, sounds like he has a little Shotokan in him ;)

Keep up the good work Yu!
 
If I tried to break with that stance I would do a faceplant and land with the cue up my arse.
 
nipponbilliards said:
I have a video of his break and almost 100 pictures posted on my site. Please go to www.xtremebilliard.com and then click "picture" and then click "All Japan Championship." I hope you would enjoy the pictures.

Richard
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I don't know why I can't find it, perhaps I'm blind. Could you post a link to the file or at least tell me how to get to the video? Thanks for your help.

Zack

P.S. In looking at Nevel's 1mm jump, was he using the shaft only or the whole jump portion?
 
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zeeder said:
I don't know why I can't find it, perhaps I'm blind. Could you post a link to the file or at least tell me how to get to the video? Thanks for your help.
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The video is where he said, in the picture section under the Japan Open folder. If you go to almost the last page of pictures there are some links to videos and the break is on one of them.

His break looks alot harder in person then on the video though...
 
Celtic said:
Wu Yu Lun breaks different then most players. Most power breakers put a huge weight shift from their back to front leg as they come through the cueball. Notice it when Bustamente breaks and his right leg kicks up into the air almost kicking himself in the back of the head. Yu Lun instead gets all of his power in a hip twist thing he does, he basically shifts his hips and shoulders counter clockwise as he comes through the ball, starting with his body facing to the right, and then turning 90 degrees counter clockwise (he is right handed and broke from the left side of the table when I saw him) in a snap kind of motion. Most of his weight ends up on his right leg, which is almost opposite of most right handed breakers who kick off that right hand leg and have no weight on it at the point of contact. Wu Yu-Lun gets most of his power in the break in a way that most boxers get their power out of a hook, a snapping hip twist motion.
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Most player's instincts to push forward from back foot forward is wrong, just like it is wrong in golf to chase the ball, or wrong in Shot Put to drive in a forward motion.

Hammer throwers show clearly how they pull back against a weight to develop centrifical force. Shot putters and javelin and discus throwers block their forward motion to convert it into rotational forces which can be applied to the object wanting to be propelled.

I watched this young kid and it has little to do with his hips twisting as his wrist is in close to his body so this wouldn't help anyway.

The main way he is producing force seems to be by rapidly elevating his shoulder (his whole body actually) as the cue arm is accellerating forward. This is like a hammer thrower pulling back on the wire. The force is converted to increased hand speed.

He may also be getting a lot of whip in his wrist which is hard to determine from the video.

So there is no need to lunge forward, just lung upward, but you must get the timing perfect. Think more of driving th shoulder upward and slightly forward rapidly, just as the back hand is coming forward.
 
Have you watched him beyond the video Colin? In person when I was watching him over a year ago now he was not getting much upward motion and I really disagree that this is where the power is coming from. If you want to compare his break to another sport try comparing it to a boxer throwing a left hook. They dont get their power from upward motion, they get it from turning the upper body into the punch in a fluid motion.

Wu Yu-Lun has gotten quite alot taller since I last saw him breaking based on that video. When I saw him breaking in the World Juniors of 2004 he was not using alot of upward motion, he was snapping the break with a body turn, and in that video he may have some upward motion but the body twist is still evident in his break. The fact his shoulder is raising is because it HAS to in order to twist into the break as he does. By all means, attempt to twist into the break keeping your shoulder level, it wont happen. He keeps his shoulders square through the break, and if you dont raise the shoulder as you come through the ball then you end up with your right shoulder and arm comming across your body screwing up the accuracy AND the power of the break.

Bustamente and any other power breaker who kick off of the back leg and focus on forward motion have HUGE shoulder and upper body movement, they all lunge upward as you suggest. What Bustamente does not have, and his and Wu Yu-Lun's break differ greatly, is the twisting motion. Busta is all about upward lunging with slight forward motion. Wu Yu-Lun has alot less upper lunging and has far more of a hip and upper body twist. Trust this to be true, I studied Wu Yu-Lun's break alot when watching him in person. His power is not coming from a raising of his shoulder, it is coming from the turn he makes. Look at his shoulders in his practice strokes, they are facing totally 90 degrees to the right of the shot. At contact it is about 45 degrees, and if the camera did not pan away from his move it would continue through.
 
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I have taken a lot of break videos of professional players everywhere I went because I like to learn more about the break, and most importantly, how to reduce energy lost during the break, and what may be more desirable in a break cue.
It is interesting to read all your comments. Very good observation indeed. I have added two more break videos.
Zeeders, you need to go to www.xtremebilliard.com, click "Pictures" which is a button on the left hand side, then go to the bottom, and click "All Japan Championship 2005." Once you get there, you can look at the pictures of the tournament. There are 10 pages of them. On the second last page, click on a projector which says "42 mph break..." When you are done, use "back" in your browser to go back to where you start, if you close it, you need to go to www.xtremebilliard.com and start all over again.
Thank you.
Richard
 
28 mph?

From listening to the sound of that 40 mph break video, it looks more like 28 mph break.

I extracted the wav file (using VirtualDub), loaded it in a wav editing software (GoldWave), and then selected the time section between two peeks, first being the cue hitting the CB and then the second being the CB hitting the rack. I got 0.107 seconds for this time, and if the CV travels 1.35 m, that makes it 12.6 m/sec, or 45.5 km/h or, 28.3 mph… This is somewhat slower than 42 mph, don't know where the difference is coming from.
 
mestar said:
From listening to the sound of that 40 mph break video, it looks more like 28 mph break.

I extracted the wav file (using VirtualDub), loaded it in a wav editing software (GoldWave), and then selected the time section between two peeks, first being the cue hitting the CB and then the second being the CB hitting the rack. I got 0.107 seconds for this time, and if the CV travels 1.35 m, that makes it 12.6 m/sec, or 45.5 km/h or, 28.3 mph… This is somewhat slower than 42 mph, don't know where the difference is coming from.
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That's just the thing: I bet it's more like 42 km/h... not MPH. 42 is closer to the 45.5 you got than 28...
 
I agree as well, a 40-50 mph break didn't seem too believeable (not saying its impossible!) but I remember reading in either BD or Insidepool that Charlie Bryant used to get in trouble at tournaments because he would destroy pool balls with the power he had. That was a little over 30mph if I remember correctly. At 40-50mph you would probably be seeing powder flying everywhere when the cue ball makes contact. 28mph seems very reasonable for a male pro player's break speed.
 
I was there, and like they always do at all of the JPBA tour stops, they have a break contest usually involving participants from the crowd and a couple of the pros. In the past, as well as this time too, they've always used a speed gun that measured speed in kilometers and not miles. 42 kph is fast, but not beyond reach. 42 mph is probably impossible.
 
The video title says 42 km/h. Even if he is setting a record, it's not the end of the world. I enjoyed the video as a study of break mechanics, not just generation of speed.
 
I am very sorry everyone. I need to apologize for making a mistake in stating that the break speed was 42 mph rather than 42 km/h. I have changed the title in my video on my site. I am very sorry about this mistake.
I called my friend in Japan and confirmed that it was indeed 42 km/h, which is about 28 mph. Thank you for those who brought that to my attention.
I hope you will still enjoy the videos and pictures.
Once again, sorry about that.
Richard
 
It is no problem. It is still a very fast break speed, 4 MPH off the world record if I am not mistaken. Very cool to see the video, he grew a ton since the last time I saw him shoot. Funny thing, his break looked a little better when he was younger (and shorter). He did not have the scrunched up, bent at the knees stance he uses now.
 
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