Allison Fisher - Before 9-Ball

Bravo. It is nice to see these videos of Allison, you can see her personality shine through. She is really something, thanks for posting.
 
Great find, very interesting.

One thing that strikes home is that if a male player at 18 years old were to be at that same level at that age they would not even hit the radar. If they were to mention they could make the professional tour by that age with that skill level, having a 64 run being a highlight and noteworthy, it would be a joke. At 18 years old most pro snooker players are already showing world class speed. Some are already champs who have won world class events. Ronnie won a ranking event at 17 beating Hendry in the final.

There is no "equality" in a video like this, quite the opposite. A step in the wrong direction for true equality and if anything does the opposite of what the people who made the video likely intended.
 
Celtic said:
Great find, very interesting.

One thing that strikes home is that if a male player at 18 years old were to be at that same level at that age they would not even hit the radar. If they were to mention they could make the professional tour by that age with that skill level, having a 64 run being a highlight and noteworthy, it would be a joke. At 18 years old most pro snooker players are already showing world class speed. Some are already champs who have won world class events. Ronnie won a ranking event at 17 beating Hendry in the final.

There is no "equality" in a video like this, quite the opposite. A step in the wrong direction for true equality and if anything does the opposite of what the people who made the video likely intended.
Click to expand...

At that time she was always likely to attract attention as she was so dominant in the women's game. She was the first of them that seemed to have any chance of going on to play professionally with the men, so it's no surprise that she was featured. I don't think the point of either feature was to suggest that women in general could compete equally with men at this game - just that for Allison it might one day be a possibility. It was a potential "first", and I didn't think it was patronising. If you want patronising, watch a match refereed by Michaela Tabb! The commentators (Dennis Taylor in particular) never fail to mention that she is both "lovely" and "hardly makes any mistakes!" Old-school Taylor just thinks he's being kind!

And in fairness, her 64 break was only the highlight of a single match with only five frames played, in which they state she did not play her best. Regarding her age and level, certainly a male player of her level would attract no attention, but there's no suggestion they would - it's about the first female player with a shot. In the 80s the average age of a top player was higher than now anyway, and it wasn't until 1987 that Hendry won his first event at 18 (the record then) before O'Sullivan won his in 1993 a week before his 18th birthday - a record to this day. Actually, since Ding came on the scene no teenager has really made an impact on the game at all, and none at the minute can realistically challenge O'Sullivan, Higgins or any of the other top players.

And still, no woman can compete. Reanne Evans is trying...
 
I like this quote of Allison's at about 9:10 in the video:

"I think technique beats everything."

Frank Callan, the snooker coach mentioned in the video, wrote a book called Snooker Clinic. It's a worthy supplement to (rather than replacement for) one of the standard books on snooker technique. If you have a large library of books on cue games you may only find a few bits of advice from Callan's short book to be new or useful, but those could be important bits.

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Callans-Snooker-Clinic-Callan/dp/1852250690

Other books about snooker can be found The Snooker Forum:
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board/archive/index.php/t-22094.html

Thanks for posting the video, Scaramouche!
 
Thanks, Scaramouche, for posting that interesting video of Allison in her teen years. Actually, it made me a bit sad, because she never achieved her dream of playing at the top level in men's snooker. However, when that door closed, she had the fortitude to walk through another one, and the pool world has been better for the past 15 years because of that.
 
LeagueShirts said:
Driving 2hrs each way to the snooker hall? Wow, that's hardcore.
Click to expand...

I'll say!....and sitting on the wrong side to drive also.:)
I met her when she was 18,forgot how pretty she was.
Anybody think her arm action is a bit like Mika's?
 
pt109 said:
I'll say!....and sitting on the wrong side to drive also.:)
I met her when she was 18,forgot how pretty she was.
Anybody think her arm action is a bit like Mika's?
Click to expand...

Nope, I don't. It's interesting; in Allison's early snooker days, she has somewhat of a "scissor stroke" like Xiao Ting Pan. (I.e. her elbow rises and falls so that she keeps the snooker cue traveling in a solenoid-/piston-like movement.)

Later on -- very evident in Allison's pool career -- she really pinned her elbow, and has a classic pendulum stroke.

Mika, on the other hand, has what's called a "locomotive stroke" -- very different. It's elliptical in nature, with not only the elbow moving up and down, but the cue bouncing up and down as it travels in an elliptical motion forward and backward, much like the wheel push-rods on an old steam locomotive. A very different cueing action from Allison's pure pendulum stroke.

-Sean
 
sfleinen said:
Nope, I don't. It's interesting; in Allison's early snooker days, she has somewhat of a "scissor stroke" like Xiao Ting Pan. (I.e. her elbow rises and falls so that she keeps the snooker cue traveling in a solenoid-/piston-like movement.)

Later on -- very evident in Allison's pool career -- she really pinned her elbow, and has a classic pendulum stroke.

Mika, on the other hand, has what's called a "locomotive stroke" -- very different. It's elliptical in nature, with not only the elbow moving up and down, but the cue bouncing up and down as it travels in an elliptical motion forward and backward, much like the wheel push-rods on an old steam locomotive. A very different cueing action from Allison's pure pendulum stroke.

-Sean
Click to expand...

Yeah,I see what you mean.Allison's cue is more level although neither
is pendulum.

Do you think Mika's 'locomotive' is the result of training? :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top