Analysis of John Morra's Break Technique

[mosconiac]

John may not be known for a thundering break, but this young man has honed a very unique & effective break. I watched him play a few hours of flawless pool recently and when I saw his technique...I knew I had to take a deeper look. I grabbed my camera and the following is the result.

Like I said, John may not have the reputation of a Hillbilly or a Nevel, but a consistently solid break (with near robotic consistency) has great value. Let's take a look at how he does it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqjOVOUl1qw


This compliments the analyses I've completed on:

Hillbilly (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=125466),
Archer (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=118515),
SVB (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=118081&page=2), and
Nevel (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126254).

 

[emf123]

Once again, a great break shot analysis! Not quite as violent as Hillbilly or Nevel but very effective. Also interesting was the pause at the end of the last backstroke then lifts the elbow before driving forward.

Thanks for the good work!

 

[Rethunk]

John may not be known for a thundering break, but this young man has honed a very unique & effective break..

Great work.

There's an error when I try the SVB link. The ellipsis "..." appears to have been inserted into the link.

 

[lee brett]

John may not be known for a thundering break, but this young man has honed a very unique & effective break. I watched him play a few hours of flawless pool recently and when I saw his technique...I knew I had to take a deeper look. I grabbed my camera and the following is the result.

Like I said, John may not have the reputation of a Hillbilly or a Nevel, but a consistently solid break (with near robotic consistency) has great value. Let's take a look at how he does it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqjOVOUl1qw


This compliments the analyses I've completed on:

Hillbilly (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=125466),
Archer (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=118515),
SVB (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showth...118081&page=2), and
Nevel (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126254).

when i first started coaching john he was already a great player, but i changed a few things to his game including his stance, which is helping him break more solid and consistent now, as for his cue action i taught him to have a high elbow with an elbow drop.

this kid will be a world champion 1 day and was glad to help him on the road to this, keep up the good work john,

lee

 

[mosconiac]

Great work.

There's an error when I try the SVB link. The ellipsis "..." appears to have been inserted into the link.

Thanks for the heads-up. I've fixed the link.

 

[mosconiac]

when i first started coaching john he was already a great player, but...

Lee, if you had anything to do with John's development, you have much to be proud of. I am very impressed with his overall game.

He is soooo smooth, calm over the cue, & consistent. His bridge is rock solid, his pace is perfect, his stance is a nice balance of pool & snooker stances, he seems mentally strong, his practice strokes are the same every time, he avoids excessive english, his arm/elbow position is text book, his stroke is a near perfect piston, & he never overhits a ball. What's not to like?!?!

 

[Shawn Armstrong]

John comes from a "pool family", so Lee shouldn't get too much credit. John's dad, Mario Morra, plays pretty strong as an A player up here in the north. John's mom, Anita Kuzma, was a female on the pro tour as well. John also had a pretty good mentor, Dave "Magic" McMahon, up until a couple of years ago when Magic passed away. John's been a great player for the past 5 or 6 years. Even when he was 12 he was beating up on some pretty good local players.

If Lee has put these finishing touches on John's game, then hat's off to Lee. He had a pretty good canvas to work with, though!

 

[mnb]

when i first started coaching john he was already a great player, but i changed a few things to his game including his stance, which is helping him break more solid and consistent now, as for his cue action i taught him to have a high elbow with an elbow drop.

Response from John Morra, via phone:

Stop running your mouth & taking credit for all I've been doing. When I get back home we're going to have a talk.

That wasn't part of the deal, remember?

 

[Jason Robichaud]

Anyone have Lee's response via phone?

 

[lee brett]

Response from John Morra, via phone:

tell john nothing talk about, we did have a deal, he was already a great player which i have said before i helped him, i never charged him a cent and taught him things that he never knew, tell john dont both trying to talk to me, when u help someone give them mental advice as well and made slight adjustments to his game people then say it had nothing to do with you, last time i ever help anyone dont want any credit only wanted to see him do well,

ps- as for john saying we had a deal that proves i helped him, wish him good luck, he is a good kid

 

[Patrick Johnson]

All of these power breakers have one key technique in common: they straighten up on the shot stroke and swing full-armed at the CB. This increases power by:

1. Bringing the large shoulder and chest muscles into play

2. Adding the upper arm's length to the "speed leverage"

3. Rotating the upper arm to swing in line with the break

This amount of movement is like trying to shoot during a 6.5 earthquake, but if you can learn to do it for this one kind of shot then I think you can smack 'em (something) like Larry and Hillbilly.

pj
chgo

 

[Jason Robichaud]

Looks like Lee had Lee's phone response. I don't know John but I have seen him play a few times. The kid makes it look easy. Too bad it isn't golf, tennis, hockey, baseball, football, soccer, bowling, darts, snooker... so he could make a reliable living. School and then College would have been the proper instruction.

 

[SCCues]

I like this break technique and it reminds me a lot of Xiaoting Pan's break. She is a small person, but hits the rack very hard. She lifts the cue pretty high when she pulls back her stroke prior to her follow through.

James

 

[lee brett]

finally 1 thing i want to clear up i never taught john to break he done that himself, and a lot of his game is raw talent and his dad mario (great person and player) helping him. i taught john the DUMMY and the elbow drop and the V, ask john what they are as not getting into being slagged off on here as dont want any credit if he wins thanks to things i taught him, even if he wont say that.

 

[srs314]

tell john nothing talk about, we did have a deal, he was already a great player which i have said before i helped him, i never charged him a cent and taught him things that he never knew, tell john dont both trying to talk to me, when u help someone give them mental advice as well and made slight adjustments to his game people then say it had nothing to do with you, last time i ever help anyone dont want any credit only wanted to see him do well,

ps- as for john saying we had a deal that proves i helped him, wish him good luck, he is a good kid

To me this isn't worth discussing. Lee if John feels he should give you credit he will. It would sound far better if it came from him.

Paul Thornley was never vocal about his impact on Alex's game but when the time came and Alex wanted to show appreciation he mentioned Paul in the interview after one of the events he won. I think that is much more meaningfull and Paul never felt he deserved mentioning.

John is a good kid and all the credit should go to him for hours and hours of play. No one has helped John more than he has helped himself. His Mom, Dad, and Dave helped him develop but the most important thing they did was keep him playing the game any chance they could.

One thing to note is they are all strong mentally and sometimes that is something that is very difficult to teach, you just have to have it. John has found the best parts of all their games and used it in his.

Let's not get caught up on the John/Lee discussion. We were having a great discussion about breaking. The video and analysis you posted was excellent, so thanks for that!!!

Good luck in the rest of your travels John! Good to see all our Canadian friends posting in the forums!

 

[lee brett]

To me this isn't worth discussing. Lee if John feels he should give you credit he will. It would sound far better if it came from him.

Paul Thornley was never vocal about his impact on Alex's game but when the time came and Alex wanted to show appreciation he mentioned Paul in the interview after one of the events he won. I think that is much more meaningfull and Paul never felt he deserved mentioning.

John is a good kid and all the credit should go to him for hours and hours of play. No one has helped John more than he has helped himself. His Mom, Dad, and Dave helped him develop but the most important thing they did was keep him playing the game any chance they could.

One thing to note is they are all strong mentally and sometimes that is something that is very difficult to teach, you just have to have it. John has found the best parts of all their games and used it in his.

Let's not get caught up on the John/Lee discussion. We were having a great discussion about breaking. The video and analysis you posted was excellent, so thanks for that!!!

Good luck in the rest of your travels John! Good to see all our Canadian friends posting in the forums!

scott i dont want any credit at all, what i 1st said people took the wrong way

 

[mosconiac]

All of these power breakers have one key technique in common: they straighten up on the shot stroke and swing full-armed at the CB.

Very good observation...but before someone takes this 100% literally, I will save you a little pain. When I let my arm go full-straight, it over-flexes the elbow and...a twinge of pain. Do it a few more times and...OUCH!

The extension is probably more like 150-160*, not the total 180*. This keeps the tendons involved and takes the stress off the joint itself.

Take a look at John's extension versus Larry. In the end their cue & forearm are aligned. They practically bring the butt sleeve up to the chin. It's a given that Larry goes for extreme extension, but the same motion is there.

 

[srs314]

scott i dont want any credit at all, what i 1st said people took the wrong way

I get it, it just seemed like the discussion got off topic.

 

[D_Lewis]

Great video!

Ive been working on my break lately to try and make it a bit more simple similar to Johns and a few of the other people in the area. It seems a lot of people are going towards a similar break on Mondays here in Toronto.

Ive personally been there many times when John and Lee are talking about the "dummy" and the V. Lee has also brought over John to help with my stance. I prefered one of our (Lee, John, Alex and myself) practice sessions where we drank beers and watched Ronnie O'Sullivan on youtube at around 3 am.

John is a really good guy. Very quiet but once you get to know him he goes out of his way to say hi.

 

[SloRoller]

John may not be known for a thundering break, but this young man has honed a very unique & effective break. I watched him play a few hours of flawless pool recently and when I saw his technique...I knew I had to take a deeper look. I grabbed my camera and the following is the result.

Like I said, John may not have the reputation of a Hillbilly or a Nevel, but a consistently solid break (with near robotic consistency) has great value. Let's take a look at how he does it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqjOVOUl1qw


This compliments the analyses I've completed on:

Hillbilly (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=125466),
Archer (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=118515),
SVB (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=118081&page=2), and
Nevel (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126254).

Rep to you. Thanks for doing this. My 9-ball break is in dire need of repair..lol

thx
SR