Hey y'all,
Thanks for the great comments on Break Speed!
We are working hard on an Android version. Honestly, the reason we don't have one now is because there are only two of us and we wrote the app for ourselves using the phones we had. Craig is doing the Android version and I expect he'll be losing a lot of sleep over the next few weeks.
I'll be making a few updates to the iPhone version and also working to finish up the PC version (we actually have a PC version that runs today, but it's not ready for prime-time yet.)
We had a tremendous response from the app, and thought I would share a few stories from our trip to Vegas - I met some of my heroes in pool (I've never had the opportunity to schmooze with the pros.)
When I finally got off the plane and got setup in the hotel, I rushed down to the tournament room. My first plan was to find the radar gun and do a comparison. Instead, I ran across Mika Immonen playing at one of the vendor booths. I stepped up and asked if I could time his break. He gave me a queer look, then shrugged. So I stepped up and put the phone on the table and started the timer. He gave it a sideways glance, but bent down and broke the balls. I stepped forward again and tapped the screen to stop the recording and out popped his break speed. 22-point-something, IIRC. His eyes lit up, and the crowd got interested. All of the sudden people were more interested in the app than in Mika. I still find this amazing, because after all, this is Mika Immonen we're talking about!
One of the posters here was present (Antonio - point yourself out if you're watching so I can connect the face with the username.)
At this point, I had been in the tournament room for only about 5 minutes. What a great way to start the trip.
I made a few more rounds and met up with Holly, who manages marketing for the BCA. She got me a week pass to the US Open so I could get some timings on a few of the players, notably Roberto "The Superman" Gomez. As it turns out, I would end up getting his speeds on the live stream, but that's later in the story...
I captured a few of the breaks from the pros from the bleachers for a while, then on my way out of the tournament room, I passed by the main table and Corey Deuel was just messing around with John Schmidt, of all things - hitting break shots! So I walked up and asked if I could time their break. I got the same queer look and shrug from Corey and the same amazed shock at seeing his break speed afterward. This immediately became a competition between to great players - who could break the hardest (with little ol' me in the middle of the action.) Corey, in my opinion, has one of the best understandings of the break, so I was really excited that he was so interested. They went back and forth a few times and John clocked in the 24's IIRC, but Corey was determined to break 30. After a few practice breaks and even a couple of mis-cues, he managed to nail it - 30.29 MPH. Amazing.
I kept walking and finally found the radar gun at the break speed competition booth. One of the pros walked up and paid to compete (I never caught his name.) His first break registered a 22.5 on Break Speed. The lady running the booth showed the gun at 22. Not bad... he broke again. This time, the radar gun showed 17 MPH. It was pretty clear that he hit them harder and he even complained. I showed him the speed I captured: 24.72.
We knew Break Speed was more accurate than a radar gun because we understand the science behind them both, but we never had access to a radar gun to actually try it. It felt nice to finally see it in real life. I think in that case, the huge disparity was a problem with training (not knowing how to hold the gun correctly), but I must admit I felt a tiny bit victorious anyway.
I also met Bobby Weimar and Kelly Fisher at the Fury booth. Kelly was playing and although I got her breaks, I don't remember what they were (one can only store so many break speeds in one's head.) Bobby and I started talking and he took a real interest in Break Speed. He took us around to introduce me to Allen Hopkins Jr (heya allen_jr!) and in the process, we ran across Mark Griffin (CEO of CSI and TAR), which eventually led to our appearance on the TAR live feed. Bobby did us a real solid and I'm looking for ways to make it up to him.
There's a lot more to tell (I only mentioned Allen Jr. and Mark Griffin, and I haven't even mentioned JR from Inside Pool), but I think this epic email has been epic enough for today.
