Bustamante's Stroke

[BeeMan]

While watching a match where Busta was playing.
He has a great, easy flowing stroke. But one thing that I've noticed, is that sometimes while taking practice strokes he aims at the bottom of the cue ball, but when he strikes, he ends up hitting the cue ball higher than where he was aiming in practice strokes.

What are your thoughts on this..does he do this to compensate for something wrong in his stroke, or some other reason...

 

[Joseph Cues]

He aims that way, according to him.
Actually, pointing at the felt is not that uncommom anymore.
The darkest shadow/base of the cb is dead center , normally.

 

[recoveryjones]

While watching a match where Busta was playing.
He has a great, easy flowing stroke. But one thing that I've noticed, is that sometimes while taking practice strokes he aims at the bottom of the cue ball, but when he strikes, he ends up hitting the cue ball higher than where he was aiming in practice strokes.

What are your thoughts on this..does he do this to compensate for something wrong in his stroke, or some other reason...

Great players like Bustamante, Strickland , Buddy Hall etc. do things that technically you are not supposed to do, however , with their great talent they get away with it.If you and I were to try it , it may or may not turn out disastourous. RJ

 

[Mwack]

Great players like Bustamante, Strickland , Buddy Hall etc. do things that technically you are not supposed to do, however , with their great talent they get away with it.If you and I were to try it , it may or may not turn out disastourous. RJ

Well.. I agree with everything but Buddy Hall. He has the greatest textbook-stroke I've ever seen.

 

[recoveryjones]

Well.. I agree with everything but Buddy Hall. He has the greatest textbook-stroke I've ever seen.

No doubt Buddy Hall has a beautiful stroke and a great striker of the ball.Having said that he advocates using tuck and roll to apply his english. In other words he doesn't line up his body,bridge hand etc to hit his english straight through the cue ball, instead he moves his backhand during the stroke to apply english. He's damn good at it too.If other people try tuck and roll it could mean big problems for them.Once again Buddys exceptional talent allows him to get away with this.RJ

Ps. Sorry if I didn't explain tuck and roll 100% properly.

 

[BeeMan]

No doubt Buddy Hall has a beautiful stroke and a great striker of the ball.Having said that he advocates using tuck and roll to apply his english. In other words he doesn't line up his body,bridge hand etc to hit his english straight through the cue ball, instead he moves his backhand during the stroke to apply english. He's damn good at it too.If other people try tuck and roll it could mean big problems for them.Once again Buddys exceptional talent allows him to get away with this.RJ

Ps. Sorry if I didn't explain tuck and roll 100% properly.

So does this mean he keeps the tip of the cue where it is and just changes the angle of the cue by moving his back hand, without moving his body...or does it mean he shifts the entire cue on a parallel, without moving his body

 

[Mwack]

So does this mean he keeps the tip of the cue where it is and just changes the angle of the cue by moving his back hand, without moving his body...or does it mean he shifts the entire cue on a parallel, without moving his body

I believe he means that Buddy just kinda swivels the cue with his backhand, shooting the english on a bit of an angle instead of straight-on.

I'd never noticed that until you brought it up. Touche.

 

[recoveryjones]

I believe he means that Buddy just kinda swivels the cue with his backhand, shooting the english on a bit of an angle instead of straight-on.

I'd never noticed that until you brought it up. Touche.

I have two of Buddy Halls instructional videos and he talks about tuck and roll on one of them.It's not like backhand english where you move your back hand and then stroke straight down that line.Buddy seems to move his back hand (to apply english) while in the process of stroking.I'm sure their might be the odd other pro who does this, however,the majority of pros hit straight through their sidings.Snooker players(especially) like Steve Davis and Allison Fisher definitly do not apply english the way Buddy does.He has his own unique style, delivers it super smooth and like I said before is damn good at it. RJ

 

[bandido]

While watching a match where Busta was playing.
He has a great, easy flowing stroke. But one thing that I've noticed, is that sometimes while taking practice strokes he aims at the bottom of the cue ball, but when he strikes, he ends up hitting the cue ball higher than where he was aiming in practice strokes.

What are your thoughts on this..does he do this to compensate for something wrong in his stroke, or some other reason...

This has always been a practice of all Filipino roadplayers before the opening of the international tournament arena to Filipinos. They have to have every advantage that they can have back then since their only means of getting anything in their stomach is by winning money games. There weren't as many big money players back then but mostly aspirants. So, the top contenders try hard not to show others how they make the cue ball move the way it does.

 

[bruin70]

No doubt Buddy Hall has a beautiful stroke and a great striker of the ball.Having said that he advocates using tuck and roll to apply his english. In other words he doesn't line up his body,bridge hand etc to hit his english straight through the cue ball, instead he moves his backhand during the stroke to apply english. He's damn good at it too.If other people try tuck and roll it could mean big problems for them.Once again Buddys exceptional talent allows him to get away with this.RJ

Ps. Sorry if I didn't explain tuck and roll 100% properly.

it sounds like "pivot english". essentially, you aim centerball to your point of aim, and apply english to the CB by moving your backhand, thus pivoting the cue at the bridge.

the supposed advantage of this is that there is no aim compensation,,,,,you simply are aiming centerball to your point of aim as if to shoot a shot with no english, then pivot the cue at the bridge and deliver the cb with the desired english.

i have found, though, that this pivot english is delivered with kind of a "glancing" strike because you aren't hitting through the cb,,,so i feel the cb doesn't have as strong an english as the normal way of doing it.

 

[TATE]

Bustamante is the most extreme example of this. Efren and Earl do the same thing and so do a lot of good players but just not as radical. It's called "marking". They mark the tip to a spot that's different from where they hit the cueball. To some extent, we all do it. Try your own stroke for example. Many players Mark draw well below or above where they actually hit the cue ball. The rehearsed stroke is an exagerration of the actual stroke. On your final stroke you move the tip through the cueball on (hopefully) what you "feel" is the correct path. If Bustamante were to stroke where he marked, he would not even hit the cueball on shots with english. This is not taught by instructors, which they usually think is just a peculiar style. Imagine trying to teach someone to play this way.

Chris

 

[Rude Dog]

I talked to Jose Parica for many hours about the stroke he uses, which is very similar to Efren's and Bustamante's. His thinking is, when you aim at the bottom of the cue ball, you don't hide your actual aiming spot on the cue ball. When you aim at the top, you only see the top because the cue is in your sight line. I had asked him this because I was using the same technique but I didn't know why. I just did it by feel. Does any of this make sense? It does to me but I'm not sure if I'm explaining it correctly or thorough enough. I'm nowhere near as good as any of the top players but I've had lots of good days and I think this stroke is great.

 

[TATE]

I talked to Jose Parica for many hours about the stroke he uses, which is very similar to Efren's and Bustamante's. His thinking is, when you aim at the bottom of the cue ball, you don't hide your actual aiming spot on the cue ball. When you aim at the top, you only see the top because the cue is in your sight line. I had asked him this because I was using the same technique but I didn't know why. I just did it by feel. Does any of this make sense? It does to me but I'm not sure if I'm explaining it correctly or thorough enough. I'm nowhere near as good as any of the top players but I've had lots of good days and I think this stroke is great.

This is exactly what I heard from someone who knows Efren Reyes well. They like to see their impact spot on the cueball. However, I don't really know if that's the real benefit.

 

[mjantti]

Rude dog is onto something here, yes. I aim exactly the same way, way down at the draw area on stun shots etc. And I think I tend to aim more down when I'm using a closed bridge, probably because with closed bridge you see "less" of the cueball if you aim where you're going to shoot... interesting phenomen and explanation...

 

[predator]

I really don't know how can he (Busta) play so well with such a style. I'm thinking it would take someone like me years and years to be comfortable with it. So many moving parts in his stroke...everything can go wrong. Of course he gets it right 100% of the time...

No thanks, I think I'll stick with my snooker-like stroke. Seems to work best in my case.