> At the 1994 U.S. Open that someone mentioned,I walked into the practice room and saw Nick working on his break. At the time,he was still refining the grip-hand-forward style he breaks with now. Before this,and dating back to the mid-80's when I first saw him play,he used a regular type stroke,with his grip hand staying behind his bridge hand. I watched him break for about 45 minutes,and got tired of watching him rack his own balls,so I jumped up and racked for him for 2 more hours. This became a daily thing. On the day of the finals,I was getting ready to watch the match that rounded out the final 4,Nick came looking for me specifically,and asked if I wanted to roll with him to the Virginia Beach Q-Masters,he needed to warm up for the day and the practice tables had already been dismantled. Of course I said yes,he said get your cues and meet me out front. I racked for him for about an hour,then took a beating as he ran out from everywhere,I think I won 5 games out of 40 and had to run full racks to win those. He said his stroke felt as good as it had since his killer streak in 1989-90,and added that when he felt that good he rarely lost unless he just didn't get the balls to cooperate. Efren played great in the finals,and got every roll on top of it,so it just wasn't meant to be. Nick came up to me after the finals and gave me a gold plated tapper for helping him that week. I noticed that he rarely used anything but a closed bridge,and elevated more than some. He said that because he has small hands,that at times he simply can't get his hand low enough and still make a tight bridge,so he adapted. His practice sessions are something to watch,his intensity never wavers,and he does amazing things. Not in the sense of the mind-boggling stuff Earl does warming up,drawing his rock like crazy,but making a 4 diamond length straight in draw shot,and having the cue ball come straight back to his tip,then shoot the next one the same way and drawing it another balls width further or shorter on command. Tommy D.
