CopYing your favorite player'S STYLE

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demartini rocks

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
we've all done this i'm sure, whether it was in our teens when we would emulate our favorite sports stars.baseball players. whether it would be a way a hitter would swing at a baseball(mattingly, griffey), a hoopster would shoot(larry bird),or a way a pitcher would throw(clemens, nolan ryan). then over time the way we emulated our faves we eventually tweaked it into something of our own.

just wanted to know in regards to pool if anyone has emulated a favorite player of theirs, if yes who was that player if well known, how were the results and do you still shoot like that?
 
I tend to think it's not a good idea to do that in pool. Everyone's physiology is different albeit only slightly different in some cases, but still. Also, it's impossible to know a lot of the subtle things a player is doing by watching that you just couldn't detect from your end. I recommend developing your fundamentals naturally as they fit your particular style.

But to answer your question, yes. I've tried to emulate certain people and no, it didn't work out for me. Nothing's worked as well as my own style adapted to things I've learned (ie. pre-shot routine, etc).
 
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When I really started trying to learn this game I found it a bit weird that I could hold the cue up a little higher in the wrap section (almost like chocking up on the cue) and be a lot more accurate than when I gripped the cue further back. Maybe it helped me keep a straighter line? Contrary to what I experienced I noticed that most top players actually held the cue in the way back. Take for example Corey Deuel who has maybe the widest grip I've seen. Believing that this was not the best way to play I kind of just kept it in mind and played how I was taught in the so called "regular" stance.

I then noticed that Carlo Biado's placement of his grip hand essentially matched what I found. Most people may not have heard or seen him play, but youtube some of his videos and you may see what I'm talking about. Its not an extreme stance I'm describing but more of a more "compact" stance. Having said that I have tried to emulate his stance and it has worked well for me.
 
You're gonna have to do what's natural and comfortable for YOU. If you learned your favorite player, that you have idolized for years, eats oatmeal with a spoon in each hand and leans to the left and farts every 4th bite would you try to emulate him, hoping it will remotely up your game a ball or 2?
 
You wonder how the pros can be so deadly accurate with such a distinctive style of play. Rodney is surely to be admired, but he also has almost no back swing. Shane has a big back swing and again, very deadly execution. Alex, a short back swing. Earl seems to take a full swing at the ball. He usually measures the shot with two or three strokes.
The variations in execution of the shot, still leave me noticing they NEVER move their head or bridge hand. They commit to the shot and know which speed they will use before they get down on it.
I guess if you don't try different things, you'll never find what specifically suits you.
 
When I was first starting out I tried to emulate Buddy Hall's stroke. I found that there is only one Buddy.
 
I have a gift for mimicry. It served me well in athletics as a youngster, and later in life, golf, tennis, and even on the dance floor.

Gareth Potts has done wonders for my stroke, not to mention my hit percentage. I don't go the full route with the shooting leg thing, but the whole full body line up proved completely natural and consistent. I'm uncertain whether it was more his coaching videos or just the hours of YouTube'ing his Chinese 8 ball conquests.

It wasn't that I set out to line up and settle on the shot as he does. It just happened of itself one day. The same with too many hours watching Shane, Jason, and even Earl. I didn't have the same measure of success with those, however.
 
demartini rocks said:
we've all done this i'm sure, whether it was in our teens when we would emulate our favorite sports stars.baseball players. whether it would be a way a hitter would swing at a baseball(mattingly, griffey), a hoopster would shoot(larry bird),or a way a pitcher would throw(clemens, nolan ryan). then over time the way we emulated our faves we eventually tweaked it into something of our own.

just wanted to know in regards to pool if anyone has emulated a favorite player of theirs, if yes who was that player if well known, how were the results and do you still shoot like that?
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I started out trying to play with a very loose stroke like Efren. A lot of what I learned about the game I got from his race to 120 with Earl in Hong Kong, back when I started playing that was a match me and my friends would watch over and over.

After about 15 years I was not improving past a very average B, I started to look into why with a few friends and some more videos and instructional material. Totally re-worked my stance and my stroke, I actually modeled my shooting quite a bit after SVB, Buddy Hall and Nick Varner more with more pausing instead of just having a flowing faster stroke like many Filipinos do. Now I am just stuck at a high B level after the next 10 years of doing that LOL

I think the biggest reason I am not shooting at an A level is because for the first 15 or so years I did not have anyone watch me play or offer much advice, so I never learned to see the cueball properly and developed a move to the right on my stroke.
To this day after a dozen years, I have a very hard time hitting center ball and also using left spin.
 
Yes I've done it quite a lot when learning to play. First I think was Johnny Archer, then Bustamante, then I discovered Efren. Over the years I've tried to take away from various players: Earl, Shaw, John Morra, Steve Mizerak, even a local guy named Jimmy "The Rat" Balkus, a good A player with a monster stroke who loved to move his cueball. He actually beat Strickland in a tourney is Boston in the 80's!

I imagine being that player and playing like them, and the parts that work for me stick. What has become "my style" is all of those styles combining with my own ways.

KMRUNOUT


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
 
demartini rocks said:
we've all done this i'm sure, whether it was in our teens when we would emulate our favorite sports stars.baseball players. whether it would be a way a hitter would swing at a baseball(mattingly, griffey), a hoopster would shoot(larry bird),or a way a pitcher would throw(clemens, nolan ryan). then over time the way we emulated our faves we eventually tweaked it into something of our own.

just wanted to know in regards to pool if anyone has emulated a favorite player of theirs, if yes who was that player if well known, how were the results and do you still shoot like that?
Click to expand...

The player I always tried to imulate as a kid (in the mid 90s) was Johnny Archer. I remember getting so excited when I got to see him play on ESPN . There were also a few very strong local players that I really looked up to, and tried my best to learn from (just by watching them play). I would copy their playing styles, and many of the different bridges they used. Johnny Archer was like a God to me though.
 
KMRUNOUT said:
Yes I've done it quite a lot when learning to play. First I think was Johnny Archer, then Bustamante, then I discovered Efren. Over the years I've tried to take away from various players: Earl, Shaw, John Morra, Steve Mizerak, even a local guy named Jimmy "The Rat" Balkus, a good A player with a monster stroke who loved to move his cueball. He actually beat Strickland in a tourney is Boston in the 80's!

I imagine being that player and playing like them, and the parts that work for me stick. What has become "my style" is all of those styles combining with my own ways.

KMRUNOUT


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
Click to expand...

Holy crap, I remember The Rat, I played with him a few times over in Marlborough at a place that closed a while ago, I think it was called G-Cues. It was when I was barely a B- but was still one of the better players in that room so he would want to play me whenever I was there.
 
Ues, but I would like to add a few things. So we all eventually come to a plateau ( whatever speed that may be ). Early on I had plateaud at maybe a C + player around 17 or so. I continued playing and came across Wayne Collins ( he was talked about in a recent thread here. He was a super strong player and had this weird " slip stoke " for lack of a better way to describe it. We spent a lot of time together working on rotation. I somehow picked up this stroke. Around this time my game jumped again about to where it would finally plateau, maybe around B+.

However, it is worth mentioning this because each and every one of us that are serious about pool experience this - the " zone ". It was around this time ever when I actually got to experience " the real zone ". I say it like that because when you're a lower level player the zone may be running 5 balls consistently. When you get better the zine means a whole different thing. Being in the zone can last for minutes up to a few days ( at least for me ). The zone was getting out from anywhere and everywhere. It meant nothing was safe to you and when you played safe it couldn't be hit with master keys nor an ace pick 😊. It's the point where you are no longer thinking about anything, just doing - and it's perfect every time. Playing one pocket was no longer looking for " the safest shot, it is now looking for 8 and out everyrime.

In any case, once I picked up Waynes stroke it opened up a whole not her world to me on the table. Can I say 100 % for sure it was because of the stroke no. Maybe it was just timing, ,aye it was just my time who knows. But to this day when I find myself " in the zone " I notice I am always caught using this stroke.
 
When I use to teach tennis...., I saw the same thing. People were hell bent on emulating their favorite player. I found that if you taught them the basics. All fundamentals as far as swing, stroke and spin. Then later they could develop their own style.

I don't see anything wrong with copying a good player. But they should always get their stroke down and learn all the basics before trying to copy someone else.
 
I used to have a loosey-goosey grip and a big draw. Then I studied Mizerak and
copied his grip. Less big draw but more control and consistency.
 
I tried dragging my cue around the table like Appleton and chalking like Dechaine but it didnt really seem to help my game too much. :confused::confused::confused:

If I was going to try to copy anyone I think it would be John Morra, he seems to have the perfect fundamentals.
 
I too, use to mimic Johnny Archer. But after 10 minutes of picking lint off the table, someone brought out a shop-vac, and told me to sit the F*** down.

For me it was all about the tempo. Sigel, Medina, McCready and Earl.
Ya gotta find the right pace, and for me it was all up tempo..:thumbup2:
 
hang-the-9 said:
Holy crap, I remember The Rat, I played with him a few times over in Marlborough at a place that closed a while ago, I think it was called G-Cues. It was when I was barely a B- but was still one of the better players in that room so he would want to play me whenever I was there.
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Yup that's where he would have played later in life. Sadly he passed away about 10 years ago.

KMRUNOUT


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
 
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