Could Willie make the team?

Just a question that can’t be answered. I think bobby jones is one of the greatest golfers of all time but golf has changed since then so now I don’t know. The kick safes and banking have gone to a different level you didn’t see back then.
 
The bolded sentence makes it crystal clear you are not a very good player, and prolly have not spent a lot of time competing against good players on slow cloth. BOTH straight pool AND 9 ball are MUCH easier on fast cloth. Every 80s era player who also played well after the switch to Diamond tables will tell you this. One can get a nonoptimal angle on fast cloth, and still get out. On slow cloth, if you end up with a poor angle, you are now required to come with a MONSTER stroke to get out, or the run is over.

SAFETIES are almost much harder on slow cloth, as you can't just edge a ball at the other end of the table, move it two inches, and go three rails to the other end of the table and get behind blockers. Your lack of pool knowledge, plus your self assurance that you are correct, is embarrassing.
I'd add his inaccurate sense of self importance continually offends those who put effort into things pool-related.
 
I wonder if Willie meant twice as close to the next object ball or he was positioning the cue ball twice as precisely? Maybe both. I found when I started playing for shape 12-16 inches from the next object ball or even closer my shape had to be very precise. It didn't take much to be on the wrong side of the object ball or have other problems like extreme angles. Still easy to pocket the next ball but shape tended to get harder and harder in a hurry if a recovery shot wasn't possible. It was much easier to play 16-20 inches out and have a little more margin for error on shape. It took a lot less mental energy to run a rack from a little further out.

Hu
To see what is possible for close positioning watch balkline players. Efren is a balkline player mostly, not a 3c player. That will give you some idea of what a player can do if he tries. Most players today don't try. Three feet away is fine for them.
 
To see what is possible for close positioning watch balkline players. Efren is a balkline player mostly, not a 3c player. That will give you some idea of what a player can do if he tries. Most players today don't try. Three feet away is fine for them.
Pool's a sloppy pursuit. Not just the execution, the mess on the table, too.

Too many damn balls and they can all be rearranged at any time...
 
To see what is possible for close positioning watch balkline players. Efren is a balkline player mostly, not a 3c player. That will give you some idea of what a player can do if he tries. Most players today don't try. Three feet away is fine for them.
I had to rebuild this quote. Hopefully I didn't butcher it!

As it happens I saw some balkline a few days ago including the corner nurse and a shot where it looked like the player was dribbling the cue ball off the tip of his stick. They were having single inning scores in the hundreds and over a thousand, this was actually the reason for the creation of balkline I believe, because these forever nurses had ruined the game of inline or whatever it was called.

Shape three feet away or worse was how I played too. If I had a shot at the next ball I thought I was playing shape! Then I saw some footage of a younger Willie Mosconi on TV playing spot shape. Wowser! Did my world open up!

Hu
 
Pool was easy for Willie because all of his shots were straight in.:cool:


I think that is what made Willie so valuable to Brunswick. Watching him it seemed anyone could buy a table and be running hundreds in a few weeks. I don't know if anyone made pool look easier than Willie.

Hu
 
I think that is what made Willie so valuable to Brunswick. Watching him it seemed anyone could buy a table and be running hundreds in a few weeks. I don't know if anyone made pool look easier than Willie.

Hu
So true! I had never thought of the "Valuable to Brunswick" angle before. But you are certainly right. Plus he was so affable and understated. He made everything look easy and middle class work-a-day folks loved him.
 
Excellent! I guess he was their entire marketing strategy.
Willie wasn't the only one who toured for Brunswick.

After Willie's first pro tournament (he did not win it), Brunswick offered him a place on their staff and Willie accepted. In his autobiography, Willie wrote that Brunswick had 21 pool and billiard players on their staff at that time, including Greenleaf, Rudolph, Caras, and Hoppe.
 
the young players on here say willie couldnt compete with the top players of today. but they have only seen the top players of today.

they think the old timers dont know, but the old timers have seen both the new players, and those of old.
so who do you think can make the best decision.
 
Willie wasn't the only one who toured for Brunswick.

After Willie's first pro tournament (he did not win it), Brunswick offered him a place on their staff and Willie accepted. In his autobiography, Willie wrote that Brunswick had 21 pool and billiard players on their staff at that time, including Greenleaf, Rudolph, Caras, and Hoppe.
Sigel was also sponsored by Brunswick in the late 80s.
 
@Black-Balled If you just quote me, then I try to reply, the reply field does not quote your empty replay with the single raction emoji. I think its a program flaw, but just letting you know why I used a notification instead of a quote.

Jump Defense a term used to generalize safety shots with the intention the incoming player will play a jump shot.

Different safety strategies challenge various pocketing skills like speed, cuts, throw, kicks, masse, banks and multirailers (Melling's shot is more amazing then Effren's Z shot, the Z is 2 in my book).

Shaw brings endurance to 14.1 with a high run record, Hohmann brought the power break to 14.1.
14.1 standard play has evolved due to changes in tournament equipment.

I still think its silly to bring a jump cue to a 14.1 match, but it does create room for a player to be remembered as the 14.1 specialist that popularized the jump break or jump safe in 14.1. It was going to be me, but I got busy at work and the years just piled up and then COVID and then SMO.
 
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