Do Today's Top Players Use Systems?

[Rich93]

In one of Bob Byrne's books he reveals that even though Willie Hoppe "wrote" a book illustrating the diamond system, he didn't use the system in his own play. In Byrne's McGoorty book, Danny McGoorty says:

Guys like Hoppe, Cochran and Schaefer, they knew the table so well, all the angles, all the returns, they didn't need to use any system. They could get four out of two by elevating the cue a little and putting a touch of masse on the ball. The system? What system? F*ck the system.

What about modern champions - Ceulemans, Blomdahl, Jaspers, et al? Do they use systems? They're achieving averages the earlier champions could only dream about. Could system play be a difference?

 

[3kushn]

Ceulemans for sure calculates every shot. Jaspers IMO does as well. I'm not sure about Blomdahl but some of the shots he take seem that he has to calculate them. There have been many good to great instinct players. Sang Lee supposedly shot instinctively. But these players certainly knew or know many systems and I'll bet they use them ocasionally as a check then go to instinct.