How would you play this shot?

OK, I cheated. If you watch the video a little bit longer you can watch the slow motion version of the shot. I rewatched because I thought I saw the draw die off before hitting the object ball. It does largely, note both the measles and the cue ball following the natural tangent line.

One other thing is apparent in the slo-mo, he had a little left spin on the cue ball. With the other factors I doubt seriously that the left english was intentional. (PJ your post popped in as I was typing this! Great Minds?)

Whatever he planned, I don't think he executed. He paid the penalties of the stun shot from near the rail without any of the benefits.

Hu
 
  • Like
Reactions: sjm
Bob Jewett said:
The way he hit it was more or less a stop shot. How can you hit it higher and softer and get a stop shot?
Click to expand...
Bob,
Go look at it again. He actually hit a Masse shot. Ball curves to left (from he perspective) and he drives object ball into rail. Doesn't need to get up that high...plus his mechanics in general are poor.
 
Also they are playing on relatively fresh and slick cloth. The draw will not wear off that quickly.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
From the slomo replay it looks like he put a little unintended left on the CB.

pj
chgo
Click to expand...
apologies... How about this: The way he attempted to cue it was right...lol

On a side note. I wonder how much weight this professional would need to give up to the nay sayers here to make an even match. I attempted to find Lian-Han's fargo and I believe it's ~760. Obviously an inflated number with the obviously poor choices he makes, right guys.

As someone with wisdom commented earlier. You're not there, you don't see the shot as he does, and you haven't been exposed to his experience on that table. You also don't know how his internal difference engine is spinning in his mind. Lian-Han made what he thought was the best course of action at that moment. Of course we are all entitled to our opinions on how we'd personally play it based on what we see through the camera. However that does not translate to what Lian-Han did wrong.
 
Last edited:
I see a lot of people agreed with my initial post. I think if you shoot each shot 100 times, your % will be better rolling the ball. I'm surprised to see so many concerned with the table not being level. That seems unjustified, how often have we seen that happening in this championship ? The chances of it happening are very small. The chances of things going wrong when cueing downwards with speed are much higher...

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
Bob Jewett said:
The object ball is over a diamond from the pocket and about a ball off the cushion. I'll try it the next time I'm at a table, but I have my doubts.
Click to expand...
Before I posted I played the shot fifteen times on my eight footer and made thirteen. For me it's a higher percentage shot.
Me jacking up on a nine foot table ...........no.
 
It is a lot different on a practice table. Here we had a man shooting one last shot for his team and most importantly for his country. Multiple shots would have worked including that one, just wasn't to be that time. I think that is the same match, maybe even same game, that all four players got to shoot at the money ball!

Hu
 
sjm said:
No way I'm jacking up here unless I don't trust the table. At slowish speed, you won't have the pace to follow it in.

The extent to which accuracy is lost on jacked up shots is something that instructor extraordinaire Mark Wilson has spoken of often.
Click to expand...
"For every 15 degrees you elevate the cue, you lose 15% of your accuracy", I believe that's what Mark Wilson says.
 
raphcleary said:
"For every 15 degrees you elevate the cue, you lose 15% of your accuracy", I believe that's what Mark Wilson says.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I hadn't remembered that, but the message is that jacking up is always chancy because of the danger of unintended sidespin. Jay Helfert has stressed this, too, in this very thread.

Several posters have opined (and Shooting Arts determined the same in his slow-motion review of the shot) that there was unintended left english on this shot. As so many have rightly pointed out, there are pros and cons for jacking up here, and while having noted that I wouldn't have jacked up here, I've also offered that I feel that it's appropriate to accept the player's judgment. Those of us who've spent loads of time watching the pros have seen this shot played both ways many times.

Shane slow rolled a similar long shot in the China Open quarterfinals (2018 or 2019, my memory is failing me here, but maybe Spartan, our resident guru on pool played in Asia would know). Yes, Shane made the shot.
 
Last edited:
SmoothStroke said:
He shanked it. His swing arm went right and cue went left. He was moving and raising up with the delivery.
If he remained still and delivered straight it goes in like butter.
A fairly routine shot, he just dogged the stroke.
Click to expand...
Rest assured, this thread wouldn't even exist if this shot were routine. It's a shot that can and does go wrong, even at world class level, and that's what makes it worthy of online discussion.
 
sjm said:
Rest assured, this thread wouldn't even exist if this shot were routine. It's a shot that can and does go wrong, even at world class level, and that's what makes it worthy of online discussion.
Click to expand...

This was one shot for all the marbles too, makes it pretty special. I wish we could wire the players for bio feedback without being intrusive. Was he calm? Was his heart beating like a triphammer while having to shoot before a shot clock went off? This ain't the shot I want to face to close out a match!

Hu
 
sjm said:
Rest assured, this thread wouldn't even exist if this shot were routine. It's a shot that can and does go wrong, even at world class level, and that's what makes it worthy of online discussion.
Click to expand...
Any shot can go wrong, ball in hand has gone wrong many times. Very good for online discussion, especially the breakdown and why it was missed. A very good example on what not to do.

The thread wouldn't exist if he delivered the cue as a pro is expected to. Maybe he took to the heat and couldn't
handle the pressure. I see a breakdown in fundamentals and cue delivery.
He had room between the ball and the rail, he wasn't jacked up that high. This shot a gimme for pro players.
Of course it can be missed, any shot can be missed.

These shots are practiced to a fault. They are practiced jacked up, running down the rail into a small opening in the corner pocket. Any error in the stroke or fundamentals and it's a miss. That's why it's practiced, to eliminate
the errors that cause the miss. I have spotted the same shot for a world champ hundreds of times.
Watch the shot in slow video, although not needed, he dogged the stroke and body movement.
 
SmoothStroke said:
This shot a gimme for pro players.
Click to expand...
Obviously, you've seen what you've seen and so have I, but in my experience, this shot is anything but a gimme at world class level. Perhaps shooting with a jacked-up cue is something you are very good at, and if it's a specialty of yours, your choice to jack up is correct. Your generalization that this is a gimme, however, is not consistent with my observations over 47 years of attending pro events. Still, that doesn't mean you're mistaken. Agree to disagree here.
 
jay helfert said:
Man, that game was UGLY! Nobody could make the nine ball. It looked like a bunch of bangers from the local bar league. :ROFLMAO:
Shooting the above shot on the nine ball that way only makes it harder to pocket. At that angle, when you hit it hard from a distance that pocket tightens up. Just touch the long rail and it will rattle out, which is exactly what happened. Bad juju there! Sorry to disagree with JJ here, but a good player like Filler or Dennis would hit center ball on the cue ball at moderate speed. Just try to roll it in, and hit the cue ball just firm enough so there is no roll off. One more thing, when you elevate your cue the shot becomes incrementally harder the higher you go. I thought everyone knew that.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with this post. The pocket is much bigger when you roll it in. I mean you can stroke the ball so it doesn`t roll off, you don`t have to baby it. When you jack up to shoot a ball that far away it makes the shot much easier to miss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top