I'm A Chameleon-is That Good Or Bad?

[THE SILENCER]

I have this "thing" i play exactly in the same "style" as the pro i just watched last on espn. for instance,last sunday, i watched allen hopkins beat the living shit out of jim rempe, on the I.C.O.C. finals of 1993. i noticed allen's bridge, the distance between his bridge hand, and cue tip was extremly short. around 3 inches. he played great, and recently when i went to play, i used that short bridge, and walla! i played great! the combination of a small bridge and my le professional tip with a red fiber backing is supreme. now, if i saw bustamante tonight, i'd go out tomorrow, and have his long crazy bridge! what gives? is this good, bad or good and bad?

 

[henho]

Bad. You haven't developed a stroke, and probably lack consistency.

It's common to be influenced by another player, i.e. playing faster or slower depending on the pace of your opponent, or copying a better player you recently watched. However, your core fundamentals should stay the same, unless you are watching a better player specifically to address a problem of your own. I would attribute the temporary improved performance to increased self-awareness of your stroke. A good way to tell this is if while copying a pro and playing better, you spend more time looking at the cb and ob while lining up the shot, while when playing "normally" you might one-stroke shots or not really focus on the contact points.

 

[THE SILENCER]

thanks for your answer which seems logical, but truth be told, the problem, is whoever i imitate i play fantastic! the only person i ever tried to imitate and played poorly was efren reyes.

 

[rocky]

thanks for your answer which seems logical, but truth be told, the problem, is whoever i imitate i play fantastic! the only person i ever tried to imitate and played poorly was efren reyes.

I think that we all pull from the players that we like. Untill you settle down work on a routine shooting procedure your game is going to be in a state of flux. I think that you just need to go and buy a PREATOR shaft! lol just giving you a hard time.

 

[Joseph Cues]

Ugh, what an ugly stroke to copy. Hopkins' stroke.
Buddy Hall and Davenport. Stroking Gods in my book.

 

[drivermaker]

I have this "thing" i play exactly in the same "style" as the pro i just watched last on espn. for instance,last sunday, i watched allen hopkins beat the living shit out of jim rempe, on the I.C.O.C. finals of 1993. i noticed allen's bridge, the distance between his bridge hand, and cue tip was extremly short. around 3 inches. he played great, and recently when i went to play, i used that short bridge, and walla! i played great! the combination of a small bridge and my le professional tip with a red fiber backing is supreme. now, if i saw bustamante tonight, i'd go out tomorrow, and have his long crazy bridge! what gives? is this good, bad or good and bad?

It could be good or bad, but I don't think it's as good as it could be if you also LOOKED like the player and had their mannerisms. I think if you look in the mirror and actually see Efren staring back with that little mustache, the believability factor will sink into your sub-conscious even moreso and step it up another notch or two. That means you should go to a costume shop and get some mustaches, eyebrows, hair pieces, etc. to fool yourself even further. Hopefully, the last match that you see on T.V. will be Jeanette and you decide to get and extreme makeover with all the right thingies in all the right spots. If you do, I'm coming dressed as a satyr and will be chasing your ass all around the table, which then means you'll have to be a combination of Jeanette and Luc Salvas.

 

[bruin70]

I have this "thing" i play exactly in the same "style" as the pro i just watched last on espn. for instance,last sunday, i watched allen hopkins beat the living shit out of jim rempe, on the I.C.O.C. finals of 1993. i noticed allen's bridge, the distance between his bridge hand, and cue tip was extremly short. around 3 inches. he played great, and recently when i went to play, i used that short bridge, and walla! i played great! the combination of a small bridge and my le professional tip with a red fiber backing is supreme. now, if i saw bustamante tonight, i'd go out tomorrow, and have his long crazy bridge! what gives? is this good, bad or good and bad?

you're probably just learning and you draw from inspiration. that is how we learn. however,,,,,,if you've been playing for 20 years, YOU HAVE TO STOP THAT ! it tells me you're still searching, and you will remain inconsistant every time you change.

 

[THE SILENCER]

no i've been playing for 26 years. my playing is near pro level. i just get into watching pros, and my brain holds onto each style that i like. for instance, although i find luc salvas amusing, i don't care to play that fast, it feels stupid, wrong. my favorite style to copy is allison fisher's and ralf souquet. also, i've been doing something latley, that reyes, and a few other players have been doing. if you blink, you'll miss it. taking the bridge hand, after the shot, and slapping it down on the rail of the table, to clean off the dust, dirt feel of the chalk residue. i believe nick van den berg does this as well.little manerisims, i pick up if i like them, i guess, all in all it's a good thing. but to end this whole discussion, i'd like to say this--------- for years, and years, i've been watching long "cool" bridges, from bustamante, and reyes, and others, however, when i saw hopkins, with that short little bridge, and his expert playing, i tried it, and low and behold, man, it just "felt" more, much more accurate, like the shooter, "I" was in total control over my cue, stroke and speed, and tip. try it you'll like it.

 

[drivermaker]

no i've been playing for 26 years. my playing is near pro level. for years, and years, i've been watching long "cool" bridges, from bustamante, and reyes, and others, however, when i saw hopkins, with that short little bridge, and his expert playing, i tried it, and low and behold, man, it just "felt" more, much more accurate, like the shooter, "I" was in total control over my cue, stroke and speed, and tip. try it you'll like it.

It's quite obvious to me that you've been playing with ill-suited equipment for a long time. The reason why the short bridge works so well as opposed to the long one is because your cue has far, far, too much deflection. From a short bridge position, due to it's extremely low pivot point, you can now be much more in control before that thing just wrenches the CB sideways. You can do one of two things to correct it: get a new very low deflection shaft and that will solve all problems immediately. Or, you'll just have to compensate more effectively. For instance, assuming that the OB is on the foot spot and the CB is almost right on the head spot and you're trying to cut it into the right corner pocket, aim the CB to the right side of the OB as if you were going to cut it into the left corner pocket with 2 tips of right english, and you'll make that baby every time back to the right. Hope that helps clear up any confusion you might have.