Impressive Finger Spinning from the 1950's

Mike Masse was here locally and I did some video shooting for a promoter, I'll have to dig around, but I believe I have some good footage of his finger pool similar to what's seen on YouTube.
He puts some amazing screw on balls with a snap of his massive hands.





Rob.M
Mike Massey does a shot where he throws the cue ball at the bottom rail and just before hitting the rail it makes a 90 degree turn going around another ball no more then 3 inches from the bottom rail, pocketing a ball in the corner pocket. It has the be seen to be believed.
 
Mike Massey does a shot where he throws the cue ball at the bottom rail and just before hitting the rail it makes a 90 degree turn going around another ball no more then 3 inches from the bottom rail, pocketing a ball in the corner pocket. It has the be seen to be believed.

Scroll up a few posts or go to the bottom post of the first page. I posted both videos.
 
Hi Colin,

Thanks for that.

But...did you not see PJ's recent post that 'helping' spin is a myth.:wink:
 
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That is pretty good but humbly I can do most everything he did and a lot more. In fact years ago most every pool room had at least one guy who would be on the table spinning the cue ball.

There is a lot more you can do other then just make the cue ball curve. There are a lot of propositions that you can do. I used to do one where I would rack the 15 balls with the 8 ball in the middle. and throwing the cue ball around the table 3 or more rails make the 8 ball in the corner pocket in 10 throws.

I could make a ball on the spot straight in the corner in three tries throwing the cue ball three rails. And let you do it against me using a cue.

Cue ball Kelly did a proposition where he would rack the 15 balls and throwing the cue ball three or more rails make the whole rack in the corner pocket in a fixed time like 15 minutes. I was a lock to do it in 30 minutes myself. Kelly was so good at this he would do it between matches at tournaments. Usually using only 6 or 10 balls for the sake of time. He would get someone in the audience to keep time and start. As time ran out he would be rushing around and almost always make the last ball with like 2 seconds left. Of course he could have done it faster.

There are all kinds of ball spinning propositions and they are fun to do. It is amazing what you can teach yourself to do. I could make spot shots throwing the cue ball or make wing shots throwing the cue ball. Then you had Steve Simpson ( I wonder what ever happened to him) who did this stuff spitting the cue ball from his mouth.

I remember the ball spitter. I think he was invited to a couple of Barry Hearn's trick shot events. I never acquired the knack of finger mastery, it's a bit of a lost art. I remember as a kid watching some top billiard players who had an almost compulsive addiction of finger spinning balls into pockets while standing at the side of a table chatting. I guess paying for table time in modern venues has put a halt to such social situations.
 
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