John Morra plays left handed now
- Thread starter terryhanna
- Start date
BaconAZB
One Pocket Player
Righty or Lefty, Morra is tough
I played John Morra in the Swanee memorial tourney a few years ago and he played jam up as a righty. I got two innings only at the table in a race to 7, and one of those was a difficult two rail kick because he "left" me snookered...In hindsight, I shoulda shot left-handed on both of those trips to the felt for the hell of it cuz I'm dead money LoL
I played John Morra in the Swanee memorial tourney a few years ago and he played jam up as a righty. I got two innings only at the table in a race to 7, and one of those was a difficult two rail kick because he "left" me snookered...In hindsight, I shoulda shot left-handed on both of those trips to the felt for the hell of it cuz I'm dead money LoL
I played him 8 ball in November at an event in Nova Scotia. He played left and won 7-1. He hooked himself on the 8 at 6-0 or he would have run the entire set. He looks a little awkward getting down on the shot, but once there, you can't tell he switched. Power shots, bridging over balls, stretched out to reach (rather than switching to natural hand)... didn't make a difference. He made them all.
Considering pool is his livelihood, I can't imagine how bad his shoulder must have been to say: hey, I'm switching hands - see you guys at the next event!.
It is astonishing he can shoot so well with his left. I wonder if he will eventually switch back to his right though if he finds that he can't play at the super elite level. It really is a shame that he had to switch because he was really playing top notch pool when he switched.
I am severely left-eye dominant like John Morra so believe I understand the problems he was having as a right handed player.
I understand your point about leading with the left side of your body which puts your left eye closer the ball. However, that benefit does not apply to John since his eyes are level and his head is square to the shot with both eyes equidistant to the ball (or at least very close to equidistant).
The problem occurs when you try to achieve perfect fundamentals. In order to do so, your cue stick, bridge, grip, elbow, and shoulder all need to be positioned directly over the shot line. When you line everything up, your right eye will naturally fall in line with the shot. In John's case, he needs to move his head an additional 4 inches right in order to get his dominant eye over the shot line. By doing this, it contorts the neck and right shoulder causing extra stress. Consequently, your grip hand often subconsciously wants to move left (toward the body) to reduce the amount of neck/head movement. So it takes an extra amount of care to force your body into an unnatural position that causes shoulder and neck pain over time.
Who did you try to kick? lol