Most powerful stroke ever?

Denny Searcy and David Howard are a couple that come to mind along with the obvious Mr. Nevel - just ridiculous how strong, powerful and true his stroke is.


Steve H.
 
Most Powerful Stroke

"Superstroke" was all hype and no game. I'm one antique that knew the guy. He couldn't beat Tom Thumb! Even you have a better stroke then him.

I have no stroke, I poke at the ball and jump straight up in the air, I played with a Meucci for too many years. Thanks for the kind words though.
 
What is the meaning of the "BEST STROKE"!!!!!

The definition of the most "PERFECT" stroke which in turn gives the most action is, "THE LEAST AMOUNT OF EFFORT WITH THE MAXIMUM EFFECT ON THE CUE BALL". This is what a TRUE PURE stroke is!

There are many players who hit the cue ball extremely hard to create action on the cue ball, but VERY few of US who do it with a PURE PERFECT STROKE, players that come to mind are Roberto Rojas, from Mexico, Adrian Viguara, Chicago, and I have to say, myself, Bill Smith.

About 25 years ago a former Chicago Policeman John Holic, and pool fan opened a billiard room on the Northwest side of Chicago, not too far from Chris's. For the Grand Opening he invited Mike Massey to do an exhibition on the pool tables and myself to do a demonstration of Artistic Billiards on the billiard table. Naturaly Mike's show was GREAT, everyone loved the show. When it came time for me to do my thing on the billiard table alot of the spectators didn't seem to impresssed, except for the billiard players. At one point in my show Mike came forward and said, " I want everyone here to know how difficult these shots are and what ease this man executes these shots, I've never seen anyone strike the cue ball so easily and produce so much action on the cue ball, its amazing".

I never forgot those words. When Larry Nevel hung around Chris's Billiards years ago, he used to watch me practice Artistic billiards and remark in the same way Mike did. I've become quite a bit older now and my stroke isn't quite as pure, but I can still dab it a little! And I'm not really trying to blow my own horn here, its just a fact.

You can goto VEOH.com and type in Bill Smith, and you can see some videos from some exhibitions I've performed back in the day.

I will have to agree with one of the poster's in this thread that IMHO that a 3 Cushion player generally has a better stroke for EXTREME cue ball action than most pool players. "Not trying to offend the pool community", it's just that billiard players due these types of strokes on a regular basis.

Bill Smith "Mr3Cushion"
 
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I will have to agree with one of the poster's in this thread that IMHO that a 3 Cushion player generally has a better stroke for EXTREME cue ball action than most pool players.

This is probably true on a 3C table using big carom balls.

But nobody can convince me that 3C players can do what Larry Nevel/Corey Deuel can do on a 9ft pool table with normal pool balls or what Neil Robertson/Jimmy White can do on a 12ft snooker table with regular snooker balls.
 
Dennis Hatch appears to have a very powerful stroke. Bustamante should probably also be mentioned; 30+ mph breaks I think speak for themselves. As for SVB, I'm sure his stroke is powerful, but Corey's appears to be far more powerful to me. I'm one of Buddy's biggest fans, but I would put the Miz a couple of notches above him in stroke power. Smoothness is another issue altogether, however, and Buddy would be hard to top in that one. I still say WTF at some of the cueball action I've seen Buddy get.

Aaron
 
You guy's missed the WHOLE point of my post, THE LEAST AMOUNT OF EFFORT, the players you've mentioned ALL hit he cue ball VERY HARD!
Not saying they all don't have good strokes, they do, for hitting the cue ball HARD and ACCURATE! That DOES NOT determine the BEST stroke!
And FYI a billiard ball is alot harder to draw than a lighter pool cue ball!

Bill Smith "Mr3Cushion"
 
For sheer, raw power in all depts., I couldnt take anybody but Harold Worst.
In straight pool, 40 or 50 yrs ago, Geo Fels used to describe Jimmy Moore's cue ball advancing thru the 14.1 stack, like a Panzer division roaring thru the Maginot line. Most of todays draw trick shots were initiated by Jimmy Moore.

Beard

Worst was like a slightly smaller version of Mike Massey, also with huge hands and a powerful grip. Mike is very tall, maybe 6'4" or 6'5". Harold was barely 5'11" or maybe 6'. But he was a solidly built man. He probably had the most powerful stroke of his era (the 60's), along with Cornbread Red. Cornbread had a wind-up (his practice strokes) that you had to see to believe. He would whip that cue back and forth like a piston and then let it rip. He could power that cue ball around the table better than anyone else.

The interesting thing is the guys with the smoothest and prettiest strokes (Ed Kelly, Marvin Henderson and Jimmy Moore) could all do the same things with far less effort. It was all about making a good hit on the cue ball. Buddy Hall once explained it to me. He said very few pool players make a good hit on the cue ball. He told me to just listen to the hit, and sure enough only a few sounded like they were making solid contact. Now when Buddy shot, it sounded pure, such a clean hit. Only the very best players (even today) can make a perfect center ball hit. When you hear it, you'll know it.

Buddy's control was so good partly because he went through the cue ball so perfectly. He mastered the art of striking the cue ball. Sounds simple enough, but even that is an art. Buddy didn't have the most powerful stroke (although he was right up there), but he did have the most perfect stroke of his generation.

Then there's the strange case of a certain Mr. Keith McCready. He was the first player I saw who regularly hit the cue ball at different angles, and not just on one plane. He would come at the cue ball in a million different ways and cause it to react crazily sometimes. To this day I've never seen anyone else who could shoot the shots that Keith created (maybe Efren). And these were in games, not exhibitions! He was the master of innovative striking of the cue ball. Probably the Three Cushion guys would understand better what Keith was doing. I sure couldn't.

That's about all I've got for now.
 
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You guy's missed the WHOLE point of my post, THE LEAST AMOUNT OF EFFORT, the players you've mentioned ALL hit he cue ball VERY HARD!
Not saying they all don't have good strokes, they do, for hitting the cue ball HARD and ACCURATE! That DOES NOT determine the BEST stroke!
And FYI a billiard ball is alot harder to draw than a lighter pool cue ball!

Bill Smith "Mr3Cushion"

Did you miss the OP? It's asking for the most powerful stroke, not the best stroke.

In any case, it's all good.

pat on the back.jpg
 
Buddy Hall had a phenomal stroke as far as being perfect. He could do things that made pool look so easy. Mike Massey has a powerfull stroke to me one of the strongest I've seen.
There are others but I have not seen them.
 
Larry Nevel

My good friend and I were at Q-masters one year during the US Open and Larry Nevel was there practicing. My friend asked Larry to shoot a couple of his power stroke shots and you had to of been there to believe what he did. I've never seen another pool player shoot shots like Larry can. On one of my Acc-stats videos (Nevel vs Hernandez at the US Open) Billy Incardona said that he'd bet anyone that no other player could draw the cue ball like Larry Nevel and Billy knows a lot more than I do! For sheer power Larry's got my vote.......

James
 
TODAY'S PLAYERS, LARRY NEVEL AND MIKE MASEY YESTERDAY'S PLAYERS FOR PURE SMOOTHNEST EDDIE KELLY AND MARVIN HENDERSON, and WILLY MOSCONI AND BY THE GREATEST STROKE OF ALL TIMES IS SEMEH SAYGINER UNBELIEVEABLE ONLY MY OPINION
 
"Most powerful stroke ever"....My vote goes to Larry Nevel.

Best cueball ever...Buddy Hall.

But most powerful stroke? Anybody ever see Larry shoot the shot where the cueball is nearly frozen to the back rail and he shoots and object ball into the top left corner pocket and then draws the cueball back at warp speed?
Very amazing!

Check this out.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWtyPrgn2VA

Larry Nevel never seems to get enough credit for being the great player that he is. Great talent.
 
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Farce

What about the guy "Superstroke" Bruce Christiansen? sp I never saw him play maybe Jay or some of these antiques did.

He was a C player, maybe C+ on a good day. He marketed himself with that moniker he bestowed upon himself. I give him credit for playing that gig as he did, as he certainly benefited from his self-promotion.
 
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