One of the greatest shots I've ever seen on TV

[fxskater]

I was watching the border battle the other day and Alain Martel played one of the most amazing shots that i have seen. He basicly didnt have a shot, so he had to go for it. Anyways here it is:

WEI TABLE

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He hit the cueball into the rail, jump over the 5, hit the 2, then the cueball bounced back, made the 5,3 combo, came off the side rail, and the 2 ball went up hit the top rail and came back down the table for a straight in shot. you had to see it to believe it.

 

[Snapshot9]

but did he ...

Was it a planned shot or not? I get so tired of TV matches where they
show the 'shot of the match' and the shot was a luck shot, everyone
gets lucky sometimes.

Plus, any pro event should be 'call the 9 ball', letting pros get away with
accidents or slop on the 9 ball on TV, no less, should be a no-no.

Plus they need to quit calling shots fantastic when they are a routine shot
that any intermediate player could make 9 out of 10 times.

And how about that English guy narrating the Mosconi Cup? Is he a riot or what?

 

[fxskater]

Its hard to say. I honestly think he was going for it, so did the guys commentating. Jeremy Jones also told him what a great shot it was after the match. Honestly, the shot was there, and i think he went for it. But yeah its pretty flukey to make.

 

[DaveK]

Its hard to say. I honestly think he was going for it, so did the guys commentating. Jeremy Jones also told him what a great shot it was after the match. Honestly, the shot was there, and i think he went for it. But yeah its pretty flukey to make.

He sure did look for alternatives, but I too believe that he was going for this shot. The 5-3 was wired and close, he barely had to touch the 5 and the 3 goes in. The off-the-rail jumper lands with 'bottom', so if he hit the 2 squarely chances are the cb would back into the 5. The total distances involved were very small, which makes the shot more reasonable. Having practiced the off-the-rail jumper I can say that given the close range it's not that tough.

I find the off-the-rail jump becomes more difficult when :
- you have to come off the rail at an angle, Alains was quite square to the rail
- you have to roll the CB after it comes back to the table, mine masse badly sometimes, especially when shot at an angle, Alains was very close and he hit the 2 coming down
- you have to clear a bunch of balls, long jumps with this method are more difficult to control (and dangerous as some discovered ), Alains was a quick jump over a single ball.

Please do not think that I am in any way trivializing Alains shot, it was very impressive, but he had a good set up for it. And again, he spent some time looking at other possibilities before attempting the rail-jump. I say he was trying to pot the 3.

BTW, did he not loose that game anyway ?

Dave

 

[fxskater]

Yeah he lost that game anyways. I think its a little tougher than you think though, but the way the balls were set up, on a practice table i could probably make it 1 out of 5 tries. The only reason i think it was a little tougher is because he was frozen to the 3, and trying to jump a ball off the rail and control the LOFT or Lauch angle off the rail is pretty tough. Me making it 2 times in 10 shots would be because of trial and error, i could just rejudge how i hit it until i nail it. He got up there and hit it perfect first try, that to me is pretty impressive. This shot is not something that would be hard to master and include in a trickshot routine, but under the circumstances it was great!!

 

[sniper]

I believe he was going for it also, you could see him measuring the angle to hit the OB ball properly. If you listen closely after the match Jeremy Jones goes up to Nick Varner and says "that was the greatest shot I have ever seen" to which Nick Varner replies "yeah that was probably the greatest shot I have ever seen" Those were their exact words.

 

[the scorpion]

Snap shot 9 that "English bloke" at the mosconi cup was sid waddell a very famous pool and darts commentator here in britain but with said I wish they would have changed it to someone else such as Steve Knight or Thorsten Hohmen as they know a lot more about the game than sid does.

 

[DaveK]

Yeah he lost that game anyways. I think its a little tougher than you think though, but the way the balls were set up, on a practice table i could probably make it 1 out of 5 tries.

Yep, that's about it. I tried it this afternoon, hit the 2 ball 5 of 5, got the 3 once (3rd or 4th try). I'm a B player who sometimes practices crazy shots. Alain is a pro.

Dave

 

[Hal]

I nominate Mike Massey's trickshot "Jump the cue-ball off the table and into a cowboy boot 8 feet away on the floor" as the best shot I've seen on TV. How in the world can anyone control a jump shot like that. For the record, he did it on the first try, so there was nothing fluke about it. Crazy talent.

I think it's more like 12 feet...

 

[the_eradicator]

what about Efren's shot against Earl at the 1995 Sands Regency classic. he's snookered on the 6. he made a back and forth shot on the 5 and made it, with preparation on the 6.

 

[fxskater]

I've duplicated efrens shot. As long as you hit it with the same speed and no english you can probably hit that one in in your first 10 tries, just by adjusting where you hit on the first rail.

 

[fxskater]

No i fully realize this. Actually i think Efrens shot is better, cause judging the curve off the second rail is pretty tough to do in 1 attempt. I'm just saying all shots can be duplicated fairly easily, no matter how great the shot is. Other than pure stroke and masse shots of course.

 

[ApoDra]

Fong Pang Chao

What you think about this shot?
This is from the 2001 Challenge of Champions final.
Fong Pang Chao Vs Fransicso Bustamante sets are one a piece and they are playing Sudden Death rack the winner gets it all $50.000 prize money Chao scrached on the break and Bustamane played a safety on him.

http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~wei/pool/pooltable2.html

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