Pro with worst stroke?

Alain Martel, his stroke and style around the table makes him look he doesn't know wtf he is doing, all the while running out.
 
Well, not that his stroke is ugly, but standing behind Stevie Moore and watching his arm shake makes you wonder how he could ever make a ball. It just all seems to come together right before he pulls the trigger though.

Southpaw
 
henho said:
Alain Martel, his stroke and style around the table makes him look he doesn't know wtf he is doing, all the while running out.
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I'm also give Alain my vote for the ugliest stroke, I have no clue how he shoots with it but he has a National Championship and a semi-final finish at the WPC so you can't argue with the results. It's also worth mentioning he has one of the loudest, most powerful breaks I have ever seen.
 
Fast Lenny said:
He hada slipstroke correct Jay?A good player whom i go to his room shoots like this,his name is Gil Black,used to run around a bit,do you know him?,black gentlemen in his 70s.
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Yes, he did. Ask Gil if he used to play downstairs at McGirrs in the 60's. I think I remember a clean cut gentleman (nicely dressed) who used to play Banks down there, and maybe at Guys and Dolls once in a while too. Average height, like 5'10" or so. If that's the same guy, he played good Banks.
 
Anyone else ever scrutinize Sang Lee's stroke?

I agree with the good doctor's implication that if the final move is straight thru, that's the main thing...

Sang Lee had an absolutely wild sweep on every shot (left to right I think) - center ball, left, right - always the same...but a great carom player and for a while just about the best.

Any great pool players with a severe sweep? I can't say I've ever seen one.
 
Hopkins does indeed have a non-standard stroke, but I don't think it can be fairly called a "poke" stroke.

When describing a player who is poking, instead of stroking, it is usually in reference to a player who does not follow through. Instead, they stop abruptly right after contacting the cue ball.

Hopkins seems to do the opposite on most shots. He has no, or very little backstroke, but he does follow through quite a bit past the cue ball on his forward stroke.
 
jay helfert said:
Yes, he did. Ask Gil if he used to play downstairs at McGirrs in the 60's. I think I remember a clean cut gentleman (nicely dressed) who used to play Banks down there, and maybe at Guys and Dolls once in a while too. Average height, like 5'10" or so. If that's the same guy, he played good Banks.
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Sounds like him,he is always dressed sharply still and was then he said,he is a really good 1 hole player.He used to frequent all the rooms including 7-11,ill ask him about McGirrs.:)
 
I put in a vote for the shorter of the two guys on the Vietnamese "World Cup of Pool" scotch doubles team. There's a video on youtube of the Vietnamese team playing Morris and Strickland, and the shorter of the two guys has an awful stroke. On a regular pool room table, lacking the fast and flawless new cloth of a professional tournament, I bet this guy wouldn't have the stroke to ever get position unless he always left himself an absolutely perfect angle to get to his next shot. His practice strokes are all over the place, with his entire arm constantly shifting its alignment, and then his final stroke is a nervous poke with a banana curve in it.

-Andrew
 
Fluidity

JoeyInCali said:
Mike Davis.
I have no fk'n clue how he can make a ball.
At least Hopkins uses his elbow to stroke. Mike uses his shoulder.
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Even though his stroke is not textbook. It's fluid and consistent(same movement everytime).
 
inthezone said:
Anyone else ever scrutinize Sang Lee's stroke?

I agree with the good doctor's implication that if the final move is straight thru, that's the main thing...

Sang Lee had an absolutely wild sweep on every shot (left to right I think) - center ball, left, right - always the same...but a great carom player and for a while just about the best.

Any great pool players with a severe sweep? I can't say I've ever seen one.
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Everytime you post I get the creeps. Change that goddamn avatar and I will paypal you $20. That is the scariest thing I've ever seen!
 
I always thought Troy Frank's stroke looked very labored, it's a choo-choo train with a lot of movement. Anyone else agree?
 
keith is a side arm because he started playing before he was old enough to be tall enough to be over the cue, he hits the ball like a short kid but he strokes the hell out of it,

hopkins is terrible how the hell he gets any action on the rock is beyond me, god bless him he is a great player,

there was a real good shortstop, in Modesto in the 80's he played Kim alot that had a glitch in his stroke, just befor he would hit the ball his arm would freeze and stop for .25 seconds and then hit the ball great, it was like a tick or something but other than Kim he was on of the strongerst in that pool room
 
I'd have to say the stroke of Efren Reyes the first time I saw him play at the Red's tourney in '84.
His practice strokes made me cross eyed and seasick.
Looking from the side, he had a long bridge and very loopy stroke.
From behind, he had the worst "flying elbow" I had ever seen. His elbow was all over the place.
But, oh brother, what a beautiful final delivery stroke. Smooth as a baby's butt.

From then until now, his stroke has changed quite a bit.

Present day, I'd have to say Mike Davis. I think he learned that stroke while he was jacking up his car to change a flat tire. But, hey, it works great for him.

I can't criticize because the worst stroke I ever saw, non pro level, is MINE the first time I videotaped it.
Like an unfolding lawn chair!
 
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Fatboy said:
keith is a side arm because he started playing before he was old enough to be tall enough to be over the cue, he hits the ball like short kid but he strokes the hell out of it....
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There are only a handful of players who do utilize the side-armed stroke, and for Keith, you are right in that he did acquire his skills set playing pool when he was a young boy. :)

Interestingly, several years ago, Tony from Black Boar Custom Cues came to a local tournament, and he commented to me about Keith's stroke. Tony said that he's only seen a few players whose strokes have the "double fulcrum," a term which was foreign to me at the time. He stated that Efren Reyes has the double fulcrum in his stroke. I asked him to explain it, and he pointed out a local lady pro by the name of Sueyen Rhee who was competing in the tournament, so that I could see what a double fulcrum stroke was.

When I learned how to shoot pool, I was taught to stroke the ball three times before firing. Yet, I have seen quite a few pro players who never stroke that ball. Rather, they one-stroke it. :p

There used to be a roadster in Maryland by the name of "Waldorf Gary" who engaged in games of stake quite often. One day sitting on the rail, a couple of railbirds and I counted Gary's strokes before he hit the ball, and it was, in fact, 52 strokes before he fired. :D

I guess as the saying goes, different strokes for different folks! ;)

JAM
 
Double Fulcrum

I just visited: http://www.blackboarcustomcues.com/design/default.asp?CTID=69&IID=

Here is what Tony of Black Boar Custom Cues states about the "double fulcrum":

Double Fulcrum

A good stroke, not a poke, is a stroke that accelerates throught the cue ball. This is accomplished much like a golf swing by bending two places simultaneously during the stroke. For example bending at the shoulder and elbow or, upper arm and wrist, etc. Some pool players from the Philippines offer good examples of a fluid accelerating stroke.

JAM
 
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