Chesapeake only being about a 4 hour drive for me......i finally decided to go for sure this past monday, waited until tuesday morning before heading out to book my room and stuff (got a nice deal on a room at the wingate, brand new motel about 500 yards from the conference center).
Left tuesday at lunch and got there in time to walk thru the vendors (werent as many there as i thought there would be), and then caught the 7,9,11 session of matches. It was funny seeing some of these guys id only seen before on tv just milling around in person. Some guy would walk by me and id be thinking......wow he looks like charlie bryant.....no wait it is charlie bryant lol.
I was really shocked at how low key the whole thing was......you basically could walk up and talk to any player when they were milling about. At one time i was up in the stands watching Archer......and i just kind of look around for the first time and im sitting beside stevie moore and jeremy jones is in front of him, it was cool.
Im always trying to learn new things and tweak my game, so naturally i was watching alot of players to see how they shoot.......and i was truly shocked at how different so many of there styles were. One of the first matches i watched was Luat vs Shuff........holy crap!! Luats style would mess me up for weeks......super loose grip, sidearmed, practically standing straight up with this weird closed stance.....i finally got up and walked away for fear of catching it in my mind lol. Gabe Owen.......his grip hand is basically just his middle finger, all the rest are almost off the cue....rodney morris grips the cue with his whole hand. Archer steps back and steps into every shot.....it just went on and on. I did learn a few cool little tricks but for the most part i walked away with the knowledge I just need to shoot however works best for me and build on that, cuz thats obviously what these guys did.
All in all it was a great experience.......i got to see some super nice cues, got to talk to jacoby and gabes dad (shurtz cues) and josey......got to test hit a few, bought some cool gadgets and got to see some great pool players in person. It was a nice experience, i recommend it
Left tuesday at lunch and got there in time to walk thru the vendors (werent as many there as i thought there would be), and then caught the 7,9,11 session of matches. It was funny seeing some of these guys id only seen before on tv just milling around in person. Some guy would walk by me and id be thinking......wow he looks like charlie bryant.....no wait it is charlie bryant lol.
I was really shocked at how low key the whole thing was......you basically could walk up and talk to any player when they were milling about. At one time i was up in the stands watching Archer......and i just kind of look around for the first time and im sitting beside stevie moore and jeremy jones is in front of him, it was cool.
Im always trying to learn new things and tweak my game, so naturally i was watching alot of players to see how they shoot.......and i was truly shocked at how different so many of there styles were. One of the first matches i watched was Luat vs Shuff........holy crap!! Luats style would mess me up for weeks......super loose grip, sidearmed, practically standing straight up with this weird closed stance.....i finally got up and walked away for fear of catching it in my mind lol. Gabe Owen.......his grip hand is basically just his middle finger, all the rest are almost off the cue....rodney morris grips the cue with his whole hand. Archer steps back and steps into every shot.....it just went on and on. I did learn a few cool little tricks but for the most part i walked away with the knowledge I just need to shoot however works best for me and build on that, cuz thats obviously what these guys did.
All in all it was a great experience.......i got to see some super nice cues, got to talk to jacoby and gabes dad (shurtz cues) and josey......got to test hit a few, bought some cool gadgets and got to see some great pool players in person. It was a nice experience, i recommend it
