I watched the Higgins McManus match. I had the best seat in the house for this match. In between the pink and blue spot. The standard was about average, it wasn't world class by any means but it was solid professional play. Couple of decent breaks and I couldn't pick who was going to win.
The venue is not to my liking. It's outdated and too small if the game wants to progress. Holds 900,the seats are in bad shape with rips and stains, and although it is nice to be right on top of the action in such a small venue the atmosphere it creates is that of a snooker club... Not the world's best tournament.
Onto the players...
I noticed a real flaw in Higgins that I've never noticed before. As he pulls back his grip shakes. Then as he pauses at the back it shakes even more. I've always thought of him to have as perfect of a technique as was humanly possible but that made me realise he hasn't... And yet he is still one of the best players in the world. I don't know what causes his shakes, but I'm sure if he cured it 10 years ago he would have won more world's.
McManus... Oh McManus. He had me just watching in awe. He looked miserable as sin for the most part but every now and again he would cracking a smile to someone, or make a joke with the crowd. You can't help but like him. He is technically God awful. I E never seen someone in person play that good with that many weird and quirky habits. He raises up significantly on every single shot as he is in the rear pause. His grip looked like he had something wrong with his hand. His thumb instead of being straight was bent as much as it could possibly be and didn't make contact with any fingers. He gripped primarily with just the index finger as he pulled back to his bridge on almost every shot so he had to release the middle index and pinky fingers. One of the most obscure grips I've seen. On to the biggest thing I see wrong in amateurs that can't progress.... Sight! He cued up to every shot he planned on hitting centre ball with a tip of right hand side, and he was lined up a tip to the right of where he intended to hit on every shot. He managed to correct this though and hit where he intended every time he played a centre ball shot. I think him raising up caused him to pull the cue out at the butt to correct it because it seemed to me he cued perfectly straight. He clearly has sighting issues but it hasn't effected him as it would with anyone else.
The venue is not to my liking. It's outdated and too small if the game wants to progress. Holds 900,the seats are in bad shape with rips and stains, and although it is nice to be right on top of the action in such a small venue the atmosphere it creates is that of a snooker club... Not the world's best tournament.
Onto the players...
I noticed a real flaw in Higgins that I've never noticed before. As he pulls back his grip shakes. Then as he pauses at the back it shakes even more. I've always thought of him to have as perfect of a technique as was humanly possible but that made me realise he hasn't... And yet he is still one of the best players in the world. I don't know what causes his shakes, but I'm sure if he cured it 10 years ago he would have won more world's.
McManus... Oh McManus. He had me just watching in awe. He looked miserable as sin for the most part but every now and again he would cracking a smile to someone, or make a joke with the crowd. You can't help but like him. He is technically God awful. I E never seen someone in person play that good with that many weird and quirky habits. He raises up significantly on every single shot as he is in the rear pause. His grip looked like he had something wrong with his hand. His thumb instead of being straight was bent as much as it could possibly be and didn't make contact with any fingers. He gripped primarily with just the index finger as he pulled back to his bridge on almost every shot so he had to release the middle index and pinky fingers. One of the most obscure grips I've seen. On to the biggest thing I see wrong in amateurs that can't progress.... Sight! He cued up to every shot he planned on hitting centre ball with a tip of right hand side, and he was lined up a tip to the right of where he intended to hit on every shot. He managed to correct this though and hit where he intended every time he played a centre ball shot. I think him raising up caused him to pull the cue out at the butt to correct it because it seemed to me he cued perfectly straight. He clearly has sighting issues but it hasn't effected him as it would with anyone else.