Unorthodox stances and strokes

mjantti

mjantti

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The recent thread about instructors gave me an idea to find out the players with the most unorthodox technique, stance and stroke but still is able to play top notch pool. Please, if you post a name, tell also what is unorthdox with his/her shooting...

Pei-Wei Chang, wrist outwards, very jerky, stiff and short stroke... well, not stroke, more or less "poke".
Rodolfo Luat, heavy sidearm and shoots very erect
Bustamante, during aiming the cue is almost full cueball's width off target, but straightens out on the last stroke.
Ortmann, nowadays wrist heavily inwards and sort of sidearm except the elbow is far away from body
Keith McCready, unbelievable sidearm stroke and shoots very erect

In snooker there is Joe Swail, head tilted and heavy sidearm.
 
mjantti said:
Pei-Wei Chang,...very jerky, stiff and short stroke... well, not stroke, more or less "poke".
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Julie Kelly does the same thing.

Monica Webb has her forearm slightly outward and wrist turned inward about 45 degrees.

I don't know if you have seen any of the women play but one of the players with the best mechanics is J Barretta.
 
If memory serves me correctly, Jimmy Hodges (in SC) turns his left foot inward, then takes his right foot and points it into the arch of his left foot and bends both knee's. MT, isn't that how he does it??? To look at him, you wouldn't think he could play a lick, but the man can get out and has made something of himself by saving what he won. He hasn't "played" in a long, long, long time but he's still a helluva player with the weirdest stance I've ever seen.
 
mjantti said:
The recent thread about instructors gave me an idea to find out the players with the most unorthodox technique, stance and stroke but still is able to play top notch pool. Please, if you post a name, tell also what is unorthdox with his/her shooting...
Click to expand...

Alain Martel, the Dancing Bear, often comes up with rather unique strokes. He will finish sometimes with a sabre dance reminicent of Chi Chi after canning a long put. Alain is entertaining to say the least. He also has one powerfull stroke, just watch your head if you are standing close to his table ! Pool is a lot of fun until someone looses an eye :D

Dave
 
Alain Martel has a very odd stroke, after his break he thrusts his cue upwards as though it was a harpoon and dances around, hence "The Dancing Bear" nickname, when his break is working he can beat anybody in the world, I remember in 01 or 02 at the WPC he was consistently making 2-4 balls on every break and made it to the semis.

Another odd stance is Strickland and Feijen in that they both aim with their heads slightly off to the side of their cues instead of directly above the cue, I have a friend who is a snooker player and loses it whenever he sees Earl or Niels shoot :D
 
Funny you should mention that, because a friend of mine who was South African snooker champ about 12 years ago, also plays with the cue next to his chin. During his practice strokes, he would then rotate his jaw to the left and to the right (to touch the cue every time it comes forward) in unison with his strokes--much like watching a cow chew grass.

Where the cue runs in comparison to the cue has nothing to do with the game (9-ball vs snooker), but rather, dominant-eye sighting. I have seen the opposite, pool players leaning over the cue in such a way that their head is way over on the other side--not just tilted, but off line by several inches. Sometimes the line of the cue (or the head) just naturally drifts over to find the dominant eye. This happens over a course of time, but sometimes players may experiment and find that running the cue next to the chin enables them to see the ball better.

As for the stance, it has much to do with comfort and player height. For instance, many of the world's top snooker players use the square stance with both feet parallel to the line of the shot. The left knee is bent (r-handed players), and the right leg is straight and braced to make the stance more solid. Feet are about shoulder-width or more apart, with the right foot slightly to the rear (ALWAYS to the rear) of the left foot.

This works well on a snooker table, which is a few inches higher than a pool table, but when I first came over, I had severe difficulty with getting down low enough with the same stance. I had to widen the space between my feet, and make some other minor adjustments too. I'm sure some of the Canadian players will relate. These days I sometimes even bend both knees (fatal in snooker because it allows for unwanted body movement during the stroke), but in pool you can get away with it because you don't need a perfect delivery of the stroke with those huge pockets!

BTW, here are two pictures of Niels with his cue next to his chin...

IMG_3455.jpg


IMG_3459.jpg
 
Geez,
These guys look classic compared to Allen Hopkins. No backstroke, just pushes at the ball. He jumps up as soon as the ball is struck with the cue tip heading directly for the lights (he must have broken a lot of lights in his day). Forget set/pause/finish/freeze; his stroke is set/jab/jumpup/flail. I have NO IDEA how he became one of the greatest, but I LOVE to watch him play straight pool.
 
i was told of some former snooker champ who had a weird style that carried over from when he was a child. he bent his elbow UP, not down like everyone else, and the cue was shoulder height. so, kind of imagine chucking a spear but with you hand turned backwards,,,,,,,,,,,,like a sidewinder stroke but the cue raised higher to the shoulder.
 
Williebetmore said:
Geez,
These guys look classic compared to Allen Hopkins. No backstroke, just pushes at the ball. He jumps up as soon as the ball is struck with the cue tip heading directly for the lights (he must have broken a lot of lights in his day). Forget set/pause/finish/freeze; his stroke is set/jab/jumpup/flail. I have NO IDEA how he became one of the greatest, but I LOVE to watch him play straight pool.
Click to expand...

for lack of a backstroke, hopkins' poking style hits the cb EXACTLY where he has to. and most pros have a shorter stroke than you think,,,they just happen to look smooth.
 
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