JB, in general, I respectfully disagree. I've had the privilege of extensively playing against pro racquetball players and golfers and have played against Larry Bird in basketball and baseball as well as spent a day in what was primarily a playing lesson with John Brumback. I maintain the vast majority of professional athletes are Savants, they can't necessarily explain the fundamentals of what they do well at all; they just do. They do it at a level most of us can never comprehend, I think the gap you described is even greater than enormous. By no means though does that mean they are good instructors. The day I spent with John Brumback was fantastic. He is simply a great person with pool skills that are beyond my comprehension. I learned a lot. However, and this is no knock on John by any means, he is not the qualified professional instructor Scott Lee is. Were I to somehow reach a level (HIGHLY unlikely) where I wanted to play competitively in bank pool tournaments, there's no doubt I would go to John with specific needs only he could help with. For building my game to even comprehend getting to that level though, Scott Lee will get the calls.
I also think you are missing the point by many, I think Scott Lee described it well. I would bet the vast majority of people who post here and lurk fall into the S/L 2 - 5. They and even better players probably shouldn't be thinking about wrist cock to improve their power. They should be working on building a fundamental stroke from which they can build upon to improve their game. I'd make an argument that attempting to add wrist cock to their already flawed stroke would likely cause far more harm than good. What, an APA 3 should be adding wrist cock to their stroke in order to hit a power draw? LOL
I think Golf is the closest professional sport to pool. When you look at the top 50 rated teaching professionals, only a couple ever had any notable success on the PGA Tour. I don't recall seeing Butch Harmon or Hank Haney ever playing on TV. Funny how arguably, the best golfer to ever play the game (Tiger Woods), turns to someone who has never played anywhere close to his level for instruction. Top pool professionals would likely benefit from having a personal coach who would work with them to improve their basic fundamentals. Why doesn't that happen? Perhaps it is because the 132nd ranked player on the PGA Tour makes 4 or 5 times more money than the number 1 rated male professional pool player. I'd bet Butch Harmon, the top rated PGA Instructor, makes substantially more money than the vast majority of professional pool players. There are many more players here who could likely compete at the professional level were it to make any sense at all financially to do so.
I do agree that professional players, should they choose to do so, could make great contributions to this site. Most that come on here though seem to do so with the primary intent of selling their DVD's, books, etc.. IMHO, I think they should leave the fundamentals and basic instruction to the Professional Instructors. I remember asking John B about what aiming system he utilizes. He looked at me like I was from another planet. "You just aim and put a little English on the CB to avoid skid and help throw that OB into the pocket." I asked him if he employed the diamond system or how he calculated the cut for a bank. John said "Mark, everyone knows the angles." To be fair, if there were a very difficult shot coming up and I asked John what he was thinking and planning on doing to make the shot and get position, he could explain it to me exactly. And then do it perfectly! I think those sorts of things are where the professionals could contribute. I'd like to hear about their tournament experiences. It would be kewl to have them describe their thought process on a run out, when they are thinking two way shots and how they plan to execute them, their thoughts on safety play along with some interesting safeties they've played and how they mentally prepare for an important match. This would all be valuable and of much greater interest than pasting a bunch of irrelevant images from Google searches. The guys that are the real deal don't need that kind of crap to prove their greatness.
There's no way to prove this but if there were, I'd be willing to bet substantial money that were you to take two relative beginners with similar physical and mental capabilities, let one study under Scott Lee, RandyG and Jerry Brieseth for a year while letting the other study under CJ, Earl and Efrem for a year, the former would be a much better player after that time.
Just to be clear, there's nothing I post here that I wouldn't say to that person face to face. I respect CJ's accomplishment's as a player but don't appreciate the crap he is throwing around to satisfy his ego and shill his upcoming DVD release. If CJ will respect other people's intelligence by not throwing around obvious bullshit, I believe the vast majority of people will show him equal or greater respect in return. And even though I thought his DVD was mediocre at best, if I read more about Lee Brett's tournament wins than about him "boning chicks" and boxing matches at the tournaments, I'll respect him a lot more as well. JB, respect is EARNED, not simply given due to position.
:grin:
