Surely someone here has the data. I've been told that the 2 hardest (yes I know that doesn't necessarily mean the best) breaks were George Breedlove and Francisco Bustamante - both clocked at about 32 miles per hour. Most of the other pro's at the venue with the radar gun clocked around 28 mph. This is just hearsay, surely some clever guy with a radar gun could fill us in on the real facts. They both have said there is some guy in Ohio who breaks harder than either one of them (I forget his name offhand).
What Pro has that absolute best brake?
- Thread starter preacherman
- Start date
sjm said:
I wanted some feedback before I gave my thoughts on the matter.
I used to think Bustamante had the best break, but in the last couple
years of watching Archer, I definetely believe he has the best brake of any pro. He is so consistant, strong, GREAT follow through and still keeps his cue ball control. And I have compared various pics/photo's of Johnny breaking and you can transpose any picture on top of each other and it's exactly the same. He's the best brake in the pro's in my honest and accurate opinion
Williebetmore said:
Actually Willie, there is one guy that does score higher on the radar gun than George and Django.....Jumpin' Sammy Jones (Loree Jon's husband and former pro player) I saw him a couple years back consistently hitting 33+ up to 35 mph on the break.....only one problem though....ZERO cue ball control.
And, hypothetically, George Breedlove has an even bigger break in him, as the story goes, George dislocated his shoulder when he was younger so now if he breaks at full power, he dislocates his shoulder again, so they say he can't break at full speed....now if he's breaking at less than full power at 32+ just imagine how hard he could hit em at full speed......guess that's why they call him the hammer.
Last edited:
I've never been clocked with a radar gun but I think I break at about 220 mph. I know, I know, hard to believe, huh. But, the way I know this to be true is, my friend said to me one night, " Damn Dog, you gotta be hitten em over 200 miles an hour!" And he's never lied to me before. 
Rude Dog said:I've never been clocked with a radar gun but I think I break at about 220 mph. I know, I know, hard to believe, huh. But, the way I know this to be true is, my friend said to me one night, " Damn Dog, you gotta be hitten em over 200 miles an hour!" And he's never lied to me before.
It's posts like this that keep me coming back. I'm still laughing. Thanks Rude Dog.
Lunchmoney
LastTwo said:
I've seen it, but it didn't seem to be quite in their league; but remember if these guys are competent AT ALL, they will be varying the speeds of their break. We may not have seen any of these guys at their maximum. I know one top breaker that says he almost never uses 100% power, often 80-90%.
P.S. - in fact, 9-ball is such a stupid game (relying so heavily on the luck of the break) that I can't believe I am wasting my valuable practice time reading this thread. I'm out of here - I'll go practice some long straight ones.
Last edited:
All of the top pros can run a table with well spread balls after a good break.The fact that Johhny Archer keeps winning tourney after tourney year after year just shows how dominant a good break is(in 9ball) at the highest levels of play.
For power and CONTROL, it's Johnny hands down.RJ
I've never seen Shannon Dalton break. I've heard his break is extremley powerful. How's his cue ball control?
For power and CONTROL, it's Johnny hands down.RJ
I've never seen Shannon Dalton break. I've heard his break is extremley powerful. How's his cue ball control?
recoveryjones said:
I agree with your post 100%, and while there may be a level of "good luck" or "back luck" in a break. I still think there is alot of skill in having a break as good as Johnny. At the pro level I don't think it's fair to say that a break is merely good luck or back luck with the roll of the balls. Johnny should be proof of that.
Earl Strickland used a soft break in the recent WPC and was very effective with it. Balls were spread out well, hardly any clusters. Alex Pagulayan used a combination of soft and medium-hard break. He won. I guess they did what worked for the particular conditions.
Alot of factors have to be present on the break as compared to any other SINGLE SHOT in pool: cloth type (slow/fast), width of pocket (tight or loose), roundness of balls, humitity, tightness of rack (loose/ tight/ someballs touching/ all balls touching/ rack lined up straight), wear of the cloth, where the foot spot is located on the table (some places don't exactly place the foot spot inbetween the middle diamond), wearing of the cloth on each table, the direction of the balls after the break (do they cluster together, only some get tied up, does one of the balls kick the cue ball in etc...).
Ralf Souquet has an excellent 9-ball break, just watch the 2004 DCC Semi-finals and Finals (which Ralf won against Efern Reyes). His break was very solid, medium-hard hit, stopped the cue ball at center table and got a nice spread with very little clustering. So does it boil down to luck with a controlled cue ball? I really think that having loose pockets helps the hard breakers a tremendious amount of the time.
Ralf Souquet has an excellent 9-ball break, just watch the 2004 DCC Semi-finals and Finals (which Ralf won against Efern Reyes). His break was very solid, medium-hard hit, stopped the cue ball at center table and got a nice spread with very little clustering. So does it boil down to luck with a controlled cue ball? I really think that having loose pockets helps the hard breakers a tremendious amount of the time.
Williebetmore said:
I believe that two players have gone thrity three on the radar gun during a pro event. One of them is Frankie Hernandez of NYC. The other, if I remember correctly, is an old time player named David Howard, a great player of yesteryear. David may have had the hardest break in men's pro pool in the 1980's.
LastTwo said:
I saw him play numerous times. Yes, John Kucharo had a superb break, which he rode all the way to fourth place one year in the BCA Open (1999?).
That year, in a poll, a few pros named Kucharo as having the best break in men's pro pool, but far more named Archer.
sjm said:
I never heard he had the best break, I heard he broke them the hardest. Grady Matthews said in an accustats commentary that he was practicing with John Kucharo, and John said "I'm gonna start breaking them hard now" and Grady said Kucharo's hard break made Bustmante's hard break look like a joke. I don't know if Kucharo could control it at all, but I do know that he had a bigger break than Bustmante.
My vote for George Breedlove
Even though he's been absent from the gambling scene for several years until very recently, George Breedlove was feared by many because of
his great break. Only guy who ever got away with spotting me the orange ball.
Even though he's been absent from the gambling scene for several years until very recently, George Breedlove was feared by many because ofhis great break. Only guy who ever got away with spotting me the orange ball.