earl strickland, born one year after me in 1961, is someone to watch. weather you love him or hate him, you are drawn to him like a car accident on the side of the road, with many deaths. you wish things were different, but here he is. my guess is when he was younger, 1975-1985, he was the sharpest shooter in the world. but now, he feels he needs an edge, something, anything, to make him "in the running" he knows, the youth of the world, are taking over, and he doesn't know how to handle this fact. so he trys gimmicks. talanted kids with sharper eyes are beating him now, and he don't like it. kids like, alex pagulian,corey dueul,ching shun yang,charlie williams,nick van den berg,mika immonen, and many others. earl will use "special glasses", thumb extensions, sharking techniques, and anything else, he could think of. with his fast wind up type stroke arm, and his little tiny fast steps around the table, he looks pumped up, crazy, alive, almost as if he's not playing pool, but, boxing a quick stepping opponent. you are drawn to him, to see what he will do next. on further analazation, we find that earl is not a very accurate player. he is not a ralf souquet or allison fisher with the white ball. his position is sloppy, and fast, but he trys to make it up with his shotmaking. he is not cold and calculated, rather quick and crazy. steve davis is cold and calculated. earl sits on the chair and his eyes look like they were taped open and his eyeballs are burning holes through his opponents brains. earl is intense,crazy,hyped up, fast, sloppy, and full of steam. he is potentiially dangerous. yet, he claims, away from the pool table, he lives in north carolina where the air is ultra-fresh, the breakfasts are ultra big and hearty, and he sits on a tractor, not far from the famous tabacco fields, and justs ponders over the crops peacefully. what earl lacks in the actual game of pool, he trys to make up for, by being exciting,cruel,intense,focused to a fault, and combustual. what have we learned from this? earl is not as good as he appears. his demeanur scares his opponents to death, thus earl wins more than his share. who could forget the now famous "BE A MAN!!!" shout to kunihiko takahashi at the world championships in 2002. this was just another way, earl could move closer to the trophy, by useing all these tactics. personally, there outta be a strict ruling on behavier at professional tournaments. earl should not be allowed to get away with any, and i mean any unprofessional behaviour. THEN, let's see how often he would win! as a last thought, studying the pros for the last 25 years, i try to get the pure essence of all of their aspects. not only their fundamentls, stance etc. etc. but what makes them tick. the biggest problem earl has, besides from being a trouble maker, is this, he starts out too strong. he doesn't know the meaning of "pace yourself" he always starts out like a rocket, but by the time he gets to the semi finals, he is out of steam. check out the world championship 2003. he built himself up, right out of the gate, by the time he was through with ching shun yang, he was powerless. earl has a lot of talent. that is obvious, the question is this, if the powers that be disqualifyed any player for doing anything wrong, such as talking to the auidence, yelling at your opponent, sharking , etc. etc. things that earl does, if they eliminated him, from the first evil thing he does at a tournament, how many would he win? if you watch his game carfully, he's excitng,powerfull,fast,energetic,focused, but people, he is sloppy! his position is so-so, his accuracy, leaves a lot to be desired. my point being, strickland needs his bag of tricks, his "smoke and mirrors" so he could win, otherwise, the real players, steve davis,ralf souquet, allison fisher, nick van den berg, would kill him.
Don't know where Bernie is from.