I think it all boils down to their position play. I've noticed that many of them are average shotmakers, with the exception of Chao, but even he cannot even come close to Earl Strickland's potting ability. None of the Taiwanese have good power strokes, nothing in the ballpark of Strickland. Not many of them have smooth strokes either. I've noticed alot of short jab strokes with no flowing rythm. Look at Pei Wei Chang, the guy has absoloutely no stroke, he just jabs and pokes but he got to the finals last year. They all shoot straight, and their cueball control is impeccable. That's why these two guys are playing in the finals right now. Leave them long and tough and they are going to miss much more often then they will make it. Leave that to Earl and you've pretty much conceded the game (unless he hasn't conceded with his temper).
Why the Taiwanese are so good
- Thread starter LastTwo
- Start date
I agree with you in a way but one thing I find about the Taiwan players is their ability to bear down and make those long tough shots is quite impressive due to their usually extremely steady nerves and the fact they dont try to do alot with the cueball in those cases.
Celtic said:
Yeah you are right about that, I forgot to mention that they are especially adept at cinching in long shots where they don't have to do anything with the cueball, but almost all top players from any country are pretty good at that. What I meant was where they have to actually do something with the cueball is when they miss, and players like Strickland, Reyes, etc. excel at.
LastTwo said:
I strongly agree that their position play is phenomenal. In Celtic's excellent thread shortly before the WPC called "who is hurt most by small pockets?", I posted:
......the real victims of tight pockets would be those who play position less accurately than others. No end of today's players are inclined to cinch the next angle, and are sometimes far too casual about getting near the next object ball, knowing they can make the ball anyway on the kind of equipment in use in today's pro events. I believe that the real victims of pocket tightening would be the many who don't play "ambitious" position.
To sum ---- on tight pockets, the great pocketers may occasionally be able to keep the run going with their superhuman pocketing skills, but, in my opinion, far more often than that, the great position players will save runouts through avoidance of difficult shots.
Loose pockets have a way of making you very lazy about your position play. The Taiwanese (and Asians in general) play on supertight equipment, and this has made them very ambitious in their position play. Their results in this WPC speaks volumes.
Still, even more credit is due to the Taiwanese, because their overall shot conceptualization is better than the rest. The know when to play defense, when to play a shot two ways, and use billiard knowledge very effectively in both their offensive and defensive play.
In short, I'd say the Taiwanese play so well because they play with so much ambition, so much discipline and so much attention to detail.
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I think the Taiwanese have excellent CB control as evidenced by their ability to create tough safeties as well as get out of them. We've seen this a lot of times in the semis and finals where the taiwanese would just make life a living hell for their opponent and even when they are snookered, they could get out of it easily, countering with a great safety of their own. Rodney, to his credit, gave as good as he got, buit in the end the diminutive player from taiwan got the better of him with his relentless safety play and great shotmaking.
i talked to a guy from taiwan who had moved here for college. he said that children are raised up on pool over there. they have pool teams like we have baseball teams.
the children are brought up playing pool, and can be enrolled in schools where pro players such as Fong Pang Chao coach and teach them how to play. i believe i have read somewhere that ga young has talked about this as well.
I didn't ask, but i'm assuming these programs were put into place 10-20 years ago.......now you are seeing such young stars as Wu making their presence known.
here in the U.S. children are downright discouraged to play pool and many times either discover their talent for the game late in life and don't start shining till well into their life or don't ever find the game.
i'm still of the opinion that pool in the US will never be on the same scale as the taiwanese and phillipinos until children are encouraged to play more.
thanks
VAP
the children are brought up playing pool, and can be enrolled in schools where pro players such as Fong Pang Chao coach and teach them how to play. i believe i have read somewhere that ga young has talked about this as well.
I didn't ask, but i'm assuming these programs were put into place 10-20 years ago.......now you are seeing such young stars as Wu making their presence known.
here in the U.S. children are downright discouraged to play pool and many times either discover their talent for the game late in life and don't start shining till well into their life or don't ever find the game.
i'm still of the opinion that pool in the US will never be on the same scale as the taiwanese and phillipinos until children are encouraged to play more.
thanks
VAP
well, IMO yang looks to have a jabby stroke but he does spin that ball well. if anyone of you have seen him do a table length draw. i have to admit i was quite suprised when he did that too.
and i think Wu has the smoothest stroke among all the taiwan players now. with that potting capability along side, he's really amazing .
and i think Wu has the smoothest stroke among all the taiwan players now. with that potting capability along side, he's really amazing .
I think Yang has the best stroke out of all of the ones I've seen. He is a very solid striker of the ball. I don't think he has a jab stroke, he seems pretty smooth. In the first post in this thread I think I was a little too rash, it was late at night so I wasn't thinking very clearly. What I meant to say was that many of them of course are great shotmakers but I was trying to make a comparison of their best shotmaker to Strickland, and IMO Strickland is the best shotmaker in the world, and I don't even think Yang or Chao come close to his potting ability. I also think Earl is the best 9-ball player in the world along with Efren, I am thoroughly convinced after watching the whole 'color of money' race to 120 series between the two.
Taiwanese are very precise with excellent positional play. And they break really well.
Yang has a super stroke, very smooth, very precise. I don't see any limitations here. He uses open bridge most of the time, for power strokes too. A slight aiming advantage perhaps, especially on tight pockets? Anyone notice that pool players in general use much more open bridge now than perhaps 25 years ago?
Yang has a super stroke, very smooth, very precise. I don't see any limitations here. He uses open bridge most of the time, for power strokes too. A slight aiming advantage perhaps, especially on tight pockets? Anyone notice that pool players in general use much more open bridge now than perhaps 25 years ago?