Younger Pros Playing Opposite-Handed

PocketSpeed11

PocketSpeed11

AzB Long Member
Silver Member
Many pros of the past (or older pros of today) were/are excellent at shooting opposite-handed. Are any of the younger pros fairly adept at this? It's something I haven't noticed watching many of them.

And for those who haven't seen it, here is a video of Ronnie O'Sullivan shooting an almost entirely left-handed century: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrfLch52g4Y
 
I've noticed on occasion that Shane conspicuously avoids it.
Drives me nuts to see. Like in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Arbb5oMJw18&noredirect=1#t=78

First he screws on an extension. Doesn't like it.
Gets out the bridge. Doesn't like it.
Goes behind the back. Doesn't like it.
Changes his mind and decided to do it anyway.

It works out, but all these acrobatics are so unnecessary.
Just go off-handed. The ball is a hanger. And it won't take years to figure out how to aim and make the ball.
It's not like your left hand will need as many hours and practice as your right did.
It needs like 5% of that time or less.

Most of it is knowledge... where to place the tip, what speed to use, how thick to cut the ball.
You don't need 10 years of muscle memory to make a ball hanging in the hole and draw decently.
 
CreeDo said:
I've noticed on occasion that Shane conspicuously avoids it.
Drives me nuts to see. Like in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Arbb5oMJw18&noredirect=1#t=78

First he screws on an extension. Doesn't like it.
Gets out the bridge. Doesn't like it.
Goes behind the back. Doesn't like it.
Changes his mind and decided to do it anyway.

It works out, but all these acrobatics are so unnecessary.
Just go off-handed. The ball is a hanger. And it won't take years to figure out how to aim and make the ball.
It's not like your left hand will need as many hours and practice as your right did.
It needs like 5% of that time or less.

Most of it is knowledge... where to place the tip, what speed to use, how thick to cut the ball.
You don't need 10 years of muscle memory to make a ball hanging in the hole and draw decently.
Click to expand...

No...but you do need "perfect aim" or a "touch of inside". :rotflmao1:

:outtahere:
 
Kieth was playing Efren in the late 80's and shot the game winning ball in left handed like it was nothing. He has a thin cut on the 9 and walks up to it casually. He says to the crowd, "Left handed for the money..." and nails the shot. I'll try to find the video on youtube, its classic.

I was just thinking of this topic yesterday. If you want to practice and make it fun, just play a whole set left handed! That's how I improved using a bridge!
 
galipeau said:
Kieth was playing Efren in the late 80's and shot the game winning ball in left handed like it was nothing. He has a thin cut on the 9 and walks up to it casually. He says to the crowd, "Left handed for the money..." and nails the shot. I'll try to find the video on youtube, its classic.

I was just thinking of this topic yesterday. If you want to practice and make it fun, just play a whole set left handed! That's how I improved using a bridge!
Click to expand...

Yes, I think Keith was the one pro I saw changing hands often. I often thought it was because he might be terrible with a bridge. :rolleyes:

A lot of "experts" on here who teach or coach fail to encourage players to play with either hand.

I play with both, and I am 50-70% with the opposite hand. But it is something I have been consciously working on.

Ken
 
Ken_4fun said:
Yes, I think Keith was the one pro I saw changing hands often. I often thought it was because he might be terrible with a bridge. :rolleyes:

A lot of "experts" on here who teach or coach fail to encourage players to play with either hand.

I play with both, and I am 50-70% with the opposite hand. But it is something I have been consciously working on.

Ken
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree, and I'd say I'm about the same opposite handed. The way I "practice" it is many years ago I just decided that every time the opportunity presented itself I was going to shoot those shots left handed no matter what even if it might cost me games or matches. It has worked out pretty well. I found that once I got the stance right everything about it was more comfortable and easier.
 
For those of you that prefer to switch to your off hand instead of use the bridge, how does your off-handed play compare to your bridge play? I'll shoot in hangers with my off hand practicing, but when it comes to a tournament game, I have more faith in my ability to make the ball and play position using the bridge.
 
Bridges have cost me games and matches, so THAT was my motivation for learning to play opposite hand.

To me it is a HUGE advantage to play with either hand.

How do I play with a bridge? Worse than I play with my opposite hand.

Getting back to Keith, I would bet he learned at a very young age to play with either hand verses guys like us learning at an older age.

My point is if you are teaching kids or younger players it should be started early verses old farts like us.

Ken
 
I would definitely 100 percent rather play opposite handed than use the bridge. At least when I'm playing opposite handed it still feels like a pool stroke. Using the bridge doesn't even feel like the same game. It's terrible (at least for me).
 
I started shooting one handed and opposite handed when I went into a slump in my early 20's. When I went to Georgia for work one year the first week or so there I played all opposite handed and got to know who the players were.
 
Matt said:
For those of you that prefer to switch to your off hand instead of use the bridge, how does your off-handed play compare to your bridge play? I'll shoot in hangers with my off hand practicing, but when it comes to a tournament game, I have more faith in my ability to make the ball and play position using the bridge.
Click to expand...

My off-hand is about 975% better than my bridge ability.
Not only do I almost never miss the ball, but I can freely apply spin and have finer speed control.

The bridge has several subtle disadvantages that are an issue no matter how much you practice with it.

- you're elevated more than usual. This causes sidespin shots to curve rapidly, to the point
where players actually miss 1 foot gimmies they'd never miss normally.

- elevating makes force follow very awkward, striking downward on the ball. Moving the CB 9 feet this way
sucks and the ball stuns sideways a lot more than a normal full force-follow stroke.
It also makes heavy draw risky and leads to the occasional scoop miscue.

- your eyes are physically further from the ball, making aiming a little tougher.

- your overhand or sidearm stroke is nothing like your normal stroke, so it wobbles more
and has worse speed control.

- your eyes are not nice and low to the cue, you're shooting more from the hip.

- getting over another ball sucks, your hand can get the cue much higher than a sideways bridge.

- it's easier to pull your hand out of the way quickly before the cue ball comes back and hits it,
vs. the bridge.

- the length of the bridge is limited because of the downward angle... too long and it's going to hit
the table. This makes your pivot length different and you'll find sidespin is less predictable.
Plus it makes it hard to put a ton of power into the stroke.

All that being said, there are times you can't avoid the bridge. But for me that's like once a night.
Whereas shooting off hand is dozens of times per night. Trust me, it doesn't take much to get
decent with your off-hand. The way you play now with your on-hand? Maybe that took ten years.
But you might get your left hand almost as good in a matter of hours, not years.

You just have to make yourself do it when the situation comes up. Exactly as StraightPool suggests.
Just try it and stop sweating "but I might miss and lose!"... after just a handful of shots the retarded wobbly
finger bridge and hilarious misses stop. Less than a hundred and you can look like you know what you're doing.
After 500 people may not even notice you switched hands, it looks so natural.

... over the long haul, you'll lose a lot more using the bridge where it isn't necessary.
 
Play snooker if you can, that will teach you how to use a bridge! Or at least find a 5x10 pool table...

I don't hate the bridge at all. I also don't quite understand the aversion... guess it's a personal thing. Not to get too off track, but it's how you use the bridge that counts. Keep it simple, don't elevate the bridge if you don't have to, keep cb movement to a minimum, etc.

It's like left foot braking in racing, some people can do it, others can't...

Anyways, back to the topic. Left handed (Off-handed) shooting can be great, especially for hustlers (my theory as to why Keith was so great at it). And in regards to the one handed stuff, i have a friend who has those shots down, but it's mostly for show (he uses his chin as a bridge, helps to have a goatee).

Cool thread so far! If anyone else has cool videos of off handed shooters, please share!
 
galipeau said:
Kieth was playing Efren in the late 80's and shot the game winning ball in left handed like it was nothing. He has a thin cut on the 9 and walks up to it casually. He says to the crowd, "Left handed for the money..." and nails the shot. I'll try to find the video on youtube, its classic.

I was just thinking of this topic yesterday. If you want to practice and make it fun, just play a whole set left handed! That's how I improved using a bridge!
Click to expand...

And moments like that are why pool misses Keith. He was a crowd pleaser. Johnnyt
 
CreeDo said:
My off-hand is about 975% better than my bridge ability.
Not only do I almost never miss the ball, but I can freely apply spin and have finer speed control.

The bridge has several subtle disadvantages that are an issue no matter how much you practice with it.

- you're elevated more than usual. This causes sidespin shots to curve rapidly, to the point
where players actually miss 1 foot gimmies they'd never miss normally.

- elevating makes force follow very awkward, striking downward on the ball. Moving the CB 9 feet this way
sucks and the ball stuns sideways a lot more than a normal full force-follow stroke.
It also makes heavy draw risky and leads to the occasional scoop miscue.

- your eyes are physically further from the ball, making aiming a little tougher.

- your overhand or sidearm stroke is nothing like your normal stroke, so it wobbles more
and has worse speed control.

- your eyes are not nice and low to the cue, you're shooting more from the hip.

- getting over another ball sucks, your hand can get the cue much higher than a sideways bridge.

- it's easier to pull your hand out of the way quickly before the cue ball comes back and hits it,
vs. the bridge.

- the length of the bridge is limited because of the downward angle... too long and it's going to hit
the table. This makes your pivot length different and you'll find sidespin is less predictable.
Plus it makes it hard to put a ton of power into the stroke.

All that being said, there are times you can't avoid the bridge. But for me that's like once a night.
Whereas shooting off hand is dozens of times per night. Trust me, it doesn't take much to get
decent with your off-hand. The way you play now with your on-hand? Maybe that took ten years.
But you might get your left hand almost as good in a matter of hours, not years.

You just have to make yourself do it when the situation comes up. Exactly as StraightPool suggests.
Just try it and stop sweating "but I might miss and lose!"... after just a handful of shots the retarded wobbly
finger bridge and hilarious misses stop. Less than a hundred and you can look like you know what you're doing.
After 500 people may not even notice you switched hands, it looks so natural.

... over the long haul, you'll lose a lot more using the bridge where it isn't necessary.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the detailed reply. I'll have to pay closer attention to the situations where I am using a bridge and see consider how it would compare along those lines with shooting left-handed. I'm 6' 3", so between that and playing position to shoot with my dominant hand, I don't really use a bridge that much anyways (and on the few occasions I've played on a 7' table, I don't think I've ever used one). Maybe now that 10' tables are all the rage, I'll have to use one or shoot left-handed more often. :wink:

I'm not at a table right now, so I can't say for sure, but in my head I'm thinking that of the shots that I can't reach right-handed, but could play left-handed, I'm not going to be in a good position behind the ball anyways. I'll have to experiment with it, but for now, my left-handed play is pretty much limited to bumping a hanger in for natural position.
 
I will always choose the bridge over playing off-handed. I can do far more with the CB using a bridge than I can off-handed. Playing snooker from an early age forces you to use a bridge. But, its hard work walking all the way around a 12x6 to pick up the bridge so players also get decent at using their weaker hand.

If I don't have to move from centre cue ball too much ill just switch hands. Moving the cue ball back a foot or less or forward a few feet is about as much as I'd trust my off-hand for. Making the ball isn't a problem, but hitting the white where I want with a medium-hard stroke leaves a lot to be desired so position does suffer. Using the bridge at any speed/tip placement isn't a problem for me. My bridge play is about 85% of my normal play. Off hand is more like 65-70%.

Either way you need to pick a way to play when you can't reach with your stronger hand. Whether its off-handed, bridge, behind the back or one handed you need to pick one and practice with it. A lot at first, and then you can lay off it a bit as you get better with what ever method you choose.
 
My opinion is that unless you shoot lights out with your primary hand you shouldnt shoot with your opposite hand. We all strive to be the best player we can and if you practice with your off hand you are selling yourself short.

Use the bridge. It was made for that exact scenario
 
Last edited:
TheNewSharkster said:
My opinion is that unless you shoot lights out with your primary hand you shouldnt shoot with your opposite hand. We all strive to be the best player we can and if you practice with your off hand you are selling yourself short.

Use the bridge. It was made for that exact scenario
Click to expand...
That's an excellent point. I know a few players who wanted to really improve their games but either didn't work on their position so started playing off handed or got frustrated at playing poorly so used their off hand to keep it fun. Both ways they didn't improve much with their stronger hand. We would all like to knock in centuries like Ronnie with their off-hand but he's super human. He is easily a top 16 snooker player with his off hand but he put in hours upon hours of practice because he could...his strong hand was already a world beater. Needless to say I doubt he had a shakey off hand to start with.
 
TheNewSharkster said:
My opinion is that unless you shoot lights out with your primary hand you shouldnt shoot with your opposite hand. We all strive to be the best player we can and if you practice with your off hand you are selling yourself short.

Use the bridge. It was made for that exact scenario
Click to expand...

I don't know if i agree with that. It's simply another technique.... it's really just a judgement call on when to use it.
 
TheNewSharkster said:
My opinion is that unless you shoot lights out with your primary hand you shouldnt shoot with your opposite hand. We all strive to be the best player we can and if you practice with your off hand you are selling yourself short.

Use the bridge. It was made for that exact scenario
Click to expand...

Gotta strongly disagree. You don't need to be a great player to learn to switch and get good at switching.
You just have to step out of your comfort zone. Which is something a few players avoid their whole lives.
Obviously your off-hand, if it's as good as your on-hand, is superior to the bridge in every way.
So why wouldn't you want to get good with the off-hand? It's not like it takes years of your life
or is unlearnable. It's EASY once you get past the first few times where you're all wobbly and uncomfortable.

Now, I wouldn't say 'practice' with your off hand.
Like don't try to run a whole rack that way. It's absolutely a waste of time to
try long straight-ins and 7 foot cut shots with the off-hand, or break with it.

Instead what I'd say is, "use it when the situation comes up".
Even if that's only twice a week, within a year you will hit balls better with the off-hand than you ever
could have with the bridge. Even if you're APA3 you can shoot like one with both hands,
if you just make yourself do it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top