Post a reply

Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby John From London Town

I personally feel the title has been changing hands of late.
So let's start off at the beginning. Judd Trump, & to try & keep this transparent, let me throw in someone who I think is hitting the ball consistently beautiful, Neil Robertson.
OK, I may have just put Neil Robertson just above the Judd fella in my own left-handed rankings. But we can’t stop there can we….?
Tony Meo, who can forget his middle finger? Who was he pointing at by the way? I always thought it was me. Anyway, moving nicely on….
Mark Williams? What a player. Say it yourself, a Buzzzzzzz…..Quality.
Mark King. Got all night? Good, because that’s what it takes to beat him. Good Boy him.
Jimmy White? You can’t dispute he’s brought an enormous amount of enjoyment into our front rooms. Keep doing it Jim would be my words.
I’ll also say Perrie Mans as well, out of respect for our game.
Terry Whithread. Personal one that. Knocked in a 100 break when he was 13 years old (about 35 years ago) in Ron Gross (RIP) Snooker Centre in Neasden.
So who’s Tops? Who’ve I missed?
Have a think & you decide……

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Wildey

At the Moment theres no question Mark Williams his titles speak for themselves.

in years to come who Knows i guess Neil Robertson could be to long in the Tooth to challange that but theres Judd Trump still only 21 and then theres Jack Lisowski who knows with a few years under their Belt Mark will be overtaken.

but at the Moment its Mark Williams no Question.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Sickpotter

Depends on the criteria for "best"....important to note as well that lefties tend to excel in some areas like potting but are weak in others making it tough to contend for a best overall player and likely never to top that list if one were to include both right and left handed players.

Anyway....

Are we talking best overall player, best entertainer, best potter, etc.?

Best overall player I've got to give to Mark Williams with Jimmy White a close second. The reason I've got Jimmy as a close second is that had he not had his prime during the prime of two other greats (Davis and Hendry) Jimmy would surely be a multiple WC. Judd and Neil are right there too and still have years to exceed Mark and Jimmy but not just yet.

Best potter....Jimmy, he's made balls no one else would even consider trying. Perrie Mans has a reputation as the greatest potter ever but I wasn't fortunate enough to witness his abilities so have to list him second. Mark, then Judd, then Neil to follow.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Sickpotter

I think if Ronnie were forced to play a match entirely left handed against a top lefty he'd lose more often than win.

Not that he doesn't play to a great standard left handed but he's not naturally a lefty.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby John From London Town

Good to hear Tubs relationship is back in good working order!

SP, Hi. Best left-hander ever. No criteria required other than your opinion. Just share it....
Question for you BTW (& No Tubs, this isn't open to you <laugh> )
Why do you believe the middle finger taps when players are down on the shot SP? I know why, just managed to put it down in words. Can you articulate why bud?
Sound.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Roland

Good point sickpotter - MJW is often cited as the best single ball potter in the game, something Judd is hard on the heels of, but Jimmy White was a hell of a potter in his day.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Sickpotter

John From London Town wrote:Good to hear Tubs relationship is back in good working order!

SP, Hi. Best left-hander ever. No criteria required other than your opinion. Just share it....
Question for you BTW (& No Tubs, this isn't open to you <laugh> )
Why do you believe the middle finger taps when players are down on the shot SP? I know why, just managed to put it down in words. Can you articulate why bud?
Sound.


OK, I'd give best lefty to Jimmy. I think Mark is stronger overall but Jimmy had a magical quality about him, you just knew he was going to do something no one else would contemplate.

Middle finger tap..... :chin:

Just a theory.......IMO it's most likely a timing thing but for some it could be nothing more than habit they picked up watching others.

Come to think of it, when I was playing 6+hrs a day it was a habit of mine as well. Picked it up from Hendry and found it helped my timing.

Hmmmm....on that note I'm gonna pay attention to that next time I practice. I think I still do it but it's not a concious thing so can't be sure unless I look for it :roll:

You virtually never get the right camera angle to see both the backswing and finger tap at the same time but I wouldn't be surprised to find they mirror each other or work in tandem for most players.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Monique

First to answer the initial question: Mark Williams for me although I must admit that I never saw Jimmy live in his prime.

The interesting question is actually: if lefties are indeed better potters on average why is that? The first answer that would come to mind is that is has to do with the polarisation of our brains, a feature we share only with big primates and, strangely, the polar bear. "Tasks" are shared between the two hemispheres and so it's not surprising that lefties would be better at some of them while righties would be better at others. Does anyone know if similar trends are observed in other sports?
Now Judd is a bit of an oddity because he's actually righthanded in every days life. Snooker is the only thing he's doing lefhanded and then not completely as he plays the rest shots righthanded.
ROS is mainly righthanded but with a certain level of natural ambidextruousity (uh? is that an existing word?) as he does quite a few things in every days life the "left" way, like using his knife with the left hand.

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby mishcka

ambidextrose (adjective) : Similar to ambidextrious meaning able to write either left- or right-handed but pertaining to ones sweetened beverage preferences. If a person will accept than one type or brand of artificial sweetner in their beverage.

ambidextrosity (noun) : the quality or state of ability to perform tasks in an ambidextrous manner or with ambidexterity

Re: Best Left-Hander, EVER!

Postby Sickpotter

Monique wrote:First to answer the initial question: Mark Williams for me although I must admit that I never saw Jimmy live in his prime.

The interesting question is actually: if lefties are indeed better potters on average why is that? The first answer that would come to mind is that is has to do with the polarisation of our brains, a feature we share only with big primates and, strangely, the polar bear. "Tasks" are shared between the two hemispheres and so it's not surprising that lefties would be better at some of them while righties would be better at others. Does anyone know if similar trends are observed in other sports?
Now Judd is a bit of an oddity because he's actually righthanded in every days life. Snooker is the only thing he's doing lefhanded and then not completely as he plays the rest shots righthanded.
ROS is mainly righthanded but with a certain level of natural ambidextruousity (uh? is that an existing word?) as he does quite a few things in every days life the "left" way, like using his knife with the left hand.


I'm in the same boat as Judd, I do everything right handed except play snooker. I know that lefties are more creative/visual, the artistic side of the brain is engaged. We tend to "see" our way through snooker patterns without actually thinking our way through it. We visualize it without getting into the nitty gritty of things resulting in a very natural looking style of play.

The drawback is that this makes lefties very much touch players so when we're off, we're really off :roll: Because we rarely conciously think our way through patterns, when we're off it feels like a brain block....so much so that on a bad day stringing a 16 break together can give one a headache ;-) . Everything feels technically correct but it's just not working because for one reason or another, you just can't visualize the patterns.

If a lefty is having an off day they'll tend to describe it as not having their touch but won't have any specifics. A righty is more likely to be able to identify a technical aspect of their game as the issue.

IMO the biggest advantage of lefties is that they pick up the game very quickly, often with little actual coaching. We watch, we imitate without analyzing each and every aspect of the shot. When your mind is free of the mechanics of the game you can do some amazing stuff without ever being concious of the difficulty of what you're doing. The result is a very effortless looking game that's played with flair/style.

I'm sure that you'll see certain traits of left vs right thinking in all sports that involve creativity or more importantly, more than one route to achieve your goal.