Iranu wrote:Prop wrote:“The young Chinese players are all good potters but that’s all”
I’m paraphrasing there, but we’ve all heard similar lines from the usual pundits. And, largely, it’s true. But Yan does seem to have something very different. Does he stay up late, watching old Ray Reardon and Steve Davis videos? Because that’s what he’s got. And it’s a whole different skill to have at 20, regardless of the grass roots you develop in.
That perpetual prophecy of yours will come right soon enough.
I think it’s just natural ability. People have said the same of Higgins, that he had a mature safety game even as a teenager.
Some people think talent translates only to potting and breakbuilding (and by the way Yan is a talented potter too although he didn’t show much of that today) but in some ways a naturally strong safety game is even more of a talent considering mist players take years to develop one and some never do (hi Murphy).
Interesting point.
I never looked at it that way - I always saw the art of safety as something much more cerebral; something that would take years of experience (of the angles, textbook shots etc) or ‘study’ to master. It’s the actual conception and visualisation, before the player even lines up the shot, that usually takes time to nurture. And like you say, some players never learn it. I’d imagine the vast majority do have to learn it. But you could be right, some players might just be completely switched on right from the start.
When we usually talk about a ‘natural’ player, it’s in terms of their ball-striking, their cue action, and that’s definitely a physical and technical thing (or more specifically the brain to body connection).
They are two distinct skills. Conception and application. The former is purely cerebral. Perhaps on average, far fewer players turn out to be natural tacticians than those that are clear naturals at application. And it could be that we notice the natural tacticians even less, because while we can observe each shot of a player with a flawless cue action, we can’t necessarily see the cogs whirring in the brain of a natural tactician, until we see the application of that conception. As we’ve seen here.