Open Mike: Timed Shots, Point shots, and Extreme Cuts

["Open Mike," the often off-topic Editorial page of TOP, is two days too late this week. It is planned to appear on Wednesdays. But you know the auld quote from the Scottish poet Robert Burns: "The best-laid plans of Mikes and men...." —Mike]

-

I've just added many words of material to the previous post, in the Featured Comments—I was feeling loquacious this morning, and I'm typing well today (little-suspected fact about me: I don't know how to type), so I think I'll just leave it at that going into TOP's off day tomorrow. There is a lot more I could write—there are a number of new products to talk about, and I have a backlog of "Around the Web" items requiring attention, and I still haven't even done the "At the Museum" Baker's Dozen, even! (What's wrong with that guy?) So I have my work cut out for me.

Till Sunday, as an inconsequential diversion purely for your amusement, I'll venture the following. Regular readers know I never write about pool, because some readers (incomprehensibly) do not care for the sport. But this isn't exactly pool. Trick shots (now called "artistic pool" by the cognoscenti, by the way) are to pool what the Harlem Globetrotters are to basketball. It's entertainment. So I thought I'd risk it. You'll know pretty quickly whether you're being entertained—if you don't care for the first five or so, you can turn it off, because there is more, much more....

Florian "Venom" Kohler, a transplant to Las Vegas from France where he grew up, is an Internet sensation and a wonder of nature—his combination of extraordinary skill and extreme inventiveness is very rare.

...As is his patience, too: some of these shots probably took many dozens or hundreds of attempts before he made the one for the video. I like that he walks away from them as if bored, rather than going nuts in celebration like a lot of kids on YouTube vids do when the thing they've been trying over and over again for the camera finally works.

From a pool player's standpoint the timed shots beginning at 6:00 (I've seen Melling do that in competition), the shots off the points beginning at 9:00 (ditto Reyes for that), and the extreme cuts beginning at 12:00 or so are particularly astonishing. Some of the jump shots too—he holds world records for most jump shots in the shortest times, for instance.

For more on Florian (I can't quite get with the hipster nickname "Venom"—he looks more like his nickname should be "Dilbert," or at least something more a bit more milquetoasty than snake poison—although he is a black-belt judoka), see Rollie's visit with him in "the house that Internet pool built."

Mike
(Thanks to Hatter)

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Please help support The Online Photographer through Patreon

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Comments

[Michael]

Not downplaying his undoubted skill with the cue but he is helped enormously by the generous shape of the pockets which ensure no ball approaching is rejected,would like to see how he would manage on a table with tournament configured pockets.
Certainly a lot of the screw shots he plays directly off the pocket cushions would not be achievable.

[John Camp]

I have, in the past, harbored enthusiasms that I was completely aware would bore the snot out of an average human being. (Golf, for one. Vegetable gardening, for another.) And I understand that one man's golf is another man's slow death. But I gotta say, for pure, unadulterated lack of interest, pool in all its varieties has to range near the top, above even darts. If I go to Hell after shuffling off the mortal coil, I'm pretty sure it'll be in the form of a small room with a pool table and not quite enough room for the cues.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Wow. Yes, those are the especially remarkable bits. As you say, I do suspect there were quite a few out-takes before he got this reel completed.

[Fred Haynes]

Quite a few “for cryin’ out louds “, and a bunch of “holy sh * * ts”!

[John London]

Mike, you look so much younger in that vid' !

[Pierre Charbonneau]

Not related to today’s column, but I am wondering if the pictures submited for the Museum’ dozen will be discussed in a foreseable future.

Just curious.

[Sam Marriott]

I'm not a big fan of pool, but this guy is truly impressive. Some of his shots seem to defy physics! I also like that he just stays calm and does his thing.

[Roger Bradbury]

When I read the headline I thought, "Ah ha, off topic post on cinematography; 'moving' pictures'. Oh well, makes a change from pool..." : )

[Hope springs eternal! --Mike]

[Mike Ferron]

Damn just when the ego thinks it might be good at something you see this.

[David Lee]

That is a nice table. Zone V grey, I guess?

[glenn Brown]

Not a big fan of OT, feels like filler.

[David Bostedo]

"...some of these shots probably took many dozens or hundreds of attempts before he made the one for the video..."

Maybe... but if you've ever watched artistic pool competitions (I'm guessing you have), the regularity with which they pull these kinds of shots off is kind of ridiculous. Granted, they're usually shots that have been well practiced. But now and then (in my limited experience) you'll see someone doing something new to them and still succeeding.

(Artistic Pool competitions are essentially "horse" with pool trick shots.)

[Craig C. Minneapolis]

Thanks again, Mike. Another 21 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

I've already spent months weaning myself off the Ronnie O'Sulivan videos and now you come back to torture me again.

Next time you have to post at least one video of yourself making some kind of difficult shot.