Ssb - trump's slump

[cueman]

This is a guy who's won multiple ranking events, including the UK Championship, and came within a hair's breadth of becoming world champion - some of you are talking like he's some sort of club amateur who's won a tour place in a raffle.

That is why I say about haters, they haven't a clue about the game, they don't like him so over exaggerate his game, saying he's nothing but a potter who gets lucky quite often. The fact he hit 60 centuries last season completely dispels that myth. To knock in that many tons you have great positional play period. His safety game has improved a lot as well, he's great at getting snookers, the simple fact of the matter is he is low on confidence and this game is all about confidence. Even Ronnie had periods during his career where he didn't win anything for a while but under the old ranking system his position was protected. Now this new system is brutal but at the end of the day they all come in from round one in the majority of events, so it doesn't matter too much whether you are no.2 or number 32 anymore.

[richproc]

The problem for Trump is he is being compared with all time great players like Hendry, Higgins and O'sullivan when he is not in there class. The above players games were all superior to Trumps at the same age and they had all achieved more as well by his age,but I think people get carried away with Judd thinking he is better than he is. With his style of play it is almost impossible to be consistent and dominate with only Hendry doing it in the past. I am not a Judd hater as I think he is a very talented player but he needs to improve his cue ball control and shot selection to do better. Maybe in 10 years time we will consider Trump an all time great but at the moment he is not and his achievements so far do not say he will be.

[arbitrage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_9kt9IFJrQ

stephen hendry sums it up perfectly in his commentary @0:19s

that's not to say he will never get there but he needs to put a lot of work into that department of his game

[the nugget]

The problem for Trump is he is being compared with all time great players like Hendry, Higgins and O'sullivan when he is not in there class. The above players games were all superior to Trumps at the same age and they had all achieved more as well by his age,but I think people get carried away with Judd thinking he is better than he is. With his style of play it is almost impossible to be consistent and dominate with only Hendry doing it in the past. I am not a Judd hater as I think he is a very talented player but he needs to improve his cue ball control and shot selection to do better. Maybe in 10 years time we will consider Trump an all time great but at the moment he is not and his achievements so far do not say he will be.

Agree 100% exactly what ive been saying earlier, great potter no doubt but this games always had them, talent/skill wise hes nowhere near what Hendry, Davis,Ronnie and john Higgins were capable of, these all had pinpoint control of the cueball, judd just doesnt have this. I know he may have plenty of tons recently though with the way he plays the game and the amount of matches nowadays its no wonder.

[the nugget]

The bbc a few years back have probably done him no favours either coz hes probably believed the overhyping of himself by them. At a time where it seemed that Ronnie might be sliding down they needed to have someone the casual observer to the game might enjoy watching with his flambouyant shot selection. They need this type of player to guarantee good viewing figures and judd fitted the bill nicely.

For eighteen months they kept telling us that hes the saviour of snooker and hes playing shots like never seen before, most of us who have played or followed the game for the last 25years know this is not true, but they just kept on telling the viewers at every opportunity how brilliant he is. No doubt theyll be at it again when the uk rolls around soon!

Just as Alex and Jimmy have done down the years judds game brings viewers to the game who otherwise could take it or leave it.
Maybe he just got too carried away with the hype and now hes discovering for himself that its much more of a slog to the top than he thought iit would be.

He might have be experiencing quite a bit of self-doubt now because of these things.

[ADR147]

i don't think many people would say he is just a potter or lucky but he is maybe not the next big thing as has been suggested over the last few years, personally i am sure he has the talent on the table just not so sure he has the mental aptitude to be one of the greats, that said I think it would be very difficult for anybody to shine above the rest with the standards as high as they are now in general.

[gavpowell]

Provided they stop talking about naughty snooker, I couldn't care less about the rest of the hype.

[chas6868]

I think the reason for 'Trump's slump' is simply that he's missing more pots this season than he has in the previous few seasons.

And I think the reason that he's missing more pots is because his 'complicated' cue action has become inconsistent.

Judd has several 'quirks' in his cue action.

Instead of just moving the cue backwards and forwards in a straight line, Judd aims to the left on every shot and only pushes the cue through straight on the final delivery.

And also, during the final delivery, he moves his head and upper body both forwards and downwards.

These 'quirks' are not so noticeable on close range, simple pots. But, on long distance pots, they stand out like a sore thumb!

If you don't believe me, you can easily go to YouTube and check it out for yourself. Just look for a few long distance pots where Judd is cueing directly into the line of the camera. Then you will see these 'quirks straight away.

Now, as Judd is an ex world number one, I obviously can't criticize his cue action too much. His cue action has certainly worked extremely well in the past.

All I am saying is, with a 'complicated' cue action like Judd's, there are a lot of things that have to be 'in sync' in order to cue straight. And, if something is not quite 'in sync', his consistency will suffer.

I think that is what has happened this season. Judd is just not as consistently good as he has been over the previous few seasons.

I don't think it would do Judd any harm to see a good coach.

After all, before you start to put things right, you first need to know what's going wring.

And I think the problem Judd has is that he doesn't know what's going wrong.

I also noticed this about his cue action against osullivan in the worlds.lots of movement in the bridge arm and shoulders.I also noticed in more recent matches he looked a bit more nervous than normal.
As I have said before I personally like watching him play and hope he can get back to winning ways. But he will have to work harder on his game.
Has he got a coach to help him.

[DeanH]

I also noticed this about his cue action against osullivan in the worlds.lots of movement in the bridge arm and shoulders.I also noticed in more recent matches he looked a bit more nervous than normal.
As I have said before I personally like watching him play and hope he can get back to winning ways. But he will have to work harder on his game.
Has he got a coach to help him.

Has been mentioned before that he has not worked with any coach.

[ADR147]

Provided they stop talking about naughty snooker, I couldn't care less about the rest of the hype.

indeed - that is extremely annoying!

[tommygunner1309]

this raises also the possibility that he is vastly over rated and actually does not have the talent mentally to do much in the game?

I think this sums it up completely. Especially the words 'have the talent mentally' ---- I have always wondered about Judd and why a talented kid who seems to pot 'em off the lampshade, and is no doubt a great talent - fails so miserably so often. I think it is in the head - something is just not there mentally. Mind you, having said that --- I wish to heaven that I could play a tenth as good as he does ..............

[alabadi]

i find it fascinating, how us mere beginners & amateurs can criticize a top pro snooker players (former No.1 currently No.3) cue action or technique.

i wish i had a 10th of his ability

[hotpot]

I find it hard that anyone can doubt him as world class he has shown the game to compete with and beat the very best out there , you dont lose that talent , when he was at his best a very lot of people were tipping him to dominate and asking who's going to beat him , now he's lost his form some are questioning his talent , crazy .

[Achamian]

i find it fascinating, how us mere beginners & amateurs can criticize a top pro snooker players (former No.1 currently No.3) cue action or technique.

I find it fascinating how you think we can't criticize it.

Do you think Frank Callan could beat Stephen Hendry at snooker? Obviously he couldn't, but he used to coach Stephen Hendry all the time.

Do you think Sean Foley could beat Tiger Woods at golf? Obviously he couldn't, but he coaches Tiger Woods all the time.

Do you get it now?

[alabadi]

Do you get it now

uhh no

i don't think its the critisism that i'm bothered about, anyone can criticize and everyone has an opinion, its those that are analysing his technique and dishing out advice, what he's doing wrong.

to me its like an amateur boxer giving mohammed Ali advice how to dodge a punch