[FASTLARRY]

GRIP HOW TO HOLD THE CUE

4 pages, 6-21-99, rev 3-23-05, 10-28-06, 11-15-08, CR, Fast Larry Guninger all rights reserved. Published in DC, bpn, czm, upp, ppt, flp, rsb, btt.

Originally posted by Dakota Cues
Larry,

Here's a question on Grip.

I remember you talking about a new grip you were working on (probably years ago) where you had all your fingers on the cue, but still held the cue lightly. There was also something about using your pinkie as a rudder.

Can you elaborate on that grip, and/or your current grip technique if it's different from that one?

Thanks!

Yes, I think players should experiment with different fingers on the cue to find out what works for them best. I do use several different holds to achieve different shots. I played most of my career with the Hoppe tea cup having just the thumb and index finger on the cue and still make some shots using that today. On some I hold with just the index finger, others the first two, some all four or five. I wont use the word grip, because I do not grip the cue, I very lightly hold it, my finger tips lightly just ride on it with a velvet touch. Any one who becomes my student is forbidden to ever use the word grip ever again. They must call it the hold. Mentally they must now envision is light delicate hold and not some death grip where the saw dust is falling between their fingers like I see some players doing.

The hold I described was having two dominate fingers, the first finger, index and the last small pinky, they hold the cue with equal pressure and balance each other while the bird finger just rides and the ring finger hangs free. Those two fingers seem to balance each other and remove the twist from the stroke. You can do the same thing with the bird and little finger and the other two rides free. My mental concept of this is the out rigger canoe you see in the south pacific, one keeps the other in balance.

Mosconi taught, light is best, lighter is better. You cannot hold the cue too lightly. You want to develop the extreme soft touch and feel of a subway Hong Kong pickpocket. This can be very effective playing Artistic trick shots but for playing standard pool I think you are better off having a more solid and firmer hold.

Q: Everyone I see and everything I have been taught says use one grip on the cue. You are saying to use different grips, is that correct? Can you elaborate on that please, I am confused.

A: This is how pool is taught wrong. The guys writing these books can’t run 3 friggen balls. They write there is only one way to draw the ball, I teach 17 different ways. One way to do this or that. I teach no two shots are ever the same so every shot requires a different technique.
Yes many of your techniques will be the same, but never be held to just one way to do a thing or how to make a shot. There are many ways to skin a cat. This is where the BCA instructors bury those selves and their students is teaching only one way. It is easy to train a new instructor that way.
And it’s easy for that beginner teacher to teach beginners also, keep it simple stupid. If your teacher is doing that, you have a beginner teaching you. Go find a higher level teacher that has a broad knowledge of the game. Find a teacher who can play, if he can, he will understand this. If he can’t run 3 friggen balls, he will not.

In a lesson, I show the student the grips and how they evolved, the Hoppe index finger on the cue, then Greenleaf adds a 2nd one, the bird, then Mosconi adds 3, the ring, then Mizerak adds all 4. All of those won world championships, which proves you can use just about any grip and make it work.

Yes I hold the cue with different holds and with different fingers to produce different shots. On my jump cue and shot, I hold it with thumb and index finger and just throw the cue at the cue ball and let the tip bounce off of it.

Le Masse, I hold the cue in the European fashion, not in the American fashion like you see Gerni and Masse do. I have all four finger tips just riding on the outside of the masse cue and some delicate shots and I use the Rojas fork on power shots.

On my playing cue, if I want to cinch a long hard shot all my fingers are on the cue, if I want to hit a big stroke shot, I then take fingers off, I might use 1-2 or 3, and it depends. It's hard to describe, you need to get into the pool school or catch a clinic and see it live, then and only then will you be able to see where these fingers go and why. This lesson needs to be live and one on one for it to work. Some even use the webbing of the palm between the index and thumb as their primary hold. You can play this way with all the fingers off the cue; it’s amazing what you can do with this hold. Once you learn this, you put the fingers back on the cue, let them ride lightly and let the web do it all. So many different ways this can be done.

HOLD It must always be the same

On most standard shots and follows and there are of course exceptions to this, you must hold the cue super light and never increase or decrease that hold pressure. That may sound easy to do but you will find you are not doing that now and this is extremely hard not only to do but to do it consistently. This is very important for the follow shots.

If you are able to do this you impart more English and power on the Cue Ball. If you don’t you slide offs the ball and you allow the cue to twist imparting unwanted extra English or the dreaded miss cue. You can grip too tight at impact and kill all the action on the ball.

You must endeavor to train your self to hold the cue firm but light at the same time so on impact nothing moves or twists. You must have the same light but firm hold in your warm up strokes, in your back swing, at impact and beyond, the hold pressure may not change. I work real hard to have my thumb and my index finger both having the main hold and pressure and they both must have exact equal hold. The rest of the fingers just ride along doing little but adding stability to the shot and helping to prevent twist on impact. For some the dominate finger is the bird with the index doing nothing but riding along. Others hold the cue in the webbing between the thumb and index finger.

Perfect this and watch your cue ball begin to dance on a string for you. On the draw you get the best action with a big cock and flick into the shot, or a whip action.

Mosconi said light is best, lighter is better, you can’t hold the cue too light. This was one of the two great secrets he said he got from Greenleaf that made him a champion. That is all you need to know and that should be the end of this article. If you want the cue to come alive and the cue ball to dance and juice then you can’t do that if you are locked down on it with a death grip.

We first never call this the grip, because we never grip it, we very lightly hold it; actually allow it to virtually ride on our fingers. You can’t believe how lightly I hold the cue. At any time during my strokes you can come up behind me grab the butt and pull the cue out clean because I am not holding on to it, my fingers are lightly riding on it.

What ever your grip pressure is now, cut it in half, then cut it in half again and you should be right on the mark. Most of you are choking the life out of the cue. Most of your draw shots stink because of too tight of a grip and not enough wrist flick and action into the ball.

Imagine your cue is now the neck of a very small and delicate finch. You must hold the little birdies neck very lightly or you will break his neck and do him in. At any time during your strokes, during your back swing and on your final forward swing you never increase grip pressure and choke da little birdie. You maintain the same light hold pressure at all times. There are some exceptions to this which is on the draw and some other shots where I actually grab and squeeze at impact but on most normal shots, don’t choke the little bird is the mental thought you need to maintain.

You will be amazed at the extra English and the juice and action you now get from your cue ball. Your follows will have much more force and power. You will never see a Philippine with a death grip on a cue. They have the cue almost flopping around in their hand they are holding it so light.

Most of my grip pressure now is not in the fingers but in the webbing between the thumb and the index finger.

Here is a training drill for you to do, cue ball one diamond off of the head rail and place an object ball one diamond or foot in front of the cue ball. Line up a straight in shot 7’ away and pot and draw the cue ball back to the head rail 2’. This will be easy to do and keep doing this until you can make 10 in a row.

Now move the object ball another diamond down until you make 10, then another diamond down until you get it below the side pocket. You will see the further it gets away the harder the shot becomes and your accuracy tanks. That is because you must apply more force to the shot and as you do you are grabbing the cue at impact which causes a twist and applies unwanted English and throw you are not aware of. Keep hitting these shots with the lightest of grip with no increase of grip pressure at impact and watch your accuracy increase. There is the key to hitting power shots and making them.

This same principle of course applies to your force follows as well.

You want your fingers to be strong. I keep a rubber ball and a hand squeeze grip in my car and I use it at red lights. The stronger your fingers are the longer you can hold the cue light. What happens is you get tired and you then begin to hold the cue tighter and that kills all your feel and your cue ball position tanks. So if that happens to you, realize the cause and lighten your grip during play.

If you are going to be using a lot of wrist in your shots it alters how you hold the cue. You begin your backswing with the wrist cocking back and the forearm follows behind it. You then flick the wrist, whip it into the shot and again the forearm follows. Most will hold the cue with two fingers, index and bird. Turn your hand palm up, now pull all 4 fingers back and what you see is the index finger is too short. Each finger has 3 parts, the thumb 2 parts and the cue fits nicely on the middle part of the pinky, ring and bird, and to keep that channel its necessary to pull the index finger back so the cue rides on the first part, now all 4 are in alignment. When you pull back and cock the wrist the last two fingers that are just lightly riding on the stick wing off, hang free, then come back on in the forward whip. I will use this when it’s a grip and rip it shot.

Another concept that works well is to put the thumb between the index and bird fingers. The thumb finger print sits on the left of the bird finger, on the top part, on the left side, the index finger, the very end and the nail, is touching the right side of the thumb, and a half inch down from the end of the thumb. I need a drawing or photo of this I know. You lose some of the whip and only the pinky wings off on the back swing, the ring finger moves, but stays on the cue, and on the forward ship they all come back on the cue. There is more accuracy and stability in this grip. But you lose some power. That is always the trade off in the game.

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FAST LARRY POOL. SHOW, CLINCS, WORLD WIDE TOUR PRO PLAYER.


www.fastlarrypool.com best prices in the billiard store, 200 free articles on how to play in the encyclopedia. www dot fast larry pool dot com. Enough teachings to fill up 4 full books and it’s all for free. Just log in and enjoy. 2006.

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Larry plays on six pro pool tours. His tour 9 ball cards are: the UPA, the men’s main 9 ball tour where he ranks 35th in the world in mid 2006. He also plays on the Viking Pro 9 ball tour, Florida 9 ball tour, SE pro 9 ball tour, the Senior Tour and the APTSA (Artistic Pool and Trick Shot Association world tour. Larry is also listed on the tour stats as having one of the highest straight pool runs in history of 274 balls which is directly behind Ralph Greenleaf’s record.
He holds the world record for the high run in rotation, 5 racks, 75 balls. His high run of 9 racks in 9 ball was only done twice on the pro PBT tour.
His high run in 8 ball is 8 racks. He is regarded as the greatest shot maker of all time by many hall of famers and world champions. Einstein said there are 6 million possible shots and Larry has made all 6 million of them. He has made and duplicated every shot ever made on a table during the last two centuries. He holds 20 world records in the sport.
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May God bless and peace be with you. May there now be peace between us. If you are a real pool player, then fast truly loves you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall.
VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. “Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all. Yes I really did do it all and you can believe it, or not. If you don’t believe it, C’est La Vie. " Shoot straight, innovate, never give up, just run out on the other guy then there is no way for you to lose. believe it, or not. If you don’t believe it, C’est La Vie. " "Winners make things happen. Losers let things happen."Winners NEVER QUIT, QUITTERS NEVER WIN. They say FL can not play. Then explain why he is on the Upa web site ranked 35th in the world in mid 2006. All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer (1788

You must develop a pure perfect stroke you can trust and that will take a coach and a advanced level teacher. When you build that perfect stroke and get in dead punch you can now go play some serious pool. Now the game is won and lost between the 6” of your ears. You next master the mental side of the game.
Memorize this and when you need it, recite it to your self in the chair. It will pull you many future victories you would have let slip away.
To become great, you must learn to reach deep down inside to pull out that extra edge it will take for you to win. There is a hero inside you just waiting to be set free who will rise to the occasion and play at a level you have never seen or dreamed possible before. You must summon him, command him to rise and to go win. A true champion digs down inside and pulls up and out the greater you inside.
Crunch time is that point where the winner steps up to the plate and takes charge and vanquishes the loser he is playing. You must dig down deep for that winner inside you and turn him loose. Let him see the finish line, smell the victory, grab the bit in his mouth and runs for the roses. Let that big dawg hunt, just get out of his way and follow him home. The loser gives up, see’s no way to win, spits the bit and rolls over. “FL”

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Lead me, follow me or get the hell out of my way. Do one of the three please? Come celebrate the wonder of this beautiful game with me and become a student of it.
Be my friend, walk my way, flow with what I teach you and you will soar like the Eagle into levels of excellence you never dreamed possible. Play by feel, not by systems; do not make a simple game complicated. Go with what you know, go with what is natural.

"Winners make things happen. Losers let things happen." In the words of Vince Lombardi, "When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened." Vince said you’ve got to pay the price. Winning is not a sometime thing, it’s an all the time thing. Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing. Vince Lombardi once said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of profession or endeavor. Fast Eddy said about the same thing in the color of money.
Winning is everything. Winning is the only thing. If you can dream it, see it, believe it, you can do it and you can be it. You can perform totally out of the box deep into the Zone, one with the shot, freewheeling fast and loose with no fear. Then you are a person with no limits who can achieve anything he can imagine that a human body is capable of producing. “FL”
Show me a guy who does not mind losing and I will show you a sausage. Show me a good loser and I will show you a loser. “FL” “Nice guys finish last” quote from Lou Durocher
"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." – Yoda
Conquer your fear and you conquer the game, the battle, your life and your fear of death. There is nothing impossible to him who will try. Alexander The Great 320 BC.
When you play, repeat over and over, No fear. Just freewheel and let the good times roll. Keep holding the cue as lightly as possible and keep saying, fast and loose.

It is all about visualization, focus, concentration and playing in the zone. You just see it, feel it, do it: It does not get any deeper than this? Play pool with an empty mind. “FL”

“Flow with what ever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting what ever you are doing and what ever comes your way.”
Chuang-Tzu.

Opportunities multiply as they are seized." - Sun Tzu

Fortune favors the brave. Virgil, Aeneid Roman epic poet (70 BC - 19 BC)

Conquer your fear and you conquer the game, the battle, your life and your fear of death. There is nothing impossible to him who will try. Alexander The Great 320 BC.

For a man thinks within himself, so he is.” Proverbs 23:7 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

In order to master pool you must first learn how to master yourself and your emotions. “For to conquer in battle a thousand men a thousand times, means you have now conquered yourself and you are now the greatest of warriors” Dharmapada.

This is a feel game and a mind game. When the mind is pure, pure perfect pool will follow. Perfect pool comes from being taught how to practice perfect. Being in dead punch is the ultimate trip and reward from that. “FL”

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Rack em sausage, Go play fast and loose. Ride em hard, put em up wet, leave the ladies smiling. Live free, die well owing no man anything. May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead? In time, it’s all dust in the wind anyway. Don’t take your self, or anything too serious, just be happy and healthy. Laughter good whiskey and song is the best medicine. If you have a library, a garden, a good woman and a barrel of Scotch, you have all you need.
Rudolph Wanderone Sr, Minnesota Fats father, told fatty at age 5, a lucky man lives the sporting life. Never do anything that makes you unhappy. An unhappy man will not live long. If you are happy, you are a rich man. If a man has his health, a roof over his head, good food and friends what else does he need? He is wealthy beyond compare. Every thing on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. You now must learn what you mission is and fulfill your destiny. Pay your Karma off and be clean for the next go around.
Aristotle said the main purpose is to survive to reproduce. Once that is accomplished then the main goal in life is to achieve happiness. The Dali Lama says the main goal in life is to achieve enlightenment. The 2nd goal is to achieve happiness and you and only you are responsible for this. Seek it in you and do not expect others to give it to you. Any thing you wish to do that brings you happiness, or to others, must be under taken. The question of whether it is profitable should never be asked. If it loses money, it still must be done. If you can find a thing to do which brings you happiness and makes you money you are indeed a lucky person. Your third goal is to find your soul mate. Seek out a woman you like who makes you happy and who you like to spend time with. Do not seek out beauty or follow lust as once that cools, your relationship has been made on sand which soon crumbles into dust.
Play the best, hustle the rest. Be a locksmith. Never play hew haw, it will ruin you. It is not how good you play but how good you match up. If you see a sausage and know you can give him the 7 and the snap and rob him drunk, do not bet until you sell him to give you the 7 and the snap. Do this and you never lose and sleep on silk sheets at night.
Just never wise up a chump or give a sucker an even break, W.C. Fields.
Never give weight. Spot, what is that, you never spot nobody nuttin. Spot is your dog who got run over by a Mack truck in front of the motel 6 in Lodi. You say, stop talking about spot, every time you do I get tears in my eyes and wont be able to play.
When you clean out the joint and they are all standing there complaining you hustled us and took all our money. You say to them, grasshopper, I have a stable of hot ho’s to support who depend on me to bring home the loot so they can have a good time. So the needs of the many, you sausages, are out weighed by the needs of the one, me. Bow in reverence as you walk backwards towards the door, then turn running out the door and leap in the rear door of your caddy head first which was open and is pointed into the traffic with its bright lights on. You now say tell the ho driving, its 100 miles to Chicago, we have a half tank of gas, a full pack of cigarettes, we are both wearing sun glasses, it is dark, hit it.
"When we see clearly, the great teachings are the same." eighteenth-century Japanese Zen poet Ryokan, All the great teachers in pool and there are very few, end up teaching the same things.

"No one can earn a million dollars honestly." - William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925 "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." - Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) "If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning." - Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975)

All that is certain in life are you are born, you will die, you will pay taxes and everything you now know and love will change. Change is the one certainty you must learn to live with and accept in your life. The only thing certain in life is change. Do not fight something you have no control over. Gracefully accept change when it comes. “FL”

Nuttin sticks, everything changes, everyone leaves you. You gotta play it big while you got it. You gotta be big, hit it big, miss it big, every thing you do has gotta be big. “Babe Ruth”.

Be sure to take the time, to smell the flowers along the way. Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life, so get wasted all of the time and have the time of your life. Wander in wonder of life and follow La Vie Dansante. As my grand master said and I quote as a loyal parrot head, why don’t we get drunk and screw?
It took me years to learn how to beat and avoid hangovers, just stay drunk and don’t sober up. Never act your age, stay young forever. FL is 29; he plans to stay 29 forever. His kids are now older than he is and do not understand him at all. In 7 more years his grand children will be older than him. Fl says, when you begin to act your age, it’s all over for you. The number one cause of death in old people is retirement and boredom. You must always have a hobby or a job, a project or a hottie your old lady does not know about on the side to keep you alive and on earth with a purpose.
I want to die being totally alive with my boots on. I don’t want to die being brain dead for a decade with my boots off and rotting in a bed on a pan. I want to die on top of a 19 year old hottie yelling who’s your daddy, Bonsai just as I catch the big one. Use your imagination on that one. If you gotta go dudes, go out with a bang hangin 10. Or when I die, I want to die like my father-- who died peacefully in his sleep with his boots on and not screaming like all the passengers riding in his Lincoln Town car who were going downhill on the interstate at 85mph at the time coming down out of the mountains. Die happy and you lived a good life. Live you life daily with honor and pride in your actions and you will sleep like a baby. Always tell the truth and you don’t have to remember your lies. Be a man of honor and integrity.
When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home. “Quote Indian Chief Aupumut.”
FL say’s only the good die young, God allows all pool hustlers to live till they are 85 so they can suffer. If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of my self. I had a damn good run and more time here than I expected or planned for so if it all ends tomorrow, no tears, I lived 3 life times in the same span a normal man lives one. When I die I want to be cremated and my ashes sprinkled inside a Super Wal-Mart, then I’ll know my kids will finally come to see me twice a week. Actually my ashes will be sprinkled off the far point of lovers Key in Bonita Springs, Florida.
There was always only three things important to me. Panther Piss, Pussy and Pool, the big 3. Get those 3 right and then as Lamata said, the rest of it don’t matta no how. I became the master of all three and the rest then just fell in line some how. Old Scotch, young broads and a good pool game, ah yes indeed my boy, what else is there to live for.
When you are riding it home, can see the finish line, don't spit da bit. Begin beating the ass with your riding whip and yell out like Tarzan C’est si bon, si bon, si bon, who's yo daddy. When she screams FL, don't take it too hard, life goes on. C’est La Vie.
I have seen it all, done it all, been everywhere, and now can’t remember any of it. I wonder why I spent all that time and money doing it in the first place. I should have just stayed home.
Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness.
I danced the last Tango in Paris
Took the last chopper out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And there's still so much to be done
I had a third world girl in Caracas
With a pistol in each hand
She always kept me covered
As we moved from land to land.
I stashed my cash in Cayman land and
Lived to dance and make love.
I had a damn good run on Wall Street
With my high fashion model wife.
I wore out running all over the Americas crashed
And burned three planes.
From coast to coast. I ran through a lot of good women
And drove them all insane.
I woke up dry beneath the African sky
Just me and my Swiss Army knife. A legend never dies.
Remember the words of the great Emiliano Zapata . . .
it is better to die on your feet, than live on your knees. . .
I am just a simple teacher. All that I now know is that I now know nothing. I am nothing but a good ball banger who teaches a good lesson and puts on a good trick shot show that is the only two things I do well in life. "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge."-Stephen Hawking
Aristotle said “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
Fast Larry Guninger, real man, real pool player, real American, real Christian.” God bless the land of the free and of the brave. Fáilte Roimh Cheartúcháin, Go dtuga Dia suaimhneas síoraí dó. Politically he is John fookin Wayne and just a little to the right of Attila the Hun. He say, I ain’t runnin for gov-nor so you all can take all that politically correct bull she-yit and stuff it where da sun don’t shine. I tell it like it is. Some of you, can’t deal with the real truth.

Minnesota Fats: Larry’s teacher said? "When I played pool I was like a psychiatrist. I cured 'em of all their daydreams and delusions." "You don't learn from smart people, you learn from idiots. Watch what they do, and then don't do it." Learn to be a lock smith. If you should be giving the 7 and the snap, don’t play for money unless you sell the pigeon he should give you the 7 and the snap. Then you never lose. Never put heat on your self, pressure is self induced; only you can put it on, only you can take it off. The toughest player mentally wins when skills are equal. "Golf is 90% mental and 10% physical." -- Ben Hogan said "I am the toughest golfer mentally." -- Tiger Woods agrees as do all the top pool players.
Never be afraid of any top player. They are all human and they all can be beat. You must come out smoking and put heat on them early. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. They expect you to play tight and choke and lose. They do not expect you to attack them with out mercy. Just freewheel, play fast and loose with no fear.
“There are only two types of players. Those who keep their nerves under control and win championships and those who do not.” Harry Vardon.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls called bozos and rail birds who never tee it up and then, know neither victory or defeat.
Teddy Roosevelt.
Paul Newman, in The Color of Money: "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned." FL says always have something riding on every match, it steels the nerves.
W. C. Fields: "Trust everyone-and always cut the cards." You can’t con an honest man. Never wise up a sucker or Give a sausage an even break. Never loan a pool player a penny, but show him where the bank is and send him there.
Quotes from FL. Exercise is not cracked up to be what it really is. If God intended for me to be able to touch my toes he would have put my toes where my knees are now. To prevent sagging when you get old just eat more and it fills out the wrinkles. The trouble with jogging is the ice falls out of my scotch glass. If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of my self. I am not afraid to die; I just don’t want to be there when it happens. I would rather be in Philadelphia.

I drink because it makes people more interesting and my wife better looking. It aint easy being me. I really didn’t say everything I said. I take the 5th on all of it. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it. Don’t even think of suing me. My mouthpiece Louie Da Lip will plead insanity, dementia, Senility, Mental Illness, emotional disability, cognitive dysfunction, psychological disorders, brain damage as a child, Alien abduction and RSB long term abuse plus Alzheimer’s disease. I got a bad bottle of Blue Agave and have not been right since. I will walk in rolling around two steel balls in my hand like Humphrey Bogart in the Cain Mutiny and No jury will convict me. Where are me fookin car keys? My memory is not as sharp as it used to be, my memory is not as sharp as it used to be, my memory is not as sharp as it used to be. When you get old they say you lose two things, (1) your memory, (2)…. Senior moment, let me get back to you with that one. I gave up looking for my lost shaker of salt years ago and thank God for wonder dog who leads me back to my motel room every night. You always wondered why I ran on the road with that dog didn’t you? So the question is am I nuts? Probably, any body who plays pool for a living is nuts, and if you play the game as long as I have you then become nuts.
There is a very fine line that divides genius and madness. A genius walks on both sides of that line all of his life.

"All of us are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must."
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)
I get no respect; tug on tie, that’s the entire problem, no respect. It aint easy bein me.
May peace be with you and me, and all of Gods blessings descend upon you.
God Bless you and God bless America.
You only go around once so make the most of it while you are here. You have a long way to go and a short time to get there. Be sure to take the time to smell the flowers along the way. Keep your head when all around you are losing theirs. When you lose your head, your ass soon follows. Hang loose, mello out, and play the game of life like pool, fast and loose.
“When you are called home and stand in judgment in front of St Peter and his angels he will not care how many times you won or you lost. He will only ask you how well did you play your game and how true were you to it? It is now about how many tin cups you won, but about how many friends you acquired and how many people you made love you along the way.” FL.
“The longer I play this game the harder it becomes.” Bobby Jones Jr, 1929 just before he won the grand slam, a feat no other player has been able to duplicate.
“When I first came on tour in my early 20’s I played the top courses in the country and played many of them in the low 60’s saying they are so easy. I came back to play them 20 years later and said I can’t believe how hard they are to make par on.” Johnny Miller.
“This is why 9 ball is a young mans game, because they are too stupid to understand how tough it really is. Fast Larry.”
Come chat with Larry live at www.poolchat.net. Do not miss the Encyclopedia of pool, over 200 instruction articles now up on www.poolchat.net and it’s all free. Come to Atlanta and be video taped in a 7 million dollar state of the art facility in a private room with 4 gold crowns with Larry one on one. A full day is only $350 which is only $43 an hr, every one else is charging double or triple this. It is rated as the top teaching facility in the world. 770-381-6609 puts you on the schedule, or wait for FL to show up as he is a pro UPA touring player and appears coast to coast and catch him when he comes in town.
About FL’s 20 world records, some try and dispute them, FL’s answer is you have two choice’s here, you can believe it, or you can believe it not, FL does not really give a damn which one you get on because he knows he did them all and is done fighting any one about them. He proved every one of them by the Guinness world book of records standards back in the mid 90’s. On each record, a full press release, with the video tape and signed affidavits of the witnesses were sent out to over 175 interested parties in the industry. 18 of his 20 records were set not in a pool hall, but at Georgia Tech University and filmed by an independent studio, TTN. Nobody had ever proved any thing as complete and perfect as Larry did.
To him it’s now a mute point dude. He goes out to his glory knowing what he did. He offered to bet any one 10K to 300K he could pass a lie detector test he did all that he said he did and from 1993 when this offer hit the streets till today, over a decade and a half and not one scum bum took the bet. FL put his fortune, where his mouth was and defending what he did with his life savings. If he was a fraud, somebody would have called his bluff and became rich. Those who falsely accused him were backed down by him and exposed as the real frauds and liars. They were all just jealous punks who were all exposed as nobodies who only wanted to trash those who were what they could never be, real pro’s who could really play.
A prophet is never recognized or understood in his home land. Jesus Christ, 30 AD.

The Hustler movie, 1961:
At Finley’s mansion SARAH says: Don't wear a mask, Eddie. You don't have to.(points to Bert) That's Turk, Eddie, the man who broke your
thumbs. Only he's not going to break your thumbs. He'll break your heart, your guts. And for the same reason -- 'cause he hates you,
'cause of what you are. 'Cause of what you have and he hasn't.
This explains the jealous actions of many people on the pool chat boards. They can’t play, they hate those who can. Later back at the hotel: In the bathroom mirror we see Bert asleep on his bed. The sheets are rumpled and tossed about. Then we see Sarah, in her slip, enter the
bathroom and shut the door. She takes out her lipstick and scrawls
across the image of herself in the glass
"Perverted, twisted,crippled." She underlines the word "crippled."
Those 3 words, describes the pool world Fast Larry came up in and it’s his goal in life to help change that image and see a new generation of pro pool players get respect and finally play for and earn serious money which they deserve. He want’s to see pool become the great sport it was when he first picked up a cue in the 1940’s. When the top Billiard player had the same respect and the same fame as all the top athletes in the USA then. Add up the incomes of the world champion boxer, Dempsey, Tennis star Tilden, Golfer Bobby Jones, football player Jim Thorpe and baseball legend Babe Ruth and a billiard player made more than all of them combined, His name was Willie Hoppe. He was making a million a year in l908 and no pool player since then has.