Trick Shots in Sports: Roger Federer’s 'William Tell' trick and the trick masters of pool
There is an element to sports that is often overlooked: trick shots. With Roger Federer’s recent sensational video of a 'William Tell' trick having gone viral online, it has put the focus back onto trick shots. People first started to notice trick shots in billiards and snooker. There are specialist players out there who have made it their life’s work to perfect and become masters at trick shots. A lot of sports have trick shots: basketball, billiards, golf and even tennis. We will see a lot more people performing trick shots in the future because they are very visually exciting for the fans and very entertaining to perform.
No one knows for sure who started doing trick shots initially, but they are prevalent in almost all sports these days. Trick shots in pool have their own tournaments and have become very popular over the years. There are two different types of shots that a trick shot player can perform in pool. The first is the artistic shot and the second is the skill shot. The artistic shot refers to a shot in pool where multiple balls go into different pockets and a lot of time and effort is spent on the setup of the shot rather than the execution. Skill shots are much harder to perform and the skill level is in the execution of the shot as opposed to the setup. Skill shots are harder because a player has to put a certain amount of spin on the balls and also hit them at a certain angle to get them to do what he or she wants. As skill shots are the ones that are judged in tournaments, they are divided into eight further categories. The categories are trick and fancy, prop/novelty, draw, follow, bank/kick, stroke, jump, and masse. With a huge array of tricks at their disposal, trick shot masters have performed some of the world’s best tricks ever seen on a pool table.
Recently, a video of tennis superstar Roger Federer hit the internet and went viral. It showed him at a Gillette ad shoot where he asked a crew member to place a bottle on his head and he went to the other side of the room and served a ball and hit the bottle off the man’s head. Just to prove that it was not a fluke, he went and did it again and hit the bottle off the man’s head a second time. Viewers of the video have been divided because it is such an amazing trick that a lot of people were saying it was fake, while others saying that it must be true. A Gillette company spokesman and also Federer have refused to say whether it is true or not but they have asked viewers to make up their own minds about it. It is a truly amazing shot, if it is true. If it is fake, then it is one of the best fakes that has been seen in a long time. It is also a fantastic marketing activity for both Gillette and for Federer. It showed that the tennis star is one of the best in the world and he is so good that his skills as a player are second to none.
A few commentators have said online that it takes a certain amount of talent and also a certain attitude to pull off tricks in sports. Not everyone has the attitude, mental fortitude and talent to pull off amazing tricks, but a few select players have the talent to become very skilled players at the sports they play and also perform amazing tricks. Performing tricks is a very difficult thing to do and if one is to look at basketball, we see that a lot of players can dunk the ball but only a few players have the skills to become NBA dunk champions. The creativity and skill that it takes to come up with unique dunks that have not been done before is something that only a few players in professional basketball can do.
We will continue to see athletes and sports stars performing trick shots for many years to come. New players who have the necessary skill level and the creativity and imagination to come up with new tricks will emerge and become stars in their own right.
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