Different Styles of Snooker

[gettingbetter]

I've been watching and reading a fair bit about boxing lately and one thing that I have noticed is that different countries have different styles when it comes to their game plans and execution of skills. For example, it is said that Cuban boxers are real technicians, while Mexican boxers are synonymous for an aggresive fight plan 'take two (punches) to give one.' Then you have the Brits, Americans, Irish, Filipinos, Europeans, Latin American countries and other who have their own style.

This leads to my quesiton, is there a difference in styles between the leading nations in snooker? Things like break building, shot selection, tactical play, splitting the reds, cue action and other aspects of the game.

I remember listening to a Dominic Dale interview where he said he predicted that a certain Chinese player (who he may of played in a Chinese PTC tournament) would have a successful career because his 'touch' around the heavy scoring area of the table was typically British. Note: I do not recall the player in question, but I am certain he is not part of 100 or so ranked players.

I'll be interested to view the responses from more experienced players. Is there a descernable stylistic differene between Chinese players and those from the UK? Or even between a Scot, Welsh, Eglish etc player? Or even between someone from the north and the South? Lets throw Canada and Thailand in the conversation too.

[gettingbetter]

Shameless bump. Thought this might of got some discussion.

[cueman]

I don't really think you can have many styles in snooker. Obviously players all have a different set up and technique but the actual game itself I think is a universal one. Snooker hasn't been played a lot outside of Britain since it began so the only way to learn is to copy the players of today.

I guess its more of an era thing in snooker. In the 70's players tended to break building by clipping out or cannoning reds into position. Then moving into the 80's players began opening the pack off the blue and trying to develop a winning break but there was still a lot of the 70's style play around.

It wasn't really until the Hendry era and the 90's that players became ultra aggressive, opening the pack at the earliest opportunity and trying to and often successfully winning the frame in a single visit.

The only country that I would say plays a slightly different style of play would be Thailand and James Wattana. He was an old school type player, didn't have a lot of cue power and you could see he played the game with pure touch play, especially when breakbuilding. A few of the other Thai players are similar but not all of them like Thepchaiya and Thanawat who are a lot more aggressive like the modern day players.