O’Sullivan and Hendry are widely considered the two greatest snooker players of all-time, sharing the record for most Crucible titles and with the Scot (36) only behind the Englishman (39) on the all-time list of ranking title wins.
They have had very different careers, though, with Hendry’s seven Crucible crowns coming between 1990-99, while the Rocket’s have spanned 2001-22 and he still remains in contention to add more to his CV.
There are also plenty of differences in their games, with Hendry noting that he succeeded when doing everything his natural, instinctive way and felt that some coaching may have cost him later in his career, while O’Sullivan soaked up positive aspects for his game.
Speaking to Michael Holt about coaching and technique on his Cue Tips channel, Hendry said: ‘I couldn’t tell you one thing technically. I’ve had four coaches in my career and each time it’s like, “do I really understand that?” A lot of it goes over my head.
‘I sometimes think, would I have been alright without…I had my first coach Frank Callan because I didn’t think my long game was good enough to compete with the likes of Steve [Davis]. I could pot balls obviously, but [couldn’t] consistently rely on my long game.
‘So he brought a pause into my backswing, but I don’t know whether…I got deceleration at the end of my career, I call it the yips, and I don’t know if that came from the pause.
‘[O’Sullivan] He’s like a sponge, he takes things in from everywhere.’
Holt, a ranking event winner who now works as a snooker coach, said one of O’Sullivan’s great traits is his ability to learn from others, but only take what is a positive to his own game and ignore anything that could hamper him.
‘Ronnie’s a massive snooker geek, he knows everything. He’s like a robot,’ said the Hitman.
‘What he’s amazing at is disregarding the stuff that he’s not interested in and trusting what he believes in and then he just goes out there and plays, which is a talent in itself.
‘Ultimately that’s why he’s played for so long because he knows everything about his game.
‘I think that’s where the next level might come from, players will be more aware of what they do and how they do it. Disregard the myths.’
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