Strokers are generally squarer to the foul line (with their shoulders), come up the back of the ball, and have little wrist cup or action. Lower speeds, lower revs than other styles. Don't usually move inside of, say, third or fourth arrow if they can help it. Brian Voss is about the stroking-est guy you'll see on tour (though possibly not next year).
Crankers generally have open shoulders, high backswings, an inside-out release where the hand starts on the inside of the ball and rotates to the outside at the release point. High speed, lots of wrist action, high revs. Don't usually move outside of, say, third or fourth arrow if they can help it. Robert Smith, Jason Couch, Tommy Jones, Amleto Monacelli, Sean Rash.
Tweeners are in between. Some wrist cup, wrist action, and usually higher backswings. Revs and speed are somewhere in between as well. Sometimes called power strokers. Chris Barnes, Mike Machuga, Parker Bohn, Pete Weber. Usually play in between the strokers and the crankers (and often suffer "tweener hell" because of it, there's not always room to move left or right because of where the other guys are playing).
It's not hard and fast, and all qualities can blend between categories. Some guys don't fit any category well and some of the names above don't have the "stereotypical" approach or release that others in their category have. Robert Smith sometimes looks like a tweener and Patrick Allen, who can't compete with Jones or Rash in the revs category has the same open shoulders, high backswing, and inside-out release that Couch has. A lot of people call Pat Healey a tweener, even though his speed, revs, release, and backswing would say otherwise. Others would call Steve Jaros a stroker but if you saw him on TV ten years ago, you might disagree (he's called himself a power stroker several times). Same with Mika. A lot of revs and speed for a stroker but definitely not the cranker form.
SH
Edited on 3/15/2007 1:11 PM
