Meet the professional pool player who doesn't have any arms

 Peng Xiangwei has mastered an unusual technique to keep playing the sport he loves.

Peng Xiangwei plays with his feet because he does not have any arms

A man from China has been defying all expectations by playing pool at TV tournaments despite not having any arms. You would be forgiven for thinking it would be impossible for him to pick up a cue, let alone play the game to a high standard. However, he is ripping up the rulebook and his incredible skills are gaining plenty of traction.

Instead of playing pool in the same way as most other people, Peng Xiangwei has been forced to learn a very different technique. He uses his feet like hands, holding the cue between his toes and extending his right leg to play shots. A special rest is attached to the cue to stabilise it, allowing Peng to keep his left foot planted to maintain his balance.

Peng uses a special rest to stabilise the cue held between his toes

It is not known if Peng was born without arms or if he lost them after learning to play pool the traditional way. In any case, he is thriving in spite of his missing limbs. He plays heyball, a Chinese style of pool which uses a slightly smaller table than usual.

Last weekend, Peng was involved in an exhibition match against four-time world champion Gareth Potts. A video went viral on social media, with fans touched by his determination to overcome the physical challenges he faces.

At one point, Peng was seen applying chalk to the tip of his cue, resting it on the table and using his toes to grip the chalk. Later in the match, Potts had the opportunity to win by sinking the black ball but intentionally missed, allowing Peng a route back in.

He made the most of his chance at the table, clearing up the coloured balls before potting the black to the admiration of everybody in the crowd.

Peng is not the only player to have excelled at pool despite not having either of his arms. George H. Sutton, who was born in 1870, was known as the 'handless billiard player' and travelled the world competing in professional events.

Sutton lost both of his arms below the elbows in a sawmill accident when he was eight years old. He would hold the cue between his two stumps, using the muscles in his upper arms for propulsion.

More recently, a man without arms from Pakistan made headlines for playing snooker with his chin. Instead of gripping the cue with his feet, Mohammad Ikram has mastered the technique of flicking his neck muscles to direct the white ball.

He told Al Jazeera in 2020: "People in the club didn’t believe that I could play with my chin. But they gradually started admiring my skills when I started hitting the cue ball with my chin."