I picked this up from Johnny Archer's Facebook page and felt that it should have a wider airing on AZ
….. Now I see why the USA loses at the Mosconi Cup most of the time. I have been in Germany for 5 days now and i see at 15 juniors in the pool room every day working on their game. They are very respectful to other players. They are having a lot of fun being here. It is wonderful to see. Our young players in the USA can learn some things from these young players. Our young players think you get respect from gambling but you don´t. You earn respect by respecting the game first. USA has a great crop of young talent that can really do well in the sport. I hope they chose the right path to represent the sport. Like these young lads have over here
The thread eventually wanders into a bunch of posting on the Mosconi Cup from people who seem to have been in hibernation for the last six months. Johnny responds to their comments
What has Mark Wilson done different than what was done in the past? If i am wrong then i stand corrected but i haven´t seen any change other than the players on the Mosconi Cup team.
Johnny is certainly right about the juniors in Germany AND the fact that it's treated more like a sport there.
Some here know that I spent 10 years in Germany. I was a member of several billiard clubs, always a member of the first team. I also co-owned a pool room that was the home of a city club. We always supported our junior players and insured that they spent ample time practicing. They in turn wanted to advance to the first team so that they could have the status and benefits that go with it. One of those benefits in many clubs, including the ones I was in, was that the club paid expenses to tournaments.
I have long felt that pool in America could benefit dramatically from such an approach. The major problem though is that America is drastically different in culture to Germany. For example in Germany children are not barred from establishments that serve alcohol. And in the pool scene there are many many many clubhouses that are member-owned which are focused solely on the sport. So access is universal without any issues.
Children are mentored and brought up with team competition. They are not treated as individuals to be pitted against other individuals. Their parents are not taking them around to gamble against others.
In the USA it is very rare to see any pool room doing anything meaningful for the kids. Mostly if you see it it's because someone has stepped up to organize it and run the program out of their own time and resources.
I would ask Johnny what he is doing in his own room. Does he now or will he implement some of the examples he saw in Germany?
Ok, Mosconi Cup.......given that this is the first year that someone was entrusted with a captainship so early in the year it is an experiment. I personally feel that statistically the USA squad has very little chance when the respective records of each team's members are compared. The races are short and as we all know any given player can beat any other player in short races. All of the USA's team prospects are runout players.
If Mark manages to coalesce the final picks into a tight team then the team dynamic could raise the spirits and confidence levels into a fighting unit that can win against a crew of top champions despite being the underdog on paper.
In any event going into the homestretch now. Certainly Matchroom's move was brilliant to keep the Mosconi cup relevant as a subject throughout the year.
