I didn't read every post, so if it has already been said , sorry, . Back in the mid 1800s when pool became available to the common people, there became several groups of world class players, John Roberts was the head of the one in England, Michaeal Phelan was Irish but became American and was one of the leaders here, Jake Schaeffer being another, The Dion Brothers in Canada, Claudius Berger, Professor Kaarlus,and so on. probably around 100 to 200 top players with these guys at the very top .their sons and a couple of their daughters became the next generation, Phelans son in law Dudley Kavanaugh, replaced him as champion, Jake Shaeffer Jr, John Roberts Jr, The next group was Maurice Daly nephew of Dudley Kavanaugh. Daly saw Willie Hoppe playing pool and told his family he had a great stroke to become a billiard player, he began his training under Daly at his Academie and became the best of that era. They passed the knowledge along in the family when they could, why not, it was a good way to make money back then. A lot of the original group went on to have relatives still playing at the top levels into the 1940s , maybe even longer, I got too sick to do more research. I collected the old books on how to play , there is very little information in them at all , certainly nowhere near Bob Byrnes book, all combined. which was around a 1000 books up until 1970, now everybody and their sister has written a pool book. Some are great, some are trash. but combining all the good ones , there is nothing from stopping someone from becoming the best in the world, if they master what they are taught imo. But before Byrnes book , you either had a natural ability at the game and someone with knowledge helped you become a master, or you banged a million balls before you started getting the feel of the game.
