Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

I think he's 16. His Fargo is 670ish and even if you correct for youthful rapid improvement he's not much higher than 700.

He does play very well and is definitely fully dedicated. But of course not everyone with those attributes can be a successful pro.
That's certainly strong enough to keep pushing forward, but he must continue to assess his prospects. If he's gambling for $10,000 at a time, then he can certainly afford to play in the WPA Junior World 9ball Championships. There is a 19 and under division and also a 17 and under division. He can find out where his game is relative to others his age that are considering a career in pro pool.

My first cue from Cody Cash at PK Custom Cues

Beautiful work! Really similar in look to a Meucci cue. I love how the points are so long and lean, reaching for the collar. Just for my personal preference, I gravitate towards the neutral tones. Black, white and gray may not be flashy, but they do force a maker to have elegant designs that stand on their own. Can't say I'd ever want a textured wrap, no matter what the material. Still, a really nice cue you can be damned proud to own. Congrats!

3D Printed One Pocket Ball Rack

I took the quick print to the pool room and put it on a shelf. It was surprisingly stable, even though it was only as wide as the balls.


On the table (where it was intended), it sticks out less than the Diamond wire metal rack, and doesn't get in the player's leg's way. My leg/shin bangs into the diamond wire rack sometimes. As seen in the picture, it can be optimized to fit into that space better.
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Seeing the contact point on the object ball.

Thick or thin cut I aim directly at the contact point whether I’m using side or not. I know other players who swear by ghost ball, cte, track system .. whatever but your brain is making corrections for you most of the time. Case in point ..
We took a ruler at the hall years ago. Setup a shot about 7 feet from CB and ask the player to pinpoint the center of the ghost ball as I stepped away from object ball with a ruler held vertically. They said stop when they thought ruler was at center of ghost ball. We then measured distance and all the measurements were different, one player marked at 1 5/8 inches if I remember correctly. The weird thing is that each player made the shot with no problem.
It’s a reference point and after much practice your brain will make the corrections until you ‘feel’ it’s right. After many years the same has happened to me and although I know it’s not possible to aim directly at the contact point due to the “relationship of the spheres” it works perfectly for me. I don’t even see the balls as round, don’t care, I see the contact point clearly, better when I was younger, and the ball goes in the hole. I’d aim the same way if the balls were square
Remember, however, that there is a margin of error allowed to each side of the center pocket line, so a little error either way should still pot the ball--of course, the error can be larger as the ball is closer to the pocket.

I learned pretty quickly that one cannot aim *directly* at the contact point, as it creates an undercut situation, and corrected my aim to compensate. I think that it is also possible to instead train oneself to aim at the 'closer' side of the pocket (overcut) and THEN aim at the CP,so that the natural undercut is compensated for by using the overcut, line-to-pocket. I'm sure that still falls apart at some point, but if the offset of the aimpoint to the contact point is consistent, then maybe the divergence in the two lines would be consistent--the object ball aiming line, compared to the traveled path. [I've often wanted to test on this, but never think about it when I'm actually near a table.]

Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

I was an assistant pro at a golf course Rickie Fowler played regularly when he was a junior. Everyone knew he would be on the PGA tour one day. There was another junior in the area that was scratch at 17. He had never played Rickie before. They met up in a 9 hole high school match. Both parred the first 5 holes. Junior thinks I can hang with Rickie. He isn't THAT good. Rickie then birdies the last 4 holes to shoot 32. The junior said that was the moment he knew golf wasn't going to be a career for him.

Who knows which juniors will make it vs just be strong players. Hopefully they find out which group they are in to make a decision sooner rather than later.

Davis takes two of three over Jackson, to win 8-Ball Classic at The League Room in WV

Status designations can get tricky when it comes to pool players. Everybody recognizes the Professional status; that upper echelon of competition that plays out on world stages. So, too with the ‘Amateur’ status, which generally occurs at an Amateur pool league level. There is, too, a ProAm designation, which straddles the line between ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ and includes players who compete on both sides of that line; i.e., amateur league competition locally, once a week or so, and short trips to varied locations where they do battle on a regional tour or independent event level. As their skills develop, many […]

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Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

Where is Colsten's game relative to those who went on to earn a living at pro pool? Does he play as well at his age as they did at his age? He needs to know if he is going to make the best possible decisions with respect to his path in life.
I think he's 16. His Fargo is 670ish and even if you correct for youthful rapid improvement he's not much higher than 700.

He does play very well and is definitely fully dedicated. But of course not everyone with those attributes can be a successful pro.

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