Why don't pool's best and brightest try to break into the snooker scene in the UK?

Golf is played different in Canada...actually I have NEVER seen it played exactly the same place to place. 15 years ago I jumped into the game at Hardtimes in LA. I did well but that game might as well be call tennis because it had zero resemblance to the game we play.

In Canada we only get Hickeys in the backs of cars.

Nick

Underclocked said:
Golf requires "special" :wink: skills and one must be intimately familiar with the individual table to really play it well. I loved to play golf but actually felt it hurt my stroke when it came to playing snooker. I think he would have left a different impression in a pure snooker game.
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My take

The transition from pool to snooker would take a tremendous talent and a very long time it would be like learning to walk again. I was dear friends with one of the greatest snooker talents that died way too young (Paul Hunter) and the amount of time these guys spent learning the game is crazy especially before the tobacco money dried up. Snooker acadamies and 12 hr days at the snooker club spent among former world snooker champions is something that pool players can not duplicate.

I like Steve davis quote

"in the 80s I was on the telly more then the Queen"

Unless the pool community and sponsers ever stepped up no pool player can transition to a top snooker player
 
DaveK said:
If I bump into him soon I'll ask a friend of mine about this. He is on Phils list of Canadian snooker champions above. One day before nationals a few years back he told me that he would play both snooker and 8/9 ball only if snooker was before pool. He said that when they hold the 8/9 ball ahead of snooker he won't play pool because it messes up his snooker stroke. Like I said, if I see him soon I'll ask why and post it up.

Dave <--- will have to go to a golf course to find Daryl, but that's OK too :thumbup:
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hitting snooker balls requires a better stroke, and better mechanics, plain and simple. the discipline and focus involved in cueing well is much more involved than it is in pool. Daryl would most likely say that playing pool before snooker disrupts his focus and therefore his mechanics.

when a snooker player plays pool, he doesn''t have to focus on mechanics at all, it's pretty much point and shoot. you can't do that in snooker..

you can half ass your way around a pool table and still get away with it. that's why even the best pool players can find themselves "dogging it"

you can't half ass your way around a snooker table, period.
 
It's like NASCAR drivers trying to get into F1. Jeff Gordon did some F1 test driving in his heyday and was way off the pace. It's too different.
 
Although there are certainly differences between the games, we should not get carried away and forget how much there is in common.

There is a huge amount that a pro snooker player needs to learn before he can compete at the top level, and this takes many years. But a pool player will have learned much of this during the many years it takes to get to the top of that game.

So I dont think that it is necessarily true that a player such as Rempe or Miz had no chance in making a switch to snooker because they started too late and could not put in the years needed. The reason they had no chance is that they never took the decision give up pool for a while and try to learn a different stroke.

I am not saying it would be easy - they say that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. But there are some very talented pro pool players out there. To quote (and probably misquote) a poster in a different thread, talented players stumble on the right way of doing things pretty easily. With the right kind of guidance, I don't see why someone like John Schmidt say could not do it if he made the commitment.

And even if the experiment failed, I don't think that it would do any harm to pro's pool speed, once he had come back to the game and re-adjusted.
 
pt109 said:
Alex has beaten 3 Canuck champs in tournaments and a two-time champ
for serious cash...but it's too late for him to switch...even though he has
the 'piston' stroke required.
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Over in the Snooker forum, a poster say that Alex is entered in the snooker section of the Canadian championship starting on Sunday. Haven't seen the draw.

labatt ice rod said:
well first of all this years Canadian championships are being live streamed at www.cbsa.ca and its also the return of Alex "the lion " Pagulayan who will be playing in the open snooker event. I was with him yesterday at shooters and hes running 100s in his sleep asked him when was the last time he played snooker and in his classic Alex ways said its my first time ha ha. This years events will be like none other with players like Alex, John Morra, Jason Klatt, Martell and the rest of canada's best will be one to watch so come out to Shooters and watch Canadas best. It would be nice to see the media in Canada get behind this great event . Good luck to all ..
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To put snooker play into perspective:

Things can get awkward.

I have seen snooker frames that get quickly down to one red and the six colours remaining, then a safety battle develops, and can last more than hour. - Tough finding examples on youtube - Clips have been taken down, or the matches aren't posted by frame.

When did you ever see a 9 ball game, with seven balls remaining, get into that sort of extended brawl?

Smaller balls, smaller pockets, much larger table = far more precision required.
This one is only about 30 minutes, but you will get the idea :D

2010 Premier League
Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Mark Selby
Frame 6
1000 pounds per frame, 25 second shot clock
Frame 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMUra3-7HoM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQfmiqhDv4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT6uh5t1gtc

Steve Davis vs Ricky Walden - about 40 minutes
2008 Shanghai Masters
Frame 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZZbwsGz3c0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frJmzI5ystw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxrdhmXFrCk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0gGbUkZxfc

Shaun Murphy vs Ronnie O'Sullivan about 43 minutes
2007 Grand Prix
Frame 1
http://www.youtube.com/user/snolokers#p/u/11/IO_fzBEdGUs
http://www.youtube.com/user/snolokers#p/u/10/VRxVRR6g8bs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXBdea85gLQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-2T2j5XjOY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kPn-YpdXSY&feature=related
 
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American player entered in European Snooker Championships

Alex Kopel, 31, highest break in tournament play 50, in practice 75.
He's been competing in the U.S.
http://www.snookerline.com/ustour/news/2011/ussatour11e2.htm
The winner gets on the tour.


http://www.esnooker.pl/turnieje/2011/me/en/memz_2011.php
near the bottom of the list

Groups
http://www.esnooker.pl/turnieje/2011/me/en/memgall_2011.php

Scoring
http://www.esnooker.pl/live/en/ts.php

Info
http://www.esnooker.pl/turnieje/2011/me/en/mem_2011.php
 
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thefonz said:
...

you can half ass your way around a pool table and still get away with it....

you can't half ass your way around a snooker table, period.
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Ya, that's why I play pool and why you'll never see me on a snooker table :embarrassed2:

Dave
 
In Vancouver you can have either or both at the same time in a heartbeat.

2.jpg


Nick

Black-Balled said:
I hope that another difference is that they are never getted from man, or men!
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