Ronnie O'Sullivan - Age 15 - Just To Reinforce Your Feeling Of Inadequacy

Scaramouche

Scaramouche

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That's very cool. Man, there are a lot of pool players I would love to have seen play when they were fifteen.
 
Well, I managed to get through them, though that black haired kid hemmed and hawed on every shot. I was about to fall asleep... sometimes he took so long to shoot, the ref actually had time to finish spotting a ball.

But seriously, I wonder... did Ronnie, at 15, already put in his million balls/10,000 hours?

edit: just watched the post match interview... asked if he put in special practice for this tournament, he says something like "yeah, I put in a little extra for this one... usually for most tournaments I only practice 3-4 hours a day, but I did a bit more for this."

My favorite part is when the interviewer says "these pockets are different from what you're used to eh?" ..."yeah these are much tighter, you have to be more accurate".

Spend 5 minutes on any snooker table and the thought of tightening up those pockets will unman you.
 
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Ronnie started playing snooker at 9. After a year of intence pratice with a coach he scored his first century in pratice. I often wonder "Am I talented for this game"? After knowing Ronnie, probably the most talented person who ever pick up a cue, scored his first century "only" after a year of daily pratice ( hours a day) with a coach and during the year in where you are supposed to learn faster, I come to a conclusion: you can't really know if you are talented or not as long you don't dedicate as much as Ronnie did in his teens.I always thought Ronnie made his first century after 2 months of playing :D
 
CreeDo said:
But seriously, I wonder... did Ronnie, at 15, already put in his million balls/10,000 hours?
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He sure put in much more than that. It is not about hitting millions of balls either...millions of balls would not be worth much if he was just banging them around with no purpose.
Look at his stroke. No funny quirks, no body/head movement, no snatching or jerkiness of any kind. Just pure smoothness each and every time with cue moving in *nearly* perfect piston motion, no strange arcs or loops or whatever. Super reliable and repeatable. This technique was coached from a very early age, he could not have learned that only by himself. He must have worked very hard, despite being super gifted.

Competitive temperament was also clearly there from the start. At just 15, he handled the crowd and cameras like it's nothing. He would not have won anything significant without this ability, despite being technically sound. I'm not sure that champion like temperament can be coached at all.
 
If he started playing at 9, 2,190 days later he would be 15.
Practicing 4.5 hours per day would give him 10,000 hours. :D

And that stroke?
Same with both hands. :D
Did that take another 10,000 hours?

10,000 hours is 600,000 minutes, so a million balls would seem wildly conservative.
He usually takes around 15 seconds per shot, so that would make 4 million balls.:D
 
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That's really sick, a steady 4.5 hours a day to make 10k hours in that span? I mean, he must have had some time off at some point right? It's not the soviet gymnastics team. Maybe shooting fast allowed him to sneak in more practice per hour :P

The composure was amazing. His first game 'on telly'. That poor other kid, he showed a brief sign of life, but mostly it was like getting run over by a train.

And you're right predator... beautiful textbook stroke. Gotta learn that when you're young and the mind is still malleable. Before all the bad habits have settled in. Trying to learn those mechanics after shooting with quirks for 10 years... I suspect for most of us it's a waste of time.
 
The shot he did about 2:15 on the second part, has to take a perfectly setup table, especially with those pockets. If I tried that shot at that speed in most pool tables we have, it would have rolled off in 3 different directions by the time it reached a pocket.
 
I thought I seen all RO's matches. I had no idea about this. He don't look much different!!! lol

For a minute I thought someone was playing a trick and editing videos. He the same style of shooting fast. Had to wait for spots of balls.

Could almost see him ,,thinking,,whats the hold up? He got a little more cocky about it now.

I didn't understand in the end of video 3 why the other kid,,didn't seem to try to run the few balls left on table,wt BIH. Commentator even said,,should he try??? What other choice is there??? Other than lose?? And it didn't look as he tried too hard. Kept leaving RO straight in .
Great stuff though.
 
Wow, this just cemented my opinion that he is the most talented cue sport player of all time. Efren is a close 2nd... Thanks for the links!
 
bwally said:
Wow, this just cemented my opinion that he is the most talented cue sport player of all time. Efren is a close 2nd... Thanks for the links!
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Don't know about that, he is for sure a top player in snooker, but how is he in kicks, safeties, spinning the ball, etc... Snooker is tough to play due to the size of the table and pocket cuts, but there is not too much you do with the cue ball, and there is not a lot of creativity that has to be done most of the time. You just shoot a ball, or leave a long tough shot for the other guy. No hitting 3 rails with inside english to lock up a ball on a stack for 1-pocket or something.

He'd probably be a top ball potter (to use the british term), but top in all cue sports, not in my opinion.
 
hang-the-9 said:
Don't know about that, he is for sure a top player in snooker, but how is he in kicks, safeties, spinning the ball, etc... Snooker is tough to play due to the size of the table and pocket cuts, but there is not too much you do with the cue ball, and there is not a lot of creativity that has to be done most of the time. You just shoot a ball, or leave a long tough shot for the other guy. No hitting 3 rails with inside english to lock up a ball on a stack for 1-pocket or something.

He'd probably be a top ball potter (to use the british term), but top in all cue sports, not in my opinion.
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Don't want to get into the snooker vs pool debate but have a look at this video..

Oh and he plays almost as well left handed as he does right hand. Most figure he would be a top 16 player in the world with his "off hand".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7uxUpcEzxA&feature=fvwrel
 
hang-the-9 said:
Don't know about that, he is for sure a top player in snooker, but how is he in kicks, safeties, spinning the ball, etc... Snooker is tough to play due to the size of the table and pocket cuts, but there is not too much you do with the cue ball, and there is not a lot of creativity that has to be done most of the time. You just shoot a ball, or leave a long tough shot for the other guy. No hitting 3 rails with inside english to lock up a ball on a stack for 1-pocket or something.

He'd probably be a top ball potter (to use the british term), but top in all cue sports, not in my opinion.
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If you question his ability to kick, play safe, and/or spin the ball, all I can say is you haven't watched him play enough. If you think snooker doesn't require creativity, then you haven't watched enough or played the game enough. With that huge playing surface, I've seen whitey get tucked in behind one of only two balls on the table after hitting multiple rails many times. No creativity or skill required? Seriously?
 
hang-the-9 said:
Don't know about that, he is for sure a top player in snooker, but how is he in kicks, safeties, spinning the ball, etc... Snooker is tough to play due to the size of the table and pocket cuts, but there is not too much you do with the cue ball, and there is not a lot of creativity that has to be done most of the time. You just shoot a ball, or leave a long tough shot for the other guy. No hitting 3 rails with inside english to lock up a ball on a stack for 1-pocket or something.
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Ha ha ha. Hey 'mouche, do you recall the RO match you posted up a while back where near the end of a runout he goes into what I would call "9 Ball mode" ? He starts slamming balls and going three rails for shape and other non-snookerlike position shots ? hang-the-9 needs to watch that.

Dave
 
predator said:
He sure put in much more than that. It is not about hitting millions of balls either...millions of balls would not be worth much if he was just banging them around with no purpose.
Look at his stroke. No funny quirks, no body/head movement, no snatching or jerkiness of any kind. Just pure smoothness each and every time with cue moving in *nearly* perfect piston motion, no strange arcs or loops or whatever. Super reliable and repeatable. This technique was coached from a very early age, he could not have learned that only by himself.
Click to expand...

There are thousands of British players that cue like Ronnie, 99% with no coaching, no books, no DVDs, no aiming systems, no fancy equipment...

His talent would have been spotted at an early age and nurtured, obviously, but his is a god given gift.

The secret to playing great snooker/pool is;

1. Start early.
2. Table time.
3. Competition.
4. Hunger and desire.
5. Talent.
6. Role models to copy.

Coaching? Meh.
 
bwally said:
Don't want to get into the snooker vs pool debate but have a look at this video..

Oh and he plays almost as well left handed as he does right hand. Most figure he would be a top 16 player in the world with his "off hand".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7uxUpcEzxA&feature=fvwrel
Click to expand...

Nice shots, most are pretty standard, although tough position shots, especially on a large table.

Not sure was #7 was, it looked like he missed the shot and got a lucky safe. From the shots he can make, does not look like he'd have had a problem making the ball and going up table for the next one. Maybe I don't know enough about snooker strategy, why would he bank that ball on purpose like that?

I like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=KpUZIOBcMmE&NR=1 There was a comment about him that he plays snooker like he's on a pool table, and it does seem that way.
 
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