Is Someone That Competes at Pool Considered an Athlete

[Hustlinu]

I dont think pool players can be considered athletes. You dont have to be in good shape physically to play pool. There are a lot of obese people that play pool.

 

[dr9ball]

I dont think pool players can be considered athletes. You dont have to be in good shape physically to play pool. There are a lot of obese people that play pool.

Well where does Sumo wrestling fit in all of this then? it is regarded as a sport and those guys are obese but tough. There also some pretty fat linemen in the NFL, strong for sure but certainly overweight. I don't know what level of fitness is needed to participate in ice curling, but I can't imagine it being as rigorous as say the decathlon. Some of the all time greats in Olympic weightlifting were considerably overweight if not morbidly obese.

 

[JB Cases]

I dont think pool players can be considered athletes. You dont have to be in good shape physically to play pool. There are a lot of obese people that play pool.

You don't have to be in shape to play or do any sport or activity.

 

[Spimp13]

You don't have to be in shape to play or do any sport or activity.

To "play" a sport as in for fun yes...to be a "pro" there are some sports where you do have to be in shape to play. I used to play tennis and there was no way you could be pro in tennis and not be in shape.

 

[Chip Roberson]

I have always considered the game to be an art form, with all the creativity that is demanded to play the game correctly--guess I'll go and cut my ear off now

 

[JB Cases]

To "play" a sport as in for fun yes...to be a "pro" there are some sports where you do have to be in shape to play. I used to play tennis and there was no way you could be pro in tennis and not be in shape.

Clearly. I was making the obvious counterpoint.

 

[JoeyInCali]

Pool is not an athletic event.
Pool player and bowlers are not athletes imo.
To be an athlete, your sport has to involve some cardio activity imo.
Most pool pros aren't in very good shape.
Staying up late makes you lose muscles too.

 

[Spimp13]

Clearly. I was making the obvious counterpoint.

Sometimes we have to spell it out :grin:

 

[JB Cases]

Pool is not an athletic event.
Pool player and bowlers are not athletes imo.
To be an athlete, your sport has to involve some cardio activity imo.
Most pool pros aren't in very good shape.
Staying up late makes you lose muscles too.

If you don't feel your heart pumping when you are playing then you aren't betting enough.

 

[Chip Roberson]

Rasing the bet, Hmm is that like standing on a bucket that's laying on the ground, you don't have much trouble doing that , but raise that bucket 500 feet up in the air, it starts to get a bit shaky too some.
.

 

[Hustlinu]

You don't have to be in shape to play or do any sport or activity.[/QUOte

You do if you want to be successful in that sport or activity. Pool is one of the few sports or activities where you can be obese and out of shape and still be successful. Doesn't take much energy to walk around a table.

 

[CJ Wiley]

The days of "Fats" are long gone

You don't have to be in shape to play or do any sport or activity.[/QUOte

You do if you want to be successful in that sport or activity. Pool is one of the few sports or activities where you can be obese and out of shape and still be successful. Doesn't take much energy to walk around a table.

There's no top pocket billiard players that are fat or out of shape these days. I know the top players also play golf, tennis or work out regularly.

The days of "Fats" are long gone and he would have no chance competing with todays top players.

 

[JB Cases]

You don't have to be in shape to play or do any sport or activity.[/QUOte

You do if you want to be successful in that sport or activity. Pool is one of the few sports or activities where you can be obese and out of shape and still be successful. Doesn't take much energy to walk around a table.

Actually it takes quite a bit of energy to walk around the table. In some ways low impact sports require far more control than kinetic ones.

A pool table is 27 feet around the perimeter. Assuming an average of .5 trips around the table per shot and assuming say an average of 5 shots per game in a hill/hill match to 13 games that would be 25 games played or 57.5ft per game and we will add in the extra 3ft or so from the chair and round it off to 60ft per game x 25 games is 1500ft of walking in one match. Add in all the bending and stretching and contorting that they do on the shots and you have definitely physical exertion.

Try this, walk the length of five football fields, stopping every 13 feet to bend over and hold a pool position for 20 seconds. In those 20 seconds you can't move your head, drop your shoulder, roll your hips, you must stroke as if you are stroking a pool cue. Do that for 1500ft and tell me how you feel after that?

Now do it five times a day like some players have to deal with in tournaments.

Go to your pool table and set up a straight in shot and shoot it 500 times. What does your arm feel like at that point? Your back? Shoulders?

Anyone who has ever played competitive pool for hours knows that it's tough on the body. And I don't mean bar leagues where you sit around and play ONE GAME every 20 minutes for a total of five games. Or one set per night.

Pool is however a sport where fat people can still play at a high level and don't require AS MUCH athleticism as a volleyball champion. But still there is movement and it's not easy to maintain control of your body. It's harder to stay still and control a few muscles precisely than it is to move a lot of them in a reflexive reaction.

So yes, pool players are athletes, sometimes not the textbook picture of athletes but athletes all the same. That they aren't considered to be by many, even many who play as evidenced by this thread, is clear. Then again we all delight in no greater sport than labeling.

 

[JB Cases]

There's no top pocket billiard players that are fat or out of shape these days. I know the top players also play golf, tennis or work out regularly.

The days of "Fats" are long gone and he would have no chance competing with todays top players.

Melling has a lot of extra weight on him. But you know as well as I do that "fat" and out-of-shape is very much debatable. Dr. Robert Lustig just wrote a book that shows that a lot of skinny people are actually unhealthy and far less healthy than a lot of fat people.

He shows in the book that the fat you can see isn't the dangerous fat. It's the fat you can't see that determines whether a person is healthy and energetic or unhealthy and lethargic.

But in general I agree, at the top of the game most players are taking their heath and physical conditioning seriously more than ever. They are certainly athletes.

 

[Hustlinu]

if this was done steady without sitting down in between, but a lot of time is spent sitting down unless you are shooting. If you get exhausted from playing pool its because you are most likely out of shape. Its not like running a few miles without stopping.

 

[JB Cases]

if this was done steady without sitting down in between, but a lot of time is spent sitting down unless you are shooting. If you get exhausted from playing pool its because you are most likely out of shape. Its not like running a few miles without stopping.

A lot of sports, most of them, have sitting down and breaks in the action.

If you get exhausted playing pool then it's an indication that pool requires exhausting effort. And if a sport can drain you then it requires some athleticism to play it.

 

[JoeyInCali]

You do if you want to be successful in that sport or activity. Pool is one of the few sports or activities where you can be obese and out of shape and still be successful. Doesn't take much energy to walk around a table.

It sure doesn't .
Your resting heart rate doesn't rise that much ( if at all ) from playing pool.


Wasn't Irving Crane some 60 yrs old when he won his last world title ?
Pool players are not athletes. Race car drivers might not be athletes either but they sure have to stay in better shape than pro pool players.

If pool players are athletes, pros would be in great shape . Imagine participating in any sports activity of hours a day.
Instead, most pool pros are in horrible physical shape.

 

[Ron Moore]

Going back to the original post. All sports are games but most games are not sports. To put it technically -

Sports are a subset of competitive games where physical prowess is valued over mental prowess. Sports also tend to have organizational bodies with codified rules to govern competition and rank players accordingly. Without formal competition, you have an exercise or activity.

The closest parallel I see for cue sports is to archery.

 

[JB Cases]

It sure doesn't .
Your resting heart rate doesn't rise that much ( if at all ) from playing pool.


Wasn't Irving Crane some 60 yrs old when he won his last world title ?
Pool players are not athletes. Race car drivers might not be athletes either but they sure have to stay in better shape than pro pool players.

If pool players are athletes, pros would be in great shape . Imagine participating in any sports activity of hours a day.
Instead, most pool pros are in horrible physical shape.

No, most pool pros are NOT in horrible physical shape.

 

[BullBuchanan]

Personally, I don't consider pool a sport, or by relation, its competitors athletes. This is not to say that a pool player cannot be an athlete, and indeed there are many that are in great physical shape, and use it to their advantage at the table. Being in good shape, however, is not a pre-requisite for success. For this same reason, I consider golf a game. Anything that Minnesota Fats or John Daly can do is not a sport.

I think the golden rule should be this. If you can drink & smoke while you do it, it can't be in the sport category.

I do lots of "competitive games/activities": Pool, Poker, Darts, Chess, Target Shooting, but I am by no means an "athlete".