No Wonder The U.S Sucks Against World

[Ak Guy]

Maybe

I think that most American pool players know they cannot make a living playing pool so they pursue careers where they can make a living.

Careers that have benefits, insurance, retirement plans, living and working in the community you live in and a steady pay check. Few pool players incomes can compete with that.

But, there are some that take immense satisfaction in taking a wooden stick and poking a ball in a hole. They are willing to have most every thing else in life take a back seat to that passion. That is their right for sure.

Some of the planners and goal setters know they have to invest their winning in some thing that will give them a return on their winnings. But, for most there is little money left to invest after the eat, buy clothes and shelter.

How many other sports have professional participants sharing rooms to cut down on expenses? That would get old in a hurry, especially with little reward in the end.

I wish I knew of a way to make pool more popular and profitable for professional players.

 

[Straightpool_99]

The U.S can't win world titles out of the U.S in 8,9,and 10 ball. All the top U.S players are playing one pocket. I guess they have to play it because that's where most of the action is now. Johnnyt

The world is a big place...Now that many countries have adopted pool, the US cannot expect to dominate the game as they did before. It's really that simple.

That being said, I don't think playing one pocket more or less exclusively is going to help the US players to win 9/10 ball titles. The games are just too different. Much like some people are claiming that the best snooker players would dominate pool if they played for a year. It just doesn't work that way. To be great at any cue game you have to play it all the time to get a feel for it. Every game has it's own patterns, recurring shots and knowledge. The world is playing 9/10 ball. That's where the titles and money are. The US players cannot just walk in and expect to beat everyone, when the players they are trying to defeat are working at those games 24/7. The US has many talented players, but that's not enough. You have to work hard and stay in tough competition all the time, because that's what everyone else is doing.

Every time I immerse myself in one pool game for a period of time, my skills in other pool games suffer slightly, I'm just an amateur but the dropoff can be noticed in my game at least. Not much, maybe, but for a top player even the slightest dropoff will mean defeat.

 

[Nostroke]

Wow, that's deep. As far as rotation games two words sum it up: BAR BOX. Almost all U.S. tournaments are on the bar-table. That's why CSI is moving their championships back to 9ft'rs. You can't spend all your time in the kiddie pool and expect to win in a Olympic-size pool.

The fact that the head of CSI happens to own a newly re-opened pool toom with lots of 9 footers and in need of publicity nothwithstanding.

 

[one stroke]

The U.S can't win world titles out of the U.S in 8,9,and 10 ball. All the top U.S players are playing one pocket. I guess they have to play it because that's where most of the action is now. Johnnyt

It has nothing to do with the game and everything to do the venues the training available and the participants avialible

We have little venues little structured teaching available centered around youth pool in fact the only one I know of catering to that is JBs new place I'm pretty sure he's seen first hand how the Asians have risen top the top and he's trying to bring that here

It's a hard trick to pull when we have the big five sports that sucks up talent from could be pool players and for yrs the pool hall was frowned upon
Infact here you hear the term all the time when asking a player how he got good in pool and the answer is yrs of a misspent youth

We have frowned upon it while others glorie it , even thou that perception has changed it's still not looked at it as ticket to paradise like it is in other places especially the Philippines so we are always going to be behind the 8 ball sorta speak

1

 

[garczar]

The fact that the head of CSI happens to own a newly re-opened pool toom with lots of 9 footers and in need of publicity nothwithstanding.

Who else in Vegas has that many 9ft's? Why rent more tables when you own a spot that's full of them? CSI has probably done more to promote pool in the U.S. as anyone. If it puts coin in his pocket i'm not going to hold it against him. BTW, Griff's is busy pretty much non-stop. Awesome place.

 

[HawaiianEye]

So how do you explain the Philippines domination for 30 years? Why doesn't Mexico have more to notch players? Where are all the players from India or Japan?

People who have never been there or lived there may never know the answer.

I lived in Taipei, Taiwan for three years during the early 70s. You couldn't find a pool table anywhere except for the American military bases and in some American military clubs. The Taiwanese played snooker. I lived upstairs from a snooker hall. I won the island-wide championships in 1975 and 1976. It seems strange how they are now some of the best players in the world.

I lived and played pool in Angeles City in the Philippines during the time Efren was the top Filipino player there and before he came to the USA. He was about 25 at the time. Jose Parica was the Philippine champion at that time. I lived there for three years. Trying to compare the pool culture there to anywhere is impossible.

Pool is a cheap sport there and it costs nothing to watch. There are pool tables everywhere. The economy there is such that there are thousands and thousands of young kids with nothing to do except for things that are free. You see them in every pool place everywhere. Those that are fortunate to have someone give them a chance to play and learn take the opportunity. They don't have other stuff to do. To compare the economy, I had a gardener who had a college degree in some sort of business administration. He worked about eight hours-a-day for me, one day a week. He could make more money being a gardener than he could in a job with his degree. I paid him $4 for the day. I had two full-time, live-in maids and paid a total salary of $60 a month for the both of them. If kids learn they can make money doing something, they go for it if they have the opportunity. They aren't lazy asses like today's American kids.

I lived in Japan for four years and they have some good players, but their youth is like ours and are more interested in doing something else. Pool doesn't excite them, the same way it doesn't excite the youth in the USA. They are too modernized and Westernized.

Pool is considered to be a "sport" in the Philippines...in the USA it is considered a "game".

 

[louieatienza]

People who have never been there or lived there may never know the answer.

I lived in Taipei, Taiwan for three years during the early 70s. You couldn't find a pool table anywhere except for the American military bases and in some American military clubs. The Taiwanese played snooker. I lived upstairs from a snooker hall. I won the island-wide championships in 1975 and 1976. It seems strange how they are now some of the best players in the world.

I lived and played pool in Angeles City in the Philippines during the time Efren was the top Filipino player there and before he came to the USA. He was about 25 at the time. Jose Parica was the Philippine champion at that time. I lived there for three years. Trying to compare the pool culture there to anywhere is impossible.

Pool is a cheap sport there and it costs nothing to watch. There are pool tables everywhere. The economy there is such that there are thousands and thousands of young kids with nothing to do except for things that are free. You see them in every pool place everywhere. Those that are fortunate to have someone give them a chance to play and learn take the opportunity. They don't have other stuff to do. To compare the economy, I had a gardener who had a college degree in some sort of business administration. He worked about eight hours-a-day for me, one day a week. He could make more money being a gardener than he could in a job with his degree. I paid him $4 for the day. I had two full-time, live-in maids and paid a total salary of $60 a month for the both of them. If kids learn they can make money doing something, they go for it if they have the opportunity. They aren't lazy asses like today's American kids.

I lived in Japan for four years and they have some good players, but their youth is like ours and are more interested in doing something else. Pool doesn't excite them, the same way it doesn't excite the youth in the USA. They are too modernized and Westernized.

Pool is considered to be a "sport" in the Philippines...in the USA it is considered a "game".

I've been to the Philippines a few times, and am of Filipino descent. I don't think people here realize how dirt-poor really is; in the Philippines, it's literal. Your salary quotes are spot-on. My aunt still lives in the same bamboo-and-straw house that my great-great grandparents lived in, the oldest surviving house in their province, and the second level got wrecked during Yolanda.

Oh yeah, aside from being poor, the Philippines is in the Ring of Fire (volcanic activity), a major fault (earthquake and tsunami threat), and they're inline with Typhoon alley.

 

[parvus1202]

I think US players whine so much. Crowd is noisy, chalk on the table, opponent is sharking, table is cloth is slow/fast, rail is bouncy etc. When I was in Manila way back years ago top players play everywhere, doesn't matter what condition. They can even play in the middle of a war zone and don't care. US players want a condition like a cemetery where everybody is dead silent.

 

[wayne]

If kids learn they can make money doing something, they go for it if they have the opportunity. They aren't lazy asses like today's American kids.

.

Are you referring to the lazy ass American kids who excel at basketball from a young age and go onto play high school then college basketball and then turn pro to make millions of dollars or in some cases hundreds of millions. Or the lazy ass ones who excel in youth football and eventually turn pro to make millions. Or the lazy ass kids who start playing baseball as children and develop into major league players and stars who make a fortune. Or the lazy ass kids who take up hockey and develop into world class players. Or the lazy ass kids who take up golf and rise to the top like Tiger or Phil or Jordan Spieth now and make millions. Or the lazy ass tennis players like the Williams sisters who started as children and rise to the best in the world and make a fortune. Or maybe the youth who excel at other Olympic sports like some of the best swimmers, gymnasts etc. etc. I am pretty sure these lazy ass kids win quite a lot of medals.

Oh sorry, you probably mean some other lazy ass kids.

 

[HawaiianEye]

Are you referring to the lazy ass American kids who excel at basketball from a young age and go onto play high school then college basketball and then turn pro to make millions of dollars or in some cases hundreds of millions. Or the lazy ass ones who excel in youth football and eventually turn pro to make millions. Or the lazy ass kids who start playing baseball as children and develop into major league players and stars who make a fortune. Or the lazy ass kids who take up hockey and develop into world class players. Or the lazy ass kids who take up golf and rise to the top like Tiger or Phil or Jordan Spieth now and make millions. Or the lazy ass tennis players like the Williams sisters who started as children and rise to the best in the world and make a fortune. Or maybe the youth who excel at other Olympic sports like some of the best swimmers, gymnasts etc. etc. I am pretty sure these lazy ass kids win quite a lot of medals.

Oh sorry, you probably mean some other lazy ass kids.

Yes, the other 99% of the kid population.

How many kids do you see in the USA who are standing in the middle of a major city street selling cigarettes, one by one, to get enough money to feed their family?

How many kids do you see who only have ONE set of clothes?

How many kids do you see who live in houses that have NEVER had electricity or indoor plumbing?

That is common in the Philippines.

The kids (and people in general) in the USA have never experienced true poverty like it is throughout some of the world. They may have seen it on TV, which in a lot of cases there are households in the PI that have never had a TV.

Tiger Woods never experienced any kind of poverty and neither did 99% of of the athletes you may be referencing. Ask Efren where he was sleeping when he learned to play pool. Ask almost any of the Filipino champions. The majority of them would have killed to have any of things that even the most impoverished people in the USA have. People in the USA are spoiled. I'm an American and live in the USA, but have lived and traveled enough to be able to compare one place to another.

You mention college, which makes me laugh. There are thousands and thousands of kids in the Philippines who drop out of school as adolescents or work to feed their families and themselves.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...ce/a-look-at-dropout-rates-in-the-philippines

 

[wayne]

Yes, the other 99% of the kid population.

How many kids do you see in the USA who are standing in the middle of a major city street selling cigarettes, one by one, to get enough money to feed their family?

How many kids do you see who only have ONE set of clothes?

How many kids do you see who live in houses that have NEVER had electricity or indoor plumbing?

That is common in the Philippines.

The kids (and people in general) in the USA have never experienced true poverty like it is throughout some of the world. They may have seen it on TV, which in a lot of cases there are households in the PI that have never had a TV.

Tiger Woods never experienced any kind of poverty and neither did 99% of of the athletes you may be referencing. Ask Efren where he was sleeping when he learned to play pool. Ask almost any of the Filipino champions. The majority of them would have killed to have any of things that even the most impoverished people in the USA have. People in the USA are spoiled. I'm an American and live in the USA, but have lived and traveled enough to be able to compare one place to another.

You mention college, which makes me laugh. There are thousands and thousands of kids in the Philippines who drop out of school as adolescents or work to feed their families and themselves.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...ce/a-look-at-dropout-rates-in-the-philippines

You referred to todays american kids as lazy ass. I gave numerous examples to show how ridiculous it is to generalize american kids this way. There are probably millions of American kids that are not lazy ass as you refer to them.

Now you throw in poverty as your excuse for your horrible generalization.

There are hundreds of thousand if not millions of American kids that grew up to be successful coming from poverty and sometimes extreme poverty. Do a little research and you will find many examples of extreme poverty to success. Not Tiger Woods but how about Lebron James = extreme poverty (born to a single 16 year old mother). Mike Tyson extreme poverty, 30 arrests by age 13. The list goes on and on and on and on. Pro players who grew up in homeless shelters; with father a murderer; mom addict father in jail; mother crack head.

Yes a lot of American youth have it better that others but a lot who don't still are not lazy ass and make something of themselves. Most student athletes live below the poverty level in U.S.

You can make your argument any way you like but your statement about American youths was just plain WRONG.

 

[marek]

You referred to todays american kids as lazy ass. I gave numerous examples to show how ridiculous it is to generalize american kids this way. There are probably millions of American kids that are not lazy ass as you refer to them.

Now you throw in poverty as your excuse for your horrible generalization.

There are hundreds of thousand if not millions of American kids that grew up to be successful coming from poverty and sometimes extreme poverty. Do a little research and you will find many examples of extreme poverty to success. Not Tiger Woods but how about Lebron James = extreme poverty (born to a single 16 year old mother). Mike Tyson extreme poverty, 30 arrests by age 13. The list goes on and on and on and on. Pro players who grew up in homeless shelters; with father a murderer; mom addict father in jail; mother crack head.

Yes a lot of American youth have it better that others but a lot who don't still are not lazy ass and make something of themselves. Most student athletes live below the poverty level in U.S.

You can make your argument any way you like but your statement about American youths was just plain WRONG.

Sorry sir, but you know nothing about real poverty..

 

[wayne]

Sorry sir, but you know nothing about real poverty..

Ha ha. And how do you know so much about me to make a stupid statement like that? I just may know a lot more about it than you do. My experiences may put you to shame.

How can someone make such an idiotic remark with zero information?

 

[marek]

Ha ha. And how do you know so much about me to make a stupid statement like that? I just may know a lot more about it than you do. My experiences may put you to shame.

How can someone make such an idiotic remark with zero information?

Very easily sir. If you consider Mike Tyson childhood as the example of extreme poverty then you really know nothing about what extreme poverty is. Have a nice day

 

[wayne]

Very easily sir. If you consider Mike Tyson childhood as the example of extreme poverty then you really know nothing about what extreme poverty is. Have a nice day

Yeah I guess living in a dangerous poverty stricken part of Brooklyn as a child with no father, and no money is a luxury. But they couldn't even afford to stay there and were forced to move to an even more dangerous and poverty stricken area in order to survive. Yup a real childhood dream life.

Tyson lived in a ghetto full of drugs and violence and his family was considered the poorest of the poor people. He wore rags and hand me down shoes with holes in them.

Trust me, maybe you had it a little tough in the Czech Republic but the odds on you being alive today, if you lived where Tyson did as a child, are about slim to none.

 

[marek]

Yeah I guess living in a dangerous poverty stricken part of Brooklyn as a child with no father, and no money is a luxury. But they couldn't even afford to stay there and were forced to move to an even more dangerous and poverty stricken area in order to survive. Yup a real childhood dream life.

Trust me, maybe you had it a little tough in the Czech Republic but the odds on you being alive today, if you lived where Tyson did as a child, are about slim to none.

I didnt say Mike had nice childhood, but trust me - for instance in sub-Saharan Africa 2000 children die every single day because of poor sanitation and no access to drinkable water. I guess these children would trade their childhood with Mike anytime. But my remarks are idiotic according to you so you may discard my opinion at your pleasure
P.s.: My childhood was just fine, thanks for your concern

 

[Johnnyt]

All I meant was you can't be a world class player if 90% of the games you play aee one pocket. You can be a world class one pocket player and that = a one trick pony. Johnnyt













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[pmac666]

i think it has alot to do with the US mentality, some ppl think SVB is the greatest player who ever picked up a cue but the same ppl dont even know players like alcaide or chinakov...... same goes for frost, ppl think hes the king of 1p, but first alex came, now DO and some ppl still find excuses (skid, chalk, powder lol)........or a player like JB who thinks the US open is the hardest tourney on the planet cause DO told him so (shows how much dedication JB seems to have for global pool when he doesnt even check the draws or streams from the big tourneys outside the US)! also did you guys seen first part of the ronnie show and this old guy who didnt knew who ronnie is? heck, he probably didnt even knew what snooker is........how is this possible, how uninformed or ignorant has someone to be? i bet every dedicated poolshooter (or carom, pyramid or what the hell ever) outside of the US, no matter how good he is and where he is from, knows who ronnie o´sullivan is!
its that america first thinking without having a look outside which causes alot of probs while the rest of the world overtakes US pool left and right (even some middle east guys have already better fundamentals than the avg US pro)! how many of the US guys here know that shane and jayson were playing euro tour lately and how the outcome was? FYI shane finished 9th (lost to mario) and jayson 33th (lost to albin and ralph)..... bet if there would have been a final SVB - Shaw this forum would be filled again about their greatness, right? only a euro tour isnt a picknic like most of the US tourneys where SVB and shaw gets challenged first in last 5 or so!
in conclusion, US pool has to make up their mind or it gets very very dark once shane goes full time fishing! but i bet again, this wont happen.......(the mind part lol)

 

[marek]

FYI shane finished 9th (lost to mario)

To be honest Mario He got extremely lucky at the end of that match but nevertheless he got there against Shane, thats what counts Btw I just love the stroke of Mario He, so smooth, his grip is ultralight :embarrassed2:

 

[pmac666]

To be honest Mario He got extremely lucky at the end of that match but nevertheless he got there against Shane, thats what counts Btw I just love the stroke of Mario He, so smooth, his grip is ultralight :embarrassed2:

thats how we austrians are....... :grin: