I was first getting serious about pool when I discovered the pool room and started spending most of my free time there, in the summer between 7th and 8th grade. As a wide-eyed kid, I was totally fascinated. I had seen plenty of people play pool, but mostly at the bowling alley. And it was mostly us kids. But the pool room was a completely different story. I knew enough about pool to know that when whitey happened to stop somewhere that gave you any easy shot, then that was a good thing. I had next to zero idea just how whitey stopped in those places. I was simply pleased as punch when it did. But now I was seeing people who seemed to be able to work magic. Some them never had a hard shot. It seemed to me every single time they shot their next shot, it was an easy one. The more I watched, the more I was enraptured. It was like watching a movie. It was mesmerizing, literally.
So of course, I tried to emulate those guys. Yeah, you guessed it. Utter failure. But not from lack of trying. And trying again. And again. Over and over and over. And one day, it occurred to me, maybe I should just ask someone. So I did. The first guy I asked just looked at me. Then said "Practice." That was it. The magic formula. "Practice." Ummmm... ok. Practice. But I was already doing that. So asking didn't go so well the first time. So I asked someone else. And the guy I asked next was actually the guy I had watched the most. To me, he was the best I could possibly imagine. He could park whitey wherever he wanted. Or so it seemed to me. So when i asked him how he did that, how he got the cue ball to stop where he always had an easy shot, he just looked at me too. I told him the other guy had told me to practice. He kinda smirked and said "Good advice. And do it a lot."
Now, yeah, I was a kid. But I was pretty quick on the uptake ( I ALWAYS scored very high on Pattern Recognition in school ). So I said to myself "These guys aren't spilling the beans." Yup, that was me. Captain Obvious. So, not one to ever give up easily, I asked someone else. This time, it was the room owner and this time, I hit the jackpot. He spilled the beans. Big time. He told me more than I could process. But over time, over the next few years, I soaked it up. I listened to everything he said to me. And he. seemingly, was a pool encyclopedia. At least to me. And one day I asked him why those two guys didn't answer my questions and had both just said basically, "Practice." He told me pool players were pretty tight-lipped about the secrets of pool. I didn't really understand so he told me for the most part, when those guys were coming up and learning pool, no one had told them anything either. And the main reason was, no player wanted to school some kid on how to play and then end having the kid beat them. Keeping in mind that gambling was the absolute norm in the pool room, it then kinda made sense to me.
So over the next 3 or 4 years, I mostly watched, and then practiced as much as I possibly could. And, eventually, a few of those players did end up telling me things, showing me things. Not a whole lot. But at least it was better than "Practice." . Which, all in all, was good advice. And, for the most part, when I had questions, I asked the owner. Sometimes, he would just tell me things when I was playing. And I started getting better. Much better.
So, anyway, now that I'm old as dirt and it takes me 15 minutes to get out of bed in the morning, I've tried to reverse that pattern I grew up on, vis-a-vis not passing along the "secrets" of this silly, magical, endlessly frustrating game. So I suppose what I posted this thread for is to ask other "Oldsters" or, perhaps, the not-so-"oldsters" if they've done the same. Have you passed down things to help people just starting out? Or do you feel the same as those guys felt 50 years ago and even farther back in time?: "Let 'em figure it out themselves, like I had to." I think the dynamic has changed a lot since action has nose-dived, by and large. Sure, people still bet but it's nothing like it was 40 or 50 years ago. So there's a lot less of the idea of eventually losing money to someone you've helped. I'm not saying every good or great player back in the day refused to help people coming up. But, at the time, it sure seemed to me to be true for the majority.
At any rate, I would be interested to know people's feeling about it.
So of course, I tried to emulate those guys. Yeah, you guessed it. Utter failure. But not from lack of trying. And trying again. And again. Over and over and over. And one day, it occurred to me, maybe I should just ask someone. So I did. The first guy I asked just looked at me. Then said "Practice." That was it. The magic formula. "Practice." Ummmm... ok. Practice. But I was already doing that. So asking didn't go so well the first time. So I asked someone else. And the guy I asked next was actually the guy I had watched the most. To me, he was the best I could possibly imagine. He could park whitey wherever he wanted. Or so it seemed to me. So when i asked him how he did that, how he got the cue ball to stop where he always had an easy shot, he just looked at me too. I told him the other guy had told me to practice. He kinda smirked and said "Good advice. And do it a lot."
Now, yeah, I was a kid. But I was pretty quick on the uptake ( I ALWAYS scored very high on Pattern Recognition in school ). So I said to myself "These guys aren't spilling the beans." Yup, that was me. Captain Obvious. So, not one to ever give up easily, I asked someone else. This time, it was the room owner and this time, I hit the jackpot. He spilled the beans. Big time. He told me more than I could process. But over time, over the next few years, I soaked it up. I listened to everything he said to me. And he. seemingly, was a pool encyclopedia. At least to me. And one day I asked him why those two guys didn't answer my questions and had both just said basically, "Practice." He told me pool players were pretty tight-lipped about the secrets of pool. I didn't really understand so he told me for the most part, when those guys were coming up and learning pool, no one had told them anything either. And the main reason was, no player wanted to school some kid on how to play and then end having the kid beat them. Keeping in mind that gambling was the absolute norm in the pool room, it then kinda made sense to me.
So over the next 3 or 4 years, I mostly watched, and then practiced as much as I possibly could. And, eventually, a few of those players did end up telling me things, showing me things. Not a whole lot. But at least it was better than "Practice." . Which, all in all, was good advice. And, for the most part, when I had questions, I asked the owner. Sometimes, he would just tell me things when I was playing. And I started getting better. Much better.
So, anyway, now that I'm old as dirt and it takes me 15 minutes to get out of bed in the morning, I've tried to reverse that pattern I grew up on, vis-a-vis not passing along the "secrets" of this silly, magical, endlessly frustrating game. So I suppose what I posted this thread for is to ask other "Oldsters" or, perhaps, the not-so-"oldsters" if they've done the same. Have you passed down things to help people just starting out? Or do you feel the same as those guys felt 50 years ago and even farther back in time?: "Let 'em figure it out themselves, like I had to." I think the dynamic has changed a lot since action has nose-dived, by and large. Sure, people still bet but it's nothing like it was 40 or 50 years ago. So there's a lot less of the idea of eventually losing money to someone you've helped. I'm not saying every good or great player back in the day refused to help people coming up. But, at the time, it sure seemed to me to be true for the majority.
At any rate, I would be interested to know people's feeling about it.
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