People here complain about pro players today who look robotic in their table approach, set up, and stroke mechanics. they complain that players actually study the table so that they are less prone to "mistakes". Well, for a guy who has been around pool for almost 60 years here is my 2 cents:
Fifty years ago you had a few great pro players, and 90% of the amateur ranks had really no idea what they were doing at the table, because there was almost no quality instruction available or being shared by the best players, except for a few books. Now you have many, many more great players and many, many more folks in the amateur ranks who are much better than amateurs from years ago. It is all about the quality and quantity for instruction available today.
Way back in the day, the ONLY route to being really good player for many, many guys was to basically drop out of school, or drop completely out of the work world and stay in pool rooms almost 24/7; until even your worst pool mechanics got over shadowed by the thousands of hours you spent at the table. Many of the U.S. pro players came out of pool rooms owned by their Dad's and they were in those rooms since childhood and they had exposure to top flight players from a young age. Even emerging 70s pros like Mizerak, Varner, Balukas, Butera, Zuglan, etc. etc. came out of family owned pool rooms.
Today you can learn to play in a manner that will almost insure success in this game if you have the desire and dedication. Correct instruction is available to everyone. I personally have spent the last 18 months in retirement married to the video camera desperately trying to undo ALL the wrong cueing habits that I adopted as a player prior to the internet age. I finally have the time to unwind the years of doing things "wrong" - even though at times I won tournaments or placed high in larger tournaments.
So I welcome the "robots" - learning what truly works IS the proper way to start out in any sport. Every sport has buried the sandlot player and now the technically "correct" players are dominating everywhere. It is the times that we live in today. Gone are the farm boy pitchers who learned by throwing into the side of. barn, the pro golfers who graduated from caddies to golf hustlers to pros, and also, for pool, gone are most of the colorful street wise hustlers who never picked up anything but a cue stick in their lives.
Yes, the game was certainly more colorful "back in the day", and, yes. there was a looseness and non- parochial feel and look to the game that in many ways did make it more entertaining back then. However, the opportunities to get really good at this game are much greater today and hopefully that will translate to the enhancement of the pool game going forward.
We just need to find enough young people here in the U.S. who have the desire and willingness to adhere to the discipline that top flight competitive pool demands today; because they love the pleasures of small motions.
You guys think Kaci can't play a lick with the shotclock? Give me a break.
