Give me a couple of weeks/months and I will prove to you that any average person with average eyes and intelligence with no physical handicaps can be a great player. That is, if they have the "knowledge." See, if you don't know where you're going and/or know how to get there, most likely even 2 million balls won't get you to pro status let alone champion status. Most all you guys, don't sell yourselves short. You just weren't told what was really going on or statistically, you didn't hit on the secret or two that makes all the difference. I remember when I was in the Corps in Japan back in '74, one day I decided to play some golf. I rented some clubs and played by myself on the base course. There was this one shot. It was about maybe 50+ yards from the hole. Even never having played before, I stepped up to this particular shot like I knew what I was doing. I stroked up a couple times and swung. It felt real good. Solid. I can still see myself standing there on that warm sunny day just watching in awe as that ball arced high into the sky. It was a thing of beauty. I could feel it. But then I looked aside and shook my head. I said to myself, no way. I had wasted too many hours at the pool hall as a kid, so I was not about to waste any more time starting to play golf. Probably a bad choice. I'll never know. My point is this. As you begin to play pool, you probably hit a few ball too perfectly. But didn't catch it. Or the cue ball reacted unbelievably but it all happened too fast. If you had been more attentive, you might have seen how you did it. You could have learned a secret or two. But you missed it. Maybe if you hit another 100,000 balls you might have repeated those shots and maybe this time you might see and remembered exactly what you did. And that could have made all the difference in your game. But fate didn't favor you. So you ended up a short stop or quit altogether. I played in a local tournament several years ago at Danny K's in Orange. I played a nice looking chick. Warming up I hit a short two footer. That cue ball drew back like a cartoon rocket. And she was standing right next to me and said, "Who is this guy." I just sort of acted embarrassed, awe shucks. Hell, I didn't have a clue. That was like world class draw. She won the match. Again, I think I can prove it to you that knowledge can give you a tremendous head start that is so exciting that it accelerates your enthusiasm even now. You'll put in the time and perfect what you have just learned. Here's one idea: watch Allen Hopkins. He has reduced everything he does to its bare minimum. The less he does minimizes risk and errors. Everything you do executing a shot has numerous degrees of freedom. You name it. Every slightest little thing. These are all things that can go wrong and probably some will. If you can eliminate them, you could achieve what Allen Hopkins has achieved. Near perfection. Maybe I'll let you know more about the specifics.
