Well said. That's one of many advantages that today's players enjoy over their counterparts of yesteryear.
Buddy on how he'd stack up with todays players. :-)
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I saw him play in the 1970s, so I know.The Rifleman demolished by Filler and Gorst..?Blasphemy...But I can't concur, especially as we don't know how well Buddy played when he was their age.
Buddy got his CB very close to his work. That translates to great pool especially as the pockets tighten up.
Aspects of the game such as breaks, safes, jump cues - Buddy would have put in the work needed to stay current on all of those game components.
His mental strength- will to win / coupled with his skills, and work ethic has him competing successfully in any era.
Physical conditioning would need to be tuned up several notches though - I think that it matters.
Aspects of the game such as breaks, safes, jump cues - Buddy would have put in the work needed to stay current on all of those game components.
His mental strength- will to win / coupled with his skills, and work ethic has him competing successfully in any era.
Physical conditioning would need to be tuned up several notches though - I think that it matters.
middleofnowhere
Registered
I think one of the aspects between the past generations of pool players and the current generation and I mean current like very current is. The current generation treat the game almost like a business.
Practicing religiously with nothing on your minds but playing the game at the highest possible level they can. While the older generations of players most certainly pushed their skills to a high level, I don't think they were probably as fanatical. Most I knew even the champions the game was just a means to an end and if it suited their purposes they were happy.
Then you add the advancements of equipment and those differences, you've got two completely different animals.
I'll tell you a funny quote from a guy and I heard him say it personally. Sugar Shack Johnny, a well known stake horse and Tushog was on the road with a top player. This was in the '60s I think it might have been Marshall Carpenter. He said they ran into some unknown kid that busted them that played so good that it made you throw up. He was talking about Buddy Hall
Practicing religiously with nothing on your minds but playing the game at the highest possible level they can. While the older generations of players most certainly pushed their skills to a high level, I don't think they were probably as fanatical. Most I knew even the champions the game was just a means to an end and if it suited their purposes they were happy.
Then you add the advancements of equipment and those differences, you've got two completely different animals.
I'll tell you a funny quote from a guy and I heard him say it personally. Sugar Shack Johnny, a well known stake horse and Tushog was on the road with a top player. This was in the '60s I think it might have been Marshall Carpenter. He said they ran into some unknown kid that busted them that played so good that it made you throw up. He was talking about Buddy Hall
middleofnowhere
Registered
The first question would be, what can players today do that the players of yesterday couldn't? The actual answer would be nothing, but they just do it better. So now the question becomes, why?
My first answer to that would be their total dedication to the game.
My first answer to that would be their total dedication to the game.
The number of times Buddy booked a loser playing for any real amount can probably be counted on one hand. His relentless style of play demoralized a LOT of really good players.
and yes there are alot more players that are top speed now. thats because they are coming from all over the world. so the pool of pool players is so much greater and their access to learning is greater.
and of course their training is superb and knowledge is better so they should be a little better.
and of course their training is superb and knowledge is better so they should be a little better.
All so accurate. All the top tier players of any era had the common traits of motivation, work ethic, and an innate ability that the vast majority of players aren't fortunate enough to possess. If we could bring any of the historic legends up in this era playing in our current conditions, they'd likely be in contention in all the major events just like Gorst, Filler, Shane, Yapp, etc.
Darn right! A champion is a champion. Does Josh Filler play better than prime Mike Sigel? The only real answer is that it doesn’t matter. What we do know is that each mass produced major titles against his contemporaries and both, along with a few others, belong in the conversation for best pool player of the 9ball era.
The Rifleman demolished by Filler and Gorst..?Blasphemy...
Buddy in his prime looked like he was putting on an exhibition. The other guy was just watching Buddy attacking the table. I watched him gamble on nine foot Brunswicks.
I made a few short trips on the road, usually alone. It was always at least a small thrill walking through the door of a strange place. You knew more than nine times out of ten you had the place covered. Once in awhile you ran into a Shortstop that played like a god on his home turf! It was fun walking through the door to face the unknown and usually profitable without letting the ponies run, might be through here again! Sometimes though you ran into somebody that knew every "feature" of an old table and you were in a fierce no holds barred battle with no guarantee of winning.
One reason I would bet the old players against the new if they were all thrown into the unknown, the old players have been there many times before! Our most recent players need a little more time to get used to something really strange. In one long race I would pick the old players. Give all players a year under new conditions and then I think the players, older or more recent, would rank basically the same as they do now.
Hu
Buddy himself
Well, in a long race the older players might wear out sooner as todays players probably keep in better physical shape...
Their peak performance might fade a little but I remember playing two forty-eight hour matches and a handful that went thirty-six hours or more. I was always on the natch, don't know about the other players. A friend played three days straight but when I got there you could have knocked him over with a feather!
Hard to say what the old guys could and couldn't do. While they weren't as fit overall as today's players they were pool fit. I played many matches past twelve hours after working a ten or twelve hour day. I once took all comers for twelve or fourteen hours on a nine foot challenge table. We were playing eightball with the longest line of challenges I have ever seen. I didn't lose, including by scratching on the eight, in all that time. Most of the competition was soft but when the dealing was done as the last challengers trickled off to work without so much as a shower by counting money I saw I had won over 160 games straight through! That was the first stop on an intended road trip that I figured would last a week or two. The road trip lasted eighteen hours or less!(grin)
Hu
L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
One of my favorite quotes from Buddy was "pockets seems too generous, bet a little higher and the pockets tighten right up!"
They "do it better" because the equipment/conditions are "better." I think Buddy would have been just fine.