Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

easy-e

easy-e

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw a thread on Facebook where Colston Harrelson (great young player) has been matching up with people for $10k sets. Someone commented something about being careful going down this road and make sure he has a backup plan if the pool thing doesn't work out. He took a lot of heat for that, but it got me thinking. I see tons of junior players out there asking for sponsorships and traveling from city to city playing big tournaments. Very few of these young players are going to carve out a living playing pool. Not sure what kind of conversation I'm even looking for here, but does anyone else see what I see? There are teenagers out there posting of big tournaments and matchups that can't string a legible sentence together.
 
One of my teachers in high school said something that to this day I take very seriously.

He said something to the effect that everyone is free to do anything they want or nothing at all for that matter.

There are however consequences to those actions.

Do what you want folks, it's your free will & your life.
 
iusedtoberich said:
I’m OK with it. I think the same has probably happened with every champion that’s ever come before. The only difference is now with social media, we all know about it. Shannon Daulton, Johnny Archer, Corey Deuel, etc, were all gambling their brains out when they were 16 years old.
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I'm ok with it too, it's not my kid. But for each example you just gave, there are probably 100 failed players wishing they'd done it differently.
 
easy-e said:
I'm ok with it too, it's not my kid. But for each example you just gave, there are probably 100 failed players wishing they'd done it differently.
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How did your life go in a 4 sentence summary? You were in a skill position where you might have actually been able to make a living playing pool. What made you decide to go square (if you did)?

Most of us knew we stunk early on and knew to get a square dayjob.

It was a semi-curse to be an open speed player for this reason.
 
iusedtoberich said:
How did your life go in a 4 sentence summary? You were in a skill position where you might have actually been able to make a living playing pool. What made you decide to go square (if you did)?

Most of us knew we stunk early on and knew to get a square dayjob.

It was a semi-curse to be an open speed player for this reason.
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At 16-17 I'm sure I wanted to go pro. Dad always put a strong work ethic in me. Spend a lot of time around pool players and saw how NOT glamorous that life looked. Kept working and going to school.

I've introduced myself to pros at every tournament I could attend. It's always made me feel like I made a good choice. Nowadays, you can see a kid who has ZERO chance to make a living playing pool and their parent(s) are going all-in with them. I feel bad for that kid in the future. Same way I feel bad when I see a 5-year-old obese kid with parents that keep feeding them junk! That kid has almost no chance in life because their parents' decisions.
 
I steered my children to the game for a life long hobby that would forever challenge them.
Three of the four now have tables in their houses that they play on when they have time.
They were able to purchase Diamond tables because they have done extremely well from having amazing careers.

To me its like other sports, as far as how good you would need to be in order to have a great family and life. You would need to practice and compete all the time and quite possibly not even enjoy your chosen path.

I do see a shift in the game as far as the ability to make a living but I would certainly push young ones into great grades and higher education and/or the trades.
 
Cuebuddy said:
I steered my children to the game for a life long hobby that would forever challenge them.
Three of the four now have tables in their houses that they play on when they have time.
They were able to purchase Diamond tables because they have done extremely well from having amazing careers.

To me its like other sports, as far as how good you would need to be in order to have a great family and life. You would need to practice and compete all the time and quite possibly not even enjoy your chosen path.

I do see a shift in the game as far as the ability to make a living but I would certainly push young ones into great grades and higher education and/or the trades.
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Excellent job! I have no problem seeing kids play when they're also getting good grades and being good humans. It's the teenaged ones who can barely read or write that do nothing but play pool. I feel bad for them that they were raised that way.
 
I think the key here is to have one's expectations in place. No matter how hard one practices, how much one wins/bets in action matches, and how much effort a player makes to improve, it is always worth bringing in an expert opinion.

I recall a recent post by JAM noting that Keith had watched the 12-year-old Josh Filler play and knew he was watching a future great. Thorsten Hohmann had said the same of the very young Filler.

Do the top pros see greatness in Colsten? By the age of 18, for example, the future greats can usually comfortably gamble with all but the best 50 players in the world. We now live in a world in which any player not carrying a Fargo of 790+ will be hard pressed to earn a living at pro pool and a Fargo 750 is a long, long way from world class speed. We also live in a world in which expecting to earn a living through action pool alone is probably unrealistic.

Where is Colsten's game relative to those who went on to earn a living at pro pool? Does he play as well at his age as they did at his age? He needs to know if he is going to make the best possible decisions with respect to his path in life.
 
Cuebuddy said:
I steered my children to the game for a life long hobby that would forever challenge them.
Three of the four now have tables in their houses that they play on when they have time.
They were able to purchase Diamond tables because they have done extremely well from having amazing careers.

To me its like other sports, as far as how good you would need to be in order to have a great family and life. You would need to practice and compete all the time and quite possibly not even enjoy your chosen path.

I do see a shift in the game as far as the ability to make a living but I would certainly push young ones into great grades and higher education and/or the trades.
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I had a young woman in a training class I was doing years ago. She was telling me that her husband played minor league ball. Didn't make much money and it was clear he wasn't going to the majors. Her impression was that they pretty much knew who the the 2 or 3 that had a chance, the rest were there so that those 2 or 3 had people to play with.
On the upside they often came from colleges so hopefully they paid attention.
 
I know the gamblers will get upset but no kid should be playing for money let alone 10k sets. You’re setting him up for bad habits. We need the younger generation playing pool but this mind set that some how pool is the only game in the world you have to gamble if you want to be good is silly and needs to end if we are going to move the game forward.
 
The kid comes from a pool family. His dad is a strong local player. (660 speed). His mom takes him to the pool hall all the time. I've played him some cheap practice sets in atlanta, and saw him at the Expo in Philly and said hello. Pool is his life. IDK if he will be a legit pro speed when he's 20, but he's giving it all he can right now, with the support of his family.
 
Pool has never been a sport that offered many people a true career. Look at that top 200 list from the other day. If you were the 192nd best doctor, lawyer, electrician, carpenter, accountant whatever in the world you would have a great career. Good luck doing it in pool. The very few who can and those who have nothing else are the ones you can understand doing it. If you aren’t one of them, build a life and play pool as life and career allow. You can enjoy the game forever. IMO.
 
sjm said:
Where is Colsten's game relative to those who went on to earn a living at pro pool? Does he play as well at his age as they did at his age? He needs to know if he is going to make the best possible decisions with respect to his path in life.
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I think he's 16. His Fargo is 670ish and even if you correct for youthful rapid improvement he's not much higher than 700.

He does play very well and is definitely fully dedicated. But of course not everyone with those attributes can be a successful pro.
 
I was an assistant pro at a golf course Rickie Fowler played regularly when he was a junior. Everyone knew he would be on the PGA tour one day. There was another junior in the area that was scratch at 17. He had never played Rickie before. They met up in a 9 hole high school match. Both parred the first 5 holes. Junior thinks I can hang with Rickie. He isn't THAT good. Rickie then birdies the last 4 holes to shoot 32. The junior said that was the moment he knew golf wasn't going to be a career for him.

Who knows which juniors will make it vs just be strong players. Hopefully they find out which group they are in to make a decision sooner rather than later.
 
Rocket354 said:
I think he's 16. His Fargo is 670ish and even if you correct for youthful rapid improvement he's not much higher than 700.

He does play very well and is definitely fully dedicated. But of course not everyone with those attributes can be a successful pro.
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That's certainly strong enough to keep pushing forward, but he must continue to assess his prospects. If he's gambling for $10,000 at a time, then he can certainly afford to play in the WPA Junior World 9ball Championships. There is a 19 and under division and also a 17 and under division. He can find out where his game is relative to others his age that are considering a career in pro pool.
 
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