Well, here it goes. My first thread.
I am sort of like a pool version of Rip Van Winkle. I played a ton as a youngster, then "slept" for 30 years before "reawakening" to the game again. I play a few hours a day now, go to the pool hall several times a month and watch a ton of professional pool, both new and old.
Since getting back into the game two years ago, I’ve been to a handful of pool halls in the Northeast. I’ve also played a lot with family and friends.
Here are my first-hand, if idiosyncratic, observations of the game in the U.S.
The first thing that strikes me is how little has changed compared to 30 years ago, when I was a kid playing at home on a so-so 8-foot table.
Most people who play casually or semi-regularly play 8-ball. Nine-ball is foreign to them.
Quite a few of them are actually decent at putting in balls, it turns out.
Take my best friend, Joe. He owns a nice table. He’s been playing for 40 years and thinks he’s pretty good relative to those he plays against. He can knock in 3-4 in a row every so often if the table isn’t so complicated.
But position play or position awareness? Very little if any.
Until I taught him, the words “follow,” “stun” and “draw” were foreign to him. He instinctively uses follow and stun - never draw except by accident - but he had no idea what they were.
Sometimes he can see one ball ahead. And he is kind of aware that he wants the white ball to end up in a good spot. But most of the time he fires a shot - and I do mean fire - and doesn’t think a ton about where the cue ball will end up.
I was the same way as a kid. I learned some positional awareness, to be sure, but not much.
Ironically, I became a really good shotmaker as a young-un because I had to be. The cue ball was often in bad spots!
I learned a lot the past two years, though.
I’ve watched hundreds of hours of video from DrCue, Sharivari, Tor Lowry, FXbilliards, Neils Feijin, Lil Chris and, of course, DrDave (and AZB stalwart Bob Jewett).
They’ve almost become like old friends. (-:
What I have found has surprised me, however.
Most regulars at my pool hall are better and more experienced than me. But in most cases, my technical knowledge or grasp of the fundamentals of the game now exceeds all of them. And often by a big margin.
You can see that these players have a lot of strong elements to their game, but they also have gaping holes. So very few break and run, certainly not regularly.
One good player I know, for instance, refuses to learn the diamond system. Claims tables are too variable.
He banks OK, but I know all the diamond systems. I hit 80% of my banks now and rising. And yet he still hasn’t shown an interest in learning.
Here is the good thing, thorough. Most players have a hunger to learn more. They just don’t know where to look.
Some newbies have watched me, for instance, and asked me to teach them!
Why? They hear me consistently explain things to other players in a way that they haven’t heard before.
Even some of the more experienced players are asking me stuff now. I am beating them more regularly and they are seeing me do stuff they never thought to do. I often point them to the various teachers online that I have learned from.
The unfortunate thing is, most are unaware just how much information about the game is on the web now. Not just instruction, but live or historical matches. I'd guess a lot less than half know who Shane Van Boening is. Ask them to name a player and Mosconi or Minnesota Fats would be the names they mention. Maybe Mizerak.
Most people still learn by just playing, watching other players, or getting the occasional tip. Hardly any watch pros play, especially since pool has disappeared from mainstream television.
The result is, very few have complete games.
This general lack of awareness is not something I see among, say, devout football fans. They read the guys who break down games and can tell you all kinds of stuff about stunts and blitzes and safety coverage and so on.
Pool, on the other hand, is more like a dark art whose knowledge is disseminated sparingly and incompletely.
Just like me three years ago, most players simply don’t know what they don’t know.
I am not sure how, or if, that changes.
The international outlook for pool arguably has never been better, but its position in the U.S. is more tenuous.
I am sort of like a pool version of Rip Van Winkle. I played a ton as a youngster, then "slept" for 30 years before "reawakening" to the game again. I play a few hours a day now, go to the pool hall several times a month and watch a ton of professional pool, both new and old.
Since getting back into the game two years ago, I’ve been to a handful of pool halls in the Northeast. I’ve also played a lot with family and friends.
Here are my first-hand, if idiosyncratic, observations of the game in the U.S.
The first thing that strikes me is how little has changed compared to 30 years ago, when I was a kid playing at home on a so-so 8-foot table.
Most people who play casually or semi-regularly play 8-ball. Nine-ball is foreign to them.
Quite a few of them are actually decent at putting in balls, it turns out.
Take my best friend, Joe. He owns a nice table. He’s been playing for 40 years and thinks he’s pretty good relative to those he plays against. He can knock in 3-4 in a row every so often if the table isn’t so complicated.
But position play or position awareness? Very little if any.
Until I taught him, the words “follow,” “stun” and “draw” were foreign to him. He instinctively uses follow and stun - never draw except by accident - but he had no idea what they were.
Sometimes he can see one ball ahead. And he is kind of aware that he wants the white ball to end up in a good spot. But most of the time he fires a shot - and I do mean fire - and doesn’t think a ton about where the cue ball will end up.
I was the same way as a kid. I learned some positional awareness, to be sure, but not much.
Ironically, I became a really good shotmaker as a young-un because I had to be. The cue ball was often in bad spots!
I learned a lot the past two years, though.
I’ve watched hundreds of hours of video from DrCue, Sharivari, Tor Lowry, FXbilliards, Neils Feijin, Lil Chris and, of course, DrDave (and AZB stalwart Bob Jewett).
They’ve almost become like old friends. (-:
What I have found has surprised me, however.
Most regulars at my pool hall are better and more experienced than me. But in most cases, my technical knowledge or grasp of the fundamentals of the game now exceeds all of them. And often by a big margin.
You can see that these players have a lot of strong elements to their game, but they also have gaping holes. So very few break and run, certainly not regularly.
One good player I know, for instance, refuses to learn the diamond system. Claims tables are too variable.
He banks OK, but I know all the diamond systems. I hit 80% of my banks now and rising. And yet he still hasn’t shown an interest in learning.
Here is the good thing, thorough. Most players have a hunger to learn more. They just don’t know where to look.
Some newbies have watched me, for instance, and asked me to teach them!
Why? They hear me consistently explain things to other players in a way that they haven’t heard before.
Even some of the more experienced players are asking me stuff now. I am beating them more regularly and they are seeing me do stuff they never thought to do. I often point them to the various teachers online that I have learned from.
The unfortunate thing is, most are unaware just how much information about the game is on the web now. Not just instruction, but live or historical matches. I'd guess a lot less than half know who Shane Van Boening is. Ask them to name a player and Mosconi or Minnesota Fats would be the names they mention. Maybe Mizerak.
Most people still learn by just playing, watching other players, or getting the occasional tip. Hardly any watch pros play, especially since pool has disappeared from mainstream television.
The result is, very few have complete games.
This general lack of awareness is not something I see among, say, devout football fans. They read the guys who break down games and can tell you all kinds of stuff about stunts and blitzes and safety coverage and so on.
Pool, on the other hand, is more like a dark art whose knowledge is disseminated sparingly and incompletely.
Just like me three years ago, most players simply don’t know what they don’t know.
I am not sure how, or if, that changes.
The international outlook for pool arguably has never been better, but its position in the U.S. is more tenuous.
